Jane Austen is one of the most beloved authors of all time, and her words are as timeless as her stories. Her novels have inspired countless adaptations, from the 1996 classic film Pride and Prejudice to the recent television hit Bridgerton. Her quotes are just as inspiring, and they still resonate with readers today. Here are some of the most memorable Jane Austen quotes that will inspire us all.
“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
This iconic line from Pride and Prejudice is perhaps Jane Austen’s most famous quote. It’s a powerful statement about the power of money and the importance of finding love.
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!” – Northanger Abbey
This quote is a reminder that books are a never-ending source of joy and knowledge.
“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” – Emma
This quote is a reminder to appreciate the beauty of a simple life and the comforts of home.
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” – Northanger Abbey
This quote shows Jane Austen’s appreciation for literature and her belief that everyone should find joy in reading.
“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.” – Emma
This quote is a reminder to look beyond our own perspectives and appreciate the different experiences of others.
“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” – Mansfield Park
This quote is a reminder to appreciate the privilege of having wealth, and to use it to bring joy to others.
“The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it.” – Persuasion
This quote is an honest reflection of the struggles of life, but it also reminds us to stay hopeful in spite of it all.
“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” – Sense and Sensibility
This quote is a reminder to take action and be the best version of ourselves that we can be.
Jane Austen’s words continue to inspire readers today, and her quotes will remain timeless for years to come. Whether you’re looking for a reminder to appreciate the simple things in life, or an inspiring quote to take with you into the world, Jane Austen’s words are sure to bring insight and joy.
Jane Austen is one of the most influential authors in literature. Her works have inspired countless people throughout the centuries and her words still hold great relevance today. Here are some of her best quotes which demonstrate her wit, wisdom, and insight. Whether you’re looking for a bit of inspiration or just want to appreciate her timeless words, you’ll find something here to savor.
A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
Jane Austen
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
Jane Austen
A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals.
Jane Austen
A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.
Jane Austen
A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.
Jane Austen
A single woman with a very narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid – the proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman of good fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else.
Jane Austen
A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.
Jane Austen
An artist cannot do anything slovenly.
Jane Austen
An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.
Jane Austen
Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does.
Jane Austen
Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.
Jane Austen
Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.
Jane Austen
Every savage can dance.
Jane Austen
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?
Jane Austen
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane Austen
From politics, it was an easy step to silence.
Jane Austen
General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.
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
Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being.
Jane Austen
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.
Jane Austen
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!
Jane Austen
Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.
Jane Austen
Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain.
Jane Austen
I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.
Jane Austen
I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.
Jane Austen
I could not sit down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life.
Jane Austen
I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.
Jane Austen
I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.
Jane Austen
I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly: I do not like to have people throw themselves away; but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.
Jane Austen
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.
Jane Austen
If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.
Jane Austen
In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.
Jane Austen
Is not general incivility the very essence of love?
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
It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.
Jane Austen
It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?
Jane Austen
It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.
Jane Austen
It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.
Jane Austen
It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.
Jane Austen
Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.
Jane Austen
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
Jane Austen
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. I will not allow books to prove anything.
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
My sore throats are always worse than anyone’s.
Jane Austen
Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.
Jane Austen
No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.
Jane Austen
Nobody minds having what is too good for them.
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
Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like.
Jane Austen
Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
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
One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.
Jane Austen
One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.
Jane Austen
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Jane Austen
One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s.
Jane Austen
One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.
Jane Austen
Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.
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
Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
Jane Austen
Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.
Jane Austen
Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.
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
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
Jane Austen
The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.
Jane Austen
There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.
Jane Austen
There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.
Jane Austen
There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
Jane Austen
There is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry.
Jane Austen
There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
Jane Austen
There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.
Jane Austen
There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.
Jane Austen
They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life.
Jane Austen
Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.
Jane Austen
Those who do not complain are never pitied.
Jane Austen
To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.
Jane Austen
To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.
Jane Austen
To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.
Jane Austen
To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
Jane Austen
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.
Jane Austen
Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
Jane Austen
Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people.
Jane Austen
We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.
Jane Austen
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Jane Austen
What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.
Jane Austen
What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!
Jane Austen
Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.
Jane Austen
Where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world.
Jane Austen
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.
Jane Austen
In conclusion, Jane Austen quotes have withstood the test of time and still remain relevant today. Austen’s wit, intelligence and keen observations of life and relationships have made her quotes timeless and truly inspirational. Whether it’s her wise words on the importance of friendship, her humorous remarks on society, or her advice on how to handle difficult situations, Austen’s quotes capture the heart and spirit of every read.