100+ Jane Austen Quotes About Love, Feminism, Marriage & Women

In a world where love, wit, and social commentary intertwine seamlessly, few authors have captured the essence of human relationships quite like Jane Austen. 

Her novels are not only timeless tales of romance but also sharp critiques of societal norms that resonate even in today’s fast-paced life. Jane Austen quotes offer a glimpse into her brilliant mind—a treasure trove filled with humor, wisdom, and an uncanny ability to dissect the intricacies of human nature. 

Whether you’re a devoted fan or just beginning to explore her work, these quotes illuminate the passions and follies that define our existence.

Who is Jane Austen?

Jane Austen, the English darling of literature, has etched her name indelibly into the hearts of readers with her sharp wit and keen insight into human nature. 

Best known for novels like *Pride and Prejudice*, *Sense and Sensibility*, and *Emma*She masterfully explored themes of love, class, and societal expectations through relatable characters who resonate even today. 

Her untimely death at the tender age of 248 in 1817 left a literary void that generations have sought to fill with adaptations, retellings, and scholarly analysis—yet nothing could truly capture her unique voice.

Jane Austen Profile Summary

Name	Jane Austen
Father’s Name	George Austen
Mother’s Name	Cassandra Leigh Austen
Date of Birth	December 16, 1775
Date of Death	July 18, 1817
Nationality	British
Jane Austen Age	42 years
Gender	Female
Height	Not widely documented
Weight	Not widely documented
Astrological Sign	Sagittarius
Jane Austen Net Worth	Not applicable (historical figure)
Place of Birth	Steventon, Hampshire, England
Primary Sources of Income	Writing (novels, letters)
Occupation	Novelist, Social Commentator

Jane Austen Quotes on Love

Jane Austen’s quotes on love transcend the boundaries of her 19th-century context, resonating with the complexities of contemporary relationships. One poignant reflection captures how love often dances between passion and prudence: “It is not what we think or feel that makes us who we are. It is what we do.”

• In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
• There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.
• 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!
• If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
• There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.
• You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope… I have loved none but you!
• There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well of. The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.
• Is not general incivility the very essence of love?
• When I fall in love, it will be forever.
• There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison
• I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.
• I can no longer listen in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.
• Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention of anybody else.
• The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone.
• Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush.

Jane Austen Quotes on Feminism

Jane Austen’s exploration of women’s roles in society, peppered throughout her jane austen quotes feminism , reveals a profound understanding of the constraints imposed on women during her time. Her feminism jane austen quotes often carry layers of meaning that challenge the patriarchal structures they depict.

• Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.
• Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.
• There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
• I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.
• I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.
• All the privileges I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one: you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone!
• I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.
• There, I will stake my last like a woman of spirit. No cold prudence for me. I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving or it.

Jane Austen Quotes on Marriage

Jane Austen’s exploration of marriage transcends her era, revealing timeless truths about love, compatibility, and social expectations. Jane austen quotes about marriage like It is not what we say or think that defines us, but what we do encapsulates the intricate dance of societal roles within romantic relationships.

• A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter.
• Do anything rather than marry without affection.
• When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other’s ultimate comfort.
• From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of the disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world on whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.
• It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.
• My idea of a good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.
• Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

Jane Austen Quotes on Friendship

Jane Austen’s exploration of friendship reveals a deeply woven tapestry of human connections that challenge societal norms and expectations. Her quotes often highlight the delicate balance between affection and equality, as seen in her famous line from *Pride and Prejudice*: “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”

• Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
• 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.
• General benevolence, but not general friendship, makes a man what he ought to be.

Jane Austen Quotes on Reading & Books

Jane Austen’s reflections on reading and books resonate deeply, revealing her understanding of literature as a pathway to self-discovery and connection. One of her powerful quotes suggests that “the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid.”

• I am delighted with the book! I would like to spend my whole life reading it. I assure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for all the world.
• I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!”
• But for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.
• The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

Jane Austen Quotes on Woman

Jane Austen’s quotes on women reveal her keen understanding of the societal expectations and limitations imposed on women in the early 19th century. Through characters like Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, Austen articulates a longing for autonomy amidst a world that often reduces women to mere ornaments for marriage.

• A young woman in love always looks like Patience on a monument Smiling at Grief.
• No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.
• Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone.
• If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.
• Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.
• I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
• She was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation.
• I will be calm. I will be my mistress.
• She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.
• Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.
• A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
• Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to play you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.

Jane Austen Wisdom Quotes

Jane Austen’s wisdom quotes are timeless nuggets of insight that resonate with the complexities of modern life, reminding us that human nature remains fundamentally unchanged. Her keen observations on love, relationships, and societal norms reveal a depth of understanding that transcends her 19th-century context.

• Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”
• A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
• There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.”
• It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.
• Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
• But people themselves alter so much that there is something new to be observed in them forever.
• Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.
• Don’t imagine that nobody in this house can see or judge but yourself. Don’t act yourself, if you do not like it, but don’t expect to govern everybody else.
• Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
• What one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next. Circumstances change, opinions alter.

Jane Austen Inspirational Quotes

Jane Austen’s works are replete with wisdom that transcends time, offering insights into human nature and relationships. For instance, her quote, It is not what we say or think that defines us, but what we do, reminds us of the importance of our actions in shaping our identities. 

• The distance is nothing when one has motive.
• What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.
• Nobody minds having what is too good for them.
• It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.
• We all have a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can.
• Do not give way to useless alarms…though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.
• One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.

Jane Austen Quotes on Happiness

Jane Austen’s keen observations on human nature often illuminate the paths to happiness, revealing how our connections to others shape our well-being. One of her most memorable quotes, “It is not what we say or think that defines us, but what we do,” underscores the importance of actions over mere intentions.

• Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience; or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.
• I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.
• A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
• I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.
• I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.
• To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.
• when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.
• Blessed with so many resources within myself the world was not necessary to me. I could do very well without it.
• One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

Jane Austen Quotes on Men

Jane Austen’s keen observations on men offer a rich tapestry of insights that resonate even in contemporary times. In her novels, she deftly illustrates the multifaceted nature of masculinity through characters like Mr. Darcy and Captain Wentworth. Austen’s portrayal often underscores the importance of character over mere wealth or social standing.

• One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s.
• What are men to rocks and mountains?
• Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.
• It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
• I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him.
• I cannot think well of a man who sports any woman’s feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffering than a stand-by can judge of.
• You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.
• A man does not recover from such devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.

Short Jane Austen Quotes

Short Jane Austen quotes possess a unique power, encapsulating profound wisdom in just a few words. These lines often serve as mirrors reflecting the intricacies of human relationships and societal norms.  It is not what we say or think that defines us, but what we do, she offers a timeless reminder that our actions hold more weight than our intentions or declarations. 

• Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
• Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like.
• My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.
• Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.
• Which of my important things shall I tell you first?
• Angry people are not always wise.
• Those who do not complain are never pitied.
• Without music, life would be a blank to me.
• Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
• Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.
• Every moment had its pleasure and its hope.
• You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.”
• Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.
• Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.
• There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
• Beware how you give your heart.

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Conclusion

The short quotes of Jane Austen encapsulate profound insights into human nature, love, and societal norms with remarkable brevity and wit. Each phrase serves as a timeless reminder of the enduring themes that resonate across generations. 

Whether you seek inspiration, humor, or poignant reflections on life’s complexities, Austen’s words offer something for everyone. By embracing these succinct snippets of her wisdom, we can find new perspectives in our everyday lives. 

So, take a moment to reflect on these quotes and let them inspire your own journey through the intricacies of life and relationships.

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