16 Quotes From 'Pride And Prejudice'

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a lot of people love Pride and Prejudice, and most readers love a well-placed Pride and Prejudice quote. Even the majority of hardcore fans who have read all other Austen novels still cite this work as their favorite — though there’s always a lively debate between Emma and Persuasion fans.

What is it about this novel that makes such a lasting impression? I saw a performance of Jane Austen improv the other night, and one of the improvisers cited Austen as “the author of Pride and Prejudice… and some other books.” Though I love her other works dearly, I have to agree that there’s something about Pride and Prejudice that makes this novel sparkle even amongst the other Austen gems. Is it the enchanting Elizabeth Bennet? The alluring Mr. Darcy? The hilarious and likeable Bennet family? Austen’s witty commentary throughout the book? A combination of all of these things??

Scholars and students can write papers upon papers about why we’re all obsessed with Pride and Prejudice , but why not let the work speak for itself? Here are some of the best quotes from Pride and Prejudice that make it clear why this work is so iconic.

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

— Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."

— Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

“My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.”

— Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.""And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them.”

— Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

"There is nothing so bad as parting with one's friends. One seems to forlorn without them."

— Mrs. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"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."

— Mary Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart."

— Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"He wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”“And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth impatiently. “There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy. “Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away."

— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

"One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty."

— Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"A girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then."

— Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"People themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever."

— Mr. Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

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

— Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."

— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

"What are men to rocks and mountains?"

— Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."

— Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

— Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

Images: Giphy (16), YouTube/The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (1)