Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

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

“She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent walker.

abominable sort of conceited independence,

“Then,” observed Elizabeth, “you must comprehend10 a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.” “Yes; I do comprehend a great deal in it.”

“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy.

Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her.

“You either chuse 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.”

As I must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me, I shall chuse to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females.”

I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature3 speaking the truth from her heart.”

“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.” Elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning;

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

My conduct may I fear be objectionable in having accepted my dismission from your daughter’s lips instead of your own.

Sir William Lucas, and his daughter Maria, a good humoured girl, but as empty-headed as himself, had nothing to say that could be worth hearing, and were listened to with about as much delight as the rattle of the chaise.

Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”

What are men to rocks and mountains?

I do not know any body who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than Mr. Darcy.”

“In vain have I 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.”

“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 gentleman-like manner.”

To this, Mary very gravely replied, “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.”

And now here’s Mr. Bennet gone away, and I know he will fight Wickham, wherever he meets him, and then he will be killed, and what is to become of us all? The Collinses will turn us out, before he is cold in his grave; and if you are not kind to us, brother, I do not know what we shall do.”

But we must stem the tide of malice, and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other, the balm of sisterly consolation.”

“I thank you for my share of the favour,” said Elizabeth; “but I do not particularly like your way of getting husbands.”

But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it, by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss De Bourgh. You both did as much as you could, in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?”

“Obstinate, headstrong girl!

You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose; nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submit to any person’s whims. 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.”

You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine.

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

I thought only of you.”

After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.”

Such a charming man!—so handsome! so tall!—Oh,

To be sure, you knew no actual good of me—but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.”