Pride and Prejudice Love Quotes

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction among her companions.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 24. While Mrs. Bennet is anxious and worried, Mr. Bennet finds it a source of amusement that Jane’s hopes of getting married anytime soon diminish as Charles Bingley appears to abandon her and move from the area. The humorous and more relaxed Mr. Bennet is the perfect foil to the emotional Mrs. Bennet. But what Mr. Bennet says here to Elizabeth is ironic, as no girl likes being disappointed in love and it’s not a laughing matter for his eldest daughters.

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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 25. Elizabeth says this to Mrs. Gardiner about the break-up between Jane and Mr. Bingley. The "interference" she refers to is by Mr. Darcy, whom she blames for persuading his friend Bingley to pull away from Jane despite being "violently in love" with her.

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?

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 25. Elizabeth speaks about Mr. Bingley’s love for Jane. She believes that it was a very real and deep love, not something fleeting as Elizabeth’s aunt Mrs. Gardiner has suggested. She cites Bingley’s behavior at his own ball in Netherfield, where he was totally engrossed by Jane and ignoring the other young ladies.

I am not in love with Mr. Wickham; no, I certainly am not. But he is, beyond all comparison, the most agreeable man I ever saw – and if he becomes really attached to me – I believe it will be better that he should not. I see the imprudence of it.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 26. While Elizabeth thinks that George Wickham is the "most agreeable man" she ever set eyes on, she declares that she is not in love with him. She says this to her aunt Mrs. Gardiner, who has cautioned her not to grow too attached to him.

I am now convinced, my dear aunt, that I have never been much in love; for had I really experienced that pure and elevating passion, I should at present detest his very name, and wish him all manner of evil. But my feelings are not only cordial towards him; they are even impartial towards Miss King.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 26. Elizabeth writes a letter to Mrs. Gardiner, on her losing George Wickham to Miss Mary King. Wickham’s romantic attentions have now turned to Miss King, who has just inherited a large fortune. Elizabeth jokingly tells her aunt that she couldn’t have loved Wickham, because she doesn’t hate him now that he is with someone else.

When Mr. Collins could be forgotten, there was really an air of great comfort throughout, and by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often forgotten.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 28. Charlotte and Mr. Collins’s marriage is not a love match but very much one of convenience. Here Elizabeth is commenting on their relationship. Charlotte is content with the comfortable life she has made for herself in the parsonage – as long as she can forget all about Mr. Collins. And judging by Charlotte’s evident enjoyment, Elizabeth says that Mr. Collins must be forgotten about often.

But why Mr. Darcy came so often to the Parsonage, it was more difficult to understand. It could not be for society, as he frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his lips; and when he did speak, it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choice – a sacrifice to propriety, not a pleasure to himself. He seldom appeared really animated. Mrs. Collins knew not what to make of him. Colonel Fitzwilliam’s occasionally laughing at his stupidity, proved that he was generally different, which her own knowledge of him could not have told her; and as she would liked to have believed this change the effect of love, and the object of that love her friend Eliza.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 32. Elizabeth is staying with her friend Charlotte and Charlotte is puzzled as to why Mr. Darcy and his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam visit them so often at the parsonage. Darcy is not giving much away as he often just sits there in dumb silence. Charlotte wants to believe that it is all because Darcy loves Elizabeth.

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.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 33. While staying with her friend Charlotte, Elizabeth goes on walks in the countryside near Rosings and keeps running into Darcy. The two reluctant lovebirds are still tip-toeing around each other as they "unexpectedly" bump into each other in the park twice. But there may be nothing unexpected about it. Elizabeth lets Darcy know that it is her favorite place, so practically extends to him an invitation to be there.

He was the cause, his pride and caprice were the cause, of all that Jane had suffered, and still continued to suffer. He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world; and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 33. Elizabeth lays the blame for the romantic breakup of Charles Bingley and her sister Jane entirely at the feet of Mr. Darcy and his pride. By intervening to stop their marriage, Darcy ruined the hope of happiness for the most loving and generous heart in the world, she believes. Elizabeth clearly loves Jane very much and is very upset that Darcy would do such a thing.

