The best Jane Austen quotes (and what they really mean)
The sharpest, funniest and most romantic lines from Jane Austen’s novels, with the context you need to quote them properly, plus a few famous "Austen" lines she never wrote.
Jane Austen is one of the most quoted writers in English, and one of the most misquoted. Half the lines floating around Pinterest come from movies, and the other half lose their irony once they are taken out of context. So here are the real ones, straight from the novels, with a note on who says them and what is actually going on.
The ones everyone knows
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Narrator, Pride and Prejudice
The most famous opening line in English fiction is a joke. The “truth” isn’t universal at all. It is what the mothers of the neighborhood want to believe. In practice, it is the women without fortunes who are in want of husbands.
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.
Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth says this to Darcy at Rosings, half teasing, half warning. It is basically the mission statement of every obstinate, headstrong girl.
I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.
Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
The honest admission at the heart of the novel. Elizabeth’s dislike of Darcy is not purely principled. He insulted her at a dance, and she hasn’t forgotten.
The sharpest lines
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
Mr. Bennet is funny, and he knows it. He is also a father who prefers making jokes to solving problems, which is exactly why his family ends up in trouble.
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.
Mary Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
Mary is usually the family bore, but this is a genuinely useful distinction, and a neat summary of the whole book.
…certainly silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
Emma Woodhouse, Emma
Emma’s private verdict on a bit of foolishness by a charming young man. It is also, frankly, excellent life advice.
For readers (and against fake readers)
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!
Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice
This one gets printed on library posters, which is very funny, because Caroline is lying. She picked up a book only because Darcy was reading one, spends the scene watching him instead of the page, and gives up soon after.
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey
Henry Tilney is Austen’s most playful hero, and in this line he speaks for Austen herself. Novels were often looked down on in her time, and she defended them.
The romantic ones
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.
Captain Wentworth, Persuasion
From the letter Wentworth writes to Anne Elliot, eight years after she was persuaded to break off their engagement. If you only read one love letter in literature, read this one.
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.
Mr. Knightley, Emma
The most Knightley sentence possible: plain, a little awkward, completely sincere.
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.
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
Swoon-worthy out of context. In context, it opens one of the worst proposals in fiction. Darcy goes on to explain at length why loving her is beneath him, and Elizabeth turns him down flat.
The ones about being a woman
But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.
Mrs. Croft, Persuasion
Mrs. Croft has sailed the world with her navy husband, and she has no patience for her brother’s idea that women are too delicate for life on a ship.
Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you!
Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Pride and Prejudice
An insult that became a compliment. We wrote a whole story about it.
Famous “Austen” quotes she never wrote
A few lines are so often attributed to Austen that it is worth setting the record straight:
- “You have bewitched me, body and soul.” This is from the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice. It is not in the novel.
- Most “Mr. Darcy” lines from the rain-soaked first proposal in the 2005 film are rewritten for the screen. The book version is the one quoted above.
- Many inspirational quotes about “being yourself” credited to Austen online cannot be found in any of her novels or surviving letters.
When in doubt, check the novels. They are in the public domain and free to read.
All quotations are from Jane Austen’s novels Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (both published in December 1817), which are in the public domain.
