469 Inspiring Quotes by Jane Austen

I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defense of some little peculiar vexation.

My heart is, and always will be, yours.

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

I have observed...in the course of my life, that if things are going outwardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing after all.

I walk: I prefer walking.

Where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.

It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

My good opinion once lost is lost forever.

Mr. Knightley, if I have not spoken, it is because I am afraid I will awaken myself from this dream.

But a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. it soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.

Friendship is really the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

What are men to rocks and mountains?

I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!

She loved Anne better than she loved her own abilities.

I will only add, God bless you.

The past, present, and future, were all equally in gloom.

She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.

Where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.

I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

You want nothing, but patience or give it a more fascinating name. Call it hope.

Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me. I should infinitely prefer a book.

Oh! write, write. Finish it at once. Let there be an end of this suspense. Fix, commit, condemn yourself.

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.

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.

But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea.

She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging Young Woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her -- she was only an Object of Contempt.

What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?

Everybody likes to go their own way -- to choose their own time and manner of devotion.

There was a kind of cold-hearted selfishness on both sides, which mutually attracted them; and they sympathized with each other in an insipid propriety of demeanor, and a general want of understanding.

She was feeling, thinking, trembling about everything; agitated, happy, miserable, infinitely obliged, absolutely angry.

We have in fact all the comfort of an excellent kitchen garden, without the constant eyesore of it's formalities, or the yearly nuisance of it's decaying vegetation. Who can endure a cabbage bed in October!

As a daughter she hoped she was not without heart.

An agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones.

Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint.

We do not look in our great cities for our best moralit.

That would be the greatest misfortune of all! -- To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! -- Do not wish me such an evil.

Sitting with her on Sunday evening -- a wet Sunday evening -- the very time of all others when if a friend is at hand the heart must be opened, and every thing told.

It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.

With such a worshipping wife, it was hardly possible that any natural defects in it should not be increased. The extreme sweetness of her temper must hurt his.

It does not come to me in quite so direct a line as that; it takes a bend or two, but nothing of consequence. The stream is as good as at first; the little rubbish it collects in the turnings is easily moved away.

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others.

There is no disputing about taste.

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.

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.

Oh hang kitty; what has she to do with it? Come, be quick. Be quick. Where is your sash?

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

I am not one of those who neglect the reigning to bow to the rising sun.

We met Dr. Hall in such deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

The most incomprehensible thing in the world to a man, is a woman who rejects his offer of marriage!

She was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation.

All the privilege I claim for my own sex, is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.

Every body has their taste in noises as well as other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Give me but a little cheerful company, let me only have the company of the people I love, let me only be where I like and with whom I like, and the devil may take the rest, say I.

The bride and her mother could neither of them talk fast enough;.

In a letter from Bath to her sister, Cassandra, one senses her frustration at her sheltered existence, Tuesday, 12 May 1801. Another stupid party ... with six people to look on, and talk nonsense to each other.

Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.

How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.

Exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.

Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.

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

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not. It was necessary to laugh, when she would rather have cried.

Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

The worst crimes; are the crimes of the heart.

We do not look in great cities for our best morality.

Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.

Mr. Collins is a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man; you know he is, as well as I do; and you must feel, as well as I do, that the woman who married him cannot have a proper way of thinking.

Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now. But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable.

You have delighted us long enough.

It is a shocking trick for a young person to be always lolling upon a sofa.

Donvel je bio poznat po jagodama, koje su bile izgovor za poziv; ali nikakav izgovor nije bio potreban; ovu damu bi i kupus namamio jer je samo želela da nekuda ide.

The pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.

Had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

You shall not, for the sake
of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity.

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

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

Real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.... The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.

Where the wound has been given, there must the cure be found, if anywhere.

Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people.

The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it.

Catherine had never wanted comfort more, and Henry looked as if he was aware of it.

You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity.

I do not know where the error lies. I do not pretend to set people right, but I do see they are often wrong.

It is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.

Family squabbling is the greatest evil of all.

Trusting that you will some time or other do me greater justice than you can do now.

There is not one in a hundred of either sex, who is not taken in when they marry. ... it is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.

I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.

She denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private.

Goldsmith tells us, that when lovely woman stoops to folly, she has nothing to do but to die; and when she stoops to be disagreeable, it is equally to be recommended as a clearer of ill-fame.

Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!

There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.

She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous.

In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.

There was no being displeased with such an encourager, for his admiration made him discern a likeness before it was possible.

One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.

Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being.

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

It's a truth universally acknowledged.

One part of the world does not understand the pleasures of the other.

Fine dancing, I believe like virtue, must be its own reward. Those who are standing by are usually thinking of something very different.

They parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.

At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear any thing to change them.

Men of sense do not want silly wives.

Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female.

It is such a happiness when good people get together -- and they always do.

What strange creatures brothers are!

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

One cannot have too large a party. A large party secures its own amusement.

I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends.

A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago.

Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.

Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.

To hope was to expect.

The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.

Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

Pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling.

To love is to burn, to be on fire.

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me that trouble of liking them.

Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.

I am all astonishment.

I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any.

Poor woman! She probably thought change of air might agree with many of her children.

If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.

I frequently observe that one pretty face would be followed by five and thirty frights.

You must try not to mind growing up into a pretty woman.

Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.

Where people are really attached, poverty itself is wealth.

He could find no better relief to his feelings than by giving his housekeeper directions that every possible attention might be paid to the sick lady and her sister.

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

A very short trial convinced her that a curricle was the prettiest equipage in the world.

I trust that absolutes have gradations.

Of this she was perfectly unaware; to her he was only the man who had made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.

Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly anybody to love.

La clase de aprobación que, según Elinor, despertaban en él los dibujos de otras personas estaba muy lejos del extasiado deleite que, en su opinión, era exclusivo merecedor de ser llamado gusto.

You may only call me "Mrs. Darcy"... when you are completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy.

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?"
"For the liveliness of your mind, I did.

Gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough, to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.

Her sentiments towards him were compounded of all that was respectful, grateful, confiding, and tender.

Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health.

No: the years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages. She had seen the same Frederick Wentworth.

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.

I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.

Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?

You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.

Yes, I found myself, by insensible degrees, sincerely fond of her; and the happiest hours of my life were what I spent with her.

It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.

But her mind had never been in such perturbation; and it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet reflection.

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

My playing is no more like her's, than a lamp is like sunshine.

I go too long without picking up a good book, I feel like I've done nothing useful with my life.

You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.

It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire.

To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them──by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents.

Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?

Upon my word, you five your opinion very decidedly for so young a person.

She mediated, by turns, on broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings, Tilneys and trap-doors.

Without music, life would be a blank to me.

I think him every thing that is worthy and amiable.

To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.

Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain.

I dearly love a laugh.

Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air.

An annuity is a very serious business.

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.

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.

But angry people are not always wise.

And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in.

There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.

By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many douceurs in being a sort of chaperon , for I am put on the sofa near the fire and can drink as much wine as I like.

My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.

There are few people whom I really love and still fewer of whom I think well.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.

A very little quiet reflection was enough to satisfy Emma.

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

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.

I have always maintained the importance of Aunts.

Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

I should wish to see them very good friends, and would, on no account, authorize in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relations; but still they cannot be equals." (10).

Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

Provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all.

Without scheming to do wrong, or to make others unhappy, there may be error and there may be misery. Thoughtlessness, want of attention to other people's feelings, and want of resolution, will do the business.

To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.

You may well warn me against such an evil. Human nature is so prone to fall into it!

A fondness for reading, properly directed, must be an education in itself.

My sore throats are always worse than anyone's.

It sometimes is a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection from the object of it, she may loose the opportunity of fixing him.

Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.

I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

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.

What harm could there be in returning smile for smile and in allowing the most charming man she had ever met to conquer the few remaining corners of her heart where common sense retained a last fleeting hold?

I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him.

I am determined that nothing but the deepest love could ever induce me into matrimony. Elizabeth.

That is a compliment which gives me no pleasure.

Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manner were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.

Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country.

To her own heart it was a delightful affair, to her imagination it was even a ridiculous one, but to her reason, her judgment, it was completely a puzzle.

