Jane Austen Marriage Quotes

#1. but upon the marriage of the young 'squire, it had received the improvement of a farm-house elevated into a cottage, for his residence,

Jane Austen

#2. Marriage is indeed a maneuvering business.

Jane Austen

#3. [On Jane Austen] She was fully possessed of the idealism which is a necessary ingredient of the great satirist. If she criticized the institutions of earth, it was because she had very definite ideas regarding the institutions of heaven.

Rebecca West

#4. Lady Middleton resigned herself ... Contenting herself with merely giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject, five or six times every day.

Jane Austen

#5. I would rather have young people settle on a small income at once, and have to struggle with a few difficulties together, than be involved in a long engagement.

Jane Austen

#6. Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country.

Jane Austen

#7. I consider a country-dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of both; and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves, have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours.

Jane Austen

#8. The most incomprehensible thing in the world to a man, is a woman who rejects his offer of marriage!

Jane Austen

#9. I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house tonight or never.

Jane Austen

#10. And their marriage, instead of depriving her of one friend, secured her two.

Jane Austen

#11. Lady Sondes' match surprises, but does not offend me; had her
first marriage been of affection, or had their been a grown-updaughter, I should not have forgiven her; but I consider
everybody as having a right to marry once in their lives for
love, if they can.

Jane Austen

#12. If you mean Miss Austen, I don't find her particularly romantic," Tasmin declared. "Can't say that I care much about the marriage arrangements among the middle classes."
Tasmin Berrybender

Larry McMurtry

#13. A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter.

Jane Austen

#14. Time, you may be sure, will make one or the other of us think differently; and, in the meanwhile, we need not talk much on the subject.

Jane Austen

#15. Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.

Jane Austen

#16. ... for I look upon the Frasers to be about as unhappy as most other married people.

Jane Austen

#17. I am not only not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of ever marrying at all.

Jane Austen

#18. Couples are really funny, because if they are together, they can fight and do fun things together. In Jane Austen books, marriage is the end of the story, but I actually think a really funny couple could be a fun thing to watch.

Mindy Kaling

#19. Jane Austen never did marry. Why doesthat statement call for such reflexive pity? It carries a diferent meaning if we follow it up: Jane Austen never did marry, and therefore she was given the time and perspective to produce books as well-written as those by anyone who ever lived.
-David Whyte

David Whyte

#20. It is obvious that she is more interested in happiness than in the institution of marriage, in love and understanding than matrimony.

Azar Nafisi

#21. With such a worshipping wife, it was hardly possible that any natural defects in it should not be increased. The extreme sweetness of her temper must hurt his.

Jane Austen

#22. A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals.

Jane Austen

#23. But some characters in books are really real
Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.

Dodie Smith

#24. All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged
after all, what's good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it's a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot.

Mary Ann Shaffer

#25. I pay very little regard," said Mrs. Grant, "to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.

Jane Austen

#26. Really, Mr. Collins,' cried Elizabeth with some warmth, 'you puzzle me exceedingly. If what I have hitherto said can appear to you in the form of encouragement, I know not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one.

Jane Austen

#27. It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

Jane Austen

#28. Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.

Jane Austen

#29. It was the marriage that was important; Jane Austen rarely even bothered to write about the wedding.

Karen Joy Fowler

#30. Miss Bingley's congratulations to her brother, on his approaching marriage, were all that was affectionate and insincere.

Jane Austen

#31. Luck which so often defies anticipation in matrimonial affairs, giving attraction to what is moderate rather than to what is superior.

Jane Austen

#32. Mrs. Allen was one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them. She had neither beauty, genius, accomplishment, nor manner.

Jane Austen

#33. Every romantic woman dreams of Willoughby. However, every wise woman's heart knows Colonel Brandon would take care of her when she was sick, love her when she was well and know her worth every day that she breathes.

Shannon L. Alder

#34. An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.

Jane Austen

#35. I do assure you that I am not one of those young ladies (if such ladies there are) who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time. I am perfectly serious in my refusal.

Jane Austen

#36. Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.

Jane Austen

#37. Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

Jane Austen

#38. All Jane Austen novels have a common storyline: an attractive and virtuous young woman surmounts difficulties to achieve marriage to the man of her choice. This is the age-long convention of the romantic novel, but with Jane Austen, what we have is Mills & Boon written by a genius.

P.D. James