Jane Austen Quotes
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She would have liked to know how he felt as to a meeting. Perhaps indifferent, if indifference could exist under such circumstances. He must be either indifferent or unwilling. Has he wished ever to see her again, he need not have waited till this time; he would have done what she could not but believe that in his place she should have done long ago, when events had been early giving him the indepencence which alone had been wanting.
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It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.
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Marry me. Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend.
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Now I must give one smirk and then we may be rational again...
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She had nothing to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever.
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If you will thank me '' he replied let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them I believe I thought only of you.
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In a letter from Bath to her sister, Cassandra, one senses her frustration at her sheltered existence, Tuesday, 12 May 1801. Another stupid party . . . with six people to look on, and talk nonsense to each other.
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Dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled.
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He had an affectionate heart. He must love somebody.
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General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.
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A persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.
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You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.
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She tried to be calm, and leave things to take their course; and tried to dwell much on this argument of rational dependence – “Surely, if there be constant attachment on each side, our hearts must understand each other ere long. We are not boy and girl, to be captiously irritable, misled by every moment’s inadvertence, and wantonly playing with our own happiness.” And yet, a few minutes afterwards, she felt as if their being in company with each other, under their present circumstances, could only be exposing them to inadvertencies and misconstructions of the most mischievous kind.
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I have no more to say. If this be the case, he deserves you. I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to any one less worthy.
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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.
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One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a fortnight.
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Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
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What a shame, for I dearly love to laugh.
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To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last.
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You have delighted us long enough.
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Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise.
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Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.
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I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet: I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.
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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 someone or other of their daughters.