I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
Jane AustenRead
...I will not allow books to prove any thing." "But how shall we prove any thing?" "We never shall.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the limitations of books in proving truths or realities.
In this exchange, Jane Austen highlights the inherent uncertainty of knowledge and truth, suggesting that books, while valuable, cannot conclusively establish facts or meanings. It reflects a philosophical perspective on the nature of understanding and the subjective interpretation of information.
Themes
KnowledgeTruthBooksPhilosophyUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a book club discussion to reflect on the subjective nature of literary interpretation.
More from Jane Austen
All quotes →Nobody could catch cold by the sea; nobody wanted appetite by the sea; nobody wanted spirits; nobody wanted strength. Sea air was healing, softening, relaxing - fortifying and bracing - seemingly just as was wanted - sometimes one, sometimes the other. If the sea breeze failed, the seabath was the certain corrective; and where bathing disagreed, the sea air alone was evidently designed by nature for the cure.
Jane AustenRead
He certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.
Jane AustenRead
A person who is knowingly bent on bad behavior, gets upset when better behavior is expected of them.
Jane AustenRead
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
Jane AustenRead
She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.
Jane AustenRead
Similar quotes
In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking his way along, step by step, using every time an old boulder, yet never setting his foot on an old place.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
The energy or active exercise of the mind constitutes life.
AristotleRead
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
Thomas NagelRead
How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.
Sam HarrisRead
Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.
Leonard CohenRead