Books

Jane Austen Quotes To Share With Your Valentine
by Emma Oulton
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
CHATSWORTH, ENGLAND - JUNE 22:  Guests watch a display of regency dancing during the Pride and Preju...
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Is there any novelist more romantic than our dear Jane Austen? There's certainly no novelist quite so witty and sentimental all at once. That's why romantic quotes from Jane Austen are the best place to turn for Valentine's greetings for the one who's got your heart this February 14.

Who else but Jane could write the super-sarcastic opening line "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" and also write Mr Darcy's passionate proposal — all in the same novel? Nobody, that's who. Jane Austen pretty much has the monopoly on old-fashioned-but-still-totally-relevant love stories — and her wicked sense of humor stops them from ever being too soppy.

So whether you're looking for something to write in a Valentine's Day card, or whether you just want something to read while you eat ice-cream in the bath (hey, you can love yourself on Valentine's Day if you want to), there's no better place to look than between the pages of a Jane Austen novel. You might find something uplifting, you might find something a little sad, but you're sure to find something true, beautiful, and wonderfully, wonderfully romantic.

1

"We are all fools in love."

— Charlotte Lucas, Pride and Prejudice

2

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope…I have loved none but you."

— Captain Wentworth, 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

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

— Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

5

"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

— Mr Knightley, Emma

6

"A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not."

— Captain Wentworth, Persuasion

7

"The happiest hours of my life were what I spent with her."

— Mr Willoughby, Sense and Sensibility

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