Immerse yourself in the words of one of the greatest literary icons of all time and let these 45 Jane Austen quotes about love (selected from all six of her novels: Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility) leave a lasting impact on your heart.
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Many years ago now, I did a university course called The novel to 1900 – or something like that (I actually originally remembered it as The Victorian novel, but in the research for this article I discovered – or more likely rediscovered – that Austen was not considered a Victorian novelist. There goes that memory).
It was one of the best learning experiences I ever had. Reading those classic works and being able to connect to them was so meaningful and so enjoyable.
That experience never left me, as later, as a high school English teacher, one of the key things I loved to impart to students was about the universality of human experience across time and place.
While the book I learned in that course I taught the most was Tess of the d’Urbervilles, anyone who has read that novel will know it cannot be described as a love story in any sense of the word. However all of them had impact.
One of the books in particular was Persuasion. I was doing this university course by correspondence and we had an on campus course part way through the year.
I was in my early 20s at the time, and I recall a woman in her 40s or 50s talking about the novel. She said how she had read Persuasion at least once in each decade of her adult life and every time it was like reading it anew – she took something unique from it.
I loved Persuasion, and went on to read Emma, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility (Sorry Mansfield Park. I’m not sure why I left you out. Rest assured I have not left you out of this article.
While each book was unique, Jane Austen’s heroines were generally women for whom making the “right” marriage was necessary for social standing and security. Yet they desired love.
And while you would not consider that Jane Austen wrote your traditional love story, luckily, these protagonists tended to find it in an intellectually and emotionally satisfying match.
This is what makes it the perfect body of work from which to select quotes about love.
You might also like: 25 Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes about love.
Contents
Jane Austen love quotes from Emma
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.
Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.
This sweetest and best of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults.
She was one of those, who, having, once begun, would be always in love.
Then I examined my own heart. And there you were. Never, I fear, to be removed.
This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of everything’s being dull and insipid about the house! I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I were not.
Jane Austen's classic novel Emma is a timeless story of love, friendship, and self-discovery.
Jane Austen quotes about love from Mansfield Park
I know he will make you happy, but you will make him everything.
I pay very little regard … to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” said she afterwards to herself. “There is nothing to be compared to it. Warmth and tenderness of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the clearness of head in the world, for attraction: I am sure it will.”
There is no reason in the world why you should not be important where you are known. You have good sense, and a sweet temper, and I am sure you have a grateful heart, that could never receive kindness without hoping to return it. I do not know any better qualifications for a friend and companion.
You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you.
Mansfield Park follows the story of Fanny Price, a young woman who is sent by her overburdened family to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at the estate of Mansfield Park.
Jane Austen love quotes from Northanger Abbey
The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing.
All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of some one they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of someone they wished to please.
I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.
Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention of any body else. Everything is so insipid, so uninteresting, that does not relate to the beloved object!
You will allow that in both man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal; that in both it is an engagement between man and woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their duty each to endeavor to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbors, or fancying that they should have been better off with any one else.
Northanger Abbey is the story of seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, one of ten children of a country clergyman, whose wild imagination and excessive fondness for Gothic novels has skewed her worldview and interactions with others to great comic effect.
Jane Austen quotes about love from Persuasion
I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.
A man does not recover from such devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.
For you alone, I think and plan. (This is a sweet long distance love quote).
He had an affectionate heart. He must love somebody.
I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.
She prized the frank, the open-hearted, the eager character beyond all others. Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still.
Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever.
There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.
Your countenance perfectly informs me that you were in company last night with the person, whom you think the most agreeable in the world, the person who interests you at this present time, more than all the rest of the world put together.
Persuasion focuses on Anne Elliot's thwarted romance with Captain Frederick Wentworth, whom she originally met and fell in love with when she was 19, but whom she ultimately rejected because he was deemed too poor. 8 years later. he's back.
Jane Austen love quotes from Pride and Prejudice
Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last.
Do anything rather than marry without affection.
He told her of feelings, which, in proving of what importance she was to him, made his affection every moment more valuable.
Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.
I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice.
I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.
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.
She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes. It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both: by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance.
They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects.
To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.
You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.
Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, have moved into their neighborhood.
Jane Austen quotes about love from Sense and Sensibility
I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be…yours.
(You might also like these soulmate quotes for lovers).
I can feel no sentiment of approbation inferior to love.
I think him every thing that is worthy and amiable.
If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.
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.
To love is to burn, to be on fire.
When he was present she had no eyes for anyone else.
Yes, I found myself, by insensible degrees, sincerely fond of her; and the happiest hours of my life were what I spent with her.
Sense and Sensibility is a delightful comedy of manners in which the sisters Elinor and Marianne represent these two qualities.
I don’t know about you, but after reading these Jane Austen quotes about love, I’m off to get my copy of Persuasion and see what my 50 something self takes from it compared to my 20 something self!
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