Quotes from Jane Austen

It raises my spleen more than any thing, to have the pretence of being asked, of being given a choice, and at the same time addressed in such a way as to oblige one to do the very thing - whatever it be!

How I hate the sight of an umbrella!

More than seven years were gone since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close; and time had softened down much, perhaps nearly all of peculiar attachment to him — but she had been too dependant on time alone.

and the more I saw, the more I found to admire.

If a book is well written i always find it too short

Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's. She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent. The resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great.

But, said I, to be quite honest, I do not think I can live without something of a musical society. I condition for nothing else, but without music, life would be a blank to me.

I am not one of those who neglect the reigning to bow to the rising sun.

to say that he is unlike Fanny is enough. It implies everything amiable. I love him already.

There is hardly any personal defect which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to.

That will just do for me, you know. I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, shan't I?

Wherever you are you should always be contented, but especially at home, because there you must spend the most of your time.

When one is in great pain, you know one cannot feel any blessing quite as it may deserve.

It is only by seeing women in their own homes, among their own set, just as they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of that, it is all guess and luck—and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his life!

May we take my uncle's letter to read to her? Take whatever you like, and get away.

You have everybody dearest to you always at hand; I, probably, never shall again; and therefore, till I have outlived all my affections, a post office, I think, must always have power to draw me out in worse weather than today.

A weak spirit which is always open to persuasion, first one way and then the other, can never be relied upon.

Fine dancing, I believe, like virtue, must be its own reward.

I should have thought, said Fanny, after a pause of recollection and exertion, that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man's not being approved, not being loved by some one of her sex at least, let him be ever so generally agreeable. Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself.

Do you compare your conduct with his? No. I compare it with what it ought to have been; I compare it with yours.

Meditaba sobre el inmenso placer que pueden producir dos ojos bonitos en el rostro de una mujer bonita

I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love.

Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank Heaven! I am going tommorow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.

He feared that principle, active principle, had been wanting; that they had never been properly taught to govern their inclinations and tempers by that sense of duty which can alone suffice. They had been instructed theoretically in their religion, but never required to bring it into daily practice.