52 Famous Quotes by Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist who is known for her works of romantic fiction, including "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility." Her writing is marked by a keen understanding of human nature and a sharp wit, and her works have had a significant impact on the development of the English novel. Austen's legacy as a writer and observer of human behavior continues to inspire readers and writers around the world. (Jane Austen Biography).

Jane Austen Famous Quotes

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1. "There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart."

2. "Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

3. "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."

4. "Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love."

5. "Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief."

6. "Those who do not complain are never pitied."

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

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

9. "Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings."

10. "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."

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

12. "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

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

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

15. "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."

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

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

18. "A single woman with a very narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid - the proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman of good fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else."

19. "Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us."

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

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

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

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

24. "An artist cannot do anything slovenly."

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

26. "Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter."

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

28. "Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony."

29. "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."

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

31. "Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies."

32. "From politics, it was an easy step to silence."

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

34. "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."

35. "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?"

36. "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."

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

38. "Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like."

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

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

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

42. "Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."

43. "Respect for right conduct is felt by every body."

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

45. "A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer."

46. "Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim."

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

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

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

50. "General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be."

51. "They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life."

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

― Jane Austen Quotes

* Want to explore more inspiring quotes and their meanings? Head over to this quotes page, where I share doses of inspiration through powerful sayings and quotes.

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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.

 
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