Jane Austen Quotes

And such is your definition of matrimony and dancing. Taken in that light, certainly their resemblance is not striking; but I think I could place them in such a view. You will allow that in both man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal; that in both it is an engagement between man and woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their duty each to endeavor to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbors, or fancying that they should have been better off with any one else.

~ Jane Austen

The most incomprehensible thing in the world to a man, is a woman who rejects his offer of marriage!

~ Jane Austen

Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.

~ Jane Austen

Miss Bingley's congratulations to her brother, on his approaching marriage, were all that was affectionate and insincere.

~ Jane Austen

Luck which so often defies anticipation in matrimonial affairs, giving attraction to what is moderate rather than to what is superior.

~ Jane Austen

With such a worshipping wife, it was hardly possible that any natural defects in it should not be increased. The extreme sweetness of her temper must hurt his.

~ Jane Austen

Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country.

~ Jane Austen

I am not only not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of ever marrying at all.

~ Jane Austen

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house tonight or never.

~ Jane Austen

But Catherine did not know her own advantages - did not know that a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of attracting a clever young man, unless circumstances are particularly untoward.

~ Jane Austen

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

~ Jane Austen

A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.

~ Jane Austen

Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating. For many years of her life she had had two sons; but the crime and annihilation of Edward a few weeks ago, had robbed her of one; the similar annihilation of Robert had left her for a fortnight without any; and now, by the resurrection of Edward, she had one again.

~ Jane Austen

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; and it must be by a long and unnatural estrangement, by a divorce which no subsequent connection can justify, if such precious remains of the earliest attachments are ever entirely outlived.

~ Jane Austen

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.

~ Jane Austen

There are secrets in all families, you know.

~ Jane Austen

So long divided and so differently situated, the ties of blood were little more than nothing.

~ Jane Austen

Between Barton and Delaford, there was that constant communication which strong family affection would naturally dictate;—and among the merits and the happiness of Elinor and Marianne, let it not be ranked as the least considerable, that though sisters, and living almost within sight of each other, they could live without disagreement between themselves, or producing coolness between their husbands.

~ Jane Austen

Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.

~ Jane Austen

Blessed with so many resources within myself the world was not necessary to me. I could do very well without it.

~ Jane Austen

I have not known him long indeed, but I am much better acquainted with him than I am with any other creature in the world.

~ Jane Austen

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.

~ Jane Austen

I feel as if I could be any thing or every thing, as if I could rant and storm, or sigh, or cut capers in any tragedy or comedy in the English language.

~ Jane Austen

I shall ever despise the man who can be gratified by the passion which he never wished to inspire, nor solicited the avowal of.

~ Jane Austen

I do not know where the error lies. I do not pretend to set people right, but I do see they are often wrong.

~ Jane Austen

Yes; he had done it. She was in the carriage, and felt that he had placed her there, that his will and his hands had done it, that she owed it to his perception of her fatigue, and his resolution to give her rest. She was very much affected by the view of his disposition towards her, which all these things made apparent. This little circumstance seemed the completion of all that had gone before. She understood him. He could not forgive her, but he could not be unfeeling. Though condemning her for the past, and considering it with high and unjust resentment, though perfectly careless of her, and though becoming attached to another, still he could not see her suffer, without the desire of giving her relief. It was a remainder of former sentiment; it was an impulse of pure, though unacknowledged friendship; it was a proof of his own warm and amiable heart, which she could not contemplate without emotions so compounded of pleasure and pain, that she knew not which prevailed.

~ Jane Austen

No, it was not regret which made Anne's heart beat in spite of herself, and brought the colour into her cheeks when she thought of Captain Wentworth unshackled and free. She had some feelings which she was ashamed to investigate. They were too much like joy, senseless joy!

~ Jane Austen

What had she have to wish for? Nothing but to grow more worthy of him whose intentions and judgment had been ever so superior to her own.

~ Jane Austen

What had she to wish for? Nothing, but to grow more worthy of him whose intentions and judgment had been ever so superior to her own.

~ Jane Austen

Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in theirpower, which no subsequent connections can supply..

~ Jane Austen

On every formal visit a child ought to be of the party, by way of provision for discourse. In the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother, and in what particular he resembled either, for of course every body differed, and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others.

~ Jane Austen

And here is my sweet little Annamaria,’ she added, tenderly caressing a little girl of three years old, who had not made a noise for the last two minutes; ‘And she is always so gentle and quiet—Never was there such a quiet little thing!’ But unfortunately in bestowing these embraces, a pin in her ladyship’s head dress slightly scratching the child’s neck, produced from this pattern of gentleness such violent screams, as could hardly be outdone by any creature professedly noisy. The mother’s consternation was excessive; but it could not surpass the alarm of the Miss Steeles, and every thing was done by all three, in so critical an emergency, which affection could suggest as likely to assuage the agonies of the little sufferer. She was seated in her mother’s lap, covered with kisses, her wound bathed with lavender-water, by one of the Miss Steeles, who was on her knees to attend her, and her mouth stuffed with sugar plums by the other. With such a reward for her tears, the child was too wise to cease crying.

~ Jane Austen

He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman's daughter. So far we are equal.

~ Jane Austen

Maria was married on Saturday. In all important preparations of mind she was complete, being prepared for matrimony by a hatred of home, by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The bride was elegantly dressed and the two bridesmaids were duly inferior. Her mother stood with salts, expecting to be agitated, and her aunt tried to cry. Marriage is indeed a maneuvering business.

~ Jane Austen

I beg your pardon, one knows exactly what to think.

~ Jane Austen

Ever since her being turned into a Churchill, she has out-Churchill'd them all in high and mighty claims.

~ Jane Austen

She was stronger alone…

~ Jane Austen

Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference ... It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm.

~ Jane Austen

What! Would I be turned back from doing a thing that I had determined to do, and that I knew to be right, by the airs and interference of such a person, or any person I may say? No, I have no idea of being so easily persuaded. When I have made up my mind, I have made it.

~ Jane Austen

She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time, but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.

~ Jane Austen