Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“My heart almost died within me; miserable longings strained its chords. How long were the September days! How silent, how lifeless!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“It is in vain to say human beings”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to change it: to give you a new and clean one: to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Ha senki más nem törődik is velem, én törődöm magammal. Minél társtalanabb, minél magányosabb vagyok, minél kevesebb a jóakaróm, a pártfogóm, annál többre kell becsülnöm önmagamat. Megtartom az isteni törvényt, amelyet az ember szentesített. Meg akarom tartani a parancsot, amelyet még józan koromban kaptam; amikor még nem voltam beszámíthatatlan bolond, mint most vagyok. Törvények, elvek, parancsok nem a nyugodt, kísértésmentes időkre adattak, hanem a mostanihoz hasonló viharok idejére, amikor test és lélek egyaránt fellázad könyörtelen szigorúságuk ellen. S ha mégoly irgalmatlan is a törvény: megszegni nem szabad. Ha tetszésem szerint áthágom vagy kijátszom a törvényt, akkor ugyan mire jó? Én hiszek az isteni parancs sérthetetlenségében, mindig is hittem benne. Ha pillanatnyilag mégis megrendülne a hitem, ez csak azt bizonyítaná, hogy nem vagyok épelméjű. Nem, nem vagyok beszámítható állapotban: ereimben tüzesen száguldoz a vér, s a szívem olyan sebesen dobog, hogy meg sem lehet számlálni dobbanásait. Régi eszményekbe, régi elhatározásokba kell most kapaszkodni: ez az egyetlen mentsváram.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“National honour was become a near empty name, of no value in the eyes of many, because their sight was dim with famine; and for a morsel of meat they would have sold their birthright.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“Un hombre no puede olvidar la devoción que sentía por una mujer así, no debe ser, no puede ser”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Professor

“When fate wronged me, I had not the wisdom to remain cool: I turned desperate; then I degenerated. ”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He left his shoes on the mat, mounted the stair unshod. Caroline stole after, with noiseless step. There was a gallery, and there was a passage; at the end of that passage Martin paused before a door and tapped. He had to tap twice—thrice. A voice, known to one listener, at last said, "Come in."

The boy entered briskly.

"Mr. Moore, a lady called to inquire after you. None of the women were about. It is washing-day, and the maids are over the crown of the head in soap-suds in the back kitchen, so I asked her to step up."

"Up here, sir?"

"Up here, sir; but if you object, she shall go down again."

"Is this a place or am I a person to bring a lady to, you absurd lad?"

"No; so I'll take her off."

"Martin, you will stay here. Who is she?"

"Your grandmother from that château on the Scheldt Miss Moore talks about."

"Martin," said the softest whisper at the door, "don't be foolish."

508"Is she there?" inquired Moore hastily. He had caught an imperfect sound.

"She is there, fit to faint. She is standing on the mat, shocked at your want of filial affection."

"Martin, you are an evil cross between an imp and a page. What is she like?"

"More like me than you; for she is young and beautiful."

"You are to show her forward. Do you hear?"

"Come, Miss Caroline."

"Miss Caroline!" repeated Moore.”
― Charlotte Bronte, Shirley

“It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior who does not intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key.  I never laughed at presentiments in my life, because I have had strange ones of my own.  Sympathies, I believe, exist (for instance, between far-distant, long-absent, wholly estranged relatives asserting, notwithstanding their alienation, the unity of the source to which each traces his origin) whose workings baffle mortal comprehension.  And signs, for aught we know, may be but the sympathies of Nature with man.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Does not the consciousness of having done some real good in your day and generation give pleasure?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“the general state of mind in which I had indulged for nearly a fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told, in her own quiet way a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the real, and rabidly devoured the ideal;—I pronounced judgment to this effect:— That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life; that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“I burnt for the more active life of the world--for the more exciting toils of a literary career--for the destiny of an artist, author, orator; anything rather than that of a priest: yes, the heart of a politician, of a soldier, of a votary of glory, a lover of renown, a luster after power, beat under my curate's surplice. I considered; my life was so wretched, it must be changed, or I must die.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“to my mind a man is nothing without a spice of the devil in him”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel: they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid and restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Thus occupied, and mutually entertained, days passed like hours, and weeks like days.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Miss Temple gently assisted me to his very feet, and I caught her whispered counsel— “Don’t be afraid, Jane, I saw it was an accident; you shall not be punished.” The kind whisper went to my heart like a dagger. “Another minute, and she will despise me for a hypocrite,” thought I; and an impulse of fury against Reed, Brocklehurst, and Co. bounded in my pulses at the conviction. I was no Helen Burns.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“All has changed about me, sir; I must change too - there is no doubt of that...”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He did not yet known how many commenced lefe-romances are doomed never to get beyond the first, or at most the second chapter.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“Aunque todo el mundo te odiase y te creyese mala, mientras tu propia conciencia te aprobara y te absolviera de toda culpa, no estarías sin amigos.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Then the curtain rises, and you will see the girl to whom I am going to give all my life, to whom I have given everything that is good in me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“I scorned the insinuation of helplessness and distraction, shook off his hand, and began to walk about again.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I am a free human being with independent will”
― Charlotte Brontëë

“On its third rising only a portion of the drawing-room was disclosed; the rest being concealed by a screen, hung with some sort of dark and coarse drapery. The marble basin was removed; in its place, stood a deal table and a kitchen chair: these objects were visible by a very dim light proceeding from a horn lantern, the wax candles being all extinguished.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“But soon I said to myself, “The Hope I am bemoaning suffered and made me suffer much: it did not die till it was full time: following an agony so lingering, death ought to be welcome.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?' Still indomitable was the reply 'I care for myself.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I felt physically weak and broken down, but my worse ailment was an unutterable wretchedness of mind; a wretchedness which kept drawing from me silent tears.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. We”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“His manner was polite; his accent, in speaking, struck me as being somewhat unusual,—not precisely foreign, but still not altogether English: his age might be about Mr. Rochester’s,—between thirty and forty; his complexion was singularly sallow: otherwise he was a fine-looking man, at first sight especially.  On closer examination, you detected something in his face that displeased, or rather that failed to please.  His features were regular, but too relaxed: his eye was large and well cut, but the life looking out of it was a tame, vacant life—at least so I thought.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre