The quotes from this book are widely known and often used by its readers.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (51).
The first line and the most famous line of the novel. This introduces the entire theme of marriage and money.
“The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend” (58).
This description of Darcy’s external features offer a clear juxtaposition of the exterior signs of refinement and physical appearance as opposed to the interior pride which Elizabeth notices above all else. The quotation shows us both “pride” and “prejudice” and captures the primary theme of the novel.
“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner” (224).
This is the moment that demonstrates Elizabeth’s power as a woman in her own and right. It is also the moment of her own pride which will begin to change Darcy in his feelings toward her.
“The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family in the world, though only a few weeks before, when Lydia had first run way, they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune” (361).
This shows the ways in which characters are persuaded toward the good throughout the novel. We see the revelation of pride and prejudice toward enlightened knowledge and understanding.
