# Quote — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

> He was struggling for the appearance of composure, and would not open his lips till he believed himself to have attained it. The pause was to Elizabeth's feelings dreadful. At length, with a voice of forced calmness, he said: "And this is all the reply which I am to have the honour of expecting! I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so little endeavour at civility, I am thus rejected. But it is of small importance."

- Author: [Jane Austen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen.md)
- Book: [Pride and Prejudice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice#Chapters_31-40) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice/he-was-struggling

## More from this book

> "“The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this … They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family?”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice/the-death-of-your.md)

> "When I consider," she added, in a yet more agitated voice, "that I might have prevented it! — I who knew what he was. Had I but explained some part of it only — some part of what I learnt — to my own family! Had his character been known, this could not have happened. But it is all, all too late now."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice/when-i-consider.md)

> "Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice/loss-of-virtue.md)