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Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte Quotes

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Famous Charlotