Top 50 Jane Porter Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Don’t live to please others. Don’t think everyone else knows what’s right or true. Listen to yourself, and be true to yourself. That way, no matter what else happens in life, you will always have your self-respect.”

— Jane Porter

2. “Be shocking, be daring, be bold, be passionate.”

— Jane Porter

3. “Happiness is not perfected until it is shared.”

— Jane Porter

4. “When Alexander had subdued the world, and wept that none were left to dispute his arms, his tears were an involuntary tribute to a monarchy that he knew not, man’s empire over himself.”

— Jane Porter

5. “Magnanimity is above circumstance; and any virtue which depends on that is more of constitution than of principle.”

— Jane Porter

6. “To be truly and really independent is to support ourselves by our own exertions.”

— Jane Porter

7. “Love is full of imagination.”

— Jane Porter

8. “Self-love leads men of narrow minds to measure all mankind by their own capacity.”

— Jane Porter

9. “The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who injured us; and it is hardly possible for one man to be more unlike another than he that forbears to avenge himself of wrong is to him who did the wrong.”

— Jane Porter

10. “The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality, which some temptation may not overtop or undermine, and destroy.”

— Jane Porter

11. “Life is a warfare; and he who easily desponds deserts a double duty – he betrays the noblest property of man, which is dauntless resolution; and he rejects the providence of that All-Gracious Being who guides and rules the universe.”

— Jane Porter

12. “Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men’s candles at our lamp without depriving ourselves of any flame.”

— Jane Porter

13. “Nobility, without virtue, is a fine setting without a gem.”

— Jane Porter

14. “We value the devotedness of friendship rather as an oblation to vanity than as a free interchange of hearts; an endearing contract of sympathy, mutual forbearance, and respect!”

— Jane Porter

15. “Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared.”

— Jane Porter

16. “When the cup of any sensual pleasure is drained to the bottom, there is always poison in the dregs.”

— Jane Porter

17. “Lachrymal counsellors, with one foot in the cave of despair, and the other invading the peace of their friends, are the paralyzers of action, the pests of society, and the subtlest homicides in the world; they poison with a tear; and convey a dagger to the heart while they press you to their bosoms.”

— Jane Porter

18. “A generous spirit is as eloquent in acknowledging benefits as it is bounteous in bestowing them...”

— Jane Porter

19. “It was enough that slander could ruin a woman, because her purity was the most important thing about her.”

— Jane Porter

20. “There is nothing so clear-sighted and sensible as a noble mind in a low estate.”

— Jane Porter

21. “Guilt is a spiritual Rubicon.”

— Jane Porter

22. “Yet happiness isn’t something you chase, it’s something you are. It’s something you think, it’s something you believe.”

— Jane Porter

23. “If cowardice were not so completely a coward as to be unable to look steadily upon the effects of courage, he would find that there is no refuge so sure as dauntless valor.”

— Jane Porter

24. “People do not always understand the motives of sublime conduct, and when they are astonished they are very apt to think they ought to be alarmed The truth is none are fit judges of greatness but those who are capable of it.”

— Jane Porter

25. “We all know that a lie needs no other grounds, than the invention of the liar; and to take for granted as truth, all that is alleged against the fame of others, is a species of credulity, that men would blush at on any other subject.”

— Jane Porter

26. “The platform or the altar of love may be analyzed and explained; it is constructed of virtue, beauty, and affection. Such is the pyre, such is the offering; but the ethereal spark must come from heaven, that lights the sacrifice.”

— Jane Porter

27. “The perfection of outward loveliness is the soul shining through its crystalline covering.”

— Jane Porter

28. “Goodness is equally hateful to the wicked, as vice is to the virtuous.”

— Jane Porter

29. “The doubts of love are never to be wholly overcome; they grow with its various anxieties, timidities, and tenderness, and are the very fruits of the reverence in which the admired object is beheld.”

— Jane Porter

30. “If she went with him, she’d enjoy Kahil’s revenge. She’d welcome the humiliation as it would be at his hands, in his hands, with his body.”

— Jane Porter

31. “However you disguise slavery, it is slavery still. Its chains, though wreathed with roses, not only fasten on the body but rivet on the mind.”

— Jane Porter

32. “Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end.”

— Jane Porter

33. “The fruition of what is unlawful must be followed by remorse. The core sticks in the throat after the apple is eaten, and the sated appetite loathes the interdicted pleasure for which innocence was bartered.”

— Jane Porter

34. “I never yet heard man or woman much abused that I was not inclined to think the better of them, and to transfer the suspicion or dislike to the one who found pleasure in pointing out the defects of another.”

— Jane Porter

35. “National antipathy is the basest, because the most illiberal and illiterate of all prejudices.”

— Jane Porter

36. “How different is the ready hand, tearful eye, and soothing voice, from the ostentatious appearance which is called pity.”

— Jane Porter

37. “He that easily believes rumors has the principle within him to augment rumors. It is strange to see the ravenous appetite with which some devourers of character and happiness fix upon the sides of the innocent and unfortunate.”

— Jane Porter

38. “The flatterer easily insinuates himself into the closet, while honest merit stands shivering in the hall or antechamber.”

— Jane Porter

39. “That grief is the most durable which flows inward, and buries its streams with its fountain, in the depths of the heart.”

— Jane Porter

40. “The mob is a sort of bear; while your ring is through its nose, it will even dance under your cudgel; but should the ring slip, and you lose your hold, the brute will turn and rend you.”

— Jane Porter

41. “True virtue, when she errs, needs not the eyes of men to excite her blushes; she is confounded at her own presence, and covered with confusion of face.”

— Jane Porter

42. “The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who has injured us.”

— Jane Porter

43. “Compulsion hardly restores right; love yields all things.”

— Jane Porter

44. “The pure in heart are slow to credit calumnies, because they hardly comprehend what motives can be inducements to the alleged crimes.”

— Jane Porter

45. “I want what’s mine. And you wife, are mine.”

— Jane Porter

46. “It has been wisely said, “that well may thy guardian angel suffer thee to lose thy locks, when thou darest wilfully to lay thy head in the lap of temptation!” Was it not easier for the hero of Judaea to avoid the touch of the fair Philistine, than to elude her power when held in her arms?”

— Jane Porter

47. “I love you more than I hate cars, so I decided I’d try to face my fears and take some risks.”

— Jane Porter

48. “Our griefs, as well as our joys, owe their strongest colors to our imaginations. There is nothing so grievous to be borne that pondering upon it will not make it heavier; and there is no pleasure so vivid that the animation of fancy cannot liven it.”

— Jane Porter

49. “Where there is any good disposition, confidence begets faithfulness; but distrust, if it do not produce treachery; never fails to destroy every inclination to evince fidelity. Most people disdain to clear themselves from the accusations of mere suspicion.”

— Jane Porter

50. “All warfare that is not defensive is criminal.”

— Jane Porter