Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was a famous British novelist who lived during the so-called Georgian period.

Her particular way of writing with a certain comedy and irony has made her works the delight of readers, and this writer is widely read even today. Among Austen’s works, we can highlight some such as: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility or Emma, all of which can be widely recommended.

Great quotes and reflections by Jane Austen

Below we have made a small selection of the 70 best sentences by Jane Austen , so that you can get to know a little more about this remarkable representative of the 19th century British novel. We hope you enjoy them!

1. Our scars let us know that our past was real.

We all have some scars that remind us of what we have been through, they are an essential part of us.

2. One word from you will silence me forever.

We must know how to take “no” for granted when it comes.

3. A lady’s imagination is very quick; it jumps from admiration to love and from love to marriage in a moment.

Life goes round in circles and sometimes everything happens very quickly.

4. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people halfway, it’s not my nature.

Without a doubt it is a great quality: knowing how to value our friends.

5. Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for each other.

Our partner’s imperfections make her perfect for us.

6. Without music, life would be a blank space for me.

Music is something that can give a lot of brightness and color to our lives.

7. You must know something about my philosophy. I think only of the past as its memory gives me pleasure.

Nostalgia is something that we all experience at some time in our lives and if it hasn’t happened to you at some time, you simply haven’t lived enough.

8. And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could not find a language to describe them.

There are certain feelings that are very difficult to express in simple words.

9. I wish, like everyone else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everyone else, it must be my way.

We all want to achieve happiness in our lives and we all have our own version of happiness.

10. Rarely, very rarely, does the whole truth belong to any human revelation; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little wrong.

In life there is not only black or white, many issues have a lot of grey areas or ambiguities.

11. Wishing was waiting and waiting was waiting.

In order to achieve what we want, we often have to wait for the right moment.

12. I must learn to be content to be happier than I deserve.

Many times we do not value all that life has to offer.

13. Every moment has its pleasures and its hope.

In the moment of life in which we find ourselves, we possess instantaneous and other pleasures that we wish to be able to feel.

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

Many times we don’t show the feelings that we feel at that moment, we inhibit ourselves.

15. I’ve always maintained the importance of aunts.

The support of our family can be essential in our lives.

16. My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.

When someone fails us, our opinion of him changes forever.

17. But people themselves change so much that you always see something new in them.

In life we all change and evolve over time.

18. Distance is nothing when you have a motive.

When we really want to be with someone, we will cross land and sea to be with that person.

19. What terrible hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.

Subtropical climates can reveal our most primitive physical appearance.

20. Half the world can’t understand each other’s pleasures.

Within modern society there are many social strata, which are in a permanent struggle.

21. She was sensible and intelligent, but anxious in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could not be moderated.

Certain people simply cannot hide their concerns and feelings, this type of person is called: outgoing.

22. My heart is, and always will be, yours.

Love is a very powerful force, which can even change the world.

23. There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.

There are many kinds of love, as many kinds as there are people in the world.

24. Those who have not been given a taste for nature at an early age are worthy of compassion.

Who doesn’t like to be in the middle of nature in order to feel totally free and relaxed?

25. It sometimes happens that a woman is more attractive at twenty-nine than ten years earlier.

Certain women reach their greatest fulfillment (as far as beauty is concerned) at ages that are not what many of us think.

26. One man’s style should not be another man’s rule.

All men should have their own style, different and unique in their own way, that identifies them.

27. A living mind at ease, cannot see anything, cannot see anything that it does not desire.

With the power of our mind and our imagination, we can get wherever we want.

28. No one can say what I suffer! But it’s always like that. Those who don’t complain never feel sorry for themselves.

Sometimes we all go through difficult times, we must know how to get out of them by our own means.

29. The person, whether gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

Reading can be a very positive activity for all of us, it can help us in many aspects of our lives.

30. It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

When we find ourselves in a moment of great personal success, it is hard to be humble when everyone is fawning over us.

31. None of us wants to be in calm waters all our lives.

In order to become who we really want to be, we must know how to take risks on more than one occasion.

32. After all, I declare that there is no pleasure like reading! The sooner one gets tired of anything that is not a book! When I get my own house, I’ll be miserable if I don’t have an excellent library.

Without a doubt, reading is a wonderful activity, which Jane Austen as an author knew how to value greatly.

33. One man’s ways can be as good as another’s; we all like the best of each other.

We all have our own way of expressing ourselves and relating to each other, which does not make it better or worse than someone else’s.

34. If a woman is partial to a man, and does not make an effort to hide it, he must discover it.

We must know when a woman is fully sincere to us with her intentions, so we must stop and listen to her.

35. Dumb things stop being dumb if they are done by sensible people in a reckless way.

If we’re such smart people, why do we do so many stupid things?

