17 Witty Jane Austen Quotes on Life, Love and Friendship

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

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

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.

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

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

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. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.

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

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

Nobody minds having what is too good for them.

Business, you know, may bring you money, but friendship hardly ever does.

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

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.

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

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