Jane Austen

The world is not a safe place for a woman of sensibility.

It is not every man who has a taste for rural beauties.

Elegance consists of a neatness, a justness, and a propriety of expression.

I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much snugness in it.

To be always sensible of the justice of the sentence, is to be always capable of the improvement.

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.

I am not at all a contented person. I have as much money as I can spend, and as many friends as I can love; but I am not contented.

If I am a wild beast, I cannot help it. It is not my own fault.

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Four seasons are nothing.

Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience—or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.

A man would always wish to think well of at least one woman in the world.

Life is an obligation.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart, and the sentiment of tenderness was so much for the honour of woman, that Anne could not but think it a virtue.

We are all apt to think that we are in the right.

Man is to man all in all.

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

It is not the being singular, but the being singular without being agreeable, that would be unpardonable.