1,664 Quotes by Jane Austen

She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature

my good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasion for teasing and quarreling with you as often as may be...

...for to be sunk, though but for an hour in your esteem is a humiliation to which I know not how to submit. -Susan

But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.

It is a most repulsive quality, indeed,’ said he. ‘Oftentimes very convenient, no doubt, but never pleasing. There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.’‘Not till the reserve ceases towards oneself; and then the attraction may be the greater.

They all went indoors with their new friends, and found rooms so small as none but those who invite from the heart could think capable of accommodating so many.

but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.

We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.