there's something delicious about good literature.... The words aren't just printed on the page, they play out in front of you, even after the book is long set aside, they chase your thoughts, and you are invited into a place where nothing around you is real, but everything in your head suddenly becomes lifesized... there's nothing like getting lost in a good romance novel, not the gushy type that is all roses and happiness, but one with well developed characters and clever dialogue, who have flaws and woes, and yet is more agreeable due to it's level of believability... Jane Austin captures the essence of that in her beautifully written books, the quotes of which are exquisite... her characters are complex and honestly portrayed with humor and passion, and the beauty of the language gives it a charming and delightful nature...
I found a great collection of quotes online (which saves me the time of finding and typing them out)... hopefully you enjoy them and possibly decide to read some of her books as well:)...
Who can forget the amazing put-downs to poor Darcy in "Pride & Prejudice?
"You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it."
And this?
"...I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry."
Or the deep sighs that are such a part of "Persuasion."
"A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman! -- He ought not - he does not."
And at the end of "Emma":
"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."
The light-hearted (but honest) observations:
"That would be the greatest misfortune of all! -- to find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate!"
And
"I am particularly unlucky in meeting with a person so well able to expose my real character, in a part of the world, where I had hoped to pass myself off with some degree of credit."
Both of which were from "Pride & Prejudice." Homespun wisdom could be found among the pages of "Northanger Abbey":
"Wherever you are you should always be contented, but especially at home, because there you must spend the most of your time."
Or
"An occasional momento of past folly, however painful, might not be without use."
Some of my favorite Jane Austen quotes:
Emma
"Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody.”
”It was a delightful visit; - perfect, in being much too short.”
"Emma denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private.”
"...she had the comfort of appearing very polite, while feeling very cross...”
"A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from.”
"It is a great deal more natural than one would wish, that a young man, brought up by those who are proud, luxurious, and selfish, should be proud, luxurious, and selfish too.”
"Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.”
"...it is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.”
"Family connexions were always worth preserving...”
"There are secrets in all families, you know...”
"There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chuses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.”
”There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.”
”Oh! I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other.”
Mansfield Park
"She was, she felt she was in the greatest danger of being exquisitely happy, while so many were miserable.”
"It will be a bitter pill to her; that is, like other bitter pills, it will have two moments ill-flavour, and then be swallowed and forgotten...”
"We have all a better guide in ourselves if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”
"...the most valuable knowledge we could any of us acquire - the knowledge of ourselves and of our duty...”
"Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”
"there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.”
"Good sense, like hers, will always act when really called upon...”
"Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like.”
"...nobody minds having what is too good for them...”
"...one of those well-meaning people, who are always doing mistaken and very disagreeable things.”
"...to sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.”
"...a girl of fifteen! The very age of all others to need most attention and care, and put the cheerfullest spirits to the test.”
"We have all a better guide in ourselves if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”
"...the most valuable knowledge we could any of us acquire - the knowledge of ourselves and of our duty.”
"She would hesitate, she would tease, she would condition, she would require a great deal but she would finally accept.”
"...there is not one in a hundred of either sex, who is not taken in when they marry...it is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.”
"...people are never respected when they step out of their own proper sphere.”
Northanger Abbey
"...our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for...”
”To be always firm must be to be often obstinate.”
”...after all that romancers may say, there is no doing without money.”
”Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attentions of anybody else.”
"Let me only have the girl I like, say I, with a comfortable house over my head, and what care I for all the rest.”
"Give me but a little cheerful company, let me only have the company of the people I love, let me only be where I like and with whom I like, and the devil may take the rest, say I.”
"...one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them.”
"It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire...”
"...when you men have a point to carry, you never stick at anything.”
"No man is offended by another man's admiration for the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.”
"...our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for...”
"...man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal...”
Persuasion
"If there is any thing disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it.”
"She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! alas! she must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.”
"...there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.”
"Surely, if there be constant attachment on each side, our hearts must understand each other ere long.”
"How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”
"...the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle...”
"...in that inconvient tone of voice which was perfectly audible while it pretended to be a whisper...”
"I am not one of those who neglect the reigning power to bow to the rising sun.”
"It was, perhaps, one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides.”
"'My idea of good company...is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversa tion; that is what I call good company.' 'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.'”
"Every thing united in him; good understanding, correct opinions, knowledge of the world, and a warm heart.”
Pride & Prejudice
"You are too sensible a girl...to fall in love merely because you are warned against it.”
"...can I be happy,...in accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to marry elsewhere?”
"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
"A young man...so easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks, and when accident separates them, so easily forgets her.”
"Till this moment, I never knew myself.”
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love tomatrimony ina moment.”
"It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.”
"That would be the greatest misfortune of all! - to find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate!”
"I have been mediating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”
"...never had she so honestly felt that she could have ever loved him, as now, when all love must be in vain.”
"There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
"...angry people are not always wise...”
"...there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary.”
"...disguise of every sort is my abhorrence.”
"Those who do not complain are never pitied.”
"One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favour, should think highly of himself.”
"It was consoling, that he should know she had some relations for whom there was no need to blush.”
"...they parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.”
"...for what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
"...the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker.”
"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similiar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least.”
Sense & Sensibility
"[he] is a man...whom every body speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.”
"With such a reward for her tears, the child was too wise to cease crying.”
"...misery such as mine has no pride. I care not who knows that I am wretched.”
"Dulness is a much produced within doors as without, by rain. It makes one detest all one's acquaintance.”
"Some people were always cross when they were hot.”
"It would be an excellent match, for he was rich and she was handsome.”
"The old, well-established grievance of duty against will, parent against child.”
"...we always know when we are acting wrong...”
"I am convinced that there is a vast deal of inconsistency in almost every human character.”
"The old, well-established grievance of duty against will, parent against child.”
"His temper might perhaps be a little soured by finding, like many others of his sex, that through some unaccountable bias in favour of beauty, he was the husband of a very silly woman.”
"You have made your own choice. It ws not forced on you. Your wife has a claim to your politeness, to your respect, at least.”
"...we always know when we are acting wrong...”
"I wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy; but like every body else it must be in my own way.”
"...I did not then know what it was to love.”
