Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“had had no communication by letter or message with the outer world: school-rules, school-duties, school-habits and notions, and voices, and faces, and phrases, and costumes, and preferences, and antipathies—such was what I knew of existence.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Mi-am amintit de doctorul John, de calda mea afectiune pentru el, de increderea mea in marile lui calitati, de bucuria cu care ma invaluia frumusetea sa sufleteasca. Ce devenise aceasta prietenie, care era acum jumatate fiinta vie si jumatate marmura, numai de o parte adevar pur si de partea cealalta poate numai o gluma?
Murise oare cu adevarat sentimentul acesta? Nu stiu cu exactitate, insa era ingropat. [...]
Ma pripisem oare? Ma intrebam asta adesea [...] Dar, in timp, am invatat ca nimic din aceasta bunatate, aceasta cordialitate, aceasta muzica, nimic din toate astea nu-mi era adresat. Faceau parte din fiinta lui, erau mierea firii lui, blestemul fapturii sale- le impartea in jur asa cum fructul copt rasplateste cu dulceata lui albina ratacitoare, le raspandea in jur asa cum florile isi daruiesc mireasma. Oare nectarul iubeste cu adevarat albina sau pasarea careia i se daruieste? Oare macesul e cu adevarat indragostit de vazduhul din jur?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“- Hogy lehet valaki ilyen törékeny, és amellett ilyen hajlíthatatlan? - kérdezte fogcsikorgatva. - A dereka olyan a tenyeremben, mint a nádszál. - Alaposan megrázott, mikor ezt mondta. - Két ujjam között szét tudnám morzsolni, de mi hasznom lenne belőle? Hogy néz! Milyen elszántan, milyen kihívóan, milyen megvetően! Ez több, mint bátorság, ez kegyetlen diadal. Akármit csinálok a kalitkájával, nem jutok közelebb ehhez a szépséges, vad teremtéshez. Ha szétszaggatom, eltöröm a börtönét, a fogoly lélek kiszabadul: hiába vennék erőt a házán, az égbe röppen, mielőtt a halandó testet birtokomba vehetném. Én téged akarlak, lélek, a te akaratodat és energiádat, a te erényedet és ártatlanságodat, nem pusztán ezt a törékeny testet. Ha magadtól jönnél, idesimulnál a szívemre; de ha akaratod ellenére ejtelek rabul, akkor kisiklasz a karomból, mint valami lidérc, és eltűnsz, mielőtt illatodat belélegezhetném. Jane, szerelmem, jöjj!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do.  I need not sell my soul to buy bliss.  I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.’ ”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“How sad to be lying now on a sick bed, and to be in danger of dying! This world is pleasant–it would be dreary to be called from it, and to have to go who knows where?"

