Jane Austen Quotes (569 Quotes)

Elinor agreed with it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.

There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow.

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

Lady Middleton ... exerted herself to ask Mr. Palmer if there was any news in the paper. No none at all, he replied, and read on.

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.

An annuity is a very serious business.

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better we find comfort somewhere . . .

Nobody is on my side, nobody takes part with me I am cruelly used, nobody feels for my poor nerves.

You give me fresh life and vigour. Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains Oh what hours of transport we shall spend And when we do return, it shall not be like other travelers, without being able to give one accurate idea of any thing. We will know where we have gone we will recollect what we have seen. Lakes, mountains, and rivers shall not be jumbled together in our imaginations nor when we attempt to describe any particular scene, will we begin quarrelling about its relative situation. Let our first effusions be less insupportable than those of the generality of travelers.

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

She went, however, and they sauntered about together many a half hour in Mr. Grant's shrubbery, the weather being unusually mild for the time of year, and venturing sometimes even to sit down on one of the benches now comparatively unsheltered, remaining there perhaps till, in the midst of some tender ejaculation of Fanny's on the sweets of so protracted an autumn, they were forced by the sudden swell of a cold gust shaking down the last few yellow leaves about them, to jump up and walk for warmth.

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

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly.

My sore throats are always worse than anyone's.

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

The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

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

If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at leisure.

What dreadful hot weather we have It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy-- it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.

Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. ''And what are you reading, Miss -- -'' ''Oh it is only a novel'' replies the young lady while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. ''It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda '' or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.

From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his MAKING friends--whether he may be equally capable of RETAINING them, is less certain.

Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.

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

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper.

Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain.

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

Matrimony, as the origin of change, was always disagreeable.

You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.

Give me yet to see
Her smile of Love.

Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations.

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.

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

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

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

Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.

Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.

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

How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.