Quotes from Jane Austen

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

I certainly have not the talent which some people possess, said Darcy, of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.

Which of all my important nothings shall I tell you first?

It is not everyone,' said Elinor, 'who has your passion for dead leaves.

when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.

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.

You must be the best judge of your own happiness.

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

Without music, life would be a blank to me.

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

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.

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... 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.

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

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

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

But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.

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

I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.

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

Time will explain.

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

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 cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.