“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“A single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”

“It is truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a large fortune is in want of a wife!”

“It is only poverty that makes celibacy contemptible. A single woman of good fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”

“it does not often happen that the interference of friends will persuade a young man of independent fortune to think no more of a girl.”

“If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow.”