Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Quotes

• There is hardly any personal defect which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to.

• An agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones.

• I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures.

• We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.

• I can safely say, that the happiest part of my life has been spent on board a ship.

• The only time I ever really suffered in body or mind, the only time that I ever fancied myself unwell, or had any ideas of danger, was the winter that I passed by myself. As long as we could be together, nothing ever ailed me, and I never met with the smallest inconvenience.

• It was the misfortune of poetry to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.

• A persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

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

• Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

• Family connexions were always worth preserving, good company always worth seeking.

• 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.

• 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.

• How could it be? She watched, observed, reflected, and finally determined that this was not a case of fortitude or of resignation only. A submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven.

• Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial; but generally speaking, it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber: it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of. There is so little real friendship in the world! and unfortunately, there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.

• She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.

• Knowing their feelings as she did, it was a most attractive picture of happiness to her. She always watched them as long as she could, delighted to fancy she understood what they might be talking of, as they walked along in happy independence, or equally delighted to see the Admiral's hearty shake of the hand when he encountered an old friend, and observe their eagerness of conversation when occasionally forming into a little knot of the navy, Mrs Croft looking as intelligent and keen as any of the officers around her.

• One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.

• The stream is as good as at first; the little rubbish it collects in the turnings is easily moved away.

• Facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands of so many, to be misconceived by folly in one, and ignorance in another, can hardly have much truth left.