Pride and Prejudice Quotes

Pride and Prejudice was first published on January 28, 1813. Jane Austen's novel was written during the Romantic period, and it was her second novel. Pride and Prejudice is regarded by many to be her most famous and best-loved work of fiction, with its focus on young ladies in search of husbands.

Elizabeth Jenkins once said of the novel, "The celestial brightness of Pride and Prejudice is unequalled even in Jane Austen's other work; after a life of much disappointment and grief, in which some people would have seen nothing but tedium and emptiness, she stepped forth as an author, breathing gaiety and youth, robed in dazzling light." Read these quotes from Pride and Prejudice.

• "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
  - Chapter 1, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  
  
• "A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment."
  - Chapter 6, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  
  
• "The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance."
  - Chapter 10, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  
  
• "An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. --Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."
  - Chapter 20, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  
  
• "Do not be afraid of my running into any excess, of my encroaching on your privilege of universal good will. You need not. 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 either merit or sense."
  - Chapter 24, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  
  
• "It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us."
  - Chapter 24, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  
  
• "You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you certainly have no right to concern yourself in mine."
  - Chapter 56, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen