Who really said it
Confirmed in Emma (1815): Emma thinks this to herself while reflecting on Harriet Smith’s warmth of character, in Volume II, Chapter XIII (continuous Chapter 31).
Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?
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“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart” Jane Austen, Emma (1815)
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Provenance
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” said she afterwards to herself. “There is nothing to be compared to it. Warmth and tenderness of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the clearness of head in the world, for attraction, I am sure it will. It is tenderness of heart which makes my dear father so generally beloved—which gives Isabella all her popularity.—I have it not—but I know how to prize and respect it.”
Emma Woodhouse’s private reflection on Harriet Smith’s warmth of character.
Emma, full text at Project GutenbergHow we verified this
Emma was first published in December 1815, decades before the 1931 U.S. copyright cutoff, so the original English text is in the public domain in the United States.
Context
The line occurs as Emma Woodhouse’s private reflection after a scene with her friend Harriet Smith. Having just witnessed Harriet’s open-hearted, guileless affection, Emma contrasts it with her own more analytical temperament and concludes that “warmth and tenderness of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the clearness of head in the world, for attraction.”
It is one of the novel’s clearest statements of its recurring theme: that Emma, for all her wit and self-assurance, still has emotional growing to do — and that she recognizes, even if she cannot yet fully embody, the virtue of tenderness in others.
Warmth and tenderness of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the clearness of head in the world, for attraction.
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Complete public-domain text of Emma at Project Gutenberg
Full-text passage containing the exact quoted sentence in context
Sourced Wikiquote entry citing this line to Chapter 13, Emma thinking of Harriet
Publication history: first published 23 December 1815 by John Murray
Full collected public-domain works of Jane Austen, including Emma
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The author
For writers & researchers
Austen, Jane. Emma. London: John Murray, 1816 [1815]. Volume II, Chapter XIII.
Austen, Jane. Emma. John Murray, 1816.
Austen, J. (1816). Emma. John Murray.
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