In honor of Valentine’s Day I’ve collected 20 of Jane Austen’s most profound, funny, and truthful quotes about love. Personally I’m a big fan of Jane’s biting wit and insight into people’s faults, but I can’t resist a well written declaration of love either.
Though most people
Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries.
But let’s get on to the good stuff! Here are my picks for 20 of Jane Austen’s most memorable musings on love and romance.
1
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
― Pride and Prejudice
2
“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.”
― Mrs. Croft, Persuasion
3
“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.”
― Mr. Darcy, Pride And Prejudice
4
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope…I have loved none but you.”
― Captain Wentworth, Persuasion
5
“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.”
― Northanger Abbey
6
“We are all fools in love.”
― Charlotte Lucas, Pride and Prejudice 2005
7
“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.”
― Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility
8
“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
― Mr. Knightley, Emma
9
“Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
― Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
10
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
― Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
11
“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”
― Pride and Prejudice
12
“If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.”
― Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility
13
“A girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of.”
― Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
14
“There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison”
― Persuasion
15
“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.”
― Edward Ferrars, Sense and Sensibility 1995
16
“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.”
― Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey
17
“Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death.”
― Captain Wentworth, Persuasion
18
“There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.”
― Jane Austen
19
“She was one of those, who, having, once begun, would be always in love.”
― Emma
20
“No young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman’s love is declared, it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her.”
― Jane Austen
Did we miss your favorite Jane Austen quote about love? Leave it in the comments below! Or inspire us by sharing the best declaration of love you’ve ever received.
If you’re ready for a bit more romance you can download our free e-book of Pride and Prejudice. It’s our Valentine’s Day gift to you!
JA