Jane Austen: Doing (page 3)

“I do think that men can forget a lost love quickly. I know that women would find it much harder.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

Love , Women , Men , Thinking

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

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Women , Girl

“I certainly will not persuade myself to feel more than I do. I am quite enough in love. I should be sorry to be more”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Love , Feeling

“I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.”

Jane Austen

Thinking , Waiting

“What could I do! Facts are such horrid things!”

Jane Austen book Lady Susan

Source: "Lady Susan", Letter XXXII (1871)

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

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

“I do regard her as one who is too modest for the world in general to be aware of half her accomplishments, and too highly accomplished for modesty to be natural of any other woman.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

World , Nature

“Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Love , Fools , Way , Nature

“It is a lovely night, and they are much to be pitied who have not been taught to feel, in some degree, as you do; who have not, at least, been given a taste for Nature in early life. They lose a great deal.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park (1814)
Works, Mansfield Park

Love , Life , Feeling , Nature

“We do not look in great cities for our best morality.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park (1814)
Works, Mansfield Park

“You are very kind in planning presents for me to make, and my mother has shown me exactly the same attention; but as I do not choose to have generosity dictated to me, I shall not resolve on giving my cabinet to Anna till the first thought of it has been my own.”

Jane Austen

Letter to Cassandra (1801-01-08) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

“Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people's mouths. I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it, but fear I must.”

Jane Austen

Letter to Anna (1814-09-28) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

People , Fear , Business , Help

“What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited sketches, full of variety and glow? How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?”

Jane Austen

Letter to J. Edward Austen (1816-12-16) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Strong

“I cannot help hoping that many will feel themselves obliged to buy it. I shall not mind imagining it a disagreeable duty to them, so as they do it.”

Jane Austen

Letter (1813-11-06) on the reprint of Sense and Sensibility [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Hope , Feeling , Imagination , Help

“I cannot anyhow continue to find people agreeable; I respect Mrs. Chamberlayne for doing her hair well, but cannot feel a more tender sentiment. Miss Langley is like any other short girl, with a broad nose and wide mouth, fashionable dress and exposed bosom. Adm. Stanhope is a gentleman-like man, but then his legs are too short and his tail too long.”

Jane Austen

Letter to Cassandra (1801-05-12) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

People , Feeling , Girl , Fashion

“Devereux Forester's being ruined by his vanity is extremely good, but I wish you would not let him plunge into a "vortex of dissipation." I do not object to the thing, but I cannot bear the expression; it is such thorough novel slang, and so old that I daresay Adam met with it in the first novel he opened.”

Jane Austen

Letter to niece Anna (1814-09-28) regarding a character in Anna's novel [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

“I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.”

Jane Austen

Letter (1799-01-21) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Thinking , Waiting

“Of various admirals I could tell you a great deal: of them and their flags, and the gradation of their pay, and their bickerings and jealousies. But, in general, I can assure you that they are all passed over, and all very ill used. Certainly, my home at my uncle’s brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices I saw enough. Now do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park (1814)
Works, Mansfield Park

Jealousy , Home

“My head-dress was a bugle-band like the border to my gown, and a flower of Mrs Tilson’s. I depended upon hearing something of the evening from Mr. W. K., and am very well satisfied with his notice of me — "A pleasing looking young woman" — that must do; one cannot pretend to anything better now; thankful to have it continued a few years longer!”

Jane Austen

Letter (1811-04-30) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Flowers , Dependency

“Why do the characters in Jane Austen give us a slightly new pleasure each time they come in, as opposed to the merely repetitive pleasure that is caused by a character in Dickens? Why do they combine so well in a conversation, and draw one another out, without seeming to do so, and never perform? The answer to this question can be put in several ways; that, unlike Dickens, she was a real artist, that she never stooped to caricature, etc. But the best reply is that her characters, though smaller than his, are more highly organized. They function all round, and even if her plot made greater demands on them than it does, they would still be adequate.”

Jane Austen

E.M. Forster, Aspects of The Novel (1927)

Drawing , Time , Question , Pleasure