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27 Quotes by Jane Austen that are thought-provoking

03/29/2025 by

Today I thought exploring some quotes by Jane Austen would be interesting.

As I’m sure many readers will know, Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.

Austen’s work explored women’s dependence on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security.

Austen’s use of biting irony, realism, and social commentary has earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.

For her time, she was a successful woman, and it’s always worth listening to successful people.

So, dear reader, be inspired by these excellent quotes by Jane Austen and see how many of them still resonate with us all today.

Quotes by Jane Austen (1-9)

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like.

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

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

Quotes by Jane Austen (10-18)

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

Vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief.

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

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

One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.

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

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

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

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

Quotes by Jane Austen (19-27)

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

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

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

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual in that family may be.

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.

There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.

What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!

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.

I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly: I do not like to have people throw themselves away, but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.

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