Jane Austen Quotes
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You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged.
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[I]t is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.
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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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Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.
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We met Dr. Hall in such deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.
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It taught me to hope, as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before.
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I can easily believe it. Women of that class have great opportunities, and if they are intelligent may be well worth listening to. Such varieites of human nature as they are in the habit of witnessing! And it is not merely in its follies, that they are read; for they see it occasionally under every circumstance that can be most interesting or affecting. What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation-- of all the sacrifices that ennoble us most. A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes.
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And pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.
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In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.
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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.
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Told herself likewise not to hope. But it was too late. Hope had already entered.
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No young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared, it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her.
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Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride - where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.
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If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time.
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I was quiet but I was not blind.
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Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.
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Expect a most agreeable letter; for not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say) I shall have no check to my Genius from beginning to end.
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You think me foolish to call instruction a torment, but if you had been as much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters and then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that to torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous words.
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Angry people are not always wise.
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What strange creatures brothers are!
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Fine dancing, I believe, like virtue, must be its own reward.
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What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.
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Never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important; so always first and always right in any man's eyes as I am in my father's.
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Grant us peace, Almighty Father, so to pray as to deserve to be heard.