Favorite Quotes from “Persuasion” by Jane Austen

As you may have read, I recently participated in a read-along of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Amber over at Seasons Humility put together some wonderful posts full of quotes, discussion questions, and great observations. (you can check them out here) Oh, and we had some fun discussions on Twitter with the hashtag #InspiredbyAusten. And watched the 1995 movie adaptation. July was a month of Jane Austen for me!

This book is FULL of wonderful quotes. Jane Austen had such wit and skill with prose! I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes with you here. If you are unfamiliar with the story, may I suggest you read it? Or at least watch one of the movie adaptations? The 1995 version is very true to the book, while the 2007 version has a dreamier Captain Wentworth (it’s just the truth!). (Kara has compared some characters from each one in this fun post!)

“It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before…” from chapter 1

“A lady without a family was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.” from chapter 3 (oh, Sir Walter is SO dramatic!)

“Anne hoped she had outlived the age of blushing; but the age of emotion she certainly had not.” from chapter 6

“…there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.” from chapter 8

“I knew that we should either go to the bottom together, or that she would be the making of me. – Captain Wentworth, from chapter 8, speaking of his ship. (I think this such a neat parallel to he and Anne. While their relationship failed, his naval achievements were a success.)

“One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.” – Admiral Croft, from chapter 13

“She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.” from chapter 17

“A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not, — he does not.” -Captain Wentworth, from chapter 20

“…and Anne, –but it would be an insult to the nature of Anne’s felicity to draw any comparisons between it and her sister’s; the origin of one all selfish vanity, of the other all generous attachment.” from chapter 20

“At nineteen, you know, one does not think very seriously.” -Mrs. Smith, from chapter 21

And then we have Captain Wentworth’s letter ♥ in chapter 23! The whole thing is quotable, but here is my favorite part: “I am half agony, half hope.” 

“Such a letter was not soon to be recovered from.” from chapter 23

“…and soon words enough had passed between them to decide their direction towards the comparatively quiet and retired gravel walk, where the power of conversation would make the present hour a blessing indeed, and prepare it for all the immortality which the happiest recollections of their own future lives could bestow.” from chapter 23

“There they returned again into the past, more exquisitely happy, perhaps, in their reunion than when it had been first projected; more tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other’s character, truth, and attachment; more equal to act, more justified in acting.” from chapter 23

“At last Anne was at home again, and happier than any one in that house could have conceived.” from chapter 23

What about you? Are you a fan of Jane Austen? Do you have more favorite quotes from Persuasion? I’d love to hear your thoughts!