Quotes from Jane Austen

where there is a disposition to dislike, a motive will never be wanting

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost.

Yes, yes, if you please. No reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.

I do not know whether it ought to be so, but certainly silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.  Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

For to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person.

Every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical moment, for every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation. All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of some one they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of someone they wished to please.

I do not find myself making any use of the word sacrifice.

Give him a book, and he will read all day long.

Es una verdad mundialmente reconocida que un hombre soltero, poseedor de una gran fortuna, necesita una esposa.

She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation

This would be the way to Fanny's heart. She was not to be won by all that gallantry and wit and good-nature together could do; or, at least, she would not be won by them nearly so soon, without the assistance of sentiment and feeling, and seriousness on serious subjects.

I have no more to say. If this be the case, he deserves you. I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to any one less worthy.

This was a lucky recollection -- it saved her from something like regret.

I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge.

I sincerely hope your Christmas...may abound in the gaieties which the season generally brings…

If I am a wild Beast I cannot help it. It is not my own fault.

Human nature needs more lessons than a weekly sermon can convey.

I should think he must be rather a dressy man for his time of life. Such a number of looking-glasses! Oh Lord! There is not getting away from one's self

I cannot, I cannot,' cried Marianne; 'leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! But do not torture me so. Oh! how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of extertion!

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.

Varnish and gilding hide many stains.

Elinor, for shame! said Marianne, money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence, it can afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned.

What have wealth or grandeur to do with happiness? Grandeur has but little, said Elinor, but wealth has much to do with it. Elinor, for shame! Said Marianne. Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it...

I am quite enough in love. I should be sorry to be any more