Pride and Prejudice Quotes

If I were to go through the world, I could not meet with a better. But I have always observed, that they who are good-natured when children, are good-natured when they grow up; and he was always the sweetest-tempered, most generous-hearted boy in the world.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Mrs. Reynolds is speaking to Mr. Gardiner about her master Mr. Darcy. According to his housekeeper, Darcy was the sweetest and most generous boy in the world when growing up and Darcy the man is still as charming and kind.

He is the best landlord, and the best master…that ever lived; not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves. There is not one of his tenants or servants but will give him a good name. Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth learns from Pemberley housekeeper Mrs. Reynolds that Mr. Darcy at home is a very different man to the one Elizabeth has become used to. Mrs. Reynolds praises the high reputation he has with his staff and tenants, whom he is said to treat well. She is also adament that he is not proud, but just a little quieter than other young men who talk a lot.

There was certainly at this moment, in Elizabeth’s mind, a more gentle sensation towards the original, that she had ever felt in the height of their acquaintance.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. This line speaks to Elizabeth’s changing relationship with Darcy on her first visit to Pemberley. As she contemplates the smiling portrait of Darcy in the gallery and after his servant speaks so highly of him, she has a "more gentle" feeling towards the real Darcy. The realization of her love for him perhaps?

The picture-gallery, and two or three of the principal bedrooms, were all that remained to be shown. In the former were many good paintings; but Elizabeth knew nothing of the art; and from such as had been already visible below, she had willingly turned to look at some drawings of Miss Darcy’s, in crayons, whose subjects were usually more interesting, and also more intelligible.
In the gallery there were many family portraits, but they could have little to fix the attention of a stranger. Elizabeth walked in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her. At last it arrested her – and she beheld a striking resemblance to Mr. Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her. She stood several minutes before the picture, in earnest contemplation, and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery. Mrs. Reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his father’s lifetime.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. There is much homage to family in Darcy’s portrait gallery in Pemberley, Elizabeth discovers when she views it. Many family portraits are on view. Elizabeth is interested in the drawings of Georgiana but is particularly drawn to the portrait of Mr. Darcy himself. She stands for several minutes before Darcy’s likeness in deep contemplation, even returning for a second look after they quit the gallery. Darcy is wearing the same smile that Elizabeth remembers when he sometimes looked at her. Elizabeth learns from the housekeeper that the picture was taken in his father’s lifetime.

Her astonishment, however, was extreme, and continually was she repeating, "Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for me, it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened. My reproofs at Hunsford could not work such a change as this. It is impossible that he should still love me."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Darcy suddenly appears at Pemberley and he is very polite and civil to everyone, including Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Elizabeth is astonished at how the old socially awkward, rude Darcy has changed. Could it be love for Elizabeth? Impossible, she says, still the unbeliever. Elizabeth and Darcy still continue to dance around each other.

Elizabeth, on her side, had much to do. She wanted to ascertain the feelings of each of her visitors; she wanted to compose her own, and to make herself agreeable to all; and in the latter object, where she feared most to fail, she was most sure of success, for those to whom she endeavoured to give pleasure were prepossessed in her favour. Bingley was ready, Georgiana was eager, and Darcy determined, to be pleased.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Elizabeth is surprised when Mr. Darcy, Georgiana and Charles Bingley show up for a visit at the inn at Lambton where she is staying with her aunt and uncle. Initially nervous at their sudden appearance a day before they were expected, she soon regains her self-confidence as they meet face to face. Anxious to please her company, Elizabeth need not have worried. For Austen describes beautifully how Elizabeth finds them "prepossessed in her favour" with each in turn "ready," "eager" and "determined" to be pleased – three words that sum up the mood of her visitors. Any barriers that may have existed before, including those of class and misunderstanding, appear to have melted away. They meet as equals. Elizabeth goes on to observe that Bingley and Georgiana are not romantically interested in each other, proving Caroline Bingley’s claim a fiction. She also finds that Mr. Darcy continuing to show good manners.

When she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgrace – when she saw him thus civil, not only to herself, but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained…the difference, the change was so great, and struck so forcibly on her mind, that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Mr. Darcy has come to the inn to see Elizabeth and Jane and their aunt and uncle Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, bringing along his sister Georgiana. Elizabeth notices a great improvement in his behavior towards them and can hardly hide her astonishment. No longer is he the proud, stand-offish person that she found him in the past, but is civil and good mannered to her and Jane and the Gardiners, whom he previously looked down on as inferior.

