Jane Austen

“Képtelen vagyok hallgatni. Szólnom kell magához, a rendelkezésemre álló módon és eszközzel. Belém hasít, amit mond. Kétség és remény közt gyötrődöm. Ne mondja, hogy elkéstem, hogy örökre elszálltak oly drága érzései. Hadd kínáljam fel ismét magam és szívemet, mely ma sokkal inkább a magáé, mint volt akkor, mikor nyolc és fél esztendővel ezelőtt majdnem összezúzta. Ne állítsa azt, hogy a férfi hamarabb felejt, mint a nő, hogy szerelme hamarabb kihűl. Soha nem szerettem mást, csak magát. Talán igazságtalan voltam, gyönge és sértődött bizonyosan, de állhatatlan soha. Maga, egyes-egyedül maga hozott engem Bathba. Csak magára gondolok, csak magáért tervezek -hát nem tudja? Lehetséges, hogy nem fogta fel vágyaimat? Nem vártam volna ki ezt a tíz napot, ha úgy tudnék olvasni érzelmeiben, mint amennyire hitem szerint maga belelátott az enyémekbe. Most alig tudok írni. Minden pillanatban hallok valamit, ami levesz a lábamról. Halkra fogja a hangját, ám én ennek a hangnak minden árnyalatát ismerem, és nem veszítek el egyetlen szótagot sem abból, amit más meg sem hallana -jóságos, nagyon, túlságosan is kiváló teremtés! Igen, valóban igazságosan ítél meg bennünket. Hiszi, hogy a férfiakban is van igaz ragaszkodás és állhatatosság. Higgye hát, hogy forrón és megingathatatlanul ez él bennem.F.W.”

“Mindennél többre becsülte az őszinte, nyíltszivű, szenvedélyes természetet. Az érzelmek ereje, a lelkesedés mindenkor rabul ejtette szívét. Sokkal inkább meg tudott bízni olyanokban, akik néha elhamarkodva vagy felületesen nyilatkoznak, mint abban, akit sohasem hagy cserben az elővigyázatossága, sohasem botlik meg a nyelve.”

“Valaha mindent jelentettek egymásnak, most semmit!”

“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

“Even pleasure, you know, is fatiguing…”

“…it was rather because she felt less happy than she had expected.  She laughed because she was disappointed…”

“She was happy, she knew she was happy, and knew she ought to be happy.”

“Letters are no matter of indifference; they are generally a very positive curse.”

“Well, evil to some is always good to others.”

“Harriet was one of those, who, having once begun, would be always in love.”

“…what must be at last had better be soon.”

“Oh! what a silly Thing is Woman! How vain, how unreasonable!”

“…for what after all is Youth and Beauty?”

“[I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

“…but her Letters were always unsatisfactory, and though she did not openly avow her feelings, yet every line proved her to be Unhappy.”

“…yet Habit had so strengthened the idea which Fancy had first suggested…”

“The stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance.”

“Come Darcy,' said he. 'I must have you dance. I hate to see you standing around by yourself in this stupid manner.”

“The loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable - that one false step involves in her endless ruin - that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful - and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behavior towards the undeserving of the opposite sex.”

“Words were insufficient for the elevation of his [Mr Collins'] feelings; and he was obliged to walk about the room, while Elizabeth tried to unite civility and truth in a few short sentences.”

“Ms. Bennett, do you know who I am? I am not accustomed to being spoken to in such a manner.”

“That is very true," replied Elizabeth, "and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”

“Possiamo ridurre le spese? Ritieni che ci sia qualche cosa di cui si possa fare a meno?". E, a onor del vero, Elizabeth, con l'ardore improvviso delle donne, si era messa seriamente a pensare a cosa sarebbe stato possibile fare, ed aveva suggerito di tagliare qualche inutile oblazione benefica e di evitare l'acquisto di nuovi arredi per il salotto. Successivamente, a queste due proposte, aveva aggiunto la felice trovata di non comprare il regalo che tutti gli anni portavano ad Anne tornando da Londra.”

“Accade talvolta che una donna sia più bella a ventinove anni di quanto non sia stata dieci anni prima.”

“Alcuni anni prima Anne Elliot era stata una fanciulla molto carina, ma la sua giovanile bellezza era presto svanita, e dato che anche al colmo del suo splendore il padre non aveva trovato molto da ammirare (erano così diversi dai suoi i delicati tratti e i miti occhi scuri della figlia), non poteva esserci nulla che potesse suscitare la stima del padre ora che era così pallida e magra. Nona veva mai nutrito molte speranze - ora non ne aveva più nessuna- di poter un giorno o l'altro leggere il nome di lei in qualche pagina del suo amatissimo libro.”

