Austen Quotes

Right before the movie Pride and Prejudice came out, I bought a volume containing all 7 of Jane Austen's books. I read P&P, and then decided to read the other 4 stories that I had not read already. Austen has such insight into how people (both the sensible and the insane) think. Here's a few quality quotes for your enjoyment:

From Mansfield Park:

(Irrational female says, "I am really not tired, which I almost wonder at; for we must have walked at least a mile in this wood. Do you not think we have?")
"Not half a mile," was his sturdy answer; for he was not yet so much in love as to measure distance, or reckon time, with feminine lawlessness.

From Northanger Abbey:

(Catherine is in love and waiting for the guy to show up, but he does not. She is introduced to a new friend, "and almost forgot Mr. Tilney while she talked to Miss Thorpe.")
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

Man only can be aware of the insensibilty of man towards a new gown. It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire.

(Catherine wants to dance with Mr. Tilney, but Mr. Thorpe keeps asking her first. She is desperately trying to avoid him.)
Every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical moment, for every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation. All have been, or at least believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of some one whom they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of some one whom they wished to please.

(Catherine wishes she could participate in a conversation with Mr. Tilney and others about drawing, but she knows nothing about it.)
She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she can have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

"I do not understand you."
"Then we are on very unequal terms, for I understand you perfectly well."
"Me? - yes; I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible."
"Bravo! - an excellent satire on modern language."

From Persuasion:

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

From Pride and Prejudice:

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