Jane Austen Quotes

Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.

Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without.

They were within twenty yards of each other, and so abrupt was his appearance, that it was impossible to avoid his sight. Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush. He absolutely started, and for a moment seemed immoveable from surprise; but shortly recovering himself, advanced towards the party, and spoke to Elizabeth, if not in terms of perfect composure, at least of perfect civility.

Undoubtedly ... there is a meanness in all the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation. What bears affinity to cunning is despicable.

I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention of any body else.

I do suspect that he is not really necessary to my happiness.

Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.

Do you dance, Mr. Darcy?" Darcy: "Not if I can help it!" Sir William: "What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing, after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished societies." Mr. Darcy: "Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world; every savage can dance.

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride - where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.

The last few hours were certainly very painful," replied Anne: "but when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering-

What are men to rocks and mountains?

My Emma, does not every thing serve to prove more and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each other?

The less said the better.

Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?" "For the liveliness of your mind, I did.

A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago.

Cold-hearted Elinor! Oh! Worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise.--Marianne Dashwood

A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.

Everybody likes to go their own way–to choose their own time and manner of devotion.

How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

Give me but a little cheerful company, let me only have the company of the people I love, let me only be where I like and with whom I like, and the devil may take the rest, say I.

There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

You must be the best judge of your own happiness.

If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.

You have delighted us long enough.

Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being.

Lady Middleton ... exerted herself to ask Mr. Palmer if there was any news in the paper. 'No, none at all,' he replied, and read on.

Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating. For many years of her life she had had two sons; but the crime and annihilation of Edward a few weeks ago, had robbed her of one; the similar annihilation of Robert had left her for a fortnight without any; and now, by the resurrection of Edward, she had one again.

My heart is, and always will be, yours.

Every moment had its pleasure and its hope.

The sooner every party breaks up the better.

Where a man does his best with only moderate powers, he will have the advantage over negligent superiority.

I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which they are themselves adding?joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who, if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid leaves with disgust.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

He may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance.

She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation

A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number.

Sitting with her on Sunday evening - a wet Sunday evening - the very time of all others when if a friend is at hand the heart must be opened, and every thing told.

Our scars make us know that our past was for real

I should not mind anything at all.

When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort.