Pride and Prejudice Integrity Quotes

"To yield readily – easily – to the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you."
"To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either."
"You appear to me, Mr. Darcy, to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and affection."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 10. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy argue about the merits of accepting the advice of friends, after Darcy suggests that his friend Mr. Bingley is easily swayed. Elizabeth comments that people who are easily persuaded by friends hold no merit with Darcy. She accuses him of being too detached and dismissive of the opinion of friends. But Darcy makes clear his belief that a person should follow their own convictions. The exchange foreshadows how Bingley will be later be influenced by others in matters of the heart. The banter also shows Darcy’s close-up encounter with Elizabeth’s "liveliness" of mind, something he later admits to falling in love with.

No, I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding – certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of others so soon as I ought, nor their offences against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 11. This is Darcy’s response to Elizabeth telling him that he has no defect and "owns it himself without disguise." Here he acknowledges his central flaw, having a resentful character and unforgiving temper towards the vices and offenses of others. He is being honest and displaying integrity here in placing a high value on "good opinion" and reputation. That shows a certain self-awareness about his flaws. But also there is an irony here, as he is not aware of how proud he sounds, as he proudly boasts about his resentful nature.

She had always felt that Charlotte’s opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she could not have supposed it possible that, when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 22. Elizabeth is shocked that her friend Charlotte Lucas is engaged to be married to Mr. Collins. While they didn’t quite share the same views on marriage, the horrified Elizabeth never believed that Charlotte would sacrifice all her better feelings for financial security and status. Elizabeth’s own strong sense of integrity would never allow her to sell out her values in the same way Charlotte has done. Elizabeth has a more romantic and idealized view of marriage being about love and mutual respect.

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. 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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. This isn’t the usual smart and witty Elizabeth, but a more pessimistic version of her. She sounds disillusioned with life and people’s lack of integrity. But perhaps her sentiments are understandable. They are expressed when Bingley allows himself to be influenced by others to move away from Jane to London, and also when her friend Charlotte chooses a loveless marriage to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth is a woman of honesty and virtue who doesn’t suffer those who are morally weak or bereft gladly.

You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. Elizabeth is arguing with her sister Jane about the marriage between Charlotte and Mr. Collins. She pours scorn on Jane’s attempts to defend the marriage. Elizabeth is resolved not to marry for mercenary motives and is opposed to marriage not based on love.

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 31. Elizabeth proudly declares this to Mr. Darcy when he positions himself to have a full view of her performing on the piano at Rosings. She taunts him by saying that he means to frighten her, but she is the kind of person who will not be alarmed. Her outspoken and saucy comments draw this response from Darcy: "I shall not say that you are mistaken because you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own." Is Darcy right? Is Elizabeth who she says she is and really being herself in this exchange: spirited, courageous, self-confident? Or is her wit and outspokennness with Darcy a defense shield to protect herself and her ego against proud upper class men like him in a male-dominated society?

Do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. The fallout from Darcy’s marriage proposal goes from bad to worse. Elizabeth accuses him of insulting her and ruining the happiness of her sister Jane. An angry Elizabeth confronts him about his interference in her sister’s relationship with Mr. Bingley. This appears to be her main reason for refusing his proposal, she could not imagine marrying the man who caused her sister’s unhappiness. Elizabeth is close to Jane whom she thinks is a beacon of goodness and she believes Darcy stood between her sister and her happiness with Bingley. Elizabeth is a woman of integrity whose loyalty to family trumps any proposal of marriage, even from a man as wealth as Darcy.

These offences might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? – to congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. Darcy is speaking to Elizabeth here, thanking her for explaining fully to him his serious faults. This passage demonstrates why the novel is called Pride and Prejudice. Darcy accuses Elizabeth of injured pride over his honest admission about the scruples he had to overcome before proposing to her. He shows his own class prejudice when he speaks of the inferiority of Elizabeth’s connections and relations "whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own." Darcy is honest and there is no duplicity about him, he speaks his mind and informs Elizabeth that "disguise of every sort is my abhorrence."

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.

Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. The teenage tearaway of the Bennet family Lydia has run off with George Wickham. Her sister Mary draws what she believes is an important moral lesson from Lydia’s elopment. She speaks of the frailty of a woman’s reputation, warning her other sisters that once a woman loses her virtue it cannot be recovered. Here she is echoing how highly prized a woman’s virtue and moral reputation were at the time, if she aspired to have a decent life for herself and maintain the respect of society.

"You are then resolved to have him?"
"I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me."

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56. In the verbal battle between two strong women the sparks fly. On one side: an uncivil, bullying snob. On the other: a very civil, independent-minded, young woman of integrity who remains true to herself. The epic confrontation between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Elizabeth Bennet over a rumored marriage engagement between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth is possibly the greatest verbal battle in literature. It certainly remains one of the most popular. When de Bourgh demands if Elizabeth is determined to have Darcy, she puts her aristocratic opponent neatly in her place, telling her that she is only determined to act in the interests of her own happiness, without reference to de Bourgh. She will follow her own heart.
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