Here are the 121 best handpicked quotes from “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen:
From quotes by Elizabeth Burnett to quotes by Charles Bingley.
So if you want the best quotes from “Pride and Prejudice” sorted by figure, then you’re in the right place.
Let’s get started!
My Favorite “Pride and Prejudice” Quote
#1
“Vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride—where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.”
— Mr. Darcy
This quote resonates with me because of how well it draws the line between self-confidence and modesty.
I often hear people say that pride is as destructive as vanity because it often hampers you from seeing the bigger picture of things or situations.
But I also believe that, when used in right moderation and as long as it’s from genuine merit, pride can also be a good thing.
Through this quote, the readers can be reminded that pride and humility, while two different things, can be both possessed as long as we know how to balance them delicately.
32 Quotes by Elizabeth Bennet
#2
“Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#3
“You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#4
“I am now convinced, my dear aunt, that I have never been much in love; for had I really experienced that pure and elevating passion, I should at present detest his very name, and wish him all manner of evil.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#5
“Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it?”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#6
“I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#7
“If, upon mature deliberation, you find that the misery of disobliging his two sisters is more than equivalent to the happiness of being his wife, I advise you by all means to refuse him.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#8
“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#9
“Under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#10
“That is the most unforgiving speech,” said Elizabeth, “that I ever heard you utter. Good girl!”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#11
“Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#12
“Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#13
“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#14
“What are young men to rocks and mountains?”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#15
“And then when you go away, you may leave one or two of my sisters behind you; and I dare say I shall get husbands for them before the winter is over.”
“I thank you for my share of the favour,” said Elizabeth; “but I do not particularly like your way of getting husbands.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#16
“You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#17
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#18
“He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#19
“You have chosen your fault well. I really cannot laugh at it. You are safe from me.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#20
“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#21
“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#22
“Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#23
“Shall we ask him why a man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers?”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#24
“In such cases as this, it is, I believe, the established mode to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed, however unequally they may be returned. It is natural that obligation should be felt, and if I could feel gratitude, I would now thank you. But I cannot—I have never desired your good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to have occasioned pain to anyone. It has been most unconsciously done, however, and I hope will be of short duration. The feelings which, you tell me, have long prevented the acknowledgment of your regard, can have little difficulty in overcoming it after this explanation.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#25
“Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now. But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable. This is the last time I shall ever remember it myself.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#26
“I think you are in very great danger of making him as much in love with you as ever.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#27
“You must give me leave to judge for myself, and pay me the compliment of believing what I say.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#28
“Really, Mr. Collins,” cried Elizabeth with some warmth, “you puzzle me exceedingly. If what I have hitherto said can appear to you in the form of encouragement, I know not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#29
“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner…You could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#30
“Till this moment I never knew myself.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#31
“You never will be able to make both of them good for anything. Take your choice, but you must be satisfied with only one. There is but such a quantity of merit between them; just enough to make one good sort of man; and of late it has been shifting about pretty much. For my part, I am inclined to believe it all Darcy’s; but you shall do as you choose.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#32
“There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
#33
“One cannot always be laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.”
— Elizabeth Bennet
10 Quotes by Mr. Darcy
#34
“I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own.”
— Mr. Darcy
#35
“I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding—certainly too little for the convenience of the world…My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”
— Mr. Darcy
#36
“You either choose this method of passing the evening because you are in each other’s confidence, and have secret affairs to discuss, or because you are conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage in walking; if the first, I would be completely in your way, and if the second, I can admire you much better as I sit by the fire.”
— Mr. Darcy
#37
“Nothing is more deceitful,” said Darcy, “than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”
— Mr. Darcy
#38
“I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.”
— Mr. Darcy
#39
“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will no longer be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
— Mr. Darcy
#40
“The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.”
— Mr. Darcy
#41
“You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.”
— Mr. Darcy
#42
“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”
— Mr. Darcy
#43
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.”
— Mr. Darcy
3 Quotes by Mrs. Gardiner
#44
“Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank Heaven! I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”
— Mrs. Gardiner
#45
“Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men.”
— Mrs. Gardiner
#46
“But that expression of ‘violently in love’ is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea. It is as often applied to feelings which arise from a half-hour’s acquaintance, as to a real, strong attachment. Pray, how violent was Mr. Bingley’s love?”
— Mrs. Gardiner
3 Quotes by Jane Bennet
#47
“’Tis too much!” she added, “by far too much. I do not deserve it. Oh! why is not everybody as happy?”
— Jane Bennet
#48
“Do anything rather than marry without affection.”
— Jane Bennet
#49
“Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.”
