Jane Austen Quotes
Every quote on this site is verified against the novels and surviving letters, with chapter citations — because half the "Austen quotes" on the internet are from film scripts, and a few are pure invention.
“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.”
“Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does.”
“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.”
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.”
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”
“Till this moment, I never knew myself.”
“The little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour.”
“There is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book!”
“Obstinate, headstrong girl!”
“Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. The pen has been in their hands.”
“Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”