Quotes From Pride & Prejudice

Valentine's Day has come and gone, but that doesn't mean we can't still relish in some romantic notions, no?

Here are some of my favourite quotes that I pulled after rereading Pride & Prejudice at the end of last year/the beginning of this year - most of which will not be romantic in any sense. The pages come from The Annotated Pride & Prejudice, edited and annotated by David M. Shapard (the book is very long due to all the notes, and therefore pages may not line up with a more regular edition of the book). I've broken up some of the quotes into little sections for ease of reading.

They're So Me

I just liked these ones or related :)

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love” (Austen 14).

[from letter written by Caroline]: “If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa and me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives, for a whole day’s tête-à-tête between two women can never end without a quarrel” (Austen 56).

[Lady Catherine]: “‘Of music! Then pray speak aloud. It is of all subjects my delight. I must have my share in the conversation, if you are speaking of music. There are few people in England, I suppose, who have more true enjoyment of music than myself, or a better natural taste’” (Austen 340).

“’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’” (Austen 344).

“Jane was anxious that no difference should be perceived in her at all, and was really persuaded that she talked as much as ever. But her mind was so busily engaged, that she did not always know when she was silent” (Austen 642).

Austen: The Comedian

“Mr. Darcy said very little, and Mr. Hurst nothing at all. The former was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which expertise had given to her complexion, and doubt as to the occasion’s justifying her coming so far alone. The latter was thinking only his breakfast” (Austen 60).

“and she [Mrs. Bennet] continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about” (Austen 118).

Morals Through Lizzy

Austen was very upfront throughout P&P in particular about some of her morals, I think. Obviously, we see this come through the characters, rather than having the narrator just explain them to us like a lecturer (like a pastor in a church...), as a good storyteller is wont to do.

This first quote is Lizzy to Mr. Collins when he is proposing to her. It's very well known that Collins in this scene says something about women liking to turn down men when they first get proposed to (even if they wanted to say yes). And in return to that Lizzy says:

“‘I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere’” (Austen 212).

[Also Lizzy]: “‘You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or men, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger, security for happiness’” (Austen 260).

Quotes Given To Other Characters

I have this little quote book of great Jane Austen quotes and my first time reading over it I thought they had made a mistake by attributing “‘What are men to rocks and mountains?’” (Austen 294) to Lizzy and not Mary, because Mary is the one to say it in the 2005 adaptation... but I was wrong. Lizzy is the one to say this (to be fair, there is actually a misquoting in the little quote book and so I was directly searching for them).

But there is another quote in P&P that was given to Mary in the movie:

[Caroline & the Bingley]: “’It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the day.’ ‘Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say but it would not be near so much like a ball’” (Austen 104).

And now I am curious why they were given out to Mary? Perhaps just to give the character more lines. I do think that they make sense for the characterization of Mary in the film, so I am not mad about it, just curious.

The final quote is a funny one. I think a lot of people will recognize it but not for being from P&P but instead for being in the 2020 adaptation of Emma (it's obviously not a word for word quote):

[Lizzy then Darcy]: “‘You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner.’ ‘A man who had felt less, might’” (Austen 726).