Famous Jane Austen Quotations

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"It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?"
by Jane Austen
"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of."
by Jane Austen
"Those who do not complain are never pitied."
by Jane Austen
"To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment."
by Jane Austen
"What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."
by Jane Austen
"One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty."
by Jane Austen
"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"An artist cannot do anything slovenly."
by Jane Austen
"An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done."
by Jane Austen
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
by Jane Austen
"'Only a novel'... 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 humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language."
by Jane Austen
"A basin of nice smooth gruel, thin, but not too thin."
by Jane Austen
"A woman should never be trusted with money."
by Jane Austen
"At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them."
by Jane Austen
"But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way."
by Jane Austen
"Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner of devotion."
by Jane Austen
"Everything nourishes what is strong already."
by Jane Austen
"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love."
by Jane Austen
"Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody."
by Jane Austen
"He [Darcy] expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man in violent love can be supposed to."
by Jane Austen
"His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle."
by Jane Austen
"How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!"
by Jane Austen
"How much I love every thing that is decided and open!"
by Jane Austen
"I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other."
by Jane Austen
"I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of."
by Jane Austen
"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."
by Jane Austen
"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me that trouble of liking them."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out."
by Jane Austen
"If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient at others, so bewildered and so weak and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control We are, to be sure, a miracle every way but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out."
by Jane Austen
"In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete: being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquillity; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry."
by Jane Austen
"In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes."
by Jane Austen
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife."
by Jane Austen
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of ths surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters."
by Jane Austen
"It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?"
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire."
by J. K. Rowling
"Life is just a quick succession of busy nothings."
by Jane Austen
"Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."
by Jane Austen
"Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society . . ."
by Jane Austen
"Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like."
by Jane Austen
"Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves."
by Jane Austen
"Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch."
by Jane Austen
"Oh! dear; I was so miserable! I am sure I must have been as white as my gown."
by Jane Austen
"Oh do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch."
by Jane Austen
"One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it unless it has all been suffering, nothing but suffering."
by Jane Austen
"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other"
by Jane Austen
"One half of the world can not understand the pleasures of the other."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure."
by Jane Austen
"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way."
by Jane Austen
"Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable."
by Jane Austen
"The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's."
by Jane Austen
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
by Jane Austen
"There is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry . It is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"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."
by Jane Austen
"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
by Jane Austen
"We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of a man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him."
by Jane Austen
"We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be."
by Jane Austen
"We met Dr. Hall in such deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead."
by Jane Austen
"What dreadful weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."
by Jane Austen
"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?"
by Jane Austen
"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"
by Jane Austen
"Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else."
by Jane Austen
"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
by Jane Austen
"Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side."
by Jane Austen
"You have delighted us long enough."
by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
"You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
by Jane Austen
"We do not look in our great cities for our best morality."
by Jane Austen
"One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound."
by Jane Austen
"It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind; but when a beginning is made -- when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt -- it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more."
by Jane Austen
"The system -- the American one, at least -- is a vast and noble experiment. It has been polestar and exemplar for other nations. But from kindergarten until she graduates from college the girl is treated in it exactly like her brothers. She studies the same subjects, becomes proficient at the same sports. Oh, it is a magnificent lore she learns, education for the mind beyond anything Jane Austen or Saint Theresa or even Mrs. Pankhurst ever dreamed. It is truly Utopian. But Utopia was never meant to exist on this disheveled planet."
by Phyllis Mcginley
". . . it is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?"
by Jane Austen
"Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."
by Jane Austen
"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."
by Jane Austen
"And I, Mr. Knightley, am equally stout in my confidence of its not doing them any harm. With all dear Emma's little faults, she is an excellent creature. Where shall we see a better daughter, or a kinder sister, or a truer friend? No, no; she has qualities which may be trusted; she will never lead any one really wrong; she will make no lasting blunder; where Emma errs once, she is in the right a hundred times."
by Jane Austen
"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance."
by Jane Austen
"Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does."
by Jane Austen
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?"
by Jane Austen
"Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies."
by Jane Austen
"Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct."
by Jane Austen
"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."
by Jane Austen
"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle."
by Jane Austen
"From politics it was an easy step to silence."
by Jane Austen
"There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person."
by Jane Austen
"Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced and the inconvenience is often considerable."
by Jane Austen
"Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied."
by Jane Austen
"One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering."
by Jane Austen
"I write about violence as naturally as Jane Austen wrote about manners. Violence shapes and obsesses our society, and if we do not stop being violent we have no future."
by Edward Bond
"A classical education, or at any rate a very extensive acquaintance with English literature, ancient and modern, appears..."
by Jane Austen
"A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her reg..."
by Jane Austen
"Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection."
by Jane Austen
"Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does."
by Jane Austen


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