Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot’s character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man....

Had Elizabeth’s opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort.

…she felt depressed beyond any thing she had ever known before.

Well, evil to some is always good to others.

She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony.

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.

Pride and Prejudice

In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided among the sexes.

There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow.

Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever...

Whom are you going to dance with?’ asked Mr. Knightley.She hesitated a moment and then replied, ‘With you, if you will ask me.’Will you?’ said he, offering his hand.Indeed I will. You have shown that...

I felt that I admired you, but I told myself it was only friendship; and till I began to make comparisons between yourself and Lucy, I did not know how far I was got.

Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from Willoughby. She would have been ashamed to look her family in the face next...

Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.

Words were insufficient for the elevation of his [Mr Collins’] feelings; and he was obliged to walk about the room, while Elizabeth tried to unite civility and truth in a few short sentences.

Have you any other objection than your belief of my indifference?”- Elizabeth Bennet

…and their marriage, instead of depriving her of one friend, secured her two.

You will think me rhapsodizing; but when I am out of doors, especially when I am sitting out of doors, I am very apt to get into this sort of wondering strain. One cannot fix...

Nobody could catch cold by the sea; nobody wanted appetite by the sea; nobody wanted spirits; nobody wanted strength. Sea air was healing, softening, relaxing — fortifying and bracing — seemingly just as was wanted...

She was stronger alone…

She hated herself more than she could express.

The politeness which she had been brought up to practice as a duty made it impossible for her to escape; while the want of that higher species of self-command, that just consideration of others, that...

You are infinitely my superior in merit; all that I know – You have qualities which I had not supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of...

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

One may be continually abusive without saying any thing just; but one cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty

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.

One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.

Sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves, and very frequently by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge

I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.

Run mad as often as you chuse, but do not faint.

The earliest intelligence of the travellers’ safe arrival at Antigua, after a favourable voyage, was received; though not before Mrs. Norris had been indulging in very dreadful fears, and trying to make Edmund participate them...

Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

A woman, especially if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

The promised notification was hanging over her head. The postman’s knock within the neighbourhood was beginning to bring its daily terrors -and if reading could banish the idea for even half an hour, it was...

Ever since her being turned into a Churchill, she has out-Churchill’d them all in high and mighty claims.

I assure you. I have no notion of treating men with such respect. That is the way to spoil them.

It was impossible to quarrel with words, whose tremulous inequality showed indisposition so plainly.

…Elinor was then at liberty to think and be wretched.

They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town,

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for...

I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.

Drinking too much of Mr Weston’s good wine.

And this,” cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room, “is your opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me! I thank you for explaining it so fully.

To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the...

I purposefully abstain from dates on this occasion,that very one may be liberty to fix their own,aware that the cure of unconquerable passions,and the transfer of unchanging attachments,must vary much as to time in different...

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...