— Jane Bennet
4 Quotes by Mary Bennet
#50
“Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures! They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me—I should infinitely prefer a book.”
— Mary Bennet
#51
“It is difficult indeed—it is distressing. One does not know what to think.”
“I beg your pardon; one knows exactly what to think.”
— Mary Bennet
#52
“A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
— Mary Bennet
#53
“We must stem the tide of malice, and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation.”
— Mary Bennet
1 Quote by Lady Catherine de Bourgh
#54
“Obstinate, headstrong girl!”
— Lady Catherine de Bourgh
2 Quotes by Charlotte Lucas
#55
“It is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark…There are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.”
— Charlotte Lucas
#56
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.”
— Charlotte Lucas
5 Quotes by Mrs. Bennet
#57
“I shall always say he used my daughter extremely ill; and if I was her, I would not have put up with it. Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart; and then he will be sorry for what he has done.”
— Mrs. Bennet
#58
“People who suffer as I do from nervous complaints can have no great inclination for talking. Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.”
— Mrs. Bennet
#59
“I often think,” said she, “that there is nothing so bad as parting with one’s friends. One seems so forlorn without them.”
— Mrs. Bennet
#60
“When you have killed all your own birds, Mr. Bingley,” said her mother, “I beg you will come here, and shoot as many as you please on Mr. Bennet’s manor.”
— Mrs. Bennet
#61
“He has always something to say to everybody. That is my idea of good breeding; and those persons who fancy themselves very important, and never open their mouths, quite mistake the matter.”
— Mrs. Bennet
5 Quotes by Mr. Bennet
#62
“No, Kitty, I have at last learnt to be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it. No officer is ever to enter into my house again, nor even to pass through the village. Balls will be absolutely prohibited, unless you stand up with one of your sisters. And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner.”
— Mr. Bennet
#63
“No, no. You forced me into visiting him last year, and promised, if I went to see him, he should marry one of my daughters. But it ended in nothing, and I will not be sent on a fool’s errand again.”
— Mr. Bennet
#64
“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
— Mr. Bennet
#65
“We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.”
— Mr. Bennet
#66
“If your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness—if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders.”
— Mr. Bennet
1 Quote by William Collins
#67
“Dear Sir, I must trouble you once more for congratulations. Elizabeth will soon be the wife of Mr. Darcy. Console Lady Catherine as well as you can. But, if I were you, I would stand by the nephew. He has more to give. Yours sincerely, etc.”
— William Collins
2 Quotes by Caroline Bingley
#68
“It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”
— Caroline Bingley
#69
“How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way! I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
— Caroline Bingley
1 Quote by Charles Bingley
#70
“I assure you, that if Darcy were not such a great tall fellow, in comparison with myself, I should not pay him half so much deference. I declare I do not know a more awful object than Darcy, on particular occasions, and in particular places; at his own house especially, and of a Sunday evening, when he has nothing to do.”
— Charles Bingley
51 Quotes by No Specific Figure
#71
“His marriage was now fast approaching, and she was at length so far resigned as to think it inevitable, and even repeatedly to say, in an ill-natured tone, that she “wished they might be happy.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#72
“When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really an air of great comfort throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#73
“I had not at that time the honour of knowing any lady in the assembly beyond my own party.”
“True; and nobody can ever be introduced in a ball-room.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#74
“Elizabeth could not see Lady Catherine without recollecting that, had she chosen it, she might by this time have been presented to her as her future niece; nor could she think, without a smile, of what her ladyship’s indignation would have been. “What would she have said? how would she have behaved?” were questions with which she amused herself.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#75
“Mr. Darcy said very little, and Mr. Hurst nothing at all. The former was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion, and doubt as to the occasion’s justifying her coming so far alone. The latter was thinking only of his breakfast.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#76
“Can I have the carriage?” said Jane.
“No, my dear, you had better go on horseback, because it seems likely to rain; and then you must stay all night.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#77
“Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#78
“Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad day. Her hopes were answered; Jane had not been gone long before it rained hard. Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was delighted. The rain continued the whole evening without intermission; Jane certainly could not come back.
“This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!” said Mrs. Bennet more than once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#79
“There is nothing like dancing after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished society.”
“Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world. Every savage can dance.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#80
“I can guess the subject of your reverie.”
“I should imagine not.”
“You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many evenings in this manner—in such society; and indeed I am quite of your opinion. I was never more annoyed.”
“Your conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#81
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“And your defect is to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#82
“Upon the whole, therefore, she found, what has been sometimes found before, that an event to which she had been looking with impatient desire did not, in taking place, bring all the satisfaction she had promised herself.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#83
“I dare say you will find him very agreeable.”
