20 Jane Austen Quotes

It all started with the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. I was hooked. My mom and I would watch the series every year during the August school holiday, a much loved tradition. Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion followed, along with any and every Jane Austen related movie or series. Her wit, the many lines of quotable dialogue,  the beauty of the countryside and the intricate costumes were a winning recipe. I've lost count of how many times I've watched these movies, and reading the books brings me so much comfort and joy. 

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• “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.”
• “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
• “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
• “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.”
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
• “Angry people are not always wise.”
• “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.”
• “but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.”
• “Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.”
• “I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”
• “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
• “It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”
• “I have not the pleasure of understanding you.”
• “An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”
• “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”
• “It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable.”
• “I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.”
• “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”
• “Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.”
• “She was one of those, who, having, once begun, would be always in love.”