Jane Austen Quotes
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She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.
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You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you.
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She tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister. "I do not attempt to deny," said she, "that I think very highly of him--that I greatly esteem, that I like him." Marianne here burst with forth with indignation: "Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor. Oh! worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise. Use those words again, and I will leave the room this moment." Elinor could not help laughing. "Excuse me," said she, "and be assured that I meant no offence to you, by speaking, in so quiet a way, of my own feelings.
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And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.
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I have been used to consider poetry as "the food of love" said Darcy. "Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.
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I can always live by my pen.
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Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!
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My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasion for teasing and quarreling with you as often as may be.
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From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced.
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Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply.
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I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.
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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 or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No - I must keep my own style & go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.
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She was not often invited to join in the conversation of the others, nor did she desire it. Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.
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Sitting with her on Sunday evening - a wet Sunday evening - the very time of all others when if a friend is at hand the heart must be opened, and every thing told.
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I . . . am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever--& of finding my own story & my own people all forestalled.
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A very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally very inferior, society, may well be illiberal and cross.
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The longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard, and sometimes for a few painful minutes she believed it to be no more than friendship...
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The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's.
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Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.
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Whom are you going to dance with?' asked Mr. Knightley. She hesitated a moment and then replied, 'With you, if you will ask me.' Will you?' said he, offering his hand. Indeed I will. You have shown that you can dance, and you know we are not really so much brother and sister as to make it at all improper.' Brother and sister! no, indeed.
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One half of her should not be always so much wiser than the other half.
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It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.
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Now they were as strangers; nay worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted.
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A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago.