15 Quotes By Jane Austen You Should Know

Revered as one of the UK’s greatest writers, Jane Austen is celebrated internationally for her witty commentary on love and friendship plus her sharp critique of 18th-century Georgian society. Her six completed novels have been continuously in print since 1831, providing many generations with laughter and tears, whilst her personal letters reveal her satirical and hilarious personality. With a quip for every occasion, these are the Austen quotes you need in your life.

On happiness:

‘Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.’ – Letter (1798-10-27)

For expressing your love:

‘In vain I have 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. – Darcy, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

On intense social situations:

‘We are to have a tiny party here tonight. I hate tiny parties, they force one into constant exertion.’ – Letter (1801-05-21)

For the one friend you can’t live without:

‘There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.’ – Emma about Harriet, Emma (1815)

Thoughts about men and money:

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ – Pride and Prejudice (1813)

On protecting your heart:

‘There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.’ – Frank Churchill to Emma, Emma (1815)

For the cake enthusiast in us all:

‘You know how interesting the purchase of a sponge-cake is to me.’ – Letter to Cassandra (1808-06-15)

When you realise life isn’t so serious:

‘For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?’ – Mr Bennet, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

On our animal instincts:

‘Let me know when you begin the new tea, and the new white wine. My present elegancies have not yet made me indifferent to such matters. I am still a cat if I see a mouse.’ – Letter to Cassandra (1813-09-23)

For the pessimist in your life:

‘Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience; or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.’ – Mrs. Dashwood to Edward Ferrars, Sense and Sensibility (1811)

For those who think that looks matter most:

‘Mr. Digweed has used us basely. Handsome is as handsome does; he is therefore a very ill-looking man.’ – Letter to Cassandra (1813-01-24)

When you realise you’re not a people-person:

‘I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.’ – Letter to Cassandra (1798-12-24)

On listening to your heart:

‘We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.’ – Fanny, Mansfield Park (1814)

On being yourself:

‘I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.’ – Letter to Mr. Clarke (1816-04-01)

For readers and non-readers alike:

‘The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.’ – Mr. Tilney, Northanger Abbey (1818)
By Rebecca Cairns