What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation?of all the conflicts and the sacrifices that enno ble us most. A sick room may often furnish the worth of volumes.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Mrs. Smith in Persuasion, ch. 17 (1818).)

Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried.... "And what are you reading, Miss??" "Oh! it is only a novel!" replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda"; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Northanger Abbey, ch. 5 (1818).)

A Mr. (save, perhaps, some half dozen in the nation,) always needs a note of explanation.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Sir Walter Eliot in Persuasion, ch. 3 (1818).)

Your letter is come; it came indeed twelve lines ago, but I
could not stop to acknowledge it before, & I am glad it did not
arrive till I had completed my first sentence, because the
sentence had been made since yesterday, & I think forms a very
good beginning.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, November 1, 1800, to her sister, Cassandra. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952).)

No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey, ch. 19 (1818).)

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

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. John Knightley, in Emma, ch. 34 (1816).)

Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Emma, ch. 22 (1816).)

I am fully sensible that an historical romance, founded on the
House of Saxe Cobourg, might be much more to the purpose of
profit or popularity than such pictures of domestic life in
country villages as I deal in. But I could no more write a
romance than an epic poem. I could not sit down to write a
serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and
if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax
into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be
hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to
my own style and go on in my own way.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, April 1, 1816, to James Clarke. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952).)

There are such beings in the World perhaps, one in a Thousand,
as the Creature You and I should think perfection, Where Grace &
Spirit are united to Worth, where the Manners are equal to the
Heart & Understanding, but such a person may not come in your
way, or if he does, he may not be the eldest son of a Man of
Fortune, the Brother of your particular friend & belonging to
your own Country.

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, November 18, 1814, to her niece, Fanny Knight. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952).)

What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited Sketches,
full of Variety and Glow??How could I possibly join them on to
the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so
fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour?

(Jane Austen (1775-1817), British novelist. Letter, December 16, 1816, to her nephew, J. Edward Austen. Jane Austen's Letters, Oxford University Press (1952).)