Jane Austen
256 quotes
Biography
Jane Austen was an English writer known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
"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."
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."
"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."
"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."
"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
"The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!"
"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."
"Angry people are not always wise."
"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
"but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short."
"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."
"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you."
"I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives."
"Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure."
"Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort."
"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."
"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."
"The Very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone."
"What are men to rocks and mountains?"
"I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve."
"Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does."
"It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do."
"General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be."
"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 further expense to anybody."