It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does. And men take care that they should.

With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

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

Vanity, not love, has been my folly.

From politics it was an easy step to silence.

Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly any body to love." (of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, Persuasion).

How earnestly did she then wish that her former opinions had been more reasonable, more moderate!

In spite of all her faults she knew she was dear to him; might she not say, very dear?

Each found her greatest safety in silence.

I have changed my mind, and changed the trimmings of my cap this morning; they are now such as you suggested.

There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.

Whatever bears affinity to cunning is despicable.

We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.

As for admiration, it was always very welcome when it came, but she did not depend on it.

I assure you. I have no notion of treating men with such respect. That is the way to spoil them.

She was stronger alone.

They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects.

Mrs. Hall of Sherbourn was brought to bed yesterday of a dead child, some weeks before she expected, oweing to a fright.--I suppose she happened unawares to look at her husband.

I am worn out with civility.

The house seemed to have all the comforts of little Children, dirt and litter.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.

I want nothing but death.

A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation.

How little the general report of any one ought to be credited, since no character, however upright, can escape the malevolence of slander.

When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable If I have not an excellent library.

If there is any thing disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it.

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.

I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.

Time will explain.

Miss Bingley's congratulations to her brother, on his approaching marriage, were all that was affectionate and insincere.

I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.

Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?" "For the liveliness of your mind, I did.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading.

But she sat down, resolving within herself to draw no limits in future to the impudence of an impudent man.

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. -Mr. Darcy.

Portable property is happiness in a pocketbook.

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.

To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.

It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

Almost anything is possible with time.

We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb.

The bells rang, and everybody smiled.

None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.

A woman never looks better than on horseback.

Every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.

To yield readily -- easily -- to the persuasion of a friend is no merit.... To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either.

Yes," replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer, "but that was when I first knew her; for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.

Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply.

As manias de um homem podem ser tão boas quanto as de qualquer outro, mas sempre gostamos mais das nossas.

A single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.

How wonderful, how very wonderful the operations of time, and the changes of the human mind!

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!

I have not the pleasure of understanding you.

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

The distance is nothing, when one has a motive.

Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.

A fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself.

I was quiet, but I was not blind.

Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.

It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering.

There was a great deal of good sense in all this; but there are some situations of the human mind in which good sense has very little power.

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.

Children of the same family; the same blood; with the same first associations and habits; have some means of enjoyment in their power; which no subsequent connections can supply.

One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.

His departure gave Catherine the first experimental conviction that a loss may be sometimes a gain.

It taught me to hope, as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before.

She began to curl her hair and long for balls.

There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.

But, my dear sir," cried Mr. Weston, "if Emma comes away early it will be breaking up the party."
"And no great harm if it does," said Mr. Woodhouse. "The sooner every party breaks up the better.

Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.

I cannot make speeches, Emma:' he soon resumed, and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. 'If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

But your mind is warped by an innate principle of general integrity, and, therefore, not accessible to the cool reasonings of family partiality, or a desire of revenge.

That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough. Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.

Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without.

He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal.

A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

If I could not be persuaded into doing what I thought wrong, I will never be tricked into it.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends -- whether he may be equally capable of retaining them is less certain.

Undoubtedly ... there is a meanness in all the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation. What bears affinity to cunning is despicable.

A man does not recover from such devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.

Lady Middleton resigned herself... Contenting herself with merely giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject, five or six times every day.

I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine.

Why not seize the pleasure at once? -- How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart.

My idea of good company, Mr. Eliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.

It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.

Mrs. Jennings was a widow, with an ample jointure. She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world.

She hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man.

Every thing he did was right. Every thing he said was clever. If their evenings at the park included cards, he cheated himself and all the rest of the party to get her a good hand.

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.

Every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical moment, for every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation.

The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone."

I will not say that your mulberry trees are dead; but I am afraid they're not alive.

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.

The post office has a great charm at one point of our lives. When you have lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going through the rain for.

A sick child is always the mother's property; her own feelings generally make it so.

If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.

For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him. Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get the better of himself.

He then departed, to make himself still more interesting, in the midst of a heavy rain.

