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Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte Quotes

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Famous Charlotte Bronte Quotes

“You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength.”

PersonsUseBornOughtReasonableParasites
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.”

ThinkingFirstsHeartI CanSelfPassionFoundStrongPowerfulExistenceLove YouMy HeartPureSpringDrawsAngelFirst TimeBoundsLovelyFlamesAttachmentGiftedCentreWrapsSolemnRomance NovelFerventFuseMost RomanticMy SympathyFound YouKindlingLove LiteratureRomantic BookRomantic Passion
Book:Jane Eyre
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“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you.”

FeelsActionEvilSmartConsequencePatienceEndureConnectedCommitHasty
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“you may fume and fidget as you please: but this is the best plan to pursue with you, I am certain. I like you more than I can say; but I’ll not sink into a bathos of sentiment: and with this needle of repartee I’ll keep you from the edge of the gulf too; and, moreover, maintain by its pungent aid that distance between you and myself most conducive to our real mutual advantage.”

MayI CanRealCertainPlansLike YouPleaseAdvantageDistanceEdgesAidsPursueMutualSentimentsNeedlesI Like YouRepartee
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure. Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of Heaven. She is a divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise.”

WorldFeelsMeanDoeSoulCertainHeavenSoundMorningAdviceThis WorldDivineSummerGloryShiningGoldenParadisePotatoesHollowDroppingDewMockeryMouldManureVillette
Author:Charlotte Bronte
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“It is a very strange sensation to inexperience youth to feel itself quite alone the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it; but then the throb of fear disturbs it; and fear with me became predominant when half an hour elapsed, and still I was alone.”

WorldFeelsStillsFearHoursHalfCuttingYouthStrangeAdventurePrideConnectionsBoundsCharmSensationsUncertainPortImpedimentsInexperienceAdrift
Book:Jane Eyre
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“I both wished and feared to see Mr. Rochester on the day which followed this sleepless night. I wanted to hear his voice again, yet feared to meet his eye.”

EyeWantedNightVoiceHis EyesSleepless NightsRochesterMr Rochester
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“Arraigned at my own bar, Memory having given her evidence of the hopes, wishes, sentiments I had been cherishing since last night-- of the general state of mind which I have 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 the poison as if it were nectar.”

IfsWayMindRealStatesReasonLastsPastLyingNightGivenWishMemoriesMy OwnGreaterEffectsSweetFoolQuietJudgmentEvidenceIdealsBreathsBarsTalesFantasticIdiotPoisonCherishSentimentsState Of MindRejectedLast NightJaneNectarFortnight
Book:The Complete Works Of Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor
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“I know I must conceal my sentiments: I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care much for me. For when I say that I am of his kind, I do not mean that I have his force to influence, and his spell to attract: I mean only that I have certain tastes and feelings in common with him.I must, then, repeat continually that we are forever sundered: - and yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him.”

ThinkingKnowsKindMeanFeelingsCareRememberCertainForceCommonForeverInfluenceTasteBreatheRepeatsSentimentsSpells
Book:Jane Eyre
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“I scorn your idea of love,' I could not help saying, as I rose up and stood before him, leaning my back against the rock. 'I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer: yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it.”

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Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“Besides this earth, and besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is around us, for it is everywhere; and those spirits watch us, for they are commissioned to gaurd us; and if we were dying in pain and shame, if scorn smote us on all sides, and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, recognize our innocence, and God waits ony a speration of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward.”

IfsMenWorldEarthPainSpiritWaitingSidesRaceWatchesDyingAngelHatredShameRewardsFleshInvisibleKingdomsInnocenceTortureCrownsScornCrushed
Author:Charlotte Bronte
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“Emily suffers no more from pain or weakness now. She will never suffer more in this world. She is gone after a hard, short conflict...Yes there is no Emily in time or on earth now. Yesterday we put her poor, wasted, mortal frame quietly under the chancel pavement. We are very calm at present. Why shoud we be otherwise? The anguish of seeing her suffer is over; the spectacle of the pains of death is gone by; the funeral day is past. We feel she is at peace. No need now to trouble for the hard frost and the keen wind. Emily does not feel them.”

WorldNeedsFeelsDoeHardEarthPainPastSufferingPoorGoneSeeingTroubleThis WorldWindConflictWeaknessCalmYesterdayMortalsFuneralAnguishFrostEmilyPavement
Author:Charlotte Bronte
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“For a long time the fear of seeming singular scared me away; but by degrees, as people became accustomed to me and my habits, and to such shadows of peculiarity as were engrained in my nature - shades, certainly not striking enough to interest, and perhaps not prominent enough to offend, but born in and with me, and no more to be parted with than my identity - but slow degrees I became a frequenter of this straight narrow path.”

PeopleLongEnoughInterestBornPathIdentityHabitDegreesLong TimeShadowScaredShadeAccustomedSeemingProminentNarrow Path
Author:Charlotte Bronte
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“He is not to them what he is to me," I thought: "he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine- I am sure he is- I feel akin to him- I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him.”

FeelsBelieveHeartKindLanguageI BelieveWealthBrainBloodMovementMinesNervesCountenanceHeart And Brain
Book:Jane Eyre
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“I had a theoretical reverence and homage for beauty, elegance, gallantry, fascination but had I met those qualities incarnate in masculine shape, I should have known instinctively that they had nor could have sympathy with anything in me.”

ShouldQualityKnownMetsShapesShould HaveReverenceMasculineEleganceFascinationTheoreticalHomageGallantryShould Have Known
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“After a youth and manhood passed half in unutterable misery and half in dreary solitude, I have for the first time found what I can truly love--I have found you.”

FirstsI CanFoundHalfYouthSolitudeFirst TimeMiseryManhoodDrearyFound You
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“When you are inquisitive, Jane, you always make me smile. You open your eyes like an eager bird, and make every now and then a restless movement, as if answers in speech did not flow fast enough for you, and you wanted to read the tablet of one's heart.”

IfsInspirationalHeartEnoughEyeWantedAnswersMovementStudentsSpeechBirdFlowNow And ThenRestlessJaneTabletsInquisitiveMake Me Smile
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“God waits only the separation of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness -- to glory?”

ShouldLife IsSpiritCertainWaitingGloryRewardsFleshSeparationCrownsDistressOverwhelmedEntrances
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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