Jane Austen Quotes

Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

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.

There seems almost a general wish of descrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.

I mean to be too rich to lament or to feel anything of the sort. A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation.

A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation.

Had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

I would rather have young people settle on a small income at once, and have to struggle with a few difficulties together, than be involved in a long engagement.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!

I should infinitely prefer a book.

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

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.

Mr. Knightley, if I have not spoken, it is because I am afraid I will awaken myself from this dream.

I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.

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

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.

A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.

Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.

We met Dr. Hall in such deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

I want nothing but death.

people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them

The longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard, and sometimes for a few painful minutes she believed it to be no more than friendship

I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.

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

Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world

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

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

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.

The post office has a great charm at one point of our lives. When you have lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going through the rain for.

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

Beware how you give your heart.

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from. . . . Every moment rather brought fresh agitation. It was an overpowering happiness.

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

Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.

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 pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.

A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.

I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant and spending all my money: and what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too.

From politics it was an easy step to silence.

There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Everything nourishes what is strong already

Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else.

There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.

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

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?

An agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones.

It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.