Sense and Sensibility QUOTES

22 " I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

23 " In such moments of precious, invaluable misery, she rejoiced in tears of agony... "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

24 " If, however, I am allowed to think that you and yours feel an interest in my fate and actions, it may be the means—it may put me on my guard—at least, it may be something to live for. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

25 " Before the house-maid had lit the fire the next day, or the sun gained any power over the cold, gloomy morning in January, Marianne, only half dressed, was kneeling against one of the window-seats for the sake of all the little light she could command from it, and writing as fast as a continual flow of tears would permit her. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

26 " He then departed, to make himself still more interesting, in the midst of an heavy rain. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

27 " Elinor had some difficulty here to refrain from observing, that she thought Fanny might have borne with composure, an acquisition of wealth to her brother, by which neither she nor her child could be possibly impoverished. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

28 " Marianne could never love by halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband, as it had once been to Willoughby. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

29 " In books too, as well as in music, she courted the misery which a contrast between the past and present was certain of giving. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

30 " I understand you.—You do not suppose that I have ever felt much.—For four months, Marianne, I have had all this hanging on my mind, without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature; knowing that it would make you and my mother most unhappy whenever it were explained to you, yet unable to prepare you for it in the least.— It was told me,—it was in a manner forced on me by the very person herself, whose prior engagement ruined all my prospects; and told me, as I thought, with triumph.— This person's suspicions, therefore, I have had to oppose, by endeavouring to appear indifferent where I have been most deeply interested;—and it has not been only once;—I have had her hopes and exultation to listen to again and again.— I have known myself to be divided from Edward for ever, without hearing one circumstance that could make me less desire the connection.—Nothing has proved him unworthy; nor has anything declared him indifferent to me.— I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.— And all this has been going on at a time, when, as you know too well, it has not been my only unhappiness.— If you can think me capable of ever feeling—surely you may suppose that I have suffered NOW. The composure of mind with which I have brought myself at present to consider the matter, the consolation that I have been willing to admit, have been the effect of constant and painful exertion;—they did not spring up of themselves;—they did not occur to relieve my spirits at first.— No, Marianne.—THEN, if I had not been bound to silence, perhaps nothing could have kept me entirely—not even what I owed to my dearest friends—from openly shewing that I was VERY unhappy. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

31 " I cannot, I cannot,' cried Marianne; 'leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! But do not torture me so. Oh! how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of extertion! "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

32 " For though a very few hours spent in the hard labour of incessant talking will dispatch more subjects than can really be in common between any two rational creatures, yet with lovers it is different. Between them no subject is finished, no communication is ever made, till it has been made at least twenty times over. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

33 " 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. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

34 " …Elinor was then at liberty to think and be wretched. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

35 " He had just compunction enough for having done nothing for his sisters himself, to be exceedingly anxious that everybody else should do a great deal. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

36 " ...the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

37 " He paid her only the compliment of attention; and she felt a respect for him on the occasion, which the others had reasonably forfeited by their shameless want of taste. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

38 " To avoid a comparative poverty, which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors, I have, by raising myself to affluence, lost everything that could make it a blessing. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

39 " for though a very few hours spent in the hard labor of incessant talking will dispatch more subjects that can really be in common between two rational creatures, yet for the lovers is different. Between them no subject is finished; no communication is ever made, till it has been made at least twenty times over. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility

40 " Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from Willoughby. She would have been ashamed to look her family in the face next morning, had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it. "

― Jane Austen , Sense and Sensibility