Mr. Bennet Quotes

you are as handsome as any of them - Mr. Bennet to Mrs. Bennet

You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. Mr. Bennet says this to Mrs. Bennet, when she suggests he visit Charles Bingley as soon as he comes to Netherfield. She hopes that Bingley might be a suitor for one of their daughters. Using a simile, Mr. Bennet teases his wife that she is "as handsome as any of them" and Mr. Bingley might take a shine to her.
Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters - Mr. Bennet

They are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. Mr. Bennet is commenting on the prospect of their new neighbor Charles Bingley falling in love with one of his five daughters. His wife Mrs. Bennet’s has expressed the hope that the rich occupant of the nearby Netherfield Park will be a potential suitor for one of their girls. Mr. Bennet’s reply, in singling out Elizabeth for her "quickness," positions her early on as the protagonist in the novel.
I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends - Mr. Bennet

"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."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. When Mrs. Bennet complaints that her husband is annoying her, Mr. Bennet metaphorically refers to his wife’s nerves as his old friends and says that he has a high respect for them. He is being ironic and sarcastic here.

"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."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1. Young single men are not safe when Mrs. Bennet is around. Their bachelor status is in great jeopardy from the mother of five eligible daughters, who is obsessed with finding husbands for them. But before that can happen the father Mr. Bennet needs to call on a potential husband and make the first move. In this exchange Mr. Bennet teases Mrs. Bennet, promising that if twenty young and wealthy bachelors move into the area he will visit them all. But his tone is ironic, for he doesn’t commit to visiting any less than that number, and Mrs. Bennet is still trying to persuade him to call on one such bachelor Mr. Bingley.

Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley. He had always intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go; and till the evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 2. It is ironic that Mr. Bennet is one of the first to visit Charles Bingley, because he repeatedly insists to his wife Mrs. Bennet that he won’t make the visit to Netherfield. But Mr. Bennet sometimes means the opposite of what he says to his wife, enjoying teasing and taking a rise out of her.

"What say you, Mary? for you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts."
Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 2. Mr. Bennet teases his daughter Mary, who is introduced here and is one of the vehicles for her father’s irony and sarcasm. The unfortunate Mary makes her debut in the novel to her father’s mocking humor. Mary is of course not a woman of deep reflection and is tongue-tied, having nothing to say in response.

"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."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 2. Mr. Bennet prefers to tease his wife instead of telling her directly about his visit to Mr. Bingley in Netherfield. You will recall that in Chapter 1 she asked him to visit Bingley but he tormented her by pretending to have no interest. Here when Mrs. Bennet complains that she is metaphorically sick of Bingley, Mr. Bennet announces with a pretence of dismay that he has already made acquaintance with their new neighbor.

"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!"

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 3. Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet are talking about Charles Bingley’s attentions towards Jane at the Meryton ball. Mrs. Bennet is convinced of Bingley’s interest in Jane on account of the fact that he danced with her twice. But Mr. Bennet seems indifferent to his wife’s account of the ball and becomes irritated with her.

I must so far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly foolish.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7. Disagreeing with his wife, Mr. Bennet describes his youngest daughters Kitty and Lydia as "uncommonly foolish" after branding them "two of the silliest girls in the country" moments before. He appears to think that they are spending too much time around the soldiers from the militia regiment recently arrived in the neighborhood. But the irony is that he never insists that they stop. Mr. Bennet enjoys criticizing and teasing his daughters, but never actually tries to correct their behavior. This is also foreshadowing that his youngest daughters’ foolishness will get one of them – Lydia – involved in trouble and scandal later.

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, Chapter 7. Mr. Bennet teases Mrs. Bennet with one of his famous tongue-in-cheek comments about her placing Jane in danger through her obsession with getting her daughter married. This is after Elizabeth reads a note from Jane in Bingley’s Netherfield Park to say that she is ill with a sore throat and headache after being out in the storm. The passage is an example of Austen’s wonderful use of verbal irony – Mr. Bennet means the opposite of what he appears to be saying to Mrs. Bennet.

"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. There is a mixture of servility and self-importance in his letter, which promises well. I am impatient to see him"

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 13. Elizabeth and her father are commenting on Mr. Collins and his letter to the Bennets, whose Longbourn estate he is to inherit and which he is about to visit. In the letter he expresses the hope that "the circumstance of my being next in the entail of Longbourn estate will be kindly overlooked on your side, and not lead you to reject the offered olive-branch." We gain a good glimpse of Mr. Collins’s character from the Bennets’ comments – pompous, servile to his patron Lady Catherine de Bourgh and for a clergyman unusually vain and full of his own self-importance.

"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."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14. Mr. Bennet is making fun of Mr. Collins and being ironical at his guest’s expense when he compliments him on his talent of "flattering with delicacy." But Mr. Collins is too dense and full of his own vanity to notice it. In his reply Collins admits to thinking up compliments and practising them so that present them at the right time as if they came naturally.

Mr. Bennet’s expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment, maintaining at the same time the most resolute composure of countenance, and except in an occasional glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner in his pleasure.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 14. Austen’s descriptions of the pompous and conceited Mr. Collins, as she savagely satirizes the ridiculous clergyman, are almost mockeries. A good example is in this passage where Mr. Bennet derives much amusement from observing his absurd cousin’s manners and way of going on during a visit to Longbourn. And we laugh with him.

In his library he had always been always sure of leisure and tranquillity; and though prepared…to meet with folly and conceit in every other room in the house, he was used to be free of them there.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 15. Mr. Bennet sees his library not so much as a place of learning but as his escape room. He goes there to find solace in his loveless marriage. But in this instance it’s to get away from the annoying Mr. Collins, who is talking to him non-stop about his house and garden in Hunsford. In hiding himself behind his library books, Mr. Collins neglects his family and his parenting responsibilities towards his daughters.

To such perseverance in wilful self-deception, Elizabeth would make no reply, and immediately and in silence withdrew; determined, that if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement, to apply to her father, whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as must be decisive, and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 19. Elizabeth can no longer stay and listen to Mr. Collins’s "wilful" exercise in self-deceit as he refuses to accept her refusal to marry him. She leaves the room and determines that if Mr. Collins should persist, she will have her father give him the message. She believes that Mr. Bennet’s "no" won’t be mistaken for female pretension or flirtation.

Oh! Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar. You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will not have him.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 20. The ridiculous Mrs. Bennet is satirized here as she reacts to Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Collins’s marriage offer. In her cry for help she appeals to the man of the house Mr. Bennet to use his fatherly authority and compel Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins, despite her vowing she will not have him. Mrs. Bennet’s sole thought in life is to get her daughters married.

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, Chapter 20. Irony is Jane Austen’s forte and she uses it here to humorous effect through the character of Mr. Bennet. He tells Elizabeth that she will metaphorically be a stranger to her mother if she doesn’t marry Mr. Collins, and a stranger to her father if she does.

"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."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 23. Mrs. Bennet is enraged that Charlotte Lucas has accepted Mr. Collins’s proposal of marriage, not for love but for security, and that Charlotte will one day displace the Bennets at Longbourn. Mr. Bennet tries to comfort his desolate wife by suggesting that he may survive Collins, who is meant to inherit the Bennets’ home when Mr.Bennet passes away.

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction among her companions.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. While Mrs. Bennet is anxious and worried, Mr. Bennet finds it a source of amusement that Jane’s hopes of getting married anytime soon diminish as Charles Bingley appears to abandon her and move from the area. The humorous and more relaxed Mr. Bennet is the perfect foil to the emotional Mrs. Bennet. But what Mr. Bennet says here to Elizabeth is ironic, as no girl likes being disappointed in love and it’s not a laughing matter for his eldest daughters.

Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. Mr. Bennet, who is fond of teasing his daughters, is being sarcastic when he says this to Elizabeth. But as always there is some truth in Mr. Bennet’s sarcastic humor. Mr. Bennet’s ironic comment is also foreshadowing of Elizabeth’s growing attaction for Wickham and her losing him to another woman. Irony is embedded in the soul of Austen’s novel and is one of her most important tools.

The situation of your mother’s family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly, betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 35. Mr. Darcy, in a letter to Elizabeth, criticizes the behavior of the Bennet family at the Netherfield ball. It is not the position of the family that bothers him, he makes clear, but he is shocked by their bad manners. He accuses Elizabeth’s mother and her three younger sisters of a “total want of propriety.” In mentioning Mr. Bennet as one of the lesser offenders, Darcy is obviously blaming him for not keeping his daughters and their silliness in check on the night.

