Classic Friday ~ Quotable Jane: Observations, Definitions and Witticisms

I thought it might be fun to start compiling favorite Jane Austen quotes, whether they be from her letters or her books. Here are a few of my favorites on the topic of her observations, definitions, and witticisms.



"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. 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." Pride and Prejudice

“Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” Emma

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

“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.” Northanger Abbey

" . . . our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for . . . " Northanger Abbey

"One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best." Persuasion

“How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!” Persuasion

"There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences." Mansfield Park

“Money can only give happiness when there is nothing else to give.” Sense and Sensibility

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” Letter of Jane Austen December 1798

“Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure in not enhanced and the inconvenience is often considerable.” Emma

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them forever.” Pride and Prejudice

“We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey on us.” Persuasion

“You have delighted us long enough.” Pride and Prejudice

“Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.” Emma



Please feel free to add to the list of observations, definitions, and witticisms of Jane Austen. Next time I’ll do love, men, and marriage.