17 Witty Jane Austen Quotes on Life, Love and Friendship

Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.

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

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

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.

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.

Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

We do not look in our great cities for our best morality.

Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.

It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.

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.

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

I am afraid that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.

Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.