110+ Jane Austen Quotes On Death, Friendship And Marriage

Jane Austen was an English novelist, best known for her six major novels which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Her use of irony, along with her realism and social commentary, have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature. Austen's novels remain popular and are still widely read today. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Jane Austen on love, death, life.

Top 10 Jane Austen Quotes

1. My heart is, and always will be, yours.
2. It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.
3. 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.
4. The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
5. The younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder.
6. There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
7. 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.
8. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
9. 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.
10. A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.

Jane Austen Image Quotes

None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives. — Jane Austen

Now I must give one smirk and then we may be rational again — Jane Austen

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief. — Jane Austen

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. — Jane Austen

Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Short Quotes

• Now I must give one smirk and then we may be rational again
• Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
• Self-knowledge is the first step to maturity.
• It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.
• A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.
• What are men to rocks and mountains?
• To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
• Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.
• Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
• If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.

Jane Austen Quotes About Love

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. — Jane Austen

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. -Mr. Darcy — Jane Austen

Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another. — Jane Austen

In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels. — Jane Austen

To love is to burn, to be on fire. — Jane Austen

There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time. — Jane Austen

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person. — Jane Austen

Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love? — Jane Austen

The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's. — Jane Austen

I have been used to consider poetry as "the food of love" said Darcy. "Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Death

Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. — Jane Austen

I want nothing but death. — Jane Austen

Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death. — Jane Austen

Goldsmith tells us, that when lovely woman stoops to folly, she has nothing to do but to die; and when she stoops to be disagreeable, it is equally to be recommended as a clearer of ill-fame. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Life

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings. — Jane Austen

I go too long without picking up a good book, I feel like I've done nothing useful with my life. — Jane Austen

They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life. — Jane Austen

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. — Jane Austen

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. — Jane Austen

Without music, life would be a blank to me. — 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

What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering? — Jane Austen

it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life. — Jane Austen

At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Friendship

Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex. — Jane Austen

But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by everybody at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience; or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope. — Jane Austen

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. — Jane Austen

General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be. — Jane Austen

Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well. — Jane Austen

Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does. — Jane Austen

The longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard, and sometimes for a few painful minutes she believed it to be no more than friendship — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Marriage

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. — Jane Austen

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. — 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

I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person. — Jane Austen

Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. — Jane Austen

The most incomprehensible thing in the world to a man, is a woman who rejects his offer of marriage! — Jane Austen

I consider a country-dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principle duties of both; and those men who do not choose to dance or to marry them selves, have no business with the partners or wives of the neighbors. — Jane Austen

I would rather have young people settle on a small income at once, and have to struggle with a few difficulties together, than be involved in a long engagement. — Jane Austen

Lady Sondes' match surprises, but does not offend me; had her first marriage been of affection, or had their been a grown-updaughter, I should not have forgiven her; but I consider everybody as having a right to marry once in their lives for love, if they can. — Jane Austen

Marriage is indeed a maneuvering business. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Reading

Well, my dear," said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the note aloud, "if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness—if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders. — Jane Austen

but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short. — Jane Austen

A fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself. — Jane Austen

And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading. — Jane Austen

If people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate. — Jane Austen

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! — Jane Austen

I have read your book, and I disapprove. — Jane Austen

Lady Middleton ... exerted herself to ask Mr. Palmer if there was any news in the paper. 'No, none at all,' he replied, and read on. — Jane Austen

... But he recommended the books which charmed her leisure hours, he encouraged her taste, and corrected her judgment; he made reading useful by talking to her of what she read, and heightened its attraction by judicious praise. — Jane Austen

Books--oh! no. I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings." "I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at least be no want of subject. We may compare our different opinions. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Writing

Oh! write, write. Finish it at once. Let there be an end of this suspense. Fix, commit, condemn yourself. — Jane Austen

And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did. But I have an aunt too, who must not be longer neglected. — Jane Austen

I have now attained the true art of letter-writing, which we are always told, is to express on paper exactly what one would say to the same person by word of mouth. — Jane Austen

A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill. — Jane Austen

I could not sit down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life. — 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

My style of writing is very diffrent from yours. — Jane Austen

I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am. — Jane Austen

How can you contrive to write so even? — Jane Austen

I wrote without much effort; for I was rich, and the rich are always respectable, whatever be their style of writing. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Books

She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. — Jane Austen

The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it. — Jane Austen

Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her. — Jane Austen

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. — Jane Austen

There are few people whom I really love and still fewer of whom I think well. — Jane Austen

Till this moment I never knew myself. — 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

You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner. — Jane Austen

Provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all. — Jane Austen

I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Kindness

I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. — Jane Austen

There is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known. You have good sense, and a sweet temper, and I am sure you have a grateful heart, that could never receive kindness without hoping to return it. I do not know any better qualifications for a friend and companion. — Jane Austen

Incline us oh God! to think humbly of ourselves, to be severe only in the examination of our own conduct, to consider our fellow-creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity which we would desire from them ourselves. — 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

It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples. — Jane Austen

Brandon is just the kind of man whom every body speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to. — Jane Austen

You are very kind in planning presents for me to make, and my mother has shown me exactly the same attention; but as I do not choose to have generosity dictated to me, I shall not resolve on giving my cabinet to Anna till the first thought of it has been my own. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Romantic

I am not romantic, you know; I never was. — Jane Austen

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you. — Jane Austen

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun. — Jane Austen

You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever. — Jane Austen

The Very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone. — Jane Austen

Is not poetry the food of love? — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About People

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. — Jane Austen

It's such a happiness when good people get together. — Jane Austen

But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever. — 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

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves. — Jane Austen

Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. — Jane Austen

Angry people are not always wise. — Jane Austen

Without scheming to do wrong, or to make others unhappy, there may be error and there may be misery. Thoughtlessness, want of attention to other people's feelings, and want of resolution, will do the business. — Jane Austen

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind. — Jane Austen

You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve. — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About World

I am come, young ladies, in a very moralizing strain, to observe that our pleasures of this world are always to be for, and that we often purchase them at a great disadvantage, giving readi-monied actual happiness for a draft on the future, that may not be honoured. — Jane Austen

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. — Jane Austen

The more I see of the world, the more am i dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human. — Jane Austen

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. — 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

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

I certainly must,' said she. 'This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of everything's being dull and insipid about the house! I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I were not. — 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

When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene. — Jane Austen

Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Quotes About Pleasure

Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation. — Jane Austen

You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. — Jane Austen

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced and the inconvenience is often considerable. — Jane Austen

I have not the pleasure of understanding you. — Jane Austen

I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow. — Jane Austen

As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people's happiness were in his guardianship! -- How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! -- How much of good or evil must be done by him! — Jane Austen

Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me. I should infinitely prefer a book. — Jane Austen

She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation — Jane Austen

...when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. — Jane Austen

The last few hours were certainly very painful," replied Anne: "but when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering- — Jane Austen

Jane Austen Famous Quotes And Sayings

An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do. — Jane Austen

None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives. — Jane Austen

I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be yours. — Jane Austen

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief. — Jane Austen

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. — Jane Austen

Mr. Collins is a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man; you know he is, as well as I do; and you must feel, as well as I do, that the woman who married him cannot have a proper way of thinking. — Jane Austen

My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last? — Jane Austen

Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves." "You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least. — Jane Austen

Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another. — 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

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me. — Jane Austen

Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness. — Jane Austen

It is very unfair to judge any body's conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation. — Jane Austen

I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way. — Jane Austen

I was quiet but I was not blind. — Jane Austen

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. — Jane Austen

What strange creatures brothers are! — Jane Austen

I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives. — Jane Austen

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! — Jane Austen

Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint! — Jane Austen

And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in. — Jane Austen

But your mind is warped by an innate principle of general integrity, and, therefore, not accessible to the cool reasonings of family partiality, or a desire of revenge. — Jane Austen

but a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. it soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again. — 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

My sore throats are always worse than anyone's. — Jane Austen

We do not look in our great cities for our best morality. — Jane Austen

One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a fortnight. — Jane Austen

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness ... Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy. — Jane Austen

Those who do not complain are never pitied. — Jane Austen

I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience. — Jane Austen

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon. — Jane Austen

Too many cooks spoil the broth — Jane Austen

One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy. — Jane Austen

Obstinate, headstrong girl! — Jane Austen

It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable. — Jane Austen

The distance is nothing when one has a motive. — Jane Austen

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony. — Jane Austen

A sick child is always the mother's property; her own feelings generally make it so. — Jane Austen

This is an evening of wonders, indeed! — Jane Austen

To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love. — Jane Austen

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere. — Jane Austen

Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise. — Jane Austen

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best. — Jane Austen

Her eye fell everywhere on lawns and plantations of the freshest green; and the trees, though not fully clothed, were in that delightful state when farther beauty is known to be at hand, and when, while much is actually given to the sight, more yet remains for the imagination. — Jane Austen

Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply. — Jane Austen

Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied. — Jane Austen

I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress. — Jane Austen

They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects. — Jane Austen

Whom are you going to dance with?' asked Mr. Knightley. She hesitated a moment and then replied, 'With you, if you will ask me.' Will you?' said he, offering his hand. Indeed I will. You have shown that you can dance, and you know we are not really so much brother and sister as to make it at all improper.' Brother and sister! no, indeed. — 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

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

Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can. — Jane Austen

Mr. Knightley seemed to be trying not to smile; and succeeded without difficulty, upon Mrs. Elton's beginning to talk to him. — Jane Austen

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense. — Jane Austen

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. — Jane Austen

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

She was not often invited to join in the conversation of the others, nor did she desire it. Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions. — Jane Austen

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air. — Jane Austen

Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves. — Jane Austen

Life Lessons by Jane Austen

1. Jane Austen teaches us to be independent and to value our own opinions and feelings. She also encourages us to stand up for ourselves and to never give up on our dreams.
2. Through her works, she shows us the importance of being kind and compassionate to those around us, and to always strive to be the best version of ourselves.
3. Finally, she reminds us to never take life too seriously and to always find joy in the little things.