All Quotes

"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."

"Nobody can tell what I suffer! — But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied."

". . . resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation."

"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."

"For it gratified him, he said, to discover that Charlotte Lucas, whom he had been used to think tolerably sensible, was as foolish as his wife, and more foolish than his daughter!"

"This is not fair. You wish to think all the world respectable, and are hurt if I speak ill of anybody. I only want to think you perfect, and you set yourself against it. 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 merit or sense."

"My dear Lizzy, do not give way to such feelings as these. They will ruin your happiness. You do not make allowance enough for difference of situation and temper. Consider Mr. Collins's respectability, and Charlotte's steady, prudent character. Remember that she is one of a large family; that as to fortune, it is a most eligible match; and be ready to believe, for everybody's sake, that she may feel something like regard and esteem for our cousin."

"To oblige you, I would try to believe almost anything, but no one else could be benefited by such a belief as this; for were I persuaded that Charlotte had any regard for him, I should only think worse of her understanding than I now do of her heart. My dear Jane, Mr. Collins is a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man; you know he is, as well as I do; and you must feel, as well as I do, that the woman who married him cannot have a proper way of thinking. You shall not defend her, though it is Charlotte Lucas. You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness."

"We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does." "And men take care that they should."

"Miss Bennet was the only creature who could suppose there might be any extenuating circumstances in the case, unknown to the society of Hertfordshire; her mild and steady candour always pleaded for allowances, and urged the possibility of mistakes—but by everybody else Mr. Darcy was condemned as the worst of men."

"He was of opinion that the Press should be unfettered; that its freedom should be, as indeed it was, commensurate with the freedom of the People, and the well-being of a virtuous State: on that account, he thought that even one hundred libels had better be ushered into the world, than one prosecution be instituted which might endanger the liberty of the press of this country."

"While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide."

"Such protection as vultures give to lambs."

"Date not the life which thou hast run by the mean of reckoning of the hours and days, which though hast breathed: a life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line, — by deeds, not years..."

"My visits to you may possibly be misunderstood by my friends; but I hope you know, Mr. Addington, that I have an unpurchasable mind."

"He stated it distinctly...as what he conceived was the unalterable resolution of ministers, that no proposal for peace should be entertained, while a single French soldier had a footing on British ground. [This sentiment was universally applauded.]"

"THEY, by a strange Frenzy driven, fight for Power, for Plunder, and extended Rule—WE, for our Country, our Altars, and our Homes.—THEY follow an ADVENTURER, whom they fear—and obey a Power which they hate—WE serve a Monarch whom we love—a God whom we adore...They call on us to barter all of Good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate Chance of Something better which they promise.—Be our plain Answer this: The Throne WE honour is the PEOPLE'S CHOICE—the Laws we reverence are our brave Fathers' Legacy—the Faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of Charity with all Mankind, and die with Hope of Bliss beyond the Grave. Tell your Invaders this; and tell them too, we seek no Change; and, least of all, such Change as they would bring us."

"Take our constitution, wanting certainly as it did many reforms, yet, practically, it afforded the best security that human wisdom had ever given to man."

"You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing's curst hard reading."

"An oyster may be crossed in love."

"The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts."

"Believe not each accusing tongue, As most weak persons do; But still believe that story wrong, Which ought not to be true!"

"'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion."

"Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory."

"A progeny of learning."

"Never say more than is necessary."

"I know you are laughing in your sleeve."

"A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge."

"He is the very pineapple of politeness!"

"If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!"

"As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile."

"Too civil by half."

"Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with."

"We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people, — our retrospection will be all to the future."

"No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman."

"You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?"

"The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it."

"You're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede."

"There's nothing like being used to a thing."

"As there are three of us come on purpose for the game, you won't be so cantankerous as to spoil the party by sitting out."

"My valour is certainly going! — it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!"

"I own the soft impeachment."

"Through all the drama — whether damned or not — Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot."

"I ne'er could any luster see In eyes that would not look on me."

"I loved him for himself alone."

"A bumper of good liquor Will end a contest quicker Than justice, judge, or vicar."

"Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you."

"Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics."

"Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers."

"You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin."