Charlotte Bronte Quotes

He is not to them what he is to me.

Sir,' I interrupted him, 'you are inexorable for that unfortunate lady; you speak of her with hate --- with vindictive antipathy. It is cruel --- she cannot help being mad.

The word book acted as a transient stimulus

Fortune is proverbially called changeful, yet her caprice often takes the form of repeating again and again a similar stroke of luck in the same quarter.

I could not answer the ceaseless inward question-why I thus suffered; now, at the distance of-I will not say how many years, I see it clearly.

I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high.

Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.

I am not your dear; I cannot lie down: send me to school soon, Mrs. Reed, for I hate to live here.

Reader, I literally married him.

I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing.

[I]n his presence I thoroughly lived.

Novelists should never allow themselves to weary of the study of real life.

Good fortune opens the hand as well as the heart wonderfully; and to give somewhat when we have largely received, but to afford a vent to the unusual ebullition of the sensations.

When his first-born was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes, as they once were - large, brilliant, and black.

After a youth and manhood passed half in unutterable misery and half in dreary solitude, I have for the first time found what I can truly love--I have found you.

Wise people say it is folly to think anybody perfect; and as to likes and dislikes, we should be friendly to all, and worship none

I mean that I value vision, and dread being struck stone blind.

It is a long way off, sir" "From what Jane?" "From England and from Thornfield: and ___" "Well?" "From you, sir

Jane Eyre "I desired more...than was within my reach. Who blames me? Many call me discontented. I couldn't help it: the restlessness is in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.

Do you like him much?' I told you I liked him a little. Where is the use of caring for him so very much: he is full of faults.' Is he?' All boys are.

Am I hideous, Jane? Very, sir: you always were, you know.

As to the thoughts, they are elfish. Those eyes in the Evening Star you must have seen in a dream.

He was the first to recognise me, and to love what he saw.

Jane Austin was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete and rather insensible (not senseless) woman. If this is heresy, I cannot help it.

Everyone else is just cocktails.

I loved him very much - more than I could trust myself to say - more than words had power to express." - Jane Eyre

I both wished and feared to see Mr. Rochester on the day which followed this sleepless night. I wanted to hear his voice again, yet feared to meet his eye.

You ask rather too many questions. I have given you answers enough for the present: now I want to read.

He turned away; he threw himself on his face on the sofa. 'Oh, Jane! my hope - my love - my life!' broke in anguish from his lips.

It would not be wicked to love me." "It would to obey you.

To prolong doubt was to prolong hope.

If he were insane, however, his was a very cool and collected insanity.

I was no pope - I could not boast infallibility.

It is hard work to control the workings of inclination and turn the bent of nature; but that it may be done, I know from experience. God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate.

There is nothing I fear so much as idleness, the want of occupation, inactivity, the lethargy of the faculties; when the body is idle, the spirit suffers painfully.

Too often do reviewers remind us of the mob of Astrologers, Chaldeans, and Soothsayers gathered before 'the writing on the wall' and unable to read the characters or make known the interpretation.

Gentle, soft dream, nestling in my arms now, you will fly, too, as your sisters have all fled before you: but kiss me before you go--embrace me, Jane.

I seem to have gathered up a stray lamb in my arms: you wandered out of the fold to seek your shepherd, did you, Jane?

I soon forgot storm in music.

You, sir, are the most phantom-like of all; you are a mere dream

Say whatever your memory suggests is true; but add nothing and exaggerate nothing.

My rest might have been blissful enough, only a sad heart broke it.

I have no wish to talk nonsense." "If you did, it would be in such a grave, quiet manner, I should mistake it for sense.

I only want an easy mind, sir; not crushed by crowded obligations.

Jane, I never meant to wound you thus...Will you ever forgive me?" Reader, I forgave him at the moment and on the spot.

And with that answer, he left me. I would much rather he had knocked me down.

It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more.

Great pains were taken to hide chains with flowers

I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me.

Rochester: I am to take mademoiselle to the moon, and there I shall seek a cave in one of the white valleys among the volcano-tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me there, and only me.