Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility (1811)

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"I am afraid", replied Elinor, "that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety."

Jane Austen
It was a gloomy prospect, and all that she could do was to throw a mist over it, and hope when the mist cleared away, she should see something else.

Jane Austen
With them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

Jane Austen
I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.

Jane Austen
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.

Jane Austen
She was oppressed, she was overcome by her own felicity; and happily disposed as is the human mind to be easily familiarized with any change for the better, it required several hours to give sedateness to her spirits, or any degree of tranquillity to her heart.

Jane Austen
He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted, and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed....

Jane Austen
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!

Jane Austen
Misery such as mine has no pride. I care not who knows that I am wretched.

Jane Austen
And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in.

Jane Austen
You have no ambition, I well know. Your wishes are all moderate.' 'As moderate as those of the rest of the world, I believe. I wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy, but like every body else it must be in my own way. Greatness will not make me so.

Jane Austen
I cannot help hoping that many will feel themselves obliged to buy it. I shall not mind imagining it a disagreeable duty to them, so as they do it.

Jane Austen
She was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation.

Jane Austen
Elinor agreed with it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.

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

Jane Austen
An annuity is a very serious business; it comes over and over every year, and there is no getting rid of it.

Jane Austen
I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I protest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one myself, within a short distance of London, where I might drive myself down at any time, and collect a few friends about me and be happy. I advise everybody who is going to build, to build a cottage.

Jane Austen
People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them.

Jane Austen
He then departed, to make himself still more interesting, in the midst of a heavy rain.

Jane Austen
At first sight, his address is certainly not striking; and his person can hardly be called handsome, till the expression of his eyes, which are uncommonly good, and the general sweetness of his countenance, is perceived.

Jane Austen
Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating. For many years of her life she had had two sons; but the crime and annihilation of Edward a few weeks ago, had robbed her of one; the similar annihilation of Robert had left her for a fortnight without any; and now, by the resurrection of Edward, she had one again.

Jane Austen
The business of self-command she settled very easily; — with strong affections it was impossible, with calm ones it could have no merit.

Jane Austen
There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.

Jane Austen
But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by everybody at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience; or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.

Jane Austen
No temper could be more cheerful than hers, or possess, in a greater degree, that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself.

Jane Austen
I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.

Jane Austen
Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

Jane Austen
That is what I like; that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue.

Jane Austen
Mrs. Jennings was a widow, with an ample jointure. She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world.

Jane Austen
At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them.

Jane Austen