The line often attributed to Jane Austen:
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation.”
Why this question comes up
This sentence is widely shared online as a Jane Austen quote.
It is most commonly attributed to Pride and Prejudice and is often presented as a direct line of dialogue.
What appears in Jane Austen’s published novels
A review of the full texts of Jane Austen’s six completed novels shows that this sentence does not appear verbatim in any of them:
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Sense and Sensibility (1811)
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Pride and Prejudice (1813)
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Mansfield Park (1814)
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Emma (1815)
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Northanger Abbey (1817)
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Persuasion (1817)
No chapter in these works contains this line as written above.
Where the confusion likely comes from
In Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34, Elizabeth Bennet reflects on when her feelings toward Darcy began to change.
The idea expressed in that passage is similar, but the wording, structure, and narrative form are different:
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The novel uses indirect narration
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The sentence structure is longer
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The phrasing is not presented as a single, quotable line
The commonly shared sentence appears to be a condensed paraphrase, not a quotation.
Earliest traceable appearances
The exact wording of this line begins appearing in quotation collections and online sources in the late 20th century, typically without:
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A chapter reference
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A page number
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A specific edition citation
No printed Austen manuscript or early 19th-century edition contains this wording.
What can be verified
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The sentiment reflects a moment in Pride and Prejudice
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The sentence itself does not appear in Austen’s novels
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The wording is a modern reformulation, not original text
Conclusion
Jane Austen did not write this line as quoted.
It is a later paraphrase based on a narrative moment in Pride and Prejudice, rather than a sentence found in the original text.