Jane Austen Quotes - Page 2

He may have as strong a sense of what would be right, as you can have, without being so equal under particular circumstances to act up to it.""Then, it would not be so strong a sense. If it failed to produce equal exertion, it could not be an equal conviction.

You will find her manners beyond anything I can describe; and your wit and vivacity, I think, must be acceptable to her, especially when tempered with the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite.

This was a lucky recollection -- it saved her from something like regret.

A distinction to which they had been born gave no pride.

On every formal visit a child ought to be of the party, by way of provision for discourse. In the present case it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father or mother, and in what particular he resembled either, for of course every body differed, and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others.

Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did; nor could the valet of any new-made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.

After having so nobly disentangled themselves from the shackles of Parental Authority, by a Clandestine Marriage, they were determined never to forfeit the good opinion they had gained in the World, in so doing, by accepting any proposals of reconciliation that might be offered them by their Fathers – to their farther trial of their noble independence however they never were exposed.

Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing after all.

There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley

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.

And pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.

Whenever you are transplanted, like me, you will understand how very delightful it is to meet with anything at all like what one has left behind.

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.

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

If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.

I am not only not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of ever marrying at all.

I have not known him long indeed, but I am much better acquainted with him than I am with any other creature in the world.

It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.

I am fond of history and am very well contented to take the false with the true. In the principal facts they have sources of intelligence in former histories and records, which may be as much depended on, I conclude, as anything that does not actually pass under ones own observation; and as for the little embellishments you speak of, they are embellishments, and I like them as such.

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

She was stronger alone…

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

Oh!" cried Anne eagerly, "I hope I do justice to all that is felt by you,and by those who resemble you. God forbid that I should undervaluethe warm and faithful feelings of any of my fellow-creatures! I should deserve utter contempt if I dared to suppose that true attachmentand constancy were known only by woman. No, I believe you capableof everything great and good in your married lives. I believe you equalto every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance,so long as--if I may be allowed the expression--so long as you havean object. I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one;you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existenceor when hope is gone.

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

She will never submit to any thing requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.

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

Time will generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily circle.

…for what after all is Youth and Beauty?

Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint