17 Pride and Prejudice Quotes
The lines everyone half-remembers, from the famous first sentence to Darcy's first proposal, copied exactly as Austen wrote them.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) is in the public domain. Every quote here is copied from the original text, with who says it, so you can use it with confidence.
Mr. Darcy quotes
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.
She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.
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.
My good opinion once lost is lost for ever.
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.
I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.
Reading Pride and Prejudice? Save the lines you love as you go, with the free Parch app.
Elizabeth Bennet quotes
I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.
Till this moment, I never knew myself.
I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but no one with such justice.
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.
“I do, I do like him,” she replied, with tears in her eyes; “I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride.”
More Pride and Prejudice quotes
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity to what we would have others think of us.
I declare, after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.
Not in the book
Famous lines people credit to Pride and Prejudice that aren't in the novel.
“You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you.”
Darcy's line in the 2005 film with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. It isn't in the novel; his book proposals are the two on this page.
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Questions about Pride and Prejudice quotes
What is the most famous quote from Pride and Prejudice?
The opening line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." It is one of the best-known first sentences in English literature, and it is ironic: the novel is really about families wanting rich men for their daughters.
What does Mr. Darcy say when he proposes?
His first proposal opens: "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." Elizabeth turns him down.
Is "You have bewitched me, body and soul" in the book?
No. It is from the 2005 film adaptation, written for Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy. Austen's Darcy never says it.
What are Mr. Darcy's best quotes?
His two proposals ("In vain have I struggled" and "You are too generous to trifle with me"), "My good opinion once lost is lost for ever," his first judgment of Elizabeth as "tolerable," and "I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
Who says "I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine"?
Elizabeth Bennet, early in the novel, after Darcy has called her only "tolerable" at the assembly ball.