Jane Austen

Writing is my delight; when real life wearies me, I retreat into my pages.

I feel like a negligent mother for my poor Mansfield Park, so little loved by all.

Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.

I have not the pleasure of understanding you.

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well.

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!

A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.

Angry people are not always wise.

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

My idea of good company…is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.

A man who has nothing to do, thinks he is doing everything.

A woman, especially if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.

To be disgraced in the eyes of the world, to be ashamed of one's self! That is the misery, that is the horror!

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

My dearest, most kind, most excellent sister, I wish you would not be so good to me.

I am not a good woman, but I am a good creature.

She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.

Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!