Jane Austen Quotes

Time will generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily circle.

Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.

If I could not be persuaded into doing what I thought wrong, I never will be tricked into it.

her spirits wanted the solitude and silence which only numbers could give.

She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging Young Woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her -- she was only an Object of Contempt

How can I dispose of myself with it?

There is a monsterous deal of stupid quizzing, & common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit.

Faultless in spite of all her faults.

And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did. But I have an aunt too, who must not be longer neglected.

She attracted him more than he liked.

How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.

They gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future.

If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost any attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin ‘freely’- as light preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have a heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.

Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.

You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged.

To be claimed as a good, though in an improper style, is at least better than being rejected as no good at all.

If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.

To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last.

there is not the least wit in my nature. I am a very matter of fact, plain spoken being, and may blunder on the borders of a repartee for half an hour together without striking it out.

I was quiet but I was not blind.

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

Yet there it was not love. It was a little fever of admiration; but it might, probably must, end in love with some

May I ask you what these questions tend?' 'Merely to the illustration of your character,' said she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity. 'I am trying to make it out.' 'And what is your success?' She shook her head. 'I do not get on at all. I hear such different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.

Not very good, I am afraid. But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?" "The nicest—by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.

A novel must show how the world truly is. Somehow, reveals the true source of our actions.

Pride... is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or the other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.

He listened to her with silent attention, and on her ceasing to speak, rose directly from his seat, and after saying in a voice of emotion, 'To your sister I wish all imaginable happiness; to Willoughby, that he may endeavor to deserve her,' took leave, and went away.

A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

I must have my share in the conversation.

With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

That is what I like; that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue.

…but then I am unlike other people I dare say.

Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it.

A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.

Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.

You think me foolish to call instruction a torment, but if you had been as much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters and then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that to torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous words.

Whom are you going to dance with?' asked Mr. Knightley. She hesitated a moment and then replied, 'With you, if you will ask me.' Will you?' said he, offering his hand. Indeed I will. You have shown that you can dance, and you know we are not really so much brother and sister as to make it at all improper.' Brother and sister! no, indeed.

Another stupid party . . . with six people to look on, and talk nonsense to each other.

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness ... Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.

Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.

Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliott, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.

People that marry can never part, but must go and keep house together. People that dance only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour.

Her eye fell everywhere on lawns and plantations of the freshest green; and the trees, though not fully clothed, were in that delightful state when farther beauty is known to be at hand, and when, while much is actually given to the sight, more yet remains for the imagination.