Jane Austen’s words have captivated readers for generations, offering sharp wit, insightful observations, and timeless reflections on life, love, and society.
Whether you’re a devoted fan of her novels or simply appreciate elegant storytelling, these Jane Austen quotes will remind you why her legacy endures.
Dive into the world of Austen’s wisdom and let her timeless words inspire you!
89 Jane Austen Quotes
On Love and Relationships (30 Quotes)
- There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart
- You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you
- It is not time or opportunity that determines intimacy; it is disposition alone
- A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony
- If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more
- A person who can write a long letter with ease cannot write ill
- To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love
- We are all fools in love
- A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others
- Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance
- Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously
- Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love
- There is safety in reserve, but no attraction; one cannot love a reserved person
- A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can
- Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds
- There is no enjoyment like reading
- To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment
- An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged
- You pierce my soul; I am half agony, half hope
- The distance is nothing when one has a motive
- There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind
- The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possessor
- There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others
- For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?
- I have not the pleasure of understanding you
- Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like
- The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it
- There is no remedy for love but to love more
- One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other
- To love is to burn, to be on fire
On Life and Society (29 Quotes)
- It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do
- There is a natural aristocracy among men, the grounds of which are virtue and talents
- Nobody minds having what is too good for them
- How quick come the reasons for approving what we like
- There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort
- It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before
- The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid
- A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of
- One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty
- What are men to rocks and mountains?
- There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart
- Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure
- Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable
- A woman is not to be told she is handsome by her own servant
- I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other
- Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked
- The worth of every book is proportioned to what the reader brings to it
- Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation
- Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery
- The enthusiasm of a woman’s love is even beyond the biographer’s
- Every savage can dance
- There is no doing without money
- To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect
- Respect for right conduct is felt by every body
- Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations
- An artist cannot do anything slovenly
- It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife
- General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be
- Let no one presume to give the tone to Jane Austen quotes
On Women and Independence (30 Quotes)
- Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well
- A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can
- Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony
- The sooner every party breaks up, the better
- There is no enjoyment like reading
- What is right to be done cannot be done too soon
- To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment
- A woman is not to be told she is handsome by her own servant
- A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill
- There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time
- It is only a novel… only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed
- Selfishness must always be forgiven
- Women themselves always exaggerate the change in their own character
- Women fancy admiration means more than it does
- A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid
- I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness
- The distance is nothing when one has a motive
- Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day
- For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn
- An engaged woman is always more agreeable
- To love is to burn, to be on fire
- How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue
- My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation
- You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope
- Every moment has its pleasures and its hope
- There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort
- My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people
- How quick come the reasons for approving what we like
- Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance
- Selfishness must always be forgiven