The wisdom of Jane Austen

As Pride and Prejudice celebrates its 200th anniversary, we recall our favourite lines from Jane Austen

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” - Pride and Prejudice

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

“Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another!” - Emma

“Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.” - Pride and Prejudice

“Know your own happiness. Want for nothing but patience - or give it a more fascinating name: Call it hope.” - Sense and Sensibility

“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” - Mansfield Park

“Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.” - Emma

“Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.” -  Mansfield Park

“In nine times out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels." - Pride and Prejudice

“To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last...” - Jane Austen's Letters

“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.” - Mansfield Park

“Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.” - Emma

“Our scars make us know that our past was for real” - Pride and Prejudice

“But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.” - Mansfield Park

“Why not seize the pleasure at once? - How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!” - Emma

“If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.” -  Emma

“A girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of.” - Pride and Prejudice

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” - Northanger Abbey