# Jane Austen's wittiest lines

The sharpest lines from Austen's novels and from her letters to her sister Cassandra, from Pride and Prejudice to Persuasion, each with its source.

- 85 votes · 16 items
- Mar 1, 2019 · C. Byrne
- https://even.best/en/l/2108/jane-austen-s-wittiest-lines

## Top 15

1. **I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — Letter to Cassandra, 1798.
2. **It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Pride and Prejudice (1813), opening line.
3. **Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Charlotte Lucas, Pride and Prejudice.
4. **One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Emma (1815).
5. **One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Pride and Prejudice.
6. **A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park (1814).
7. **I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Letter to Cassandra, 1811.
8. **To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Pride and Prejudice.
9. **Surprizes are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Emma.
10. **Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Mansfield Park, last chapter.
11. **Ah! there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Emma.
12. **Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Letter to Fanny Knight, 1817.
13. **One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Anne Elliot, Persuasion (1817).
14. **What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Letter, 1796.
15. **For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?** (1 · ▲5 ▼4) — Mr Bennet, Pride and Prejudice.
16. **People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Mrs John Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility (1811).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.