Elizabeth Bennet 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

“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

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“I am excessively diverted.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“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

“She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all her wishes. It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both: by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement, information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“They parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.”
― Jane Austen

“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

“My object then," replied Darcy, "was to show you, by every civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to. How soon any other wishes introduced themselves I can hardly tell, but I believe in about half an hour after I had seen you.”
― Jane Austen

“Vanity, not love, has been my folly.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“It's 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

“Have you any other objection than your belief of my indifference?”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Never had she so honestly felt that she could have loved him, as now, when all love must be vain.”
― Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

“It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.”
― P. D. James

“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.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“What made you so shy of me, when you first called, and afterwards dined here? Why, especially, when you called, did you look as if you did not care about me?"

"Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement."

"But I was embarrassed."

"And so was I."

"You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner."

"A man who had felt less, might.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“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.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“As for Elizabeth Bennet, our chief reason for accepting her point of view as a reflection of her author's is the impression that she bears of sympathy between them--an impression of which almost every reader would be sensible, even if it had not the explicit confirmation of Jane Austen's letters. Yet, as she is presented to us in Pride and Prejudice, she is but a partial and sometimes perverse observer. ”
― Mary Lascelles, Jane Austen And Her Art

“One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“My dear, dear aunt,' she rapturously cried, what delight! what felicity! You give me fresh life and vigour. Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains? Oh! what hours of transport we shall spend! And when we do return, it shall not be like other travellers, without being able to give one accurate idea of any thing. We will know where we have gone -- we will recollect what we have seen. Lakes, mountains, and rivers shall not be jumbled together in our imaginations; nor, when we attempt to describe any particular scene, will we begin quarrelling about its relative situation. Let our first effusions be less insupportable than those of the generality of travellers.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Elizabeth could not help observing, as she turned over some music-books that lay on the instrument, how frequently Mr. Darcy's eyes were fixed on her.”
― Jane Austen

“I am not afraid of you," said he, smilingly.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Had it been your uncle's doing, I must and would have paid him; but these violent young lovers carry everything their own way. I shall offer to pay him to-morrow; he will rant and storm about his love for you, and there will be an end of the matter.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Aunt,” said Elizabeth, as Mrs. Gardiner buttoned up her gown. “May I ask you a question that may seem impertinent and shocking?”
“Of course you may. Those are my favourite kinds of questions,” said her aunt, smiling at her through the reflection in the mirror.”
― Isabelle Mayfair, An Encounter at Pemberley: A Pride And Prejudice Variation

“Miss Eliza Bennet,” said Miss Bingley, “despises cards. She is a great reader and has no pleasure in any thing else.”
“I deserve neither such praise nor such censure,” cried Elizabeth; “I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.”
― Jane Austen, Pride & Predjudice

“In essentials I believe Mr. Darcy is very much what he ever was. When I said that he improved on acquaintance, I did not mean that either his mind or manners were in a state of improvement. But that from knowing him better his disposition was better understood.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice