Pride & Prejudice
Welcome to our collection of quotes from Pride and Prejudice. This iconic novel is filled with sharp dialogue and keen observations on love and social class. Discover how Austen’s words continue to resonate with readers today.
“A girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then.”
“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
“Angry people are not always wise.”
“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”
“Do anything rather than marry without affection.”
“Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to play you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.”
“Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.”
“Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.”
“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
“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.”
“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.”
“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.”
“If you will thank me,” he replied, “let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.”
“In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
“Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
“It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”
“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?”
“It’s been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable.”
“Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.”
“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”
“Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”
“One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.”
“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”
“She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.”
“The distance is nothing when one has motive.”
“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.”
“Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush.”
“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.”
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.”
“There is nothing so bad as parting with one’s friends. One seems too forlorn without them.”
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
“Those who do not complain are never pitied.”
“Till this moment I never knew myself.”
“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. 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.”
“We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.”
“What are men to rocks and mountains?”
“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride, where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.”
“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner”
“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.”
“You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.”
“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.”
“Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.” “And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.”