“...ma Anne, con la sua raffinata intelligenza e la sua dolcezza, virtù che avrebbero dovuto collocarla molto in alto nella stima di chiunque fosse dotato di giudizio, non era nessuno né per il padre né per la sorella. La sua parola non aveva alcun valore, le sue esigenze erano sempre considerate poco importanti; era soltanto Anne”

“Sir Walter Elliot di Kellynch Hall nel Somersetshire, era un uomo che per passare il tempo mai pariva altro libro che non fosse il Baronetage; vi trovava occupazione per un'ora d'ozio, consolazione per una di dolore; la sua mente fremeva d'ammirazione e rispetto, contemplando l'esiguo numero di membri superstiti delle più antiche baronie, e ogni spiacevole sensazione causata da questioni domestiche si mutava in compassione e disprezzo mentre annotava le quasi infinite nomine del secolo precedente;”

“Beware how you give your heart.”

“It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering.”

“I cannot forget the follies and vices of others so soon as I ought, nor their offences against myself...My good opinion once lost is lost forever. - Fitzwilliam Darcy”

“My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.""You are mistaken," said he gently, "that is not good company; that is the best. Good company requires only birth, education, and manners (...)”

“The contents of this letter threw Elizabeth into a flutter of spirits in which it was difficult to determine whether pleasure or pain bore the greatest share. The vague and unsettled suspicions which uncertainty had produced of what Mr. Darcy might have been doing to forward her sister's match which she had feared to encourage as an exertion of goodness too great to be probable and at the same time dreaded to be just from the pain of obligation were proved beyond their greatest extent to be true He had followed them purposely to town he had taken on himself all the trouble and mortification attendant on such a research in which supplication had been necessary to a woman whom he must abominate and despise and where he was reduced to meet frequently meet reason with persuade and finally bribe the man whom he always most wished to avoid and whose very name it was punishment to him to pronounce. He had done all this for a girl whom he could neither regard nor esteem. Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her. But it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations and she soon felt that even her vanity was insufficient when required to depend on his affection for her—for a woman who had already refused him—as able to overcome a sentiment so natural as abhorrence against relationship with Wickham. Brother-in-law of Wickham Every kind of pride must revolt from the connection. He had to be sure done much. She was ashamed to think how much. But he had given a reason for his interference which asked no extraordinary stretch of belief. It was reasonable that he should feel he had been wrong he had liberality and he had the means of exercising it and though she would not place herself as his principal inducement she could perhaps believe that remaining partiality for her might assist his endeavours in a cause where her peace of mind must be materially concerned. It was painful exceedingly painful to know that they were under obligations to a person who could never receive a return. They owed the restoration of Lydia her character every thing to him. Oh how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him. For herself she was humbled but she was proud of him. Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour he had been able to get the better of himself. She read over her aunt's commendation of him again and again. It was hardly enough but it pleased her. She was even sensible of some pleasure though mixed with regret on finding how steadfastly both she and her uncle had been persuaded that affection and confidence subsisted between Mr. Darcy and herself.”

“Fanny spoke her feelings. "Here's harmony!" said she; "here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what may tranquillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.”

“It may be easily believed that however little of novelty could be added to their fears hopes and conjectures on this interesting subject by its repeated discussion no other could detain them from it long during the whole of the journey. From Elizabeth's thoughts it was never absent. Fixed there by the keenest of all anguish self-reproach she could find no interval of ease or forgetfulness.”

“Miss Darcy was tall and on a larger scale than Elizabeth and though little more than sixteen her figure was formed and her appearance womanly and graceful. She was less handsome than her brother but there was sense and good humour in her face and her manners were perfectly unassuming and gentle. Elizabeth who had expected to find in her as acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been was much relieved by discerning such different feelings.”

“As he quitted the room, Elizabeth felt how improbable it was that they should ever see each other again on such terms of cordiality... and as she threw a retrospective glance over the whole of their acquaintance, so full of contradictions and varieties, sighed at the perverseness of those feelings which would now have promoted its continuance, and would formerly have rejoiced in its termination.”

“It is only by seeing women in their own homes, among their own set, just as they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of that, it is all guess and luck—and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his life!”

“Read Above Your Head--“You may perhaps be brought to acknowledge that it is very well worthwhile to be tormented for two or three years of one’s life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it.”

“Elinor, this eldest daughter, whose advice was so effectual, possessed a strength of understanding, and coolness of judgment, which qualified her, though only nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and enabled her frequently to counteract, to the advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence. She had an excellent heart;—her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn; and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught.”

“Mr. Bennet's expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment.”

“If you will thank me, let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you, might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe, I thought only of you.”

“Let us leave it to the reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans.”

“He admires as a lover, not as a connoisseur. To satisfy me, those characters must be united. I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter into all my feelings: the same books, the same music must charm us both.”

“but without scheming to do wrong, or to make others unhappy, there may be error, and there may be misery. Thoughtlessness, want of attention to other people's feelings, and want of resolution, will do the business.”

“What is passable in youth is detestable in later age”

“No lace. No lace, Mrs. Bennett, I beg you!”

“Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction among her companions”

“Of all horrid things, leave-taking is the worst.”

“He knew her illnesses; they never occurred but for her own convenience.”

“Fine dancing, I believe, like virtue, must be its own reward.”