1,664 Quotes by Jane Austen

I can safely say, that the happiest part of my life has been spent on board a ship.

I was quiet but I was not blind.

Where a man does his best with only moderate powers, he will have the advantage over negligent superiority.

Let us have no ranting tragedies. Too many charactersNot a tolerable woman's part in the play.

Not very good, I am afraid. But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?" "The nicest—by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.

I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes... in a total misapprehension of character at some point or other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why, or in what the deception originated. Sometimes one is guided by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge.

A persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

For what do we live, but to make sport by subjecting our neighbors to endless discretionary review for minor additions?

I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on till I am.