I know my posts have been shockingly scarce lately (which would encompass the past five months, I suppose), and I've very little excuse besides lack of inspiration. Ever since I finished my Jane Austen novel series thing, I have been wanting momentum. I've been working on a hopefully-interesting post next in which my readers can be involved, but I knew I needed something new now, and I thought to do something I've never actually done--compile a list of my very favorite Jane Austen quotes to date. So, here they are.“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” ~Mr. Tilney, Northanger Abbey
"Mama, the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!" ~Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" ~Mr. Bennet, Pride & Prejudice
{Those top three are probably my Very Most Favorites of All. And that sentence was not supposed to be grammatically correct.}
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment." ~Mr. Darcy, P&P
"Those who do not complain are never pitied." ~Mrs. Bennet, P&P
"Laugh as much as you chuse, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion." ~Jane Bennet, P&P
"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. --Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." ~Mr. Bennet, P&P
"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!" ~Caroline Bingley, P&P
"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure." ~Elizabeth Bennet, P&P
"Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you!" ~Lady Catherine de Bourgh, P&P
“Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! … You shewed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.” ~Mr. Darcy
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." (If you do not automatically know what that's from, I pity you. Heehee.)
"There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart." ~Emma Woodhouse, Emma
"Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort." ~Mrs. Elton, Emma
"Without music, life would be a blank to me." ~Mrs. Elton, Emma
"My dearest Emma, for dearest you will always be whatever the event of this hour's conversation, my dearest, most beloved Emma..." ~Mr. Knightley, Emma
{Hmm. Maybe I should just do an entire post with most of Chapter 49. Heeheeheehee.}
"I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other." ~Emma Woodhouse
“But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.” ~NA
“If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.” ~NA
"...and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! -- It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement; -- people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word." ~Henry Tilney, NA
"If there is anything disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it." ~Mary Musgrove, Persuasion
“One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.” ~Admiral Croft, Persuasion
“My sore-throats, you know, are always worse than anybody’s.” ~Mary Musgrove, Persuasion
“What wild imaginations one forms, where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!” ~Anne Elliot, Persuasion
“But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.” ~Mansfield Park
"We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be." ~Fanny Price, MP
Quotes from Jane Austen's letters
"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
“I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know.” (about Elizabeth Bennet)
"Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection."
“Here I am once more in this Scene of Dissipation & vice, and I begin already to find my Morals corrupted.” (letter written in London)
"If I am a wild Beast I cannot help it. It is not my own fault."
"I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am."
What are your favorite Jane Austen quotes?
