Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” Quotes (53 Quotes)

Anne hoped she had outlived the age of blushing; but the age of emotion she certainly had not.

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

There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison

Aye, a very bad business indeed. A new sort of way this, for a young fellow to be making love, by breaking his mistress's head, is not it, Miss Elliot? This is breaking a head and giving a plaister truly!

I will not allow books to prove anything.

There is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernment of character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal...

But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.

If there is any thing disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it.

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.

Every body has their taste in noises as well as other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

It does not come to me in quite so direct a line as that; it takes a bend or two, but nothing of consequence. The stream is as good as at first; the little rubbish it collects in the turnings is easily moved away.

Thus much indeed he was obliged to acknowledge - that he had been constant unconsciously, nay unintentionally; that he had meant to forget her, and believed it to be done. He had imagined himself indifferent, when he had only been angry; and he had been unjust to her merits, because he had been a sufferer from them.

Good company requires only birth, manners and education and, with regard to education, I'm afraid it is not very particular

It would be difficult to say which had seen highest perfection in the other, or which had been the happiest: she, in receiving his declarations and proposals, or he in having them accepted.

Valaha mindent jelentettek egymásnak, most semmit!

He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.

It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering.

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

He frequently observed, as he walked out, that one handsome face would be followed by thirty, or five-and-thirty frights; and once, as he stood in a shop in Bond Street, he had counted eighty-seven women go by, one after another, without there being a tolerable face among them.

Mindennél többre becsülte az o"szinte, nyíltszivu", szenvedélyes természetet. Az érzelmek ereje, a lelkesedés mindenkor rabul ejtette szívét. Sokkal inkább meg tudott bízni olyanokban, akik néha elhamarkodva vagy felületesen nyilatkoznak, mint abban, akit sohasem hagy cserben az elo"vigyázatossága, sohasem botlik meg a nyelve.

We certainly do not forget you, so soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit. We cannot help ourselves.

He had an affectionate heart. He must love somebody.

No: the years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages. She had seen the same Frederick Wentworth.

We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.

He would look for her- he would find her out long before the evening were over- and at present, perhaps, it was as to be asunder. She was in need of a little interval for recollection.

Now they were as strangers; nay worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted.

What! Would I be turned back from doing a thing that I had determined to do, and that I knew to be right, by the airs and interference of such a person, or any person I may say? No, I have no idea of being so easily persuaded. When I have made up my mind, I have made it.

His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything.

Prettier musings of high-wrought love and eternal constancy could never have passed along the streets of Bath, than Anne was sporting with from Camden-place to Westgate-buildings. It was almost enough to spread purification and perfume all the way.

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.

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

How she might have felt had there been no Captain Wentworth in the case, was not worth enquiry; for there was a Captain Wentworth: and be the conclusion of the present suspense good or bad, her affection would be his forever. Their union, she believed, could not divide her more from other men, than their final separation.

She had received ideas which disposed her to be courteous and kind to all, and to pity every one, as being less happy than herself.

When the evening was over, Anne could not be amused…nor could she help fearing, on more serious reflection, that, like many other great moralists and preachers, she had been eloquent on a point in which her own conduct would ill bear examination.

A man does not recover from such devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.

I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable.

She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.

Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference ... It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm.

A natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

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.

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

Yet there it was not love. It was a little fever of admiration; but it might, probably must, end in love with some

All the overpowering blinding, bewildering, first effects of strong surprise were over with her. Still, however, she had enough to feel! It was agitation, pain, pleasure, a something between delight and misery.

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

She would have liked to know how he felt as to a meeting. Perhaps indifferent, if indifference could exist under such circumstances. He must be either indifferent or unwilling. Has he wished ever to see her again, he need not have waited till this time; he would have done what she could not but believe that in his place she should have done long ago, when events had been early giving him the indepencence which alone had been wanting.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope

An interval of meditation, serious and grateful, was the best corrective of everything dangerous.

I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.

So you and I are to be left to shift by ourselves, with this poor sick child; and not a creature coming near us all the evening! I knew how it would be. This is always my luck. If there is anything disagreeable going on men are always sure to get out of it, and Charles is as bad as any of them.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.