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 goodwill 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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Elizabeth’s feelings towards Darcy have dramatically changed from the time that she hated him. After meeting him face to face at his country home in Pemberley, she lies awake for two hours trying to determine how she feels about him. She begins to have positive feelings for Darcy and believe in his good qualities. She is ashamed of ever having disliked him and is grateful that he loves her enough to forgive how badly she treated him.

Such a change in a man of so much pride exciting 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 be exactly defined.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Elizabeth is astonished at the change in Darcy during her visit to Pemberley. The man who was so full of pride is now civil and polite and she attributes this to the strong love that he still has for her.

She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare; and she only wanted to know how far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself, and how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the power, which her fancy told her she still possessed, of bringing on the renewal of his addresses.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Elizabeth realizes the power she has over the changed Darcy. She believes that she holds his heart and the happiness of both of them in the palm of her hand, after his tenderness towards her in her stay at Pemberley. This passage suggests that she too loves him and wishes him to propose a second time. This is foreshadowing of Darcy’s second marriage proposal and Elizabeth’s acceptance of it.

On reaching the house, they were shown through the hall into the saloon, whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for summer. Its windows opening to the ground, admitted a most refreshing view of the high woody hills behind the house, and of the beautiful oaks and Spanish chestnuts which were scattered over the intermediate lawn.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. When Elizabeth and the Gardiners go to Pemberley at the invitation of Darcy and his sister Georgiana they are brought into the saloon, a room with the most beautiful view of the hills and the trees.

She expected every moment that some of the gentlemen would enter the room. She wished, she feared that the master of the house might be amongst them; and whether she wished or feared it most, she could scarcely determine.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. Elizabeth is at Pemberley with her aunt and uncle and she is uncertain of her feelings for Darcy. She is expecting the men to enter the room at any moment and doesn’t know if she wishes or fears that Darcy will be among them. From being very negative towards Darcy in the past, Elizabeth feelings are now unsettled. Could this be the first stirrings of her realization that underneath all that tension between them, she really loves him?

Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the -shire militia removed from Meryton? They must be a great loss to your family.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. Caroline Bingley tries to embarrass Elizabeth in front of Mr. Darcy when Elizabeth visits his ancestral home of Pemberley. In a spiteful comment Caroline brings up Elizabeth’s connection with George Wickham and her younger sisters flirtations with him. Caroline is not happy to see Elizabeth in Pemberley because she sees her as a rival for Darcy’s affections.

Miss Bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on Elizabeth’s person, behaviour, and dress. But Georgiana would not join her. Her brother’s recommendation was enough to ensure her favour: his judgment could not err, and he had spoken in such terms of Elizabeth as to leave Georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. After Elizabeth and her aunt leave Pemberley, Caroline just can’t stop herself making spiteful comments about Elizabeth. But Georgiana refuses to join in, she trusts her brother Fitzwilliam Darcy’s good judgement that Elizabeth is nothing other than "lovely and amiable." The close family bond between Georgiana and her brother is evident here. There is much irony in Caroline criticizing Elizabeth’s behavior, since she herself is guilty of behaving badly.

I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her. Her face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at all handsome. Her nose wants character – there is nothing marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so fine, I could never see anything extraordinary in them. They have a sharp, shrewish look.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. Caroline Bingley mocks Elizabeth’s looks and tries to demean her to Darcy. Caroline is completely consumed with jealousy towards the woman she views as her love rival for Darcy. She comments negatively on Elizabeth’s looks, making disparaging remarks about her every facial feature. Caroline may as well be wearing a large sign around her neck declaring to the world that she is insanely jealous. But she only succeeds in making herself look foolish and mean-spirited and her ploy backfires with Darcy.

"I remember, when we first knew her in Hertfordshire, how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty; and I particularly recollect your saying one night, after they had been dining at Netherfield, ‘She a beauty! – I should as soon call her mother a wit.’ But afterwards she seemed to improve on you, and I believe you thought her rather pretty at one time."
"Yes," replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer, "but that was only when I first saw her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 45. Caroline knows that Elizabeth has caught Mr. Darcy’s eye. When Elizabeth departs Pemberley, Caroline directs her spite at the woman she sees as her competition for Darcy’s affections. Having already declared that she never saw any beauty in Elizabeth, in this exchange with Darcy Caroline comments that he once thought Elizabeth "rather pretty." Darcy’s response that Elizabeth is "one of the handsomest women" of his acquaintance settles the issue once and for all and stops the Miss "Nasty" Bingley in her tracks. Caroline has lost the battle for Darcy!

Dearest Lizzy, I hardly know what I would write, but I have bad news for you, and it cannot be delayed. Imprudent as a marriage between Mr. Wickham and our poor Lydia would be, we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place, for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Elizabeth receives a horrible letter from Jane to say that Lydia has run away with Wickham from Brighton to get married in Scotland. But a second even more horrible letter from Jane reveals the bad news that Wickham has no plans to marry Lydia and the pair have been traced to London.

Even if he could form such a design against a young woman of Lydia’s connections, which is not likely, can I suppose her so lost to every thing?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Jane, who sees the goodness in everyone but not the badness, finds it hard to believe ill of George Wickham after reports that he has no plans to marry Lydia when they run off together. She also cannot bring herself to accept that her flirtatious youngest sister would be a willing party to such a scheme.

"When I consider," she added in a yet more agitated voice, "that I might have prevented it! I, who knew what he was."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Elizabeth feels guilty over her lack of action in preventing George Wickham’s seduction of her sister Lydia. She acknowledges that she knew of his previous attempt to seduce Georgiana, and could have warned her family about him. The villainous Wickham’s seduction of Lydia is driven by the desire for sex rather than for marriage.

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. Be that as it may, she saw him go with regret.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Here Austen discusses how Elizabeth’s love for Darcy has grown and evolved. Two ways that she could fall in love are described: love built on a foundation of gratitude and esteem, and love at first sight. Elizabeth has tried the second way with Wickham and admits that it has had no success. But Elizabeth’s affection for Darcy has followed the first path – a "less interesting mode of attachment" – and is built on the gratitude and admiration she feels from getting to know Darcy. This passage speaks to the theme of first impressions. It examines the way people can sometimes misread and misunderstand others by hastily making up their minds based on first impressions – like Elizabeth does. When the novel was originally written in 1796-1797 it was titled First Impressions. That was changed to Pride and Prejudice when it was first published in 1813.

She is very young; she has never been taught to think on serious subjects; and for the last half-year, nay, for a twelvemonth – she has been given up to nothing but amusement and vanity. She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the most idle and frivolous manner, and to adopt any opinions that came in her way. Since the -shire were first quartered in Meryton, nothing but love, flirtation, and officers have been in her head.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Elizabeth is highly critical of Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet and their parenting of Lydia – of lack of it! She blames her teen sister’s lack of moral integrity and fall on them. They have neglected to educate her properly on serious matters. And they allowed her to indulge herself in amusement, vanity and idleless, so that her head is filled with flirtation, love and militia officers.

But Jane knows, as well as I do, what Wickham really is. We both know that he has been profligate in every sense of the word; that he has neither integrity nor honour; that he is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Elizabeth makes this comment about George Wickham, when her aunt points out that Jane does not think Wickham is capable of taking advantage of Lydia. Lydia has run off to London with Wickham, provoking a family crisis. Elizabeth claims Jane knows that Wickham is a deceitful and immoral character without integrity or honor.

Mrs. Bennet, to whose apartment they all repaired, after a few minutes’ conversation together, received them exactly as might be expected; with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives against the villainous conduct of Wickham, and complaints of her own sufferings and ill-usage; blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. When Mrs. Bennet learns of the elopment of her favorite and youngest daughter Lydia, she erupts into tears of regret, hurls abuse at the villainous Wickham and feels very sorry for herself. She blames everybody but the person who indulged the wayward behavior of the wild Lydia – herself!

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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Mrs. Bennet pleads with her brother Mr. Bennet for help after Lydia’s flight to London with Wickham. Otherwise Mr. Bennet will be killed when he fights Wickham and the Collinses will evict them from Longbourn and they will be homeless, she warns.
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