“To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of 26 and 18 is to do pretty well”

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”

“Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common.”

“You have no ambition, I well know. Your wishes are all moderate.''As moderate as those of the rest of the world, I believe. I wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy, but like every body else it must be in my own way. Greatness will not make me so.”

“Upon my word, sir, your hope is a rather extraordinary one after my declaration. I do assure you that I am not one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are) who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second time. I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make ME happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who could make you so. Nay, were your friend Lady Catherine to know me, I am persuaded she would find me in every respect ill qualified for the situation.”

“for I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value is our estimation.”

“[I]t is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.”