Jane Austen is one of the most well-known and respected authors of all time. Her work has inspired writers, artists, and romantics around the world. She boldly critiqued 18th-century society while reminding readers of the importance of love. Jane Austen quotes, much like her books, continue to inspire us today!
From Sense and Sensibility to Persuasion and everything in between, here are more than 55 of our favorite Jane Austen quotes.
55+ Jane Austen Quotes From Literature
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Pride and Prejudice
Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
Mansfield Park
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.
Pride and Prejudice
There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.
Northanger Abbey
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.
Sense and Sensibility
When pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.
Persuasion
If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.
Sense and Sensibility
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.
Persuasion
There certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.
Mansfield Park
Those who do not complain are never pitied.
Pride and Prejudice
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Mansfield Park
“I could easily forgive his pride if he had not mortified mine.” — Pride and Prejudice
I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.
Letter to her sister, Cassandra
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid.
Northanger Abbey
There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison.
Persuasion
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.
Pride and Prejudice
Why not seize pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!
Emma
I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.
Pride and Prejudice
None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
Persuasion
Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.
Pride and Prejudice
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.
Emma
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Pride and Prejudice
If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.
Northanger Abbey
There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
Emma
It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.
Sense and Sensibility
“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” — Sense and Sensibility
I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.
Persuasion
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Emma
It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.
Pride and Prejudice
One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.
Persuasion
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
Mansfield Park
It is only a novel … or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.
Northanger Abbey
How wonderful, how very wonderful the operations of time, and the changes of the human mind!
Mansfield Park
Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
Emma
Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
Pride and Prejudice
Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.
Emma
Good opinion once lost, is lost forever.
Pride and Prejudice
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.
Emma
“Time will explain.” — Persuasion
The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!
Sense and Sensibility
Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.
Emma
A woman, especially if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.
Northanger Abbey
It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.
Emma
I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.
Sense and Sensibility
Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like.
Mansfield Park
There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
Emma
Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.
Northanger Abbey
I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures.
Persuasion
My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
Pride and Prejudice
Know your own happiness. Want for nothing but patience. Or give it a more fascinating name. Call it hope.
Sense and Sensibility
“Nobody minds having what is too good for them.” — Mansfield Park
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Pride and Prejudice
There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.
Emma
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.
Pride and Prejudice
No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.
Letter to Mr. Clarke
A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
Pride and Prejudice
I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.
Emma
Angry people are not always wise.
Pride and Prejudice
What Are Your Favorite Jane Austen Quotes?
Do you have a favorite Jane Austen quote? Is there one we missed on this list? Leave a comment and let us know!
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