36. Love is fire.

Love is a force that can lead us to do great things.

37. Nothing amuses Me more than the ease with which everyone arranges the abundance of those who have much less than themselves.

Giving advice when our personal situation is better than that of the person being advised is something very easy to do, really overcoming many situations is what is really complicated.

38. The more I see of the world, the more I’m dissatisfied with it.

The world has many aspects that no one is happy with.

39. All men are surrounded by a neighborhood of volunteer spies.

Wherever we live, our close neighbours will always know which foot we stand on.

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

Selfishness is an evil that humanity has always suffered from, no matter how much we make it seem as if it has no end.

41. There is stubbornness in me that can never bear to be afraid of the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.

We must be persistent and know how to show courage when the situation requires it.

42. It is not what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.

Acts are what define us as people, they say exactly who we are.

43. Then he left, to make himself even more interesting, in the middle of a heavy rain.

When we don’t have anything interesting to say or contribute, we might as well just leave.

44. Real and solemn history, I cannot be interested in… The disputes of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences on every page; all men are so good for nothing, and almost no women appear.

Women are the great forgotten ones in the history books, we must make this social injustice change.

45. His heart whispered that he had done it for her.

The greatest follies we perform are for our loved one.

46. It is very unfair to judge the conduct of any body, without intimate knowledge of its situation.

We all go through different personal situations and these lead us to act in a certain way.

47. I trust that absolutes have gradations.

Even things we often take for granted can depend on the perspective from which we look at them.

48. The worst crimes are crimes of the heart

Crimes of passion can indeed be the worst and most heinous.

49. As a general rule, I deduce that if a woman doubts whether she should accept a man or not, she should certainly reject him.

When a woman doubts about a man the best she can do is to reject him, in matters of love one should never have doubts.

50. Do not regard me now as an elegant woman who tries to infect you, but as a rational creature who speaks the truth from her heart.

In personal relationships we must understand and listen to the other person, knowing them thoroughly we will know if their intentions are really honest.

51. Everyone likes to follow their own path: to choose their own time and devotion.

All human beings have the power to choose their own path in life, but it also depends on us where we go with it.

52. I am the happiest creature in the world. Maybe other people have said it before, but no one else has said it so fairly. I am even happier than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.

Our personal happiness depends only on ourselves and on the desire we have to be really happy at this very moment.

53. Why not take advantage of pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, by foolish preparation!

We must know how to live in the present in order to truly appreciate happiness.

54. She told herself she was hopeless. But it was too late. Hope had already entered.

Many times we harbour certain hopes that we know will most likely not be fulfilled.

55. One does not love a place, except for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.

The place where we grow up will always be important to us, the Galicians call this particular feeling “nostalgia”.

56. He is a gentleman, and I am the daughter of a gentleman. So far we’re the same.

Men and women always deserve the same consideration from us in all possible situations.

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

We must not let our friends or family, who are comfortable with the help we give them, do their homework themselves.

58. The more I know about the world, the more I am convinced that I will never see a man whom I can really love.

Finding a person with really honest intentions is getting harder and harder.

59. A woman, especially, if she has the misfortune to know something, must hide it as well as she can.

Knowing how to keep our own cards, is something that as a person we must all know how to do.

60. A man who has nothing to do with his own time, has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.

Some of us find ourselves totally disconnected from today’s society.

61. It is a universally recognized truth, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in lack of a wife.

It’s funny how many rich men haven’t found a wife even in their old age.

62. Madness and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies divert me, I admit it, and I laugh at them whenever I can.

Indeed, the follies and nonsense help to distract us in our daily lives.

63. Certainly there are not so many men of great fortune in the world, since there are many beautiful women who deserve them.

In this quote Jane Austen talks about the search that many women have for a man with an affluent economic position.

64. He had a cheerful, playful disposition that delighted in anything ridiculous.

Being cheerful is a quality that not all of us possess, but it would certainly help us to be a little happier.

65. A vast business can be done by those who dare to act.

In order to prosper in the business world we must act decisively and be bold.

66. The facts or opinions that are to pass through the hands of so many, to be misinterpreted by folly in some and ignorance in others, can hardly have much truth.

When a news item passes through many people, it is sure to come to us totally adulterated.

67. If I could know his heart, everything would be easy.

Who wouldn’t like to know what their loved one is thinking?

68. What is right to do, cannot be done too soon.

Being hasty is obviously not a good thing, knowing how to wait for the right moment will allow us to reach our goal.

69. When the pain ends, the memory of it often becomes a pleasure.

As time goes by, we learn to overcome the hardest moments of our lives.

70. I go too long without looking for a good book, I feel like I haven’t done anything useful with my life.

For this writer, reading was a fundamental part of her life.