Vanity and pride

“The wisest and the best of men—nay, the wisest and best of their actions--may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke." 

"Certainly," replied Elizabeth—‘there are such people, but I hope I am not one of THEM. I hope I never ridicule what is wise and good. Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, DO divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can. But these, I suppose, are precisely what you are without."

"Perhaps that is not possible for anyone. But it has been the study of my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule."
"Such as vanity and pride."

"Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride—where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation."

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 11 (colloquy between Elizabeth and Darcy)

Darcy and Elizabeth on their defects

"There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome."

"And YOUR defect is to hate everybody."

"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them."

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 11 (colloquy between Elizabeth and Darcy)

Mr. Bennet's library

“In his library he had been always sure of leisure and tranquillity; and though prepared, as he told Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other room of the house, he was used to be free from them there . . . .”

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 15

Keeping a journal helps writing

"My dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies' ways as you wish to believe me; it is this delightful habit of journaling which largely contributes to form the easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated. Everybody allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal." 

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, ch. 3 (Mr. Tilney speaking)

Austen's use of the word “journaling” in Northanger Abbey astonished me when I saw it: I had thought that using “journal” as a verb was a recent development. When my editor checked the quotation [I used it in a Law Library Journal column], though, she found editions in Google Books that used “journalizing” or “journalising,” so Austen might not have said “journaling” after all. (The OED does have an instance of someone else using “journaling” in 1803, so I can still remark on its being such an old usage.) And the point remains: writing in a journal develops your ease in writing.

Mr. Bennet needles Mary

"What say you, Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts." Mary wished to say something sensible, but knew not how.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 2 (Mr. Bennet to Mary Bennet)