Mansfield Park
Discover thought-provoking quotes from Mansfield Park, Jane Austen’s complex exploration of family, morality, education, social position, and personal conviction. At the centre of the novel is Fanny Price, a quiet but perceptive heroine whose principles are tested by the ambitions, attractions, and changing relationships of those around her.
The quotations below reveal Austen’s keen understanding of character and her ability to expose selfishness, vanity, kindness, and moral uncertainty through elegant prose and understated wit. Explore memorable words from Fanny Price, Edmund Bertram, Mary Crawford, Henry Crawford, and the inhabitants of Mansfield Park, and rediscover a novel that rewards reflection, discussion, and repeated reading.
A fondness for reading must be an education in itself
Edmund recognizes Fanny Price’s intelligence and understands that properly directed reading can become an education in itself.
A large income is the best recipe for happiness
Mary Crawford jokingly proposes wealth as the surest remedy for the inconveniences and disappointments of domestic life.
An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged
Henry Crawford claims that an engaged woman may exercise her powers of pleasing without attracting suspicion.
He recommended the books which charmed her leisure hours
Edmund makes reading useful and attractive to Fanny through conversation, guidance, and judicious praise.
But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea
Sir Thomas quietly asks for nothing but tea after his unexpected return to Mansfield Park.
There are not so many men of large fortune as pretty women
The narrator satirizes the unequal supply of wealthy men and attractive women in the marriage market.
Everybody likes to go their own way
Mary Crawford argues that people prefer to choose their own time and manner of religious devotion.
Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world
Mrs. Norris claims that education and a proper introduction should enable a girl to settle advantageously.
He was in love, very much in love
Fanny’s refusal strengthens Henry Crawford’s determination to force her to love him.
He will make you happy, Fanny
Edmund believes Henry could make Fanny happy but that Fanny would become everything to Henry.