95 Pride And Prejudice Quotes With Page Numbers

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is a love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Both of them judge each other too quickly.

At first, Mr. Darcy isn’t interested in Elizabeth. And when he becomes interested in her, she isn’t interested in him. Will their love overcome their pride and prejudice?

Pride And Prejudice Quotes With Page Numbers Volume One

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 5

“When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mrs. Bennet, Page 6

“Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,” said her father; “she times them ill.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 8

“One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a fortnight.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 9

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 11

“Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. 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. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, Page 12

“He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped that he would never come there again.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 13

“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 13

Mr. Darcy Quotes With Page Numbers

“She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous.”

~Jane Austen , Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about Elizabeth, Page 14

“Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Jane Bennet, Page 17

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 21

25 Elizabeth Bennet Quotes With Page Numbers

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what would have others think of us.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mary Bennet, Page 21

“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 is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost any attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin ‘freely’- as light preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have a heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Charlotte Lucas, Pages 22, 23

“If a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to conceal it, he must find it out.”
-Elizabeth”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Charlotte Lucas, Page 23

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Charlotte Lucas, Page 24

“Keep your breath to cool your porridge’; and I shall keep mine to swell my song.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 25

“What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing, after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished societies.”

Mr. Darcy: “Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world; every savage can dance.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Sir William Lucas and Mr. Darcy, Page 26

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 28

“Well, my dear,” said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the note aloud, “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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 32

“It is amazing to me,” said Bingley, “How young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are.”

“All young ladies accomplished? My dear Charles, what do you mean?”

“Yes, all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time without being informed that she was very accomplished.”

“Your list of the common extent of accomplishments,” said Darcy, “has too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no otherwise than by netting a purse or covering a screen. But I am very far from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general. I cannot boast of knowing more than half a dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished.”

“Nor I, I am sure.” said Miss Bingley.

“Then,” observed Elizabeth, “you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.”

“Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it.”

“Oh! certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can really be esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass 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 mind by extensive reading.”

“I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder at your knowing any.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Pages 38, 39

“[She] is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own, and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Ms. Bingley, Page 40

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 43

“However, he wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Page 44

“Nothing is more deceitful,” said Darcy, “than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 47

“The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 47

“Nay,” cried Bingley, “this is too much, to remember at night all the foolish things that were said in the morning.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bingley, Page 48

“Oh!” said she, “I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’ that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt. I have, therefore made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all–and now despise me if you dare.”

“Indeed I do not dare.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 50

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Caroline Bingley, Page 54

“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 should be completely in your way, and if the second, I can admire you much better as I sit by the fire.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 55

“The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 56

“I dearly love a laugh… I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good. Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 56

“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride – where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 56

“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 they the result of previous study?”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 67

“I beg your pardon; one knows exactly what to think.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 85

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 89

“Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?”

Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together, and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Charlotte Lucas, Page 90

“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 eclat of a proverb.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 90

“Books–oh! no. I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings.”

“I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at least be no want of subject. We may compare our different opinions.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 92

“It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 92

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 106

“Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 106

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 109

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 110

“Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mrs. Bennet, Page 111

“Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about marraige, Page 120

Pride and Prejudice Marriage Quotes With Page Numbers

Pride And Prejudice Volume Two Quotes

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 133

“You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 133

“We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured… It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Jane Bennet, Pages 133, 134

“It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.

And men take care that they should.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Jane Bennet, Page 134

“A girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then.

It is something to think of”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 135

“Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 139

“What are young men to rocks and mountains?”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 152

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 170

“Perhaps,’ said Darcy, ‘I should have judged better, had I sought an introduction, but I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers.’

‘Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?’ said Elizabeth, still addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. ‘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?’

‘I can answer your question,’ said Fitzwilliam, ‘without applying to him. It is because he will not give himself the trouble.’

‘I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,’ said Darcy, ‘of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.’

‘My fingers,’ said Elizabeth, ‘do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault — because I would not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman’s of superior execution.’

Darcy smiled, and said, ‘You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you, can think any thing wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Page 171

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 185

“I might as well inquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil? But I have other provocations. You know I have. Had not my feelings decided against you— had they been indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 186

“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.” 

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet to Mr. Darcy, Page 188

“You could not have made me the offer of your hand in an possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet to Mr. Darcy, Page 188

“How despicably I have acted!” she cried; “I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our aquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 202

“I should infinitely prefer a book…”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mary Bennet, Page 214

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: E;izabeth Bennet, Page 217

“One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 218

“Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 223

“[W]here other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 228

“Upon the whole, therefore, she found, what has been sometimes found before, that an event to which she had looked forward with impatient desire, did not in taking place, bring all the satisfaction she had promised herself. It was consequently necessary to name some other period for the commencement of actual felicity; to have some other point on which her wishes and hopes might be fixed, and by again enjoying the pleasure of anticipation, console herself for the present, and prepare for another disappointment.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about Elizabeth Bennet, Page 229

“A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of some little peculiar vexation.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet’s thoughts, Page 229

Pride And Prejudice Volume Three Quotes

“What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 240

“Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened… It is impossible that he should still love me.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 244

“She certainly did not hate him. No; hatred had vanished long ago, and she had almost as long been ashamed of ever feeling a dislike against him, that could be so called. The respect created by the conviction of his valuable qualities, though at first unwillingly admitted, had for some time ceased to be repugnant to her feelings; and it was now heightened into somewhat of a friendlier nature, by the testimony so highly in his favour, and bringing forward his disposition in so amiable a light, which yesterday had produced. But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of good will which could not be overlooked. It was gratitude.–Gratitude not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough, to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection. He who, she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy, seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the acquaintance, and without any indelicate display of regard, or any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends, and bent on making her known to his sister. Such a change in a man of so much pride, excited 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 exactly be defined.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about Elizabeth Bennet, Page 253

“Angry people are not always wise.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 259

“If gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection, Elizabeth’s change of sentiment will be neither improbable nor faulty. But if otherwise–if regard springing from such sources is unreasonable or unnatural, in comparison of what is so often described as arising on a first interview with its object, and even before two words have been exchanged, nothing can be said in her defence, except that she had given somewhat of a trial to the latter method in her partiality for Wickham, and that its ill success might, perhaps, authorise her to seek the other less interesting mode of attachment.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about Elizabeth, Page 265

“Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mary Bennet to Elizabeth, Pages 274, 275

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet to Kitty Bennet, Page 284

“She was humbled, she was grieved; she repented, though she hardly knew of what. She became jealous of his esteem, when she could no longer hope to be benefited by it. She wanted to hear of him, when there seemed the least chance of gaining intelligence. She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about Elizabeth Bennet, Page 295

“How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator, Page 296

“I often think,” she said, “that there is nothing so bad as parting with one’s friends. One seems to forlorn without them.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mrs. Bennet, Page 312

“I think you are in very great danger of making him as much in love with you as ever.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 320

“If he does not come to me, then,’ said she, ‘I shall give him up for ever.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet about Mr. Darcy, Page 322

“I have not a doubt of your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet, Page 329

“I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Jane Bennet, Page 330

“If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 331

“He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter. So far we are equal.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 337

“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Bennet to Elizabeth, Pages 343, 344

“Elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not. It was necessary to laugh, when she would rather have cried.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: The Narrator about Elizabeth Bennet, Page 344

“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.”

Elizabeth was too much embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, “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, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Page 346

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Lydia Bennet, Page 346

“Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 347 

“You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 348

“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. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 349

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Mr. Darcy, Page 359

“You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet to Mr. Darcy, Page 359

“my good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasion for teasing and quarreling with you as often as may be…”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Character: Elizabeth Bennet, Page 360

“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.”

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Characters: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Page 361

What is the first line of Pride and Prejudice? 

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” On page 5. 

Is Pride and Prejudice Difficult to Read?

Pride and Prejudice is challenging because it was written in 1813 when people’s attention spans were longer. But once you read a few chapters, you won’t stop reading. If you take it one chapter at a time, you should get through without a problem. 

Sources:

Pride and Prejudice PDF