Jane Austen Quotes

Trusting that you will some time or other do me greater justice than you can do now.

“I often think,” said she, “that there is nothing so bad as parting with one's friends. One seems so forlorn without them.”

What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?

I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever of that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart.

Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience- or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

A fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself.

[W]here other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.

At first sight, his address is certainly not striking; and his person can hardly be called handsome, till the expression of his eyes, which are uncommonly good, and the general sweetness of his countenance, is perceived.

She denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private.

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.

I certainly must,' said she. 'This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of everything's being dull and insipid about the house! I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I were not.

It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.

Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.

It is not every man's fate to marry the woman who loves him best

There is not the hundredth part of the wine consumed in this kingdom that there ought to be. Our foggy climate wants help.

About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

There is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known. You have good sense, and a sweet temper, and I am sure you have a grateful heart, that could never receive kindness without hoping to return it. I do not know any better qualifications for a friend and companion.

One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.

I do not find myself making any use of the word sacrifice.

Every savage can dance.

Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me. I should infinitely prefer a book.

You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.

She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, which is the true heroine's portion - to a pillow strewed with thorns and wet with tears. And lucky may she think herself, if she get another good night's rest in the course of the next three months.

she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.

she was oppressed, she was overcome by her own felicity; and happily disposed as is the human mind to be easily familiarized with any change for the better, it required several hours to give sedateness to her spirits, or any degree of tranquillity to her heart.

What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!

to hope was to expect

if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to `Yes,' she ought to say `No' directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.

We all love to instruct, though we can teach only what is not worth knowing.

If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?

One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.

Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.

Told herself likewise not to hope. But it was too late. Hope had already entered.

I am sure of this, that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would be not half the disorders in the world there are now. It would be a famous good thing for us all.

I can easily believe it. Women of that class have great opportunities, and if they are intelligent may be well worth listening to. Such varieites of human nature as they are in the habit of witnessing! And it is not merely in its follies, that they are read; for they see it occasionally under every circumstance that can be most interesting or affecting. What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation-- of all the sacrifices that ennoble us most. A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes.

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.

She wished such words unsaid with all her heart

There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison

Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common.

I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men." "Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.

It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.

And we mean to treat you all,' added Lydia, 'but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.