Check out the best Jane Austen quotes on life, love, and friendship that inspire and offer timeless wisdom on human nature and social dynamics.
Jane Austen was a beloved English novelist, renowned for her keen observations of society and witty portrayals of 19th-century life.
Her writing captures the subtle complexities of relationships, class, and character with unmatched elegance and intelligence.
She is best remembered for classic novels like Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion, each filled with memorable characters, sharp dialogue, and enduring themes.
Austen’s stories often center on the lives of women, exploring marriage, family, social mobility, and the expectations placed on women in a class-conscious world.
What makes Austen’s work stand out is how seamlessly she blends heartfelt emotion with biting social critique. Her words are not just beautifully written, they’re thought-provoking, satirical, and always insightful.
It’s no wonder her novels have inspired countless adaptations and continue to influence modern romance and historical fiction.
Here are the most famous Jane Austen quotes that capture the brilliance, wit, and wisdom of a true literary icon.
Top 10 Jane Austen Quotes
- “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.” — Jane Austen, Emma
Jane Austen Quotes - “Our scars make us know that our past was for real.” — Jane Austen
Famous Quotes By Jane Austen - “Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.” — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Quotes From Jane Austen - “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen Sayings - “When pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.” — Jane Austen, Persuasion
Jane Austen Quotations - “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” — Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Best Jane Austen Quotes - “It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” — Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen Famous Quotes - “To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen Love Quotes - “Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.” — Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
- “We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.” — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Best Jane Austen Quotes About Love
- “To love is to burn, to be on fire.” — Jane Austen
- “You must be the best judge of your own happiness.” — Jane Austen
- “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” — Jane Austen
- “Which of all my important nothings shall I tell you first?” — Jane Austen
- “Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.” — Jane Austen
- “Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.” — Jane Austen
- “There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.” — Jane Austen
- “There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.” — Jane Austen
- “Look into your own heart because who looks outside, dreams, but who looks inside awakes.” — Jane Austen
- “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” — Jane Austen
- “No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.” — Jane Austen
- “A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen Quotes About Life, Friendship, & Writing
- “An artist cannot do anything slovenly.” — Jane Austen
- “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.” — Jane Austen
- “Those who do not complain are never pitied.” — Jane Austen
- “What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.” — Jane Austen
- “It’s such a happiness when good people get together.” — Jane Austen
- “My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.” — Jane Austen
- “Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” — Jane Austen
- “How clever you are, to know something of which you are ignorant.” — Jane Austen
- “A fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself.” — Jane Austen
- “To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” — Jane Austen
- “It is very unfair to judge any body’s conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation.” — Jane Austen
- “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” — Jane Austen
- “Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience- or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.” — Jane Austen
- “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” — Jane Austen
- “Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.” — Jane Austen
Famous Quotes By Jane Austen
- “We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.” — Jane Austen
- “A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” — Jane Austen
- “Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.” — Jane Austen
- “One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.” — Jane Austen
- “I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.” — Jane Austen
- “General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.” — Jane Austen
- “It is not what we think or feel that makes us who we are. It is what we do. Or fail to do.” — Jane Austen
- “Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.” — Jane Austen
- “And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in.” — Jane Austen
- “A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can. ” —Jane Austen
- “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.” — Jane Austen
- “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.” — Jane Austen
- “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.” — Jane Austen
- “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us.” — Jane Austen
- “Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.” — Jane Austen
More Jane Austen Quotes From Her Books & Letters
- “Every savage can dance.” — Jane Austen
- “I was quiet but I was not blind.” — Jane Austen
- “Almost anything is possible with time.” — Jane Austen
- “Self-knowledge is the first step to maturity.” — Jane Austen
- “There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” — Jane Austen, Emma
- “People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them.” — Jane Austen, Sense And Sensibility
- “Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.” — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
- “What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps on in a continual state of inelegance.” — Jane Austen, A Letter To Cassandra
- “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in turn?” — Jane Austen, Pride And Prejudice
- “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” — Jane Austen, A Letter To Cassandra
- “Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.” — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
- “Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.” — Jane Austen, A Letter To Cassandra
- “The pleasures of friendship, of unreserved conversation, of similarity of taste and opinions will make good amends for orange wine.” — Jane Austen, A Letter to Cassandra
- “She was of course only too good for him; but as nobody minds having what is too good for them, he was very steadily earnest in the pursuit of the blessing…” — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
- “Expect a most agreeable letter; for not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say) I shall have no check to my Genius from beginning to end.” — Jane Austen, A Letter To Cassandra
Conclusion
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