Jane Austen

“Yet some happiness must and would arise, from the very conviction, that he did suffer.”

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

“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.”

“Her looks and words had nothing to restrain them. She was happy, she knew she was happy, and knew she ought to be happy.”

“Every moment has its pleasures and its hope.”

“but a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. it soon flies over the present failure, and begins...”

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

“…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;...”

“I could not sit seriously down to write a serious Romance under any other motive than to save my life, & if it were indispensable for me to keep it up & never relax into laughing at myself o...”

“[I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

“She looked back as well as she could; but it was all confusion. She had taken up the idea, she supposed and made everything bend to it.”

“It is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct.”

“To be always firm must be to be often obstinate. When properly to relax is the trial of judgment.”

“It was told to me, it was in a manner forced on me by the very person herself whose prior engagement ruined all my prospects, and told me, as I thought, with triumph. This person's suspicion...”

“Everybody is taken in at some period or another. [...] In marriage especially. [...] There is not one in a hundred of either sex, who is not taken in when they marry. Look where I will, I se...”

“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 mor...”

“Time will explain.”

“Time did not compose her.”

“Time will generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily circle.”

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