There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.
— Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen was an English writer known for her six novels, which interpret, critique and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Her plots often explore women's dependence on marriage for social standing and economic security, and her social commentary, realism, wit and irony have earned her lasting critical acclaim.
She wrote major novels before the age of 22 but was not published until she was 35. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma were published anonymously and were moderate successes, but they did not bring her public fame in her lifetime. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both published after her death in 1817. Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility are her most quoted works in our library.
She wrote major novels before the age of 22 but was not published until she was 35. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma were published anonymously and were moderate successes, but they did not bring her public fame in her lifetime. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were both published after her death in 1817. Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility are her most quoted works in our library.
Most quoted works
- Pride and Prejudice 105
- Emma 50
- Sense and Sensibility 49
- Persuasion 44
- Northanger Abbey 41
- Mansfield Park 37
A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
— Pride and Prejudice
— Pride and Prejudice
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!
— Sense and Sensibility
I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.
— Pride and Prejudice
There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison
— Persuasion
— Pride and Prejudice
She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.
— Pride and Prejudice
Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.
— Pride and Prejudice
I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be...yours.
— Sense and Sensibility
To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect
— Sense and Sensibility
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
— Emma
Without music, life would be a blank to me.
— Emma
...when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.
— Persuasion
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
— Northanger Abbey
There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.
— Emma
— Emma
My Emma, does not every thing serve to prove more and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each other?
— Emma
Angry people are not always wise.
— Pride and Prejudice
I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.
— Pride and Prejudice
…she had nothing to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever…
— Northanger Abbey
I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love.
— Pride and Prejudice
Every moment has its pleasures and its hope.
— Mansfield Park
[I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short.
— Catharine and Other Writings