"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’s astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her, immediately followed. He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed, and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority – of its being a degradation – of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. Mr. Darcy arrives at the Hunsford parsonage to make his first proposal of marriage to Elizabeth. While he is frank and honest and open, he goes about it in a clumsy and unromantic way. He speaks of how he has struggled to repress his feelings for Elizabeth, her inferior social rank and the family obstacles to such a union. But despite Elizabeth’s inferiority, he manages to declare his strong admiration and love for her. Elizabeth is absolutely shocked by the proposal, especially as she finds Darcy less "eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride." Darcy’s proposal seems to be more about himself than about the woman he says he loves and admires. One might say that his presentation leaves a lot to be desired. This is an example of situational irony, because Darcy proposes at the precise moment when Elizabeth hates him the most.

The tumult of her mind, was now painfully great. She knew not how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and cried for half-an-hour. Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by every review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! That he should have been in love with her for so many months! So much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case – was almost incredible! It was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection. But his pride, his abominable pride – his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane – his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34. This passage gives us an insight into Elizabeth’s complex feelings towards Darcy. She sits and cries for half an hour. She is confused and astonished that he should make her an offer of marriage and declare that he has been in love with her for months. She admits that she is "gratified" to have "unconsciously" inspired such affection in him. She finds it "almost incredible" that he overcame the social barriers between them to propose marriage. She has "pity" for him because of his feelings. But she is also horrified by his pride and what what she thinks is his cruelty to Jane and Wickham. This passage suggests that the affection between Darcy and Elizabeth may not be all one-sided, but shared by her also, although she may not yet know or admit it.

From that moment I observed my friend’s behavior attentively; and I could then perceive that his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him. Your sister I also watched. Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard; and I remained convinced from the evening’s scrutiny, that though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by participation of sentiment. If you have not been mistaken here, I must have been in an error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable. If it be so, if I have been misled by such error to inflict pain on her, your resentment has not been unreasonable. But I shall not scruple to assert that the serenity of your sister’s countenance and air was such as might have given the most acute observer a conviction that, however amiable her temper, her heart was not likely to be easily touched. That I was desirous of believing her indifferent is certain; but I will venture to say that my investigations and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or fears. I did not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it; I believed it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 35. Darcy in his letter to Elizabeth explains his part in the breakup of Jane and his friend Charles Bingley. He states that he believed Jane did not love Bingley – he interpreted Jane’s reserve as indifference as a lack of love. He now admits that his first impressions of Jane were mistaken.

About a year ago, she was taken from school, and an establishment formed for her in London; and last summer she went with the lady who presided over it to Ramsgate; and thither also went Mr. Wickham, undoubtedly by design; for there proved to have been a prior acquaintance between him and Mrs. Younge, in whose character we were most unhappily deceived; and by her connivance and aid, he so far recommended himself to Georgiana, whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child, that she was persuaded to believe herself in love, and to consent to an elopement. She was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse…Mr. Wickham’s chief object was unquestionably my sister’s fortune, which is thirty thousand pounds.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 35. Mr. Darcy, in a letter, reveals to Elizabeth how George Wickham attempted to elope with Darcy’s 15-year-old sister Georgiana, aided by his sister’s governess Mrs. Younge. Wickham’s sole aim was to obtain young Georgiana’s fortune. Darcy is explaining the reason for his quarrel with Wickham. This is foreshadowing that Wickham will later elope with Lydia Bennet, suggesting that Elizabeth and her family do not take seriously Darcy’s warning about Wickham.

Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter. The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. The chapter’s opening lines describes Elizabeth’s arrival at Pemberley with her aunt and uncle. Her visit turns out to be a key event, for she not only meets Darcy but he reveals his true and real self to her. The description of her spirits being in a "high flutter" suggests that Elizabeth is in love with, not just Pemberley, but its owner Darcy.

The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

– Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43. Elizabeth praises the tastefully furnished and elegant rooms in Darcy’s Pemberley. She compares them to those in in Lady Catherine’s home of Rosings, which were more splendid but less elegant. Her verdict: Darcy has more taste than his aristocratic aunt. But is it Darcy’s rooms she loves – or Darcy?

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?

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.
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