Jane Austen Quotes on Life (14 Quotes)

It has sunk him, I cannot say how much it has sunk him in my opinion. So unlike what a man should be!-None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that distain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life.

It is only by seeing women in their own homes, among their own set, just as they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of that, it is all guess and luck-and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his life!

Without music, life would be a blank to me.

Life, if you live it right, keeps surprising you, and the thing that keeps surprising you the most…is yourself

To be disgraced in the eye of the world, to wear the appearance of infamy while her heart is all purity, her actions all innocence, and the misconduct of another the true source of her debasement, is one of those circumstances which peculiarly belong to the heroine's life, and her fortitude under it what particularly dignifies her character. Catherine had fortitude too; she suffered, but no mumur passed her lips.

I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do: but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all; they are all knocked about, and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen. It is a pity they are not knocked on the head at once, before they reach Admiral Baldwin's age.

I should think he must be rather a dressy man for his time of life. Such a number of looking-glasses! Oh Lord! There is not getting away from one's self

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.

Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death.

Yes, I found myself, by insensible degrees, sincerely fond of her; and the happiest hours of my life were what I spent with her.

It is indolence... Indolence and love of ease a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

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

They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life.