Quotes from Jane Austen

Indeed how can one care for those one has never seen?

There was no being displeased with such an encourager, for his admiration made him discern a likeness before it was possible.

These were reflections that required some time to soften; but time will do almost every thing…

Her mind was less difficult to develop.

I have observed, Mrs Elton, in the course of my life, that if things are going outwardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

Lady Jane Gray, who tho' inferior to her lovely Cousin the Queen of Scots, was yet an amiable young woman & famous for reading Greek while other people were hunting....Whether she really understood that language or whether such a study proceeded only from an excess of vanity for which I beleive she was always rather remarkable, is uncertain.

There was that constant communication which strong family affection would dictate; and though sisters, and living almost within sight of each other, they could live without disagreement between themselves, or producing coolness between their husbands.

but without scheming to do wrong, or to make others unhappy, there may be error, and there may be misery. Thoughtlessness, want of attention to other people's feelings, and want of resolution, will do the business.

Such I was, from eight to eight-and-twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.

You are a good girl, and I have great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled. I have no doubt of your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income.

If a book is well written i would find it too short.

God knows, I have been a very indifferent lover. But you understand me.

And if reading could banish the idea for even half an hour, it was something gained.

Nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection.

We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured... It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.

Poverty is a great evil; but to a woman of education and feeling it ought not, it cannot be the greatest. I would rather be teacher at a school (and I can think of nothing worse) than marry a man I did not like.

Do not defer it. What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

She had spoken it; but she trembled when it was done, conscious that her words were listened to, and daring not even to try to observe their effect.

It was gratitude; gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him.

Anne found an unexpected interest here. She felt its application to herself, felt it in a nervous thrill all over her, and at the same moment that her eyes instinctively glanced toward the distant table, Captain Wenworth's pen ceased to move, his head was raised, pausing, listening, and he turned round the next instant to give a look--once quick, conscious look at her.

It was a very proper wedding. The bride was elegantly dressed---the two bridemaids were duly inferior---her father gave her away---her mother stood with salts in her hand expecting to be agitated---her aunt tried to cry--- and the service was impressively read by Dr. Grant.

Expect a most agreeable letter, for not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say), there shall be no check to my genius from beginning to end.

You do not make allowance enough for difference of situation and temper.

it is often nothing but our own vanity that decieves us