Quotes from Jane Austen

To your sister I wish all imaginable happiness; to Willoughby, that he may endeavor to deserve her.

Anne entered it with a sinking heart, anticipating an imprisonment of many months, and anxiously saying to herself, Oh! when shall I leave you again?

Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.

I am come, young ladies, in a very moralizing strain, to observe that our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for, and that we often purchase them at a great disadvantage, giving ready-monied actual happiness for a draft on the future, that may not be honored.

His understanding and opinions all please me; he wants nothing but a little more liveliness, and that, if he marry prudently, his wife may teach him. I thought him very sly;—he hardly ever mentioned your name. But slyness seems the fashion.

His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.

and, my dear aunt, if you do not tell me in an honourable manner, I shall certainly be reduced to tricks and stratagems to find out.

the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone.

Her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy. Jane resolutely kept her place at the table; but Elizabeth, to satisfy her mother, went to the window—she looked,—she saw Mr. Darcy with him, and sat down again by her sister.

Considering how very handsome she is, she appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies another way.

She saw only that he was quiet and unobtrusive, and she liked him for it. He did not disturb the wretchedness of her mind by ill-timed conversation

Exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.

He gave her to understand that he had looked at her with some earnestness. She knew it well; and she remembered another person's look also.

the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle

Many a flower is born to blush unseen,    And waste its fragrance on the desert air.

All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of someone whom they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of someone whom they wished to please.

She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent walker. I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild.

To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.

My being charming, Harriet, is not quite enough to induce me to marry; I must find other people charming—one other person at least.

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more -Mr. Knightely

How many a man has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his life!

São poucas as pessoas de quem eu gosto realmente e mais restrito ainda o número daquelas de quem eu faço um bom juízo. Quanto mais conheço o mundo, maior é o meu descontentamento por ele; e cada dia confirma a minha crença na inconsistência de todos os caracteres humanos e na pouca confiança susceptível de ser depositada na aparência quer do mérito como do bom senso.

It is tenderness of heart which makes my dear father so generally beloved—which gives Isabella all her popularity.—I have it not—but I know how to prize and respect it.—Harriet is my superior in all the charm and all the felicity it gives. Dear Harriet!—I would not change you for the clearest-headed, longest-sighted, best-judging female breathing.

I abhor every common-place phrase by which wit is intended