Jane Austen's best quotes

'Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing after all' and the best of her other quotes

Jane Austen, drawn by her sister Cassandra

Jane Austen, had she been alive (and immortal), would have been 238 today.

And while she lives on through BBC mini-series’, Bridget Jones' baddies and even video games (oh the travesty!) for true fans of her work, there is no substitute for Austen’s original inkings.

In tribute to the woman who will soon be on ten pound notes, here are our favourite quotes, from her often witty, sometime acerbic, and occasionally melancholic, quill.

May our bosoms heave with desire for her writing today and always.I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. (Letter to Cassandra 1798)

"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. I will not allow books to prove anything. "(Persuasion)

"A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can." (Northanger Abbey)

"The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love." (Sense and Sensibility)

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

"How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!" (Persuasion)

"Angry people are not always wise." (Pride and Prejudice)

"My sore throats are always worse than anyone's." (Persuasion)

"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love." (Northanger Abbey)

"It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do." (Sense and Sensibility)

"One has not great hopes from Birmingham." (Emma)