Jane Austen

In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

It is indolence... Indolence and love of ease; a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish; read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.

— Jane Austen

It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.

— Jane Austen

Those who do not complain are never pitied.

— Jane Austen

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind; but when a beginning is made -- when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt -- it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.

— Jane Austen

An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.

— Jane Austen

You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.

— Jane Austen

Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. And what are you reading, Miss -- -? Oh! it is only a novel! replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda ; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.

— Jane Austen

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

— Jane Austen

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.

— Jane Austen

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

— Jane Austen

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

— Jane Austen

With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

— Jane Austen

Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

— Jane Austen

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

— Jane Austen

Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

— Jane Austen

Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation.

— Jane Austen

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.

— Jane Austen

Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

— Jane Austen

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

From politics it was an easy step to silence.

— Jane Austen

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced and the inconvenience is often considerable.

— Jane Austen

What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.

— Jane Austen

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.

— Jane Austen

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.

— Jane Austen

I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.

— Jane Austen

Affection is dezirable, but money is absolutly undispensable.

— Jane Austen

A fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow anything.

— Jane Austen

My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish. Secondly, that I am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly--which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness.

— Jane Austen

You women are always thinking of men's being in liquor. Why, you do not suppose a man is overset by a bottle? I am sure of this--that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now. It would be a famous good thing for us all. . . . There is not the hundredth part of the wine consumed in this kingdom that there ought to be. Our foggy climate wants help.

— Jane Austen

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.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

If a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to “Yes,” she ought to say “No,” directly.

— 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

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

— Jane Austen

My sore throats are always worse than everyone’s.

— Jane Austen

Personal size and mental sorrow have certainly no necessary proportions. A large bulky figure has as good a right to be in deep affliction as the most graceful set of limbs in the world. But, fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which… taste cannot tolerate—which ridicule will seize.

— Jane Austen

The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

— Jane Austen

One cannot have too large a party. A large party secures its own amusement.

— Jane Austen

Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.

— Jane Austen

She is probably by this time as tired of me, as I am of her; but as she is too polite and I am too civil to say so, our letters are still as frequent and affectionate as ever, and our Attachment as firm and sincere as when it first commenced.

— Jane Austen

“My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is a company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.” // “You are mistaken,” said he, gently, “that is not good company; that is the best.”

— Jane Austen

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

But after all the punishment that misconduct can bring, it is still not less misconduct. Pain is no expiation.

— Jane Austen

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.

— Jane Austen

Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

— Jane Austen

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

— Jane Austen

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

— Jane Austen