“Heaven forbid! That would be the greatest misfortune of all! To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! Do not wish me such an evil.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#84
“She wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her. “How could you begin?” said she. “I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?” “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#85
“She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!”
— Pride and Prejudice
#86
“She wanted to make herself agreeable to all; and in the latter object, where she feared most to fail, she was most sure of success, for those to whom she endeavoured to give pleasure were prepossessed in her favour. Bingley was ready, Georgiana was eager, and Darcy determined, to be pleased.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#87
“Such a change in a man of so much pride exciting not only astonishment but gratitude—for to love, ardent love, it must be attributed; and as such its impression on her was of a sort to be encouraged, as by no means unpleasing, though it could not be exactly defined.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#88
“Angry people are not always wise.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#89
“Never had she so honestly felt that she could have loved him, as now, when all love must be vain.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#90
“Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason, and she continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#91
“There is something very pompous in his style.—And what can he mean by apologising for being next in the entail?—We cannot suppose he would help it if he could.—Could he be a sensible man, sir?”
“No, my dear, I think not. I have great hopes of finding him quite the reverse.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#92
“How hard it is in some cases to be believed!”
“And how impossible in others!”
— Pride and Prejudice
#93
“We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#94
“What think you of books?” said he, smiling.
“Books—oh! no. I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#95
“I remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly ever forgave, that your resentment once created was unappeasable. You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created?”
“I am,” said he, with a firm voice. “And never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?”
“I hope not.”
“It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#96
“To Elizabeth it appeared that, had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit or finer success.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#97
“On opening the door, she perceived her sister and Bingley standing together over the hearth, as if engaged in earnest conversation; and had this led to no suspicion, the faces of both, as they hastily turned round and moved away from each other, would have told it all. Their situation was awkward enough; but hers she thought was still worse.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#98
“I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment.”
“That will make your ladyship’s situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on me.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#99
“The happiness which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#100
“Elizabeth longed to observe that Mr. Bingley had been a most delightful friend; so easily guided that his worth was invaluable; but she checked herself. She remembered that he had yet to learn to be laughed at, and it was rather too early to begin.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#101
“Will you tell me how long you have loved him?”
“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#102
“Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?”
“For the liveliness of your mind, I did.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#103
“You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner.”
“A man who had felt less, might.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#104
“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#105
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#106
“You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.”
“You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#107
“He seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going down the dance. So he inquired who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next. Then the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulanger—”
“If he had had any compassion for me,” cried her husband impatiently, “he would not have danced half so much! For God’s sake, say no more of his partners. Oh that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance!”
— Pride and Prejudice
#108
“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!—so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”
“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#109
“Come here, child,” cried her father as she appeared. “I have sent for you on an affair of importance. I understand that Mr. Collins has made you an offer of marriage. Is it true?” Elizabeth replied that it was. “Very well—and this offer of marriage you have refused?”
“I have, sir.”
“Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?”
“Yes, or I will never see her again.”
“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#110
“His pride,” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”
“That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#111
“But I hope you will get over it, and live to see many young men of four thousand a year come into the neighbourhood.”
“It will be no use to us, if twenty such should come, since you will not visit them.”
“Depend upon it, my dear, that when there are twenty, I will visit them all.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#112
“I am sick of Mr. Bingley,” cried his wife.
“I am sorry to hear that; but why did not you tell me that before? If I had known as much this morning I certainly would not have called on him. It is very unlucky; but as I have actually paid the visit, we cannot escape the acquaintance now.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#113
“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#114
“Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#115
“I am afraid, Mr. Darcy,” observed Miss Bingley in a half whisper, “that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine eyes.”
“Not at all,” he replied; “they were brightened by the exercise.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#116
“Oh! certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.”
“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#117
“And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth impatiently. “There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”
“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy. “Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#118
“I should like balls infinitely better,” she replied, “if they were carried on in a different manner; but there is something insufferably tedious in the usual process of such a meeting. It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day.”
“Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be near so much like a ball.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#119
“It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?”
“They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time, and though I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#120
“Mr. Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth—and it was soon done—done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire. Elizabeth, equally next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded her of course.”
— Pride and Prejudice
#121
“Indeed, Mr. Bennet,” said she, “it is very hard to think that Charlotte Lucas should ever be mistress of this house, that I should be forced to make way for her, and live to see her take her place in it!” “My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts. Let us hope for better things. Let us flatter ourselves that I may be the survivor.”
— Pride and Prejudice