Jane Austen

I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise.

Young ladies are delicate plants. They should take care of their health and their complexion.

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

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.

She was vexed beyond what could have been expressed—almost beyond what she could conceal. Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck. The truth of his representation there was no denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, so cruel to Miss Bates! How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in any one she valued! And how suffer him to leave her without saying one word of gratitude, of concurrence, of common kindness!

It is such a happiness when good people get together—and they always do.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

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

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

General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.