1,664 Quotes by Jane Austen

There is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernment of character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal...

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

And we mean to treat you all,' added Lydia, 'but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.

I have not wanted syllables where actions have spoken so plainly.

The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.

I have no more to say. If this be the case, he deserves you. I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to any one less worthy.

A person who is knowingly bent on bad behavior, gets upset when better behavior is expected of them.

His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything.

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.