Quotes from Jane Austen

And Anne could have said much, and did long to say a little in defence of her friend's not very dissimilar claims to theirs, but her sense of personal respect to her father prevented her. She made no reply. She left it to himself to recollect, that Mrs Smith was not the only widow in Bath between thirty and forty, with little to live on, and no surname of dignity.

She longed to know what at the moment was passing in his mind--in what manner he thought of her, and whether, in defiance of everything, she was still dear to him.

But it is fortunate,'' thought she, ``that I have something to wish for. Were the whole arrangement complete, my disappointment would be certain. But here, by my carrying with me one ceaseless source of regret in my sister's absence, I may reasonably hope to have all my expectations of pleasure realized. A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation.

If someone insists their feet are always firmly on the ground, how else can you discover if their head is sometimes in the clouds?

Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her [Elizabeth].

I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine. Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.

Pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling.

São poucas as pessoas de quem gosto realmente e mais restrito ainda o número daquelas de quem eu faço um bom juízo.

To avoid a comparative poverty, which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors, I have, by raising myself to affluence, lost everything that could make it a blessing.

Las personas que como yo padecen de los nervios no tienen muchas ganas de hablar. ¡Nadie imagina mi sufrimiento! Pero siempre ha sido igual. Si uno no se queja, nadie le compadece.

In that moment, as they stood smiling at one another, Charlotte was conscious of several contradictory sensations, of which the chief were these: annoyance with herself for being incapable of governing her own actions, satisfaction that Sidney had won this very minor victory over her, amusement, embarrassment - an odd something between perturbation and pleasure - and above all else, a flutter of joyful spirits which made her feel she had strayed somehow into a most unfamiliar world.

The pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety. -Sense and Sensibility

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

The indirect boast; for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which, if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

Remember, cried Willoughby, from whom you received the account. Could it be an impartial one? I acknowledge that her situation and character ought to have been respected by me. I do not mean to justify myself, but at the same time cannot leave you to suppose that I have nothing to urge--that because she was injured, she was irreproachable, and because I was a libertine, she must be a saint...

They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life.

By not one of the circle was he listened to with such unbroken, unalloyed enjoyment as by his wife, who was really extremely happy to see him, and whose feelings were so warmed by his sudden arrival as to place her nearer agitation than she had been for the last twenty years. She had been almost fluttered for a few minutes, and still remained so sensibly animated as to put away her work, move Pug from her side, and give all her attention and all the rest of her sofa to her husband.

You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who would make you so.

Alçakgönüllü görünmek kadar aldat?c? hiçbir ÅŸey olamaz. Asl?nda bu ya dikkatsizlik ve umursamazl?kt?r ya da kimi kez gizli övünmedir.

Implacable resentment is a shade in a character. But you have chosen your fault well. I really cannot laugh at it. You are safe from me. There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome. And your defect is to hate everybody. And yours, he replied with a smile, is willfully to misunderstand them.

her eyes devoured the following words

But Elizabeth was not formed for ill-humour; and though every prospect of her own was destroyed for the evening, it could not dwell long on her spirits; and having told all her griefs to Charlotte Lucas, whom she had not seen for a week, she was soon able to make a voluntary transition to the oddities of her cousin, and to point him out to her particular notice. The first two dances, however, brought a return of distress; they were dances of mortification. Mr. Collins, awkward

Mr. Darcy, I could honestly forgive his vanity had he not wounded mine.