They were hopeless of remedy. Her father, contented with laughing at them, would never exert himself to restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters; and her mother, with manners so far from right herself, was entirely insensible of the evil. Elizabeth had frequently united with Jane in an endeavour to check the imprudence of Catherine and Lydia; but while they were supported by their mother’s indulgence, what chance could there be of improvement? Catherine, weak-spirited, irritable, and completely under Lydia’s guidance, had been always affronted by their advice; and Lydia, self-willed and careless, would scarcely give them a hearing. They were ignorant, idle, and vain. While there was an officer in Meryton, they would flirt with him; and while Meryton was within a walk of Longbourn, they would be going there forever.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 37. Elizabeth reflects on the flaws of her family after reading Darcy’s letter. From her father’s judgmental sarcasm, to the flirtations of her wild youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia, to the unwillingness of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet to control their behavior – the family is beyond remedy, Elizabeth says.

"Lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some public place or other, and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances."
"If you were aware," said Elizabeth, "of the very great disadvantage to us all which must arise from the public notice of Lydia’s unguarded and imprudent manner – nay, which has already arisen from it, I am sure you would judge differently in the affair."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41. This is Mr. Bennet’s final word on Lydia’s wish to to go to Brighton, where the militia regiment is relocating. A believer in the passive parenting, Mr. Bennet doesn’t see any problem with Lydia’s trip. He thinks there will be little cost or inconvenience for the family if she goes. This is despite his eldest daughter Elizabeth’s warning that Lydia’s wild behavior will impact the family negatively. But Mr. Bennet turns out to be so wrong, and Elizabeth’s worst fears come to pass. This exchange is foreshadowing of the trouble that Lydia is about to bring down on the Bennets.

Our importance, our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia’s character. Excuse me – for I must speak plainly. If you, my dear father, will not take the trouble of checking her exuberant spirits, and of teaching her that her present pursuits are not to be the business of her life, she will soon be beyond the reach of amendment. Her character will be fixed, and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41. Elizabeth lectures her father over his questionable parenting of his youngest daughter Lydia. Fifteen-year-old Lydia has received an invitation from the wife of Colonel Forster to come with the militia regiment to Brighton. But Elizabeth is opposed to the wild and unrestrained Lydia going, ominously warning that she will become the "most determined flirt" and damage the family’s reputation and standing. Mr. Bennet fails to "check" his daughter’s "exuberant spirits" as demanded by Elizabeth, with very troubling consequences later on, as we discover. This foreshadows the scandal Lydia will soon become embroiled in.

Colonel Forster is a sensible man, and will keep her out of any real mischief; and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey to anybody. At Brighton she will be of less importance even as a common flirt than she has been here. The officers will find women better worth their notice. Let us hope, therefore, that her being there may teach her her own insignificance. At any rate, she cannot grow many degrees worse, without authorising us to lock her up for the rest of her life.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41. When Elizabeth warns Mr. Bennet not to let Lydia go with the militia regiment to Brighton, he justifies his decision to allow her in a passage that is full of ironic foreshadowing. It is a bit hard to swallow that he believe nothing bad will happen by sending his silliest and most immature daughter to the seaside resort of Brighton. Far from staying out of "real mischief" and not falling "prey" to anybody, the 15-year-old flirtateous Lydia ends up running off, unmarried, with the predatory militia officer George Wickham.

Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind, had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42. Mr. Bennet married his wife because of her beautiful appearance. He did not see the extent of her foolishness before he wed her. It is clear that Mr. Bennet no longer has no real love for Mrs. Bennet. Their marriage serves as a health warning to those who rush into marriage for beauty and appearances alone.

Where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42. Having learned that he married a foolish and ignorant woman, a disappointed Mr. Bennet seeks refuge in making human folly his pastime. He finds plenty of entertainment material in Mrs. Bennet and has no respect for her. The fuller quote: "To his wife he was very little otherwise indebted, than as her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement. This is not the sort of happiness which a man would in general wish to owe to his wife; but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given."

Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of her father’s behaviour as a husband. She had always seen it with pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly reprehensible. But she had never felt so strongly as now the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable a marriage.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 42. Even Mr. Bennet’s favorite daughter Elizabeth is critical of his behavior as a husband. She reflects on his "reprehensible" treatment of his wife by continually exposing her to the contempt of her own children. Elizabeth feels strongly that her parents are unsuited to one another and this has disadvantaged their children.
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