Pride and Prejudice has been in print since 1813. It has never gone out of fashion. It has been adapted more times than almost any other novel in the English language. And it contains some of the most quoted sentences ever written — lines so precise, so perfectly balanced, that they feel less like fiction and more like discovered truths.
This is a guide to the best of them — organized by character and theme, with the context that makes them land even harder than they do on their own. Because Austen's quotes are almost always doing more than they appear to be doing. The wit is the surface. The insight is what's underneath.
The Opening Line
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
The most famous opening sentence in English literature — and one of the most perfectly constructed. It sounds like a statement of fact. It is actually a description of how society thinks, not how the world is. Austen is mocking the premise before the novel has even begun.
The irony is total: the sentence presents itself as universal truth while being obviously particular, obviously interested, obviously the product of a specific social world with specific economic anxieties. Every character in the novel who believes this sentence is true will be made to look foolish. Every character who sees through it will be rewarded.
Elizabeth Bennet Quotes
Elizabeth is Austen's greatest heroine — intelligent, witty, principled, and capable of being wrong in ways that cost her. Her quotes are the novel's sharpest.
"I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any."
Elizabeth to Darcy, dismantling his impossible standard for what constitutes an "accomplished" woman. She does it with a smile. She means every word. This is Elizabeth at her most characteristic: the social critique delivered so elegantly that it takes a moment to register how devastating it is.
"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."
Elizabeth on Darcy, early in the novel — before she knows him, before she knows herself. The line is honest in a way Elizabeth doesn't quite intend: she is describing her own pride as much as his. Austen is always doing this — letting her characters reveal more than they mean to.
"Till this moment I never knew myself."
Elizabeth after reading Darcy's letter — the novel's turning point. She has been wrong about Darcy. She has been wrong about Wickham. She has been wrong about herself. This is the moment she begins to understand the difference between prejudice and perception.
"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."
Elizabeth to Lady Catherine de Bourgh — the most direct statement of her independence in the novel. She will not be bullied. She will not be managed. She will decide her own life. In 1813, this was a radical position for a woman of her class.
Mr. Darcy Quotes
Darcy is the novel's most misunderstood character — by Elizabeth, by the reader on a first reading, and by himself. His quotes reveal a man whose intelligence and feeling are both real, and whose inability to express either gracefully is the source of all his problems.
"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."
Darcy's first proposal — one of the most disastrous declarations of love in literary history. He means it completely. He delivers it catastrophically, spending as much time insulting Elizabeth's family as declaring his feelings. Austen understood that sincerity and tact are not the same thing.
"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle."
Darcy after Elizabeth's rejection — the moment he begins to understand what she has shown him about himself. The distinction between principle and practice is everything: he has always believed in good values. He has not always lived by them.
Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet Quotes
The Bennet marriage is one of the great comic creations in English literature — and one of the most quietly devastating. Mr. Bennet has retreated into irony. Mrs. Bennet has retreated into anxiety. Neither is entirely wrong about the other.
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
Mr. Bennet — the novel's most entertaining character and its most irresponsible father. His wit is real. His abdication of parental responsibility is also real. Austen gives him the best lines and the worst judgment.
"You have no compassion on my poor nerves."
Mrs. Bennet, to Mr. Bennet. Her anxiety about her daughters' futures is not irrational. In a world where women cannot inherit property, five unmarried daughters are a genuine crisis. Her methods are absurd. Her fears are not.
On Love, 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 — the overlooked middle sister, delivering the novel's thesis statement with pedantic precision. Austen gives her best philosophical lines to her most ridiculous characters. The lines survive the delivery.
"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"
Miss Bingley, while not reading at all — performing the appearance of cultivation to attract Darcy. The irony is total. But the statement, stripped of its irony, is also simply true.
Why Pride and Prejudice Endures
Pride and Prejudice endures because it is about something that does not change: the gap between how we see ourselves and how we actually are, and the rare, painful, necessary experience of having that gap revealed to us by someone we love. Elizabeth and Darcy are both wrong at the beginning of the novel. They are both right by the end. Every reader recognizes that journey, because every reader has made some version of it.
Explore our Jane Austen author page for her biography, reading order, and the world she built from a writing desk in Hampshire. And visit our Enchanted Library collection for pieces worthy of the reader who lives inside the pages.
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