Jane Austen

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One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. ~ Emma

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) English novelist

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  • 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 (24 December 1798)
  • Here I am once more in this scene of dissipation and vice, and I begin already to find my morals corrupted.
    • Letter (August 1796) On arriving in London
  • Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.
    • Letter (27 October 1798)
  • You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve.
    • Letter to her sister Cassandra (24 December 1798)
  • I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.
    • Letter (21 January 1799)
  • We have been exceedingly busy ever since you went away. In the first place we have had to rejoice two or three times everyday at your having such very delightful weather for the whole of your journey...
    • Letter (25 October 1800)
  • You will have a great deal of unreserved discourse with Mrs. K., I dare say, upon this subject, as well as upon many other of our family matters. Abuse everybody but me.
    • Letter (7 January 1807)
  • How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!
    • Letter (31 May 1811) On the Peninsular War
  • I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.
    • Letter (31 May 1811)
  • One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.
  • One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.
  • One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
  • The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labor.
    • Letter to J. Edward Austen (December 16, 1816)
  • 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.
  • It was, perhaps, one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides.
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Attributed

  • A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
  • A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.
  • 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. Mansfield Park
  • Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does.
  • Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies. Northanger Abbey
  • From politics, it was an easy step to silence. Northanger Abbey
  • 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. Emma
  • I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety. Sense and Sensibility
  • I am looking about for a sentiment, an illustration, or a metaphor in every corner of the room. Could my ideas flow as fast as the rain in the store-closet it would be charming.
  • 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.
  • Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. Mansfield Park
  • Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
  • Nobody minds having what is too good for them. Emma
  • One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.
  • Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.
  • Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable. Emma
  • There are certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are of pretty woman to deserve them. Pride and Prejudice
  • There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. Emma
  • They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life.
  • To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
  • We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.
  • We met Dr. Hall in such deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead. Letters
  • What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.
  • Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.
  • Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!
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Quotes about Jane Austen

  • You could not shock her more than she shocks me;
    Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass.
    It makes me most uncomfortable to see
    An English spinster of the middle class
    Describe the amorous effects of "brass,"
    Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety
    The economic basis of society.
    • W. H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron (1936), lines 113-119
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