Jane Austen quotes

Born
16 December 1775 Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, England.

Died
18 July 1817.

Occupation
Author.

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.
– Jane Austen

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

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.
– Jane Austen

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.
– Jane Austen

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.
– Jane Austen

Is not general incivility the very essence of love?
– Jane Austen

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
– Jane Austen

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
– Jane Austen

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

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.
– Jane Austen

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

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

Every savage can dance.
– Jane Austen

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.
– Jane Austen

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
– Jane Austen

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

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

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
– Jane Austen

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.
– Jane Austen

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
– Jane Austen

To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.
– Jane Austen

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.
– Jane Austen

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
– Jane Austen

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

My sore throats are always worse than anyone’s.
– Jane Austen

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

One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s.
– Jane Austen

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

Those who do not complain are never pitied.
– Jane Austen

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

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.
– Jane Austen