15 Best Jane Austen Quotes

Who doesn't love Jane Austen? If you really think about it she was the first Chick Lit writer. She wrote about the comedy of manners, society and the station in life in which you were born and what they expect of you. Jane Austen's (1775-1817) novels, and short stories speak to every generation whether you were born a man or a woman everyone can identify with her characters. So, no wonder she is still so beloved centuries later. That is why I have accumulated the 15 greatest Jane Austen quotes of all time. They are quotes she has said herself as well as quotes found in her classic novels.

1. "I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them"- Jane Austen

2. "Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may wrong?"- Jane Austen

3. "One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other"- Jane Austen, Emma

4. "It is universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

5. "It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage"-Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

6. "Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side"- Jane Austen (from a letter to her niece November 18, 1814)

7. "An artist cannot be slovenly"-Jane Austen (from a letter to her sister Cassandra, November 25, 1798) * Note: This is one is my favorite.

8. "The person, whether it be a gentleman or a lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid"- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey.

9. "Life is just a quick succession of busy nothings"-Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

10. "Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations"- Jane Austen

11. "Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love"- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

12. "In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes"- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey