Quotes from Jane Austen

ma Anne, con la sua raffinata intelligenza e la sua dolcezza, virtù che avrebbero dovuto collocarla molto in alto nella stima di chiunque fosse dotato di giudizio, non era nessuno né per il padre né per la sorella. La sua parola non aveva alcun valore, le sue esigenze erano sempre considerate poco importanti; era soltanto Anne

there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.

Jane had written the direction remarkably ill.

Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. 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.

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

Lucy does not want sense, and that is the foundation on which every thing good may be built.

She longed to know what at the moment was passing in his mind—in what manner he thought of her, and whether, in defiance of everything, she was still dear to him. Perhaps he had been civil only because he felt himself at ease; yet there had been that in his voice which was not like ease. Whether he had felt more of pain or of pleasure in seeing her she could not tell, but he certainly had not seen her with composure.

Now they were as strangers; nay worse than strangers, for they could never become aquatinted. It was perpetual estrangement.

Ich bin nur entschlossen, im Interesse meines Glückes zu handeln, ohne Rücksicht auf Sie oder irgendjemanden, der ebenso wenig mit mir zu tun hat.

No sé, todavía qué es lo que separa el aprecio del amor.

As far as I have had opportunity of judging, it appears to me that the usual style of letter-writing among women is faultless, except in three particulars. And what are they? A general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to stops, and a very frequent ignorance of grammar.

I know he will make you happy, but you will make him everything.

she was now in great danger of suffering from intellectual solitude.

Accade talvolta che una donna sia più bella a ventinove anni di quanto non sia stata dieci anni prima.

No podría ser feliz con un hombre cuyo gusto no coincidiera en todo momento con el mío. Tendría que participar en todos mis sentimientos. Los mismos libros, la misma música habría de hechizarnos a los dos.

To be sure—our discordancies must always arise from my being in the wrong.

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. If she can hesitate as to 'Yes,' she ought to say 'No' directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.

But vanity, not love, has been my folly.

absurdity—Actually snowing at this moment!— The folly of not allowing people to be comfortable at home—and the folly of people's not staying comfortably at home when they can!

Perfection should not have come quite so soon.

What can be the meaning of that emphatic exclamation? cried he. Do you consider the forms of introduction, and the stress that is laid on them, as nonsense? I cannot quite agree with you there. What say you, Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts.

Perhaps, he would now agree that you should sometimes let people persude you not to do things.

Marianne could never love by halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband as it had once been to Willoughby.

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.