21 Of The Wisest Things Jane Austen Ever Said

Jane Austen was way ahead of her time.

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

Sense and Sensibility

2. "We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be."

Mansfield Park

4. "There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves."

Emma

5. "Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

Pride and Prejudice

7. "It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do."

Sense and Sensibility

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

Persuasion

10. "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."

Emma

11. "Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure."

Mansfield Park

13. "You must be the best judge of your own happiness."

Emma

14. "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

16. "Those who do not complain are never pitied."

Pride and Prejudice

17. "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."

Sense and Sensibility

19. "Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable."

Emma

20. "Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain."

Pride and Prejudice

21. "Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief."

Emma

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