Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“Nul être humain qui eût jamais vécu n’aurait pu désirer se voir mieux aimé que je l’étais ; et celui qui m’aimait ainsi, je l’idolâtrais.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It will atone—it will atone. Have I not found her friendless, and cold, and comfortless? Will I not guard, and cherish, and solace her? Is there not love in my heart, and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God’s tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world’s judgment—I wash my hands thereof. For man’s opinion—I defy it.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It is a happy thing that time quells the longings of vengeance and hushes the promptings of rage and aversion.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“I, to whom nature had denied the impromptu faculty; who, in public, was by nature a cypher; whose time of mental activity, even when alone, was not under the meridian sun; who needed the fresh silence of morning, or the recluse peace of evening, to win from the Creative Impulse one evidence of his presence, one proof of his force; I, with whom that Impulse was the most intractable, the most capricious, the most maddening of masters (him before me always excepted)—a deity which sometimes, under circumstances—apparently propitious, would not speak when questioned, would not hear when appealed to, would not, when sought, be found; but would stand, all cold, all indurated, all granite, a dark Baal with carven lips and blank eye-balls, and breast like the stone face of a tomb; and again, suddenly, at some turn, some sound, some long-trembling sob of the wind, at some rushing past of an unseen stream of electricity, the irrational demon would wake unsolicited, would stir strangely alive, would rush from its pedestal like a perturbed Dagon, calling to its votary for a sacrifice, whatever the hour—to its victim for some blood, or some breath, whatever the circumstance or scene—rousing its priest, treacherously promising vaticination, perhaps filling its temple with a strange hum of oracles, but sure to give half the significance to fateful winds, and grudging to the desperate listener even a miserable remnant—yielding it sordidly, as though each word had been a drop of the deathless ichor of its own dark veins.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted just now; he was past youth, but had not reached middle-age; perhaps he might be thirty-five.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. We all must die one day, and the illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual: my mind is at rest.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“coquetry runs in her blood, blends with her brains, and seasons the marrow of her bones.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Who would not be the Rizzio of so divine a Mary?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Digo simplemente que tenemos muchos gustos y emociones en común. Tengo que repetirme sin cesar, por lo tanto, que estamos separados para siempre. Pero yo, mientras tenga aliento y capacidad de discernir, no tengo más remedio que seguirlo amando.»”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“They confound it with sparks mounting from Tophet!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“Because,' he said, 'I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you - especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Un hombre en cuya presencia me sienta obligada e inclinada a ser buena. Un hombre cuyo dominio acepte mi carácter impetuoso. Un hombre cuya aprobación sea una recompensa y cuya censura sea un castigo para mí. Un hombre al que me parezca imposible no amar y, muy posiblemente, no temer.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“All is changed about me, sir; I must change too—”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“My bride is here because my equal is here, and my likeness... You I love as my own flesh... I must have you for my own - entirely my own.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“and eyes like Miss Scatcherd's can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I know the greatness of Jehovah; I acknowledge the perfection of His word; I adore the purity of the Christian faith; my theory is right, my practice horribly wrong.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Life of Charlotte Brontë Volume I and II

“Some days since: a singular mood came over me:
one in which grief replaced frenzy-sorrow,
sullenness. I longed for thee! I longed for thee both
with soul and flesh! I asked of G-d, at once in anguish
and humility, if I had not been long enough desolate,
afflicted, tormented; and might not soon taste bliss
and peace once more. That I merited all I endured, I
pleaded; and the alpha and omega of my heart's
wishes broke involuntarily from my lips in the words-
"Jane! Jane! Jane!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Edition With Illustrations

“all the sunshine I can feel is in her presence.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“he held his arms out; but I evaded the embrace, and at once quitted the room. “Farewell!” was the cry of my heart as I left him. Despair added, “Farewell for ever!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“I know it well; therefore I proceed almost as freely as if I were writing my thoughts in a diary. 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.”
“Repentance is said to be its cure, sir.”
“It is not its cure. Reformation may be its cure; and I could reform — I have strength yet for that — if — but where is the use of thinking of it, hampered, burdened, cursed as I am? Besides, since happiness is irrevocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may.”
“Then you will degenerate still more, sir.”
“Possibly: yet why should I, if I can get sweet, fresh pleasure? And I may get it as sweet and fresh as the wild honey the bee gathers on the moor.”
“It will sting — it will taste bitter, sir.”
― 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…

“Better, perhaps, to die quickly a pleasant death, than drag on long a charmless life.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“… it was not the wish of one who hopes to partake a pleasure if she could only reach it - who feels fitted to shine in some bright distant sphere, could she but thither win her way; it was no yearning to attain, no hunger to taste; only the calm desire to look on a new thing.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Could you decide now?” asked the missionary. The inquiry was put in gentle tones: he drew me to him as gently. Oh, that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force! I could resist St. John’s wrath: I grew pliant as a reed under his kindness. Yet I knew all the time, if I yielded now, I should not the less be made to repent, some day, of my former rebellion. His nature was not changed by one hour of solemn prayer: it was only elevated.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“So don't make him the object of your fine feelings, your ruptures, agonies, and so forth. He is not of your order: keep to your caste; and be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised.”
― 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 pitfull 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

“Oamenii închiși la suflet au adesea mai multă nevoie decât cei expansivi să audă vorbindu-li-se în mod deschis despre sentimentele și durerile lor. Cel mai stoic în aparență e la urma urmei tot om, și, a te precipita - cu îndrăzneală și bunăvoință „în tăcuta mare” a sufletului său, înseamnă adesea a-i face binele cel mai de seamă.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“All ridiculous, irrational crying up of one class, whether the same be aristocrat or democrat - all howling down of another class, whether clerical or military - all exacting injustice to individuals, whether monarch or mendicant - is really sickening to me; all arraying of ranks against ranks, all party hatreds, all tyrannies disguised as liberties, I reject and wash my hands of.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Not being in a condition to remove his doubt, I only cast my eyes down on the two large feet planted on the rug, and sighed, wishing myself far enough away.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre