QuotesJane Austen quotes
Jane Austen (1775 to 1817) was an English novelist. Her six novels are comedies of manners with a sharp eye for vanity and good sense. Each line below names the novel it comes from.
Quotations
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)Angry people are not always wise.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)My good opinion once lost is lost for ever.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
Jane Austen, Emma (1815)There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.
Jane Austen, Emma (1815)One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Jane Austen, Emma (1815)Know your own happiness.
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811)Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814)Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)
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Who says it
Austen's sharpest lines are often given to characters she is quietly laughing at. Before you quote one, check who is speaking.
- "It is a truth universally acknowledged..." is the famous first sentence of Pride and Prejudice, in the narrator's voice. It is ironic: the "truth" is really the hope of every family with unmarried daughters.
- "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" is said by Caroline Bingley, who is bored by her book and only wants Mr Darcy to notice her.
- "My good opinion once lost is lost for ever" is Mr Darcy describing his own fault.
- "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure" is Elizabeth Bennet's advice to Darcy near the end of the novel.
- "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid" is Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey.
- "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort" is said by Mrs Elton in Emma, a character who talks mostly about herself.
- "Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure" is the witty Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park.
- "Know your own happiness" is Mrs Dashwood's advice to Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility.
The six novels
Jane Austen completed six novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published after her death and dated 1818 on their title pages, though they came out at the end of 1817. All six are long out of copyright and free to read online at Project Gutenberg, where you can search for any line on this page.
Using an Austen line
Her lines suit speeches and essays about reading, friendship, family, manners and good sense. Name the novel, and where it helps, the speaker. The line on reading is a favourite for library days and book clubs. Used with a smile and the note that Miss Bingley did not mean it, it is even better.
Good to know
- Many of these lines are spoken by characters, and Austen often means them ironically. The speaker of the famous line about novels is the charming Henry Tilney. The line about angry people comes from the narrator.