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Quotes by Jane Austen

English novelist (1775 - 1817)

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

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

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

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

CP In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes.

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

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

CP 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?

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

CP 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.

CP 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.

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

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.

CP 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.

CP Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else.

CP One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.

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

CP The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's.

CP 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.

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

CP 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.

CP Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

CP One half of the world can not understand the pleasures of the other.

CP I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

CP At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them.

CP Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.

CP 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.

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

CP 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.

CP We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of a man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.

CP "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.

CP You have delighted us long enough.

CP For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?

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

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

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

CP Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side.

CP It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.

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.

CP Life is just a quick succession of busy nothings.

CP Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

CP When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other's ultimate comfort.

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

CP One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

CP Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like.

CP You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

CP How much I love every thing that is decided and open!

CP 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.

CP A woman should never be trusted with money.

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

CP An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

CP I am excessively fond of music, but without the smallest skill or right of judging of anybody's performance.

CP Oh! dear; I was so miserable! I am sure I must have been as white as my gown.

CP 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 may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

CP Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.

CP Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously.... Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.

CP I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.

CP No one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with.

CP I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.

CP How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.

CP Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.

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