Jane Austen Quotes
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Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.
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One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
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The evening ended with dancing. On its being proposed, Anne offered her services, as usual, and though her eyes would sometimes fill with tears as she sat at the instrument, she was extremely glad to be employed, and desired nothing in return but to be unobserved.
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Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.
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Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
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She had a lively, playful disposition that delighted in anything ridiculous.
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It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable.
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A fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself.
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I want nothing but death.
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You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve.
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Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.
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Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.
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You are very kind in planning presents for me to make, and my mother has shown me exactly the same attention; but as I do not choose to have generosity dictated to me, I shall not resolve on giving my cabinet to Anna till the first thought of it has been my own.
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...but a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. it soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.
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I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.
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I trust that absolutes have gradations.
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I am very much obliged to my dear little George for his message - for his love at least; his duty, I suppose, was only in consequence of some hint of my favourable intentions towards him from his father or mother. I am sincerely rejoiced, however, that I ever was born, since it has been the means of procuring him a dish of tea.
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I have made myself two or three caps to wear of evenings since I came home, and they save me a world of torment as to hair-dressing, which at present gives me no trouble beyond washing and brushing, for my long hair is always plaited up out of sight, and my short hair curls well enough to want no papering.
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If a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to conceal it, he must find it out."
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It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.
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I can never be important to any one.' 'What is to prevent you?' 'Every thing — my situation — my foolishness and awkwardness.
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I believe you [men] capable of everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as - if I may be allowed the expression, so long as you have an object. I mean, while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.
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But are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid? [Referring to Gothic novels, fashionable in England at the beginning of the 19th century, but frowned upon in polite society.]
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I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant, and spending all my money, and, what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too.