I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this — though I
have never liked him. I had not thought so very ill of him.
I had supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general,
but did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge,
such injustice, such inhumanity as this.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 16. |
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out
of my opinion.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Bennett, Chapter 17. |
It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked
about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on
the size of the room, or the number of couples.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 18. |
Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure
his making friends — whether he may be equally capable
of retaining them, is less certain.
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy, Chapter 18. |
"Books— oh! no. I am sure we never read the same,
or not with the same feelings."
"I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there
can at least be no want of subject. We may compare our different
opinions."
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth and Darcy, Chapter 18. |
It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their
opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth to Darcy, Chapter 18. |
I remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly
ever forgave, that your resentment once created was unappeasable.
You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth to Darcy, Chapter 18. |
"May I ask to what these questions tend?"
"Merely to the illustration of your character," said
she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity. "I am trying
to make it out."
"And what is your success?"
She shook her head. "I do not get on at all. I hear such
different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly."
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy and Elizabeth, Chapter 18. |
"I can readily believe," answered he gravely, "that
reports may vary greatly with respect to me; and I could wish,
Miss Bennet, that you were not to sketch my character at the
present moment, as there is reason to fear that the performance
would reflect no credit on either."
"But if I do not take your likeness now, I may never have
another opportunity."
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy and Elizabeth, Chapter 18. |
To Elizabeth it appeared, that had her family made an agreement
to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening,
it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with
more spirit, or finer success; and happy did she think it for
Bingley and her sister that some of the exhibition had escaped
his notice, and that his feelings were not of a sort to be much
distressed by the folly which he must have witnessed.
Pride and Prejudice
Chapter 18. |
I do assure you that I am not one of those young ladies (if
such young ladies there are) who are so daring as to risk their
happiness on the chance of being asked a second time. I am perfectly
serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy, and I am
convinced that I am the last woman in the world who could make
you so.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth to Mr. Collins whose marriage
proposal she has refused, Chapter 19. |
Indeed, Mr. Collins, all praise of me will be unnecessary.
You must give me leave to judge for myself, and pay me the compliment
of believing what I say. I wish you very happy and very rich,
and by refusing you hand, do all in my power to prevent your
being otherwise.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth to Mr. Collins, Chapter 19. |
"Really, Mr. Collins," cried Elizabeth with some
warmth, "you puzzle me exceedingly. If what I have hitherto
said can appear to you in the form of encouragement, I know
not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you
of its being one."
Pride and Prejudice
Chapter 19. |
I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever to
that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable
man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed
sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have
done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely
impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak
plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending
to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth
from her heart.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth to Mr. Collins, Chapter 19. |
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.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth on the persistence of Mr. Collins
in proposing marriage, Chapter 19. |
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.
Pride and Prejudice
Mr. Bennet to Elizabeth, Chapter 20. |
Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage
had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision
for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however
uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative
from want.
Pride and Prejudice
Chapter 22. |
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.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 24. |
My dear Lizzy, do not give way to such feelings as these.
They will ruin your happiness. You do not make allowance enough
for difference of situation and temper. Consider Mr. Collins's
respectability, and Charlotte's steady, prudent character. Remember
that she is one of a large family; that as to fortune, it is
a most eligible match; and be ready to believe, for everybody's
sake, that she may feel something like regard and esteem for
our cousin.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane to Elizabeth, Chapter 24. |
Mr. Collins is a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly
man; you know he is, as well as I do; and you must feel, as
well as I do, that the woman who married him cannot have a proper
way of thinking.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth to Jane, Chapter 24. |
It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives
us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane, Chapter 24. |
We do not suffer by accident. It does not often happen that
the interference of friends will persuade a young man of independent
fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in
love with only a few days before.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 25. |
I never saw a more promising inclination; he was growing quite
inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her. Every
time they met, it was more decided and remarkable. At his own
ball he offended two or three young ladies, by not asking them
to dance; and I spoke to him twice myself, without receiving
an answer. Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility
the very essence of love?
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth on Mr. Bingley's love for Jane,
Chapter 25. |
What is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the
mercenary and the prudent move? What does discretion end, and
avarice begin?
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 27. |
Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing after all.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 27. |
Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks
and mountains.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth, Chapter 27. |
"I like her appearance," said Elizabeth, struck
with other ideas. "She looks sickly and cross. Yes, she
will do for him very well. She will make him a very proper wife."
Pride and Prejudice
Referring to Lady Catherine de Bourgh's
daughter Anne and Darcy, Chapter 28. |
"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,"
said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never
seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear
interested in their concerns, as I often see done."
"My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over
this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's
do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not preoduce
the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be
my own fault - because I would not take the trouble of practising.".
Pride and Prejudice
Chapter 31. |
More than once did Elizabeth, in her ramble within the park,
unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy. She felt all the perverseness of
the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought,
and, to prevent its ever happening again, took care to inform
him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers. How it could
occur a second time, therefore, was very odd! Yet it did, and
even a third. It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary
penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal
inquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually
thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her.
Pride and Prejudice
Chapter 33. |
Sex
and the City
