Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsHeartJaneShouldWorldFirstsFeelsEyeKnowsMenThinkingMr RochesterHumansVilletteWellsLittlesNightLastsRochesterSoul

Famous Charlotte Bronte Quotes

“Sometimes I have the strangest feeling about you. Especially when you are near me as you are now. It feels as though I had a string tied here under my left rib where my heart is, tightly knotted to you in a similar fashion. And when you go to Ireland, with all that distance between us, I am afraid that this cord will be snapped, and I shall bleed inwardly.”

FeelsHeartSometimesFeelingsLeftFashionMy HeartDistanceStringsIrelandTiedCordsRibs
Author:Charlotte Bronte
Create image

“God surely did not create us, and cause us to live, with the sole end of wishing always to die. I believe, in my heart, we were intended to prize life and enjoy it, so long as we retain it. Existence never was originally meant to be that useless, blank, pale, slow-trailing thing it often becomes to many, and is becoming to me, among the rest.”

BelieveHeartLongEndsDiesI BelieveWishCausesEnjoyExistenceBecomingMy HeartI Believe InOptimisticUselessPrizeMeant To BeSolePaleBlankSteadfastness
Book:Shirley: Easyread Edition
Create image

“Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine. May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agised as in that hour left my lips: for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love.”

FeelsHeartMayEyeEvilLeftHeavenFeltHoursPrayerTearsMinesReaderIntegrityHeartbreakInstrumentsLipsLike MeAppealsGentleHopelessDreadShedStormy
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Create image

“To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts — when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper: but 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. (Mr Rochester to Jane)”

HeartDoeMadeSoulCharacterEyeFacesBreakClearFirePerspectivePleaseDevilIllTongueConsistentTemperStableJaneEloquentTrivialityPlease MeSuppleImbecilityRochesterClear EyesMr RochesterFlatness
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Create image

“I hold another creed, which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention, but in which I delight, and to which I cling, for it extends hope to all; it makes eternity a rest - a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last; with this creed, revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low. I live in calm, looking to the end.”

FirstsHeartI CanEndsHomeLastsWorryCrimeTaughtMy HeartLowsEternityForgivingInjusticeCalmTerrorDelightRevengeCriminalsCrushDisgustingCreedsAbyssSincerelyDegradation
Book:Jane Eyre
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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)
Create image

“Because when she failed, I saw how she might have succeeded. Arrows that continually glanced off from Mr. Rochester's breast and fell harmless at his feet, might, I knew, if shot by a surer hand, have quivered keen in his proud heart - have called love into his stern eye, and softness into his sardonic face, or better still, without weapons a silent conquest might have been won.”

IfsHeartHas BeensStillsHandsMightEyeFacesSawsFeetProudWeaponsShotsSilentBreastsConquestMight Have BeenArrowsSoftnessRochesterSardonicMr Rochester
Book:Jane Eyre: Englische Originalausgabe
Create image

“I would not be you for a kingdom.' The remark was too naïve to rouse anger; I merely said - 'Very good.' 'And what would you give to be ME?' she inquired. 'Not a bad sixpence - strange as it may sound', I replied. 'You are but a poor creature.' 'You don't think so in your heart.' 'No; for in my heart you have not the outline of a place: I only occasionally turn you over in my brain.”

ThinkingGivingHeartMaySaidTurnsSoundPoorBrainStrangeMy HeartCreaturesVery GoodKingdomsBe YouRemarksOutlines
Author:Charlotte Bronte
Create image

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”

IfsThinkingShouldHeartLittlesMadeSoulHardWealthPoorPovertyHeartbreakShould HaveMade ItGiftedObscureLeaving MeSaying GoodbyeHeartlessSoullessCauses Of Poverty
Book:Jane Eyre
Create image

“As to the mouth, it delights at times in laughter; it is disposed to impart all that the brain conceives; though I daresay it would be silent on much the heart experiences. Mobile and flexible, it was never intended to be compressed in the eternal silence of solitude: it is a mouth which should speak much and smile often, and have human affection for its interlocutor.”

ShouldHumansHeartWould BeSpeakBrainSilenceSolitudeEternalLaughterMouthsSilentAffectionDelightFlexibleMobileImpart
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Create image

“I never met your likeness. Jane: you please me, and you master me - you seem to submit, and I like the sense of pliancy you impart; and while I am twining the soft, silken skein round my finger, it sends a thrill up my arm to my heart. I am influenced - conquered; and the influence is sweeter than I can express; and the conquest I undergo has a witchery beyond any triumph _I_ can win.”

HeartI CanSeemsWinningInfluenceMastersArmsMy HeartPleaseMetsFingersRoundsTriumphSubmitThrillConquestJaneImpartPlease MeWitchery
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Create image

“So you shun me? - you shut yourself up and grieve alone! I would rather you had come and upbraided me with vehemence. You are passionate: I expected a scene of some kind. I was prepared for the hot rain of tears; only I wanted them to be shed on my breast: now a senseless floor has received them, or your drenched handkerchief. But I err: you have not wept at all! I see a white cheek and faded eye, but no trace of tears. I suppose, then, that your heart has been weeping blood?”

HeartKindHas BeensEyeWantedWhiteBloodTearsSceneRainHotPreparedPassionateExpectedGrievingBreastsCheeksShedWeepingFadedHandkerchiefsVehemence
Book:Jane Eyre: Easyread Edition
Create image

“I Believe she thought I had forgotten my station; and yours, sir.' 'Station! Station!-- your station is in my heart, and on the necks of those who would insult you, now or hereafter.”

BelieveHeartI BelieveMy HeartForgottenInsultNecksStationsHereafterInsults You
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Create image

“I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.”

HeartLongHomeWalksConsciousnessFingersGladComing HomeAfternoonNurseTwilightToesInferiorityReedsSaddenedLong WalksChillyFingers And Toes
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Create image