Jane Austen was an early 19th century English author known for her wit and observational skills. Across six novels and many letters, she expressed so much wit and wisdom over and over again.
These iconic Jane Austen quotes are spoken by her most beloved heroes and hated villains. They are lines of passion and disgust, humour and savvy.
The Best Jane Austen Quotes
Here, you will find a broad and beautiful selection of the best Jane Austen quotes from across all six of her novels, as well as a few from the mouth of the author herself.
These are Jane Austen quotes for your everyday life. They are quotes to inspire writers, loves, and friends.
Proof that the words and wisdom are timeless, these Jane Austen quotes from one of the great classic authors will carry you through so much of life, through the happiest times and the saddest.
From Sense and Sensibility to Persuasion, these are the most memorable, impactful, and iconic Jane Austen quotes for you to enjoy any and all of the time.
All wonderful examples of the hilarity and wit of Jane Austen’s language and her characters.
And it probably won’t be a surprise to anyone that the majority of these iconic Jane Austen Quotes come from her magnum opus, Pride and Prejudice (although Persuasion is actually this writer’s personal favourite).
Video: A Tour of Jane Austen’s House
Sense and Sensibility Quotes
“Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience- or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.”
“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!”
“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”
“I can feel no sentiment of approbation inferior to love.”
“If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.”
“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”
“To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect…”
“A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.”
Buy a copy of Sense and Sensibility here!
Pride and Prejudice Quotes
“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.”
“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.”
“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
“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.”
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
“Angry people are not always wise.”
“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”
Buy a copy of Pride and Prejudice here!
Mansfield Park Quotes
“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”
“Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.”
“We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”
“Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.”
“I was quiet, but I was not blind.”
“Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”
“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.”
“Every moment has its pleasures and its hope.”
Buy a copy of Mansfield Park here!
Emma Quotes
“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
“I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control. ”
“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”
“I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.”
“There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.”
“Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.”
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”
“You must be the best judge of your own happiness.”
“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.”
“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”
“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.”
Northanger Abbey Quotes
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.”
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
“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.”
“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.”
Buy a copy of Northanger Abbey here!
Persuasion Quotes
“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.”
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope…I have loved none but you.”
“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.”
“There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison”
“Time will explain.”
“How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”
“…when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.”
Buy a copy of Persuasion here!
Jane Austen Author Quotes
“But for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.”
“Nothing ever fatigues me, but doing what I do not like.”
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”
“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.”
Read More: Inspiring Quotes About Reading
“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. ”
“What strange creatures brothers are!”
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
“If I am a wild Beast I cannot help it. It is not my own fault.”