Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“I forgot that there were fields, woods, rivers, seas, an ever-changing sky outside the steam-dimmed lattice of this sick-chamber; I was almost content to forget it.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“I had feelings: passive as I lived, little as I spoke, cold as I looked, when I thought of past days, I could feel. About the present, it was better to be stoical; about the future - such a future as mine- to be dead.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Again I might rest: though the cloud of doubt would be as thick to-morrow as ever; the necessity for exertion more urgent, the peril (of destitution) nearer, the conflict (for existence) more severe.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Pero las naturalezas insensibles no se ablandan fácilmente, ni las antipatías se extirpan sin esfuerzo.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I don’t think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Most true is it that “beauty is in the eye of the gazer.” My master’s colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth,—all energy, decision, will,—were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me; they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me,—that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. 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; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Happiness is not a potato.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife. It is not personal, but mental endowments they have given you: you are formed for labor, not for love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“You tremble and become flushed whenever Miss Oliver enters the schoolroom.” Again the surprised expression crossed his face. He had not imagined that a woman would dare to speak so to a man. For me, I felt at home in this sort of discourse. I could never rest in communication with strong, discreet, and refined minds, whether male or female, till I had passed the outworks of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold of confidence, and won a place by their heart’s very hearthstone.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“--that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen: that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Daha önce beni hiç bu kadar sık yanına çağırmamıştı, yanındayken hiç bu kadar kibar davranmamıştı ve ne yazık ki ben de onu hiç bu kadar çok sevmemiştim.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“- ¿Cómo lleva a cabo la gente la ceremonia de la despedida, Jane? Enséñeme: no estoy al corriente.
- Dicen adiós, o cualquier otra fórmula que prefieran.
- Entonces, dígalo.
- Adiós, señor Rochester, por ahora.
- ¿Qué debo decir yo?
- Lo mismo, si usted quiere, señor.
- Adiós, señorita Eyre, por ahora. ¿Eso es todo?
- Sí.
- Me parece insuficiente, seco y frío. Me gustaría añadir algo más al ritual. Darnos la mano, por ejemplo; pero, no, tampoco me satisfaría. ¿Así que no piensa hacer más que decir adiós, Jane?
- Es suficiente, señor; una sola palabra bien dicha puede contener tanta buena voluntad como muchas.
- Probablemente. Pero es muy fría e inexpresiva, solo .”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Allí, dejaba que mi mente construyera brillantes visiones, emociones imaginarias que me sacudían el corazón al mismo tiempo que lo llenaban de vida y, lo mejor de todo, abría mis oídos hacia un cuento interminable, un relato que mi imaginación había inventado y que no paraba de narrarme a mí misma. Un relato que contenía los incidentes, la vida, el fuego y la pasión que hubiera deseado sentir en mi existencia actual”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me, one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Nunca, em contacto com almas fortes, discretas, superiores, dum ou doutro sexo, pude deixar de transpor o limiar convencional da sua reserva, de lhes forçar os limites convencionais da confiança, instalando-me no mais íntimo do seu coração.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He is more more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”
― Charlotte Brontë

“It is pleasant to write about what is near and dear as the core of my heart: none can deprive me of this little book, and, through this pencil, I can say to it what I will—say what I dare utter to nothing living—say what I dare not think aloud.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“The inanimate objects were not changed; but the living things had altered past recognition.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Brontës Complete Works

“I will do my best: it's a pity that doing one's best does not always answer.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Acum, când eram lăsată în voia pornirilor mele firești, am început să simt iar imboldul emoțiilor trecute. Nu-mi lipsea sprijinul, dar îmi fusese răpit temeiul strădaniilor; nu-mi lipsea tăria de a fi liniștită, dar rațiunea de a-mi păstra liniștea nu-mi mai stătea alături. Până atunci, pentru mine lumea întreagă fusese închisă între zidurile Lowoodului. Toată experiența mea se mărginea la cunoașterea regulilor și obiceiurilor de aici; dar acum îmi aminteam că lumea e largă și că multe căi de nădejde și teamă, de emoții și imbolduri sunt deschise celor care aveau destul curaj să pășească înainte și să caute în mijlocul primejdiilor adevărata cunoaștere a vieții.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“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

“In Emily's nature, the extremes of vigour and simplicity seemed to meet. Under an unsophisticated culture, inartificial tastes, and an unpretending outside, lay a secret power and fire that might have informed the brain and kindled the veins of a hero. But she had no worldly wisdom. Her powers were un- adapted to the practical business of life. She would fail to defend her most manifest rights, to consult her most legitimate advantage. An interpreter ought always to have stood between her and the world. Her will was not very flexible, and it generally opposed her interest. Her temper was magnanimous, but warm and sudden ; her spirit altogether unbending.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Better be generally in love with all than specially with one, I should think . . .”
― Charlotte Brontë

“To the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break — at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent — I am ever tender and true.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“We have none of us long to live. Let us help each other through seasons of want and woe as well as we can, without heeding in the least the scruples of vain philosophy.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“Somliga värdersätter inte sann och äkta känsla, men här har vi nu två olika naturer som just avsaknaden av denna hade gjort sådana de var - den ena olidligt kärv, den andra ömkligt fadd. Känsla utan förnuft är en mycket vattnig dryck, men förnuft som inte mildras med känsla är alltför beskt och torrt att svälja för en människa (s. 271).”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“and he was still “her own darling.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He was, in short, in his after-dinner mood; more expanded and genial, and also more self-indulgent than the frigid and rigid temper of the morning: sill, he looked precariously grim, cushioning his massive head against the swelling back of his chair, and receiving the light of the fire on his granite-hewn features, in his great, dark eyes—for he had great, dark eyes, and very fine eyes, too; not without a certain change in their depths sometimes, which, if it was not softness, reminded you, at least, of that feeling.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Böylesi meraklı olduğunuzda beni gülümsetiyorsunuz Jane. Meraklı bir kuş gibi gözlerinizi kocaman açıyor ve istediğiniz çabuklukta cevap alamıyormuşçasına sabırsızca kıpırdanmaya başlıyor, sanki karşınızdakinin kalbini okumak istiyormuş gibi davranıyorsunuz.”
― Charlotte Brontë