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Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes

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Famous Jane Austen Quotes

“I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I protest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one myself, within a short distance of London, where I might drive myself down at any time, and collect a few friends about me and be happy. I advise everybody who is going to build, to build a cottage.”

IfsShouldLittlesMightLandComfortDistanceLondonProtestSparesEleganceAdviseCottagesFew Friends
Book:Jane Austen Complete Collection Deluxe Unabridged (annotated): [All 18 Works - Novels -Short Stories–Letters –Unfinished Works - Scraps]]
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“Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference ... It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm.”

IfsMindMayEnoughCharacterWould BeEvilInfluenceWorstCircumstancesConsequenceImpressionFirmOver ItResolutionIdleWoeFortitudeInterferenceStrength Of MindIndecisiveHim And Her
Author:Jane Austen
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“If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost any attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin ‘freely’- as light preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have a heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.”

IfsWorldBelieveHeartMayEnoughLightOpportunityLosesNaturalDarkPoorObjectsGratitudeSkillsSafeEncouragementAffectionVanityAttachmentPreferenceConsolationFixing
Author:Jane Austen
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“If gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection, Elizabeth's change of sentiment will be neither improbable nor faulty. But if otherwise--if regard springing from such sources is unreasonable or unnatural, in comparison of what is so often described as arising on a first interview with its object, and even before two words have been exchanged, nothing can be said in her defence, except that she had given somewhat of a trial to the latter method in her partiality for Wickham, and that its ill success might, perhaps, authorise her to seek the other less interesting mode of attachment.”

IfsFirstsHas BeensSaidTwoMightGivenInterestingObjectsSourceGratitudeRegardMethodFoundationIllAffectionTrialsEsteemInterviewsLatterComparisonAttachmentSentimentsDefenceUnnaturalUnreasonableImprobablePartiality
Book:Pride and Prejudice
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“When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.”

PeopleIfsWorldFeelsLooksWould BeNightSorrowSceneContemplationContemplatingWickednessMansfield ParkSublimity
Book:Illustrated Jane Austen - 8 Books in 1. Illustrated by Hugh Thomson. Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, P
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“Nobody could catch cold by the sea; nobody wanted appetite by the sea; nobody wanted spirits; nobody wanted strength. Sea air was healing, softening, relaxing - fortifying and bracing - seemingly just as was wanted - sometimes one, sometimes the other. If the sea breeze failed, the seabath was the certain corrective; and where bathing disagreed, the sea air alone was evidently designed by nature for the cure.”

IfsSometimesWantedSpiritCertainHealingAirSeaColdCuresAppetiteBreezeBathingSea BreezeSea Air
Book:Sanditon
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“I believe you [men] capable of everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as - if I may be allowed the expression, so long as you have an object. I mean, while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”

IfsMenNeedsBelieveMayMeanLongImportantI BelieveSexMy OwnExistenceGoneObjectsExpressionEqualMarriedCapableClaimsPrivilegeLove LifeMarried LifeExertionForbearanceAnne Elliot
Author:Jane Austen
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“I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which they are themselves adding?joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who, if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid leaves with disgust.”

IfsTurnsCommonNumbersEnemyNovelPerformancesOver ItCustomsDisgustingJoiningHeroinesDegradingCensureInsipidContemptuousEpithet
Book:The Complete Novels of Jane Austen
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“You, of all people, deserve a happy ending Despite everything that happened to you, you aren't bitter You aren't cold You've just retreated a little and been shy, and that's okay If I were a fairy godmother, I would give you your heart's desire in an instant And I would wipe away your tears and tell you not to cry "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of"”

PeopleIfsGivingHeartLittlesHappinessDesireHappenedHeardCryTearsColdDeserveOkayIncomeDespiteBitterInstantFairyShyRecipesWipeHappy EndingsGodmotherFairy Godmother
Author:Jane Austen
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