Jane Austen: 10 quotes on her birthday

English novelist Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in Hampshire, England. Austen was primarily educated at home and spent most of her childhood with her seven siblings. She and her siblings were encouraged to read from their father’s library and spent much of their time putting on plays and acts for their parents. At age 14, Austen had already written a number of stories, and in her early twenties she had written the novels that she would later revise and publish as "Sense and Sensibiilty," "Pride and Prejudice," and "Northanger Abbey." Austen was closest to her father and her only sister, Cassandra. As a young woman, Austen lived with her family and spent much of her time writing, reading, socializing with the neighbors, and dancing. After her father’s unexpected death in 1801, Austen’s family found themselves in a tight financial situation. She, her mother, and her sister moved from place to place until they finally were able to settle at her brother’s cottage in Chawton. It was in her thirties that Austen began to anonymously publish her work. Her first three novels received a great deal of positive attention, but it was only after her death in 1817 that her brother made it publicly known that she was the author. Today, Austen is considered one of the great English writers, known for the wit and lively commentary that are embodied in her fiction.

1. Fashion

"Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim."

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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