90 Substantial Quotes by Jane Austen
Jane Austen (born December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire, England – died July 18, 1817, Winchester, Hampshire, England) was an English novelist whose novels are notable for their wit, light irony, social observation, and insights into the lives of early 19th-century women.
The seventh child of Cassandra and clergyman George Austen, Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Fascinated by the world of stories, she began to write as a teenager, experimenting with various literary forms.
In her thirties, from 1811 until 1816, Jane started anonymously publishing her works. During this period, she published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815). Two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818.
Her works brought her very little personal fame during her lifetime, but her reputation increased after the publication of her nephew’s A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869.
Today, Jane Austen is considered one of the greatest writers in English history, and her novels are the driving force of many films and television shows.
To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 9
If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 321
Good opinion once lost is lost for ever.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 63
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 18
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 117
I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 497
Dinner was soon followed by tea and coffee, a ten miles’ drive home allowed no waste of hours; and from the time of their sitting down to table, it was a quick succession of busy nothings till the carriage came to the door.
(Also known as: Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.)Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 107
The pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.Sense and Sensibility (1811), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 73
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 25
There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 37
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 86
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 427
It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 457
None of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 82
There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 97
Nothing is more deceitful, than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 52
People always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them.Sense and Sensibility (1811), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 11
There certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 3
Why not seize the pleasure at once? — How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 270
A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 30
One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 217
There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 212
It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 105
Better be without sense, than misapply it as you do.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 67
A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 26
We do not look in great cities for our best morality.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 95
Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 406
One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 466
A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 263
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 220
A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 122
Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 67
He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 392
Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 420
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 450
Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 190
When pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 217
People themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 47
The enthusiasm of a woman’s love is even beyond the biographer’s.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 273
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 3
If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 9
A person who can write a long letter, with ease, cannot write ill.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 52
Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.Letters to Fanny Knight, (March 13, 1816)
One cannot fix one’s eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 217
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 452
Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 153
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Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 67
One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 148
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 21
No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 165
Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 238
Give a girl an education, and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without farther expense to anybody.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 6
Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience – or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.Sense and Sensibility (1811), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 109
Those who do not complain are never pitied.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 127
Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 221
Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 65
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 400
Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 479
Every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 220
One cannot always be laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 249
A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 242
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 28
If one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 47
Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 160
If we have not hearts, we have eyes; and they give us torment enough.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 161
I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.Letter to Cassandra Austen, (December 24, 1798)
In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better shew more affection than she feels.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 24
My sore-throats, you know, are always worse than anybody’s.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 193
Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 305
The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 53
Nobody minds having what is too good for them.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 489
General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 334
Do not give way to useless alarm, though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 315
From politics, it was an easy step to silence.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 123)
Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 113
To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.Persuasion (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 296
Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 156
Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.Mansfield Park (1814), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 70
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 95
Resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation.Pride and Prejudice (1813), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 127
It is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.Northanger Abbey (1818), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 193
There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.Emma (1815), (ed. Penguin Books, 2006), Page 284
