Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“you are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be. If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way:”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.”
― Charlotte Brontë, JANE EYRE

“But I tell you—and you may mark my words—you will come some day to a craggy pass in the channel, where the whole of life’s stream will be broken up into whirl and tumult, foam and noise: either you will be dashed to atoms on crag points, or lifted up and borne on by some master-wave into a calmer current—as I am now.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Era uno di quegli esseri la cui nascita i pianeti benigni hanno certamente lasciato illuminare dal loro sorriso. L’avversità poteva anche fargli il broncio: egli era tipo da sconfiggerla mostrando un volto radioso. Forte e allegro, energico e cortese, non temerario, ma valoroso, era uomo da far la corte alla Sorte stessa e da far sì che quelle pupille di pietra gli concedessero un raggio quasi amoroso.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and offered a varied life to those who had the courage to go out into it.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And shall I see you again, Helen, when I die?” “You will come to the same region of happiness: be received by the same mighty, universal Parent, no doubt, dear Jane.” Again I questioned, but this time only in thought.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Very much.” I was not fond of pampering that susceptible vanity of his; but for once, and from motives of expediency, I would e’en soothe and stimulate it.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong;”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“To leave my tale half told, will, you know, be a sort of security that I shall appear at your breakfast table to finish it.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And who threw it, then?" continued Rosine, speaking quite freely the very words I should so much have wished to say, but had no address or courage to bring it out: how short some people make the road to a point which, for others, seems unattainable! "That”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Była to najmilsza godzina z dwudziestu czterech godzin doby. "Dzień gorące ognie strwonił", a chłodna rosa opadała na spragnione równiny i spieczone szczyty. Tam gdzie słońce skromnie zaszło - nie w przepychu chmur - roztaczała się purpura, płonąc jak krwawy klejnot lub rozżarzony ogień na szczycie jednego wzgórza i sięgając w coraz łagodniejszych tonach do połowy nieba. Wschód miał też swój własny urok pięknego, głebokiego szafiru i własny skromny klejnot - wschodzącą, pojedynczą gwiazdę; niebawem miał się poszczycić księżycem; ale tymczasem księżyc był jeszcze poniżej widnokręgu.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“You would say, I should have been superior to circumstances; so I should — so I should; but you see I was not. When fate wronged me, I had not the wisdom to remain cool: I turned desperate; then I degenerated. Now, when any vicious simpleton excites my disgust by his paltry ribaldry, I cannot flatter myself that I am better than he: I am forced to confess that he and I are on a level. I wish I had stood firm — God knows I do! Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Brontës: Complete Novels of Charlotte, Emily & Anne Brontë - All 8 Books in One Edition: Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall…

“Just one word, Jane: were there only ladies in the house where you have been?” I laughed and made my escape, still laughing as I ran upstairs. “A good idea!” I thought with glee. “I see I have the means of fretting him out of his melancholy for some time to come.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“¿Podríais recomendarme libros similares a ''Mujercitas'', ''Orgullo y prejuicio'' o ''Jane Eyre''?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Adèle is not answerable for either her mother’s faults or yours: I have a regard for her; and now that I know she is, in a sense, parentless—forsaken by her mother and disowned by you, sir—I shall cling closer to her than before. How could I possibly prefer the spoilt pet of a wealthy family, who would hate her governess as a nuisance, to a lonely little orphan, who leans towards her as a friend?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Vivir es para mi, Jane, estar en el borde de un cráter que puede agrietarse y vomitar fuego en cualquier momento.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“But you can’t expect a cat to know manners like a Christian, you know, Miss Grey.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë: Masterpieces: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey,The Professor... (Bauer Classics)

“All men must die.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“My Maker and yours, who will never destroy what He created. I rely implicitly on His power, and confide wholly in His goodness: I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to Him, reveal him to me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“...and came back through heavy rain, with streaming garments, but with a relieved heart.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Do you know where the wicked go after death?”
“They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer.
“And what is hell? Can you tell me that?”
“A pit full of fire.”
“And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?”
“No, sir.”
“What must you do to avoid it?”
I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable: “I must keep in good health, and not die.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“shook my head: I could not see how poor people had the means of being kind; and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women I saw sometimes nursing their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the village of Gateshead: no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“In seeking these articles, I encountered the beads of a pearl necklace Mr. Rochester had forced me to accept a few days ago. I left that; it was not mine: it was the visionary bride’s who had melted in air. The other articles I made up in a parcel; my purse, containing twenty shillings (it was all I had), I put in my pocket: I tied on my straw bonnet, pinned my shawl, took the parcel and my slippers, which I would not put on yet, and stole from my room.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Yet yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Como suportará os choques, as repulsas, as humilhações e desolações, que os livros, e minha própria razão me dizem estar reservados a todos os humanos?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Vorahnungen sind eine sonderbare Sache! Und Empfindungen ebenso und nicht anders Zeichen; und alle drei miteinander bilden ein Geheimnis, das die Menschen bislang nicht entschlüsseln können. Nie habe ich mich über Vorahnungen lustig gemacht, denn ich hatte selbst sonderbare Gesichte. Empfindungen sympathetischer Art gibt es ganz gewiss (zum Beispiel zwischen Verwandten, die weit voneinander entfernt und einander völlig entfremdet waren, in deren Fall sich nach langer Zeit der gemeinsame Ursprung trotz aller Entfremdung durchsetzte), doch ihr Wirken überfordert den menschlichen Verstand. Und Zeichen können, soweit wir wissen, nichts anderes sein als Indiz der Nachsicht der Natur mit dem Menschen.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“His mother left the room; then, moved by insupportable regret, I just murmured the words “Dr. Bretton.” He looked up from his book; his eyes were not cold or malevolent, his mouth was not cynical; he was ready and willing to hear what I might have to say: his spirit was of vintage too mellow and generous to sour in one thunder-clap. “Dr. Bretton, forgive my hasty words: do, do forgive them.” He smiled that moment I spoke. “Perhaps I deserved them, Lucy. If you don’t respect me, I am sure it is because I am not respectable. I fear, I am an awkward fool: I must manage badly in some way, for where I wish to please, it seems I don’t please.” “Of that you cannot be sure; and even if such be the case, is it the fault of your character, or of another’s perceptions? But now, let me unsay what I said in anger. In one thing, and in all things, I deeply respect you. If you think scarcely enough of yourself, and too much of others, what is that but an excellence?” “Can I think too much of Ginevra?” “I believe you may; you believe you can’t. Let us agree to differ. Let me be pardoned; that is what I ask.” “Do you think I cherish ill-will for one warm word?” “I see you do not and cannot; but just say, ‘Lucy, I forgive you!’ Say that, to ease me of the heart-ache.” “Put away your heart-ache, as I will put away mine; for you wounded me a little, Lucy. Now, when the pain is gone, I more than forgive: I feel grateful, as to a sincere well-wisher.” “I am your sincere well-wisher: you are right.” Thus our quarrel ended.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“thought”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Bronte Collection

“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 was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage.

If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathise with one amongst them; a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in
temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest, or adding to their pleasure; a noxious thing, cherishing the germs of indignation at their treatment, of contempt of their judgment.

I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child—though equally dependent and friendless—Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have entertained for me more of the cordiality of fellow-feeling; the servants would have been less prone to make me the scapegoat of the nursery.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jan Eyre

“Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home – my only home.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre