Jane Austen

She did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.

Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human characters.

I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it.

I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.

Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

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.

There was a monstrous deal of stupid quizzing and common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire.

Laugh at me as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others.

Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind, is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.

I cannot say much for this monarch's sense.

There is nothing one cannot say in a letter, except what one really wishes to say.

My style is too light and unpretending to suit the pen of a great author.