I am happier than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world, that he can spare from me.

When I fall in love, it will be forever.

It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

Mama, the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.

Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?

It is a lovely night, and they are much to be pitied who have not been taught to feel in some degree as you do-who have not at least been given a taste for nature in early life. They lose a great deal.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.

On every formal visit a child ought to be of the party, by way of provisions for discourse.

Now I must give one smirk and then we may be rational again.

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.

I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful.

And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner.

She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.

One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.

But to appear happy when I am so miserable -- Oh! who can require it?

I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be...yours.

A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.

It is very well worthwhile to be tormented for two or three years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it.

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;--it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.

A novel must show how the world truly is. Somehow, reveals the true source of our actions.

There had been moments when she felt he had almost forgiven her. She would always remember those moments.

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

I admire all my three sons-in-law highly," said he. "Wickham, perhaps, is my favourite; but I think I shall like your husband quite as well as Jane's.

And this," cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room, "is your opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me! I thank you for explaining it so fully.

She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.

The more I see of the world, the more am i dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human.

What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?

You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.

I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but like everybody else, it must be in my own way.

Books -- oh! no. I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings." "I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at least be no want of subject. We may compare our different opinions.

Every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason.

One man's style must not be the rule of another's.

Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.

Emma had no opportunity of speaking to Mr. Knightley till after supper; but, when they were all in the ballroom again, her eyes invited him irresistibly to come to her and be thanked.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading. How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book.

Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.

I cannot, I cannot,' cried Marianne; 'leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! But do not torture me so. Oh! how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of extertion!

Mr. Bennet's expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment.

As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people's happiness were in his guardianship! -- How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! -- How much of good or evil must be done by him!

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

I do not like to have people throw themselves away; but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.

You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.

I mean to be too rich to lament or to feel anything of the sort. A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.

She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation.

She had nothing to wish otherwise, but that the days did not pass so swiftly. It was a delightful visit;--perfect, in being much too short.

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable.

Every thing was to take its natural course, however, neither impelled nor assisted.

Till this moment I never knew myself.

Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.

Where shall we see a better daughter, or a kinder sister, or a truer friend?

I should indefinitely prefer a book.

I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.

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.

To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind.

Marianne was silent; it was impossible for her to say what she did not feel, however trivial the occasion.

You are too sensible a girl to fall in love merely because you are warned against it.

I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.

She had spoken it; but she trembled when it was done, conscious that her words were listened to, and daring not even to try to observe their effect.

To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last.

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.

She knew that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they believed the next: that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

Man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new gown.

No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.

I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

Those who tell their own story you know must be listened to with caution.

It is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct.

There is a monsterous deal of stupid quizzing, and common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit.

I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.

A few months more, and he, perhaps, may be walking here.

Where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world.

The stream is as good as at first; the little rubbish it collects in the turnings is easily moved away.

That is what I like; that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue.

Every body at all addicted to letter writing, without having much to say, which will include a large proportion of the female world at least.

I am rather impatient to know the fate of my best gown.

Where the wound had been given, there must the cure be found, if any where.

Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.

If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite as leisure.

What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.

No, I did not promise. I only smirked and bowed, and said the word "happy." There was no promise.

She is loveliness itself.

You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer.

Ah! what could we do but what we did! We sighed and fainted on the Sofa.

That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

Elinor could sit still no longer. She almost ran out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed, burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease.

Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

I am worn out with civility. I have been talking incessantly all night, and with nothing to say. But with you there may be peace. You will not want to be talked to. Let us have the luxury of silence.

If a book is well written, I always find it too short.

Fanny! You are killing me!" "No man dies of love but on the stage, Mr. Crawford.

If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.

Marry me. Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend.

I am no indiscriminate novel reader. The mere trash of the common circulating library I hold in the highest contempt.

Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from... Every moment rather brought fresh agitation. It was an overpowering happiness.

From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

May we take my uncle's letter to read to her? Take whatever you like, and get away.

And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did. But I have an aunt too, who must not be longer neglected.

A vaidade trabalhando em uma mente fraca produz muitos tipos de danos.

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.

I wish nature had made such hearts as yours more common.