22.PRIDE and PREJUDICE

Jane Austen 1813

Do I judge the greatness of a book by the number of quotes I love? Or do I judge it by the thrill and satisfaction it imparts NOT because of its gimmicks nor unexpected twists but because of its wondrous prose or simply wondrous play of words? This beautiful classic is about the lively and witty courtship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.

"Angry people are not always wise."

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."

"Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her."

"Pride is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what would have others think of us."

"How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue."

"If you are speaking of music...it is of all subjects my delight. There are few people in England I suppose, who have more true enjoyment of music than myself, or a better natural taste. If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient."

"It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first."

"My affections and wishes have not changed, but one word from you will silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I will have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on."

"Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without."

"In vain I have struggled. It will not do! My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you... Almost from the earliest moments of your acquaintance, I have come to feel for you a passionate admiration and regard, which despite my struggles, has overcome every rational objection."

"Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion."

"I am determined that nothing but the deepest love could ever induce me into matrimony."

"From the very beginning— from the first moment, I may almost say— of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike..."

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

"But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness."

"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."

"She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous."

"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."