Jane Austen Quotes

To love is to burn, to be on fire.

You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged.

It's such a happiness when good people get together.

I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see fault in any body. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life." "I would wish not to be hasty in censuring any one; but I always speak what I think.

Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.

To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.

And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in.

Sophia shrieked and fainted on the ground – I screamed and instantly ran mad. We remained thus mutually deprived of our senses, some minutes, and on regaining them were deprived of them again. For an Hour and a Quarter did we continue in this unfortunate situation – Sophia fainting every moment and I running mad as often. At length a groan from the hapless Edward (who alone retained any share of life) restored us to ourselves.

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

She is loveliness itself.

if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to `Yes,' she ought to say `No' directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.

To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind

If people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate.

Know your own happiness.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air.

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.

It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.

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.

Men were put into the world to teach women the law of compromise.

I am no indiscriminate novel reader. The mere trash of the common circulating library I hold in the highest contempt.

A mother would have been always present. A mother would have been a constant friend; her influence would have been beyond all other.

How clever you are, to know something of which you are ignorant.

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

The distance is nothing when one has a motive.

“I often think,” said she, “that there is nothing so bad as parting with one's friends. One seems so forlorn without them.”

It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof. We each begin probably with a little bias towards our own sex, and upon that bias build every circumstance in favour of it which has occurred within our own circle.

We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.

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

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

Pride... is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or the other, real or imaginary. 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.

she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.

He may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my acquaintance.

None but a woman can teach the science of herself.

How can I dispose of myself with it?

But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by everybody at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience; or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.

To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect

I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.

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.

A Woman never looks better than on horseback

I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

Told herself likewise not to hope. But it was too late. Hope had already entered.

There were several Battles between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, in which the former (as they ought) usually won.

When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.

Oh!” said she, “I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’ that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt. I have, therefore made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all--and now despise me if you dare.” “Indeed I do not dare.

Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret.

Lady Sondes' match surprises, but does not offend me; had herfirst marriage been of affection, or had their been a grown-updaughter, I should not have forgiven her; but I considereverybody as having a right to marry once in their lives forlove, if they can.

It is the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoy it completely.

Her form, though not so correct as her sister's, in having the advantage of height, was more striking; and her face was so lovely, that when in the common cant of praise she was called a beautiful girl, truth was less violently outraged than usually happens.

The evening ended with dancing. On its being proposed, Anne offered her services, as usual, and though her eyes would sometimes fill with tears as she sat at the instrument, she was extremely glad to be employed, and desired nothing in return but to be unobserved.

I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.

To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.

Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves." "You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.

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.

I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.

Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.

[W]here other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

I was quiet but I was not blind.

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.