Love

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

“A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.”

“A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals.”

“A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter.”

“Beware how you give your heart.”

“Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.”

“Do anything rather than marry without affection.”

“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.”

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”

“He will make you happy, Fanny; I know he will make you happy; but you will make him everything.”

“Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.”

“How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.”

“How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”

“Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be in vain.”

“I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.”

“I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony.”

“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 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.”

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

“I do think that men can forget a lost love quickly. I know that women would find it much harder.”

“I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”

“I have no notion of loving people by halves.”

“I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.”

“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”

“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.”

“If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.”

“If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more.”

“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.”

“Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.”

“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.”

“It must be improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is known to have dreamt of her.”

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

“Marriage is indeed a maneuvering business.”

“Mr. Knightley, if I have not spoken, it is because I am afraid I will awaken myself from this dream.”

“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”

“My heart is and always will be yours.”

“My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me.”

“Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then.”

“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.”

“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

“One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.”

“Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.”

“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 a 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 judgment, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance.”

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

“That Marianne found her own happiness in forming his, was equally the persuasion and delight of each observing friend.”

“Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush.”

“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!”

“The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone.”

“There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.”

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”

“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”

“There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person.”

“There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.”

“Till this moment I never knew myself.”

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”

“To love is to burn, to be on fire.”

“We are all fools in love.”

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

“Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing; but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.”

“What are young men to rocks and mountains?”

“What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I’ve had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.”

“Where the heart is really attached, I know very well how little one can be pleased with the attention of any body else.”

“Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.”

“Yes, I found myself, by insensible degrees, sincerely fond of her; and the happiest hours of my life were what I spent with her.”

“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.”

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.”