1,664 Quotes by Jane Austen

General benevolence, but not general friendship, make a man what he ought to be.

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness. [...] Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness."-Edward Ferrars

Ever since her being turned into a Churchill, she has out-Churchill'd them all in high and mighty claims.

Her mind was quite determined and varied not.

A woman of seven and twenty, said Marianne, after pausing a moment, can never hope to feel or inspire affection again.

But I must object to your dooming Colonel Brandon and his wife to the constant confinement of a sick chamber, merely because he chanced to complain yesterday (a very cold damp day) of a slight rheumatic feel in one of his shoulders." "But he talked of flannel waistcoats," said Marianne; "and with me a flannel waistcoat is invariably connected with the aches, cramps, rheumatisms, and every species of ailment that can afflict the old and the feeble.

It would not be fair to inquire into a young lady's exact estimate of her own perfections.

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.