And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell: and for the first time it recoiled, baffled; and for the first time glancing behind, on each side, and before it, it saw all around an unfathomed gulf: it felt the one point where it stood–the present; all the rest was formless cloud and vacant depth: and it shuddered at the thought of tottering , and plunging amid that chaos.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“My spirits were excited, and with pleasure and ease I talked to him during supper, and for a long time after. There was no harassing restraint, no repressing of glee and vivacity with him; for with him I was at perfect ease, because I knew I suited him: all I said or did seemed either to console or revive him. Delightful consciousness! It brought to life and light my whole nature: in his presence I thoroughly lived; and he lived in mine.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“اصلاً هم جوان خوش‌قیافه ندیده بودم و هیچ‌وقت در عمرم با جوان خوش‌قیافه‌ای حرف نزده بودم. قدر و احترامی که برای زیبایی، آراستگی، جوانمردی و جذابیت قائل بودم صرفاً جنبه ذهنی داشت. اما اگر چنین خصوصیت‌هایی را در هیئت مردانه‌ای می‌دیدم خودبه‌خود می‌فهمیدم که با هیچ خصوصیتی در من سنخیت ندارند و نمی‌توانند هم داشته باشند، و بلافاصله رویم را برمی‌گرداندم، همان‌طور که از آتش و آذرخش رویم را برمی‌گرداندم، یا هر چیز دیگری که تابناک می‌بود و چشم را می‌زد.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“I had thought him a man unlikely to be influenced by motives so commonplace in his choice of a wife; but the longer I considered the position, education, &c., of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He was born victor, as some are born vanquished.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Young ladies have a remarkable way of letting you know that they think you a “quiz” without actually saying the words.  A certain superciliousness of look, coolness of manner, nonchalance of tone, express fully their sentiments on the point, without committing them by any positive rudeness in word or deed. A”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“My living darling!  These are certainly her limbs, and these her features; but I cannot be so blest, after all my misery.  It is a dream; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once more to my heart, as I do now; and kissed her, as thus—and felt that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I experience at the same time a calm, unwarped consciousness that she would not make me a good wife; that she is not the partner suited to me; that I should discover this within a year after marriage; and that to twelve months’ rapture would succeed a lifetime of regret. This I know.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Det är meningslöst att säga att en människa bör vara nöjd med att ha lugn och ro. Hon behöver liv och rörelse, och om det inte bjuds henne skapar hon det. Tusenden är dömda till en ännu händelselösare tillvaro än mig, och tusende lever i tyst protest mot sitt öde. Ingen vet hur många uppror vid sidan av de politiska som jäser bland alla de människor som befolkar jorden. Kvinnor förväntas alltid vara stillsamma, men kvinnor har samma känslor som män, de har samma behov av att öva sina förmågor och spänna sina krafter som deras bröder. De plågas av den trånga instängdheten och fullständiga händelselösheten på precis samma sätt som män plågas, och det är trångsynt av deras mer privilegierade medmänniskor att hävda att de borde vara nöjda med att sticka strumpor och laga puddingar, spela piano och brodera väskor. Det är tanklöst att fördöma dem eller skratta åt dem om de vill uträtta mer eller lära sig mer än vad traditionen föreskriver som passande för deras kön (s. 125-126).”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I feel I have adequate cause to be happy, and I will be happy. Good-bye!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“nipped fingers”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Naša priroda priznaje da su naše naklonosti i antipatije čudne. Ima ljudi pred kojima se potajno zgrozimo, koje nastojimo izbjeći, iako nam razum potvrđuje da su to dobri ljudi.Ima drugih, sa očitim greškama, kraj kojih sretno živimo, kao da nam zrak oko njih godi.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver’s Travels from the library. ”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Jane, I never meant to wound you thus.  If the man who had but one little ewe lamb that was dear to him as a daughter, that ate of his bread and drank of his cup, and lay in his bosom, had by some mistake slaughtered it at the shambles, he would not have rued his bloody blunder more than I now rue mine.  Will you ever forgive me?” Reader, I forgave him at the moment and on the spot.  There was such deep remorse in his eye, such true pity in his tone, such manly energy in his manner; and besides, there was such unchanged love in his whole look and mien—I forgave him all: yet not in words, not outwardly; only at my heart’s core.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“To be together is for us to be at once free as in solitude, as gay as in company.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He means to marry you?” “He tells me so.” She surveyed my whole person: in her eyes I read that they had there found no charm powerful enough to solve the enigma.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“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 a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.  It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“no net ensnares me”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Is change necessary to happiness?"

"Yes."

"Is it synonymous with it?"

"I don't know; but I feel monotony and death to be almost the same."

Here Jessie spoke.

"Isn't she mad?" she asked.

"But, Rose," pursued Caroline, "I fear a wanderer's life, for me at least, would end like that tale you are reading—in disappointment, vanity, and vexation of spirit."

"Does 'The Italian' so end?"

"I thought so when I read it."

"Better to try all things and find all empty than to try nothing and leave your life a blank...”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“I will like it,' said I; 'I dare like it;' and" (he subjoined moodily) "I will keep my word; I will break obstacles to happiness, to goodness — yes, goodness. I wish to be a better man than I have been, than I am; as Job's leviathan broke the spear, the dart, and the habergeon, hindrances which others count as iron and brass, I will esteem but straw and rotten wood.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression—as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I always liked dearly to hear what he had to say about either pictures or books; because without pretending to be a connoisseur, he always spoke his thought, and that was sure to be fresh:”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; ...”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre