Sense and Sensibility is Jane Austen's debut novel. Published in 1811, it details the lives and loves of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Elinor, who embodies sense, is cautious and reserved, while Marianne, embodying sensibility (or emotion), is impulsive and passionate. The novel begins with the death of their father, which forces them to downsize their lives. Elinor adores Edward Ferrars, who is engaged to another girl, while Marianne is pursued by Colonel Brandon but is infatuated with John Willoughby. The sisters experience the ups and downs of love, including heartbreak and betrayal, in their pursuit of marriages that can secure their social and economic futures. In depicting the limited roles and financial dependencies of women, the book provides insights into Austen's time, while Its exploration of money, integrity, and relationships captivates modern readers.

Along with Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility is one of Austen’s most popular novels. These 30 quotes illustrate her literary greatness.

The Best Quotes From Sense and Sensibility About Emotions and Rationality

1. “Marianne here burst forth with indignation: 'Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor. Oh! worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise."

2. "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."

3. “I WILL be calm; I WILL be mistress of myself."

4. "She was stronger alone; and her own good sense so well supported her that her firmness was as unshaken, her appearance of cheerfulness as invariable, as, with regrets so poignant and so fresh, it was possible for them to be."

5. "Sense will always have attractions for me."

6. "She was without any power, because she was without any desire of command over herself."

7. "A woman of seven and twenty, said Marianne, after pausing a moment, can never hope to feel or inspire affection again."

8. "But to appear happy when I am so miserable—Oh! who can require it?"

The Best Quotes From Sense and Sensibility About Love and Romance

1. "I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be...yours."

2. "What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering."

3. "Mama, the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love."

The Best Quotes From Sense and Sensibility About Social Commentary and Class

1. "Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it."

2. "Mrs. Jennings was a widow, with an ample jointure. She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world."

3. "A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others."

The Best Quotes From Sense and Sensibility About Self-Discovery and Personal Development

1. "Eleanor went to her room 'where she was free to think and be wretched'"

2. "Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience–or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope."

3. "Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims."

4. "I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes... in a total misapprehension of character at some point or other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why, or in what the deception originated."

The Best Quotes From Sense and Sensibility About Perseverance and Hope

1. "Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace."

2. "To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect."

3. "...told herself likewise not to hope. But it was too late. Hope had already entered…"

4. "I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness."

5. "I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself."

6. "I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way."

7. "If a book is well written, I always find it too short."

8. "If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy."

9. "'It is not everyone,' said Elinor, 'who has your passion for dead leaves.'"

10. "It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others."

11. "It is not what we think or feel that makes us who we are. It is what we do. Or fail to do..."

12. "There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions."