Jane Austen Quotes

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477 Quotes of Timeless Wisdom, Love, Friendship, Society, and Human Nature

“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.”
-Elizabeth Bennet”

“Those who do not complain are never pitied.”

“I frequently observe that one pretty face would be followed by five and thirty frights.”

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

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

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

“You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you.”

“And from the whole she deduced this useful lesson, that to go previously engaged to a ball, does not necessarily increase either the dignity or enjoyment of a young lady.”

“It sometimes is a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection from the object of it, she may loose the opportunity of fixing him.”

“To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of 26 and 18 is to do pretty well”

“It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.”

“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”

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

“A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“A woman of seven and twenty, said Marianne, after pausing a moment, can never hope to feel or inspire affection again.”

“If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.”

“The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.”

“I should infinitely prefer a book…”

“Evil to some is always good to others”

“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.”

“Teach us…… that we may feel the importance of every day, of every hour, as it passes.”

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

“I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.”

“The less said the better.”

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

“A young woman in love always looks like Patience on a monument Smiling at Grief.”

“My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire.”

“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.”

“The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance. - Mr Darcy”

“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.”

“It requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world.”

“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.”

“Maybe it’s that I find it hard to forgive the follies and vices of others, or their offenses against me. My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.”

“My idea of good company, Mr. Eliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.”

“The one claim I shall make for my own sex is that we love longest, when all hope is gone.”

“She was happy, she knew she was happy, and knew she ought to be happy.”

“Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never.”

“Where shall we see a better daughter, or a kinder sister, or a truer friend?”

“And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner.”

“Oh! write, write. Finish it at once. Let there be an end of this suspense. Fix, commit, condemn yourself.”

“There, he had seen every thing to exalt in his estimation the woman he had lost, and there begun to deplore the pride, the folly, the madness of resentment, which had kept him from trying to regain her when thrown in his way.”

“You have bewitched me body and soul.”

“I am all astonishment.”

“One man's style must not be the rule of another's.”

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

“We can all begin freely—a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.”