Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Author & topic collection

Jane Austen Quotes About Communication

Browse 7 quotations connecting Jane Austen with Communication, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

Sources

Where these communication quotations appear

Sources represented here include Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion.

7 shown
Quotations

7 matching quotations with meanings and source context

Source identified1
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

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

Voice: Fictional character · George Knightley

The difficulty of speaking is used as evidence of emotional depth, contrasting sincere feeling with polished or excessive declaration.

Source details

Emma, Volume III, Chapter XIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. George Knightley tells Emma “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more” during his declaration, explicitly contrasting the depth of his feeling with his difficulty making polished speeches.

Source identified2
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.”

Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator

Austen observes that even sincere accounts can contain omission, disguise, or misunderstanding, which makes careful listening and humility important in judging what people say.

Source details

Emma, Volume III, Chapter XIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. The narrator observes that complete truth seldom belongs to any human disclosure while explaining that even the Emma–Knightley understanding contains mistaken conduct alongside genuine feeling.

Source identified3
We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.

“We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.”

Voice: Fictional character · Anne Elliot

Anne links emotional persistence partly to social circumstance: restricted movement and occupation can leave fewer external demands to interrupt sustained feeling.

Source details

Persuasion, Chapter XXIII, Project Gutenberg #105. Anne Elliot says this to Captain Harville while contrasting women’s domestic confinement with men’s professions, business, travel and continual occupation. It is a historically situated fictional argument, not a modern mental-health claim.

Source identified4
Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands.

“Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands.”

Voice: Fictional character · Anne Elliot

Anne challenges the neutrality of inherited literary evidence by pointing to unequal access to education and authorship, asking who had the power to preserve one sex’s version of experience in books.

Source details

Persuasion, Chapter XXIII, Project Gutenberg #105. Anne Elliot says this to Captain Harville while refusing to let books settle their argument about whether men or women love longer.

Source identified5
Angry people are not always wise.

“Angry people are not always wise.”

Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator

Strong emotion can narrow judgment, so being certain while angry is not the same as being correct.

Source details

Pride and Prejudice; the line is preserved in the novel’s dialogue about anger, judgment, and the limits of certainty while emotions are high.

Source identified6
My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.

“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”

Voice: Fictional character · Fitzwilliam Darcy

Darcy presents trust and esteem as difficult to restore once serious judgment has turned against someone, revealing both the firmness and the potential rigidity of his early character.

Source details

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XI, Project Gutenberg #1342. Fitzwilliam Darcy says this to Elizabeth Bennet during their discussion of faults; Elizabeth immediately identifies the position as implacable resentment, so the novel itself does not leave the maxim unchallenged.

Source identified7
I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends.

“I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends.”

Voice: Fictional character · Mr. Bennet

Mr. Bennet turns Mrs. Bennet’s recurring complaint into dry affection, using understatement to expose a long-established family pattern.

Source details

Pride and Prejudice, Volume 1, Chapter 1; Mr. Bennet responds to his wife’s complaint about her nerves.

More from this author

Other topic collections for Jane Austen