Quotes By Jane Austen

Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.

Where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

Nobody minds having what is too good for them.

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.

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.

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.

There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.

One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.

It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

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.

We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.

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.

To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.

A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.