Jane Austen Quotes
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I speak what appears to me the general opinion; and where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.
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Time will explain.
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You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.
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If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost any attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin ‘freely’- as light preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have a heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.
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To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.
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You will have a great deal of unreserved discourse with Mrs. K., I dare say, upon this subject, as well as upon many other of our family matters. Abuse everybody but me.
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Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.
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Surprizes are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.
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The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid
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I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable.
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You have no ambition, I well know. Your wishes are all moderate.' 'As moderate as those of the rest of the world, I believe. I wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy, but like every body else it must be in my own way. Greatness will not make me so.
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Catherine had never wanted comfort more, and he [Henry] looked as if he was aware of it.
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I do not find it easy to talk to people I don't know.
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Another stupid party last night; perhaps if larger they might be less intolerable, but here there were only just enough to make one card-table, with six people to look on and talk nonsense to each other.
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There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.
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Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.
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Sophia shrieked and fainted on the ground-I screamed and instantly ran mad! We remained thus mutually deprived of our senses some minutes, and on regaining them were deprived of them again. For an hour and a quarter did we continue in this unfortunate situation.
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I believe I drank too much wine last night at Hurstbourne; I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand today. You will kindly make allowance therefore for any indistinctness of writing, by attributing it to this venial error.
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A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.
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If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.
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None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
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I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
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A single woman with a narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid, the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman of fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else.
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Obstinate, headstrong girl!