Jane Austen

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

“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.”

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

“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.”

“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.”

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”

“Angry people are not always wise.”

“but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

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

“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.”

“The Very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone.”

“What are men to rocks and mountains?”

“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!”

“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.”

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. 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. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost...”

“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.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or...”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“Elizabeth's spirit's soon rising to playfulness again, she wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her. 'How could you begin?' said she. 'I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?' 'I cann...”

“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”

“They were within twenty yards of each other, and so abrupt was his appearance, that it was impossible to avoid his sight. Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush. He absolutely started, and for a moment seemed immoveable from surprise; but shortly reco...”

“Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.”

“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.”

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

“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”

“Facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands of so many, to be misconceived by folly in one, and ignorance in another, can hardly have much truth left.”

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”

“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”

“I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.”

“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.”

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.”

“Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.”

“These were reflections that required some time to soften; but time will do almost every thing…”

“I could not sit down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life.”

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”

“Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”

“There is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry.”

“Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.”

“My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.”

“…though under temporary gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of spirits. The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations...”

“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.”

“…told herself likewise not to hope. But it was too late. Hope had already entered…”

“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.”

“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 regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals.”

“Nobody minds having what is too good for them.”

“…for I look upon the Frasers to be about as unhappy as most other married people.”

“…she had nothing to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever…”

“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.”

“Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain.”

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

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

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

“Those who do not complain are never pitied.”

“To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.”

“I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly: I do not like to have people throw themselves away; but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.”

“If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.”

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

“…Elizabeth, agitated and confused, rather knew that she was happy, than felt herself to be so…”

“Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.”

“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?”

“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

“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.”

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

“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love”

“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.”

“A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.”

“They danced again, and when the assembly closed, parted, on the lady’s side at least, with a strong inclination for continuing the acquaintance. Whether she thought of him so much while she drank her warm wine and water and prepared herself for bed as to dream of him when there, cannot be ascertaine...”

“Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.”

“The evils arising from the loss of her uncle were neither trifling nor likely to lessen; and when thought had been freely indulged, in contrasting the past and the present, the employment of mind and dissipation of unpleasant ideas which only reading could produce made her thankfully turn to a book.”

“…one half of her should not be always so much wiser than the other half…”

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