Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jane Austen
Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenJane AustenIfsLoveMansfield ParkPersuasionPrejudiceMayAnne ElliotJanePride And Prejudice PrideThinkingLiteraturePeopleHeartInspiringKnowsWorldFrederick WentworthWells

Famous Jane Austen Quotes

“There are such beings in the world -- perhaps one in a thousand -- as the creature you and I should think perfection; where grace and spirit are united to worth, where the manners are equal to the heart and understanding; but such a person may not come in your way, or, if he does, he may not be the eldest son of a man of fortune, the near relation of your particular friend, and belonging to your own county.”

IfsThinkingMenWorldWayShouldHeartMayPersonsDoeSpiritUnderstandingUnitedGraceParticularHe ManSonThousandCreaturesEqualPerfectionRelationFortuneMannersBelongingCountyEldestEldest Son
Book:Jane Austen's correspondence and letters: The complete and definitive edition
Create image

“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.”

ThinkingMenBookSongWrittenInconstancy
Book:Making Sense of Persuasion! a Students Guide to Austen's (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)
Create image

“If people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWellsLooksLittlesBookHardUsedGirlEducationBoysHistoryFateTroubleVolumeTormentFillingLittle BoysBoy And Girl
Book:Jane Austen: The Works in Eight Volumes
Create image

“To be so bent on Marriage - to pursue a man merely for the sake of situation - is a sort of thing that shocks me; I cannot understand it. 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 a teacher at a school (and I can think of nothing worse) than marry a man I did not like.”

ThinkingMenI CanFeelingsSchoolEvilSituationPovertyTeacherOughtSakePursueShockBent
Book:Sanditon, Lady Susan, & The History of England: The Juvenilia and Shorter Works of Jane Austen
Create image

“Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliott, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.”

ThinkingMenPersonsMadeStillsEndsCharacterUnitedSituationLordFourObjectsYouthFineBlessingConstantAppearanceDevotionVanityFiftyInferiorsHandsomeDelightedValetPersonal Appearance
Author:Jane Austen
Create image

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”

PeopleThinkingWorldHumansWellsLittlesStillsCharacterBeliefPrejudiceAppearanceMeritFewerDependenceJaneDissatisfiedInconsistencyPride And Prejudice Pride
Book:Pride and Prejudice
Create image

“What are you thinking of so earnestly?" said he, as they walked back to the ballroom; "not of your partner, I hope, for, by that shake of the head, your meditations are not satisfactory." Catherine coloured, and said, "I was not thinking of anything." That is artful and deep, to be sure; but I had rather be told at once that you will not tell me." Well then, I will not." Thank you; for now we shall soon be acquainted, as I am authorized to tease you on this subject whenever we meet, and nothing in the world advances intimacy so much.”

ThinkingWorldWellsSaidMeditationSubjectsPartnersIntimacyShakesTeaseBallroom
Book:Jane Austen: The Works in Eight Volumes
Create image

“Dear Diary, Today I tried not to think about Mr. Knightly. I tried not to think about him when I discussed the menu with Cook... I tried not to think about him in the garden where I thrice plucked the petals off a daisy to ascertain his feelings for Harriet. I don't think we should keep daisies in the garden, they really are a drab little flower. And I tried not to think about him when I went to bed, but something had to be done.”

ThinkingShouldLittlesDoneFeelingsTodayFlowerBedGardenDearCooksDiariesPetalsDaisiesEmmaMenusThrice
Author:Jane Austen
Create image

“I am now convinced that I have never been much in love; for had I really experienced that pure and elevating passion, I should at present detest his very name, and wish him all manner of evil. But my feelings are not only cordial towards him; they are even impartial towards her. I cannot find out that I hate her at all, or that I am in the least unwilling to think her a very good sort of girl. There can be no love in all this.”

ThinkingShouldFeelingsHateGirlPassionEvilNamesWishLossPureI HateVery GoodConvincedUnwillingNo LoveDetestElevatingHate HerI Hate Her
Book:The Jane Austen MEGAPACK TM: All Her Classic Works
Create image

“If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.”

IfsThinkingWayMaySometimesSeemsPastMemoriesForgetWonderfulFindingsWeakMiracleInequalityFacultyObedientBewilderedMansfield ParkPast MemoriesBeyond Control
Book:Mansfield Park
Create image

“She tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister. "I do not attempt to deny," said she, "that I think very highly of him--that I greatly esteem, that I like him." Marianne here burst with forth with indignation: "Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor. Oh! worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise. Use those words again, and I will leave the room this moment." Elinor could not help laughing. "Excuse me," said she, "and be assured that I meant no offence to you, by speaking, in so quiet a way, of my own feelings.”

ThinkingWaySaidRealStatesMomentsHelpingUseFeelingsMy OwnRoomsCasesLaughingColdQuietExcuseDenyEsteemAshamedAssuredHeartedIndignationOffenceExcuse MeI Like HimCold Hearted
Book:Sense and Sensibility
Create image

“Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial, but generally speaking it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber; it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of. There is so little real friendship in the world! – and unfortunately' (speaking low and tremulously) 'there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.”

ThinkingWorldHumansMayLittlesRealForgetHuman NatureLateLowsWeaknessSickTrialsGenerositySelfishnessToo LateFortitudeChamberHere And ThereImpatienceReal Friendship
Book:Persuasion In Modern English
Create image

“Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see fault in any body. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life." "I would wish not to be hasty in censuring any one; but I always speak what I think.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldHumansBodyEyeSpeakWishHuman BeingsDealsHeardFaultsIllHasty
Book:The Annotated Pride and Prejudice: A Revised and Expanded Edition
Create image

“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men." "Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.”

IfsThinkingMenHas BeensBookStoriesHandsSongWrittenExampleHigherPleaseProveDegreesAdvantageInequalityPensStereotypeNormInconstancy
Author:Jane Austen
Create image

“You think me foolish to call instruction a torment, but if you had been as much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters and then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that to torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous words.”

IfsThinkingFirstsChildrenLittlesEndsSometimesWholeHomeMightTogetherUsedMotherPoorMorningSeeingStupidHabitLettersTiredFoolishSpellsInstructionTorment
Book:Northanger Abbey (illustrated)
Create image

“Pride... is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or the other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

ThinkingBelieveHumansMayPersonsDifferentRealSelfFeelingsUsedI BelieveCommonQualityOpinionFailingHuman NaturePrideProudConvincedVanityRelateVainScoreDifferent ThingsCherishImaginaryBe ProudComplacencyVanity And Pride
Author:Jane Austen
Create image

“I read it [history] a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all — it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.”

ThinkingMenShouldLittlesDoeWarDealsDutyKingsPagesInventionOddDullWearyPopeQuarrelsTiresomePestilenceVex
Book:Northanger abbey [followed by] Persuasion
Create image

“The evergreen! How beautiful, how welcome, how wonderful the evergreen! When one thinks of it, how astonishing a variety of nature! In some countries we know that the tree that sheds its leaf is the variety, but that does not make it less amazing, that the same soil and the same sun should nurture plants differing in the first rule and law of their existence.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldFirstsDoeCountryBeautifulLawExistenceSunWonderfulTreePlantWelcomeVarietySoilShedNurtureLeafsAstonishingMansfield ParkEvergreens
Book:Mansfield Park: With an Introduction, Contemporary Opinions, and Contemporary Criticism
Create image