Which character says 'Vanity and pride are different things'?

Mary Bennet says “Vanity and pride are different things” in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She makes the observation during a conversation about Mr. Darcy’s behaviour at the Meryton assembly, after Elizabeth and Charlotte Lucas discuss whether his pride is excusable.

Mary is the middle Bennet daughter and is known for her serious manner, reading, music, and tendency to deliver moral reflections. Her distinction is that pride concerns a person’s opinion of themselves, whereas vanity concerns the opinion they want other people to hold of them. The remark is one of her more perceptive contributions, even though Austen presents Mary’s habit of displaying her learning satirically.

The line matters because it separates two ideas that are often treated as synonyms in everyday speech. Darcy’s reserve and hauteur suggest pride, while the desire to impress others is closer to vanity. Austen uses the discussion to introduce the novel’s central moral vocabulary before Elizabeth and Darcy fully understand their own prejudices and self-regard.

A common mix-up is attributing the line to Elizabeth, who is the sharper conversationalist. In the scene, however, the speaker is explicitly Mary.