Jane Austen, (1775-1817), British Novelist Quotes

Grant us peace, Almighty Father, so to pray as to deserve to be heard.

There certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are of pretty woman to deserve them.

That sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself.

Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. ''And what are you reading, Miss...?'' ''Oh! It is only a novel!

In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.

It was, perhaps, one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides.

One may be continually abusive without saying any thing just; but one cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health.

An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion.

Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. And what are you reading, Miss -- ? Oh! it is only a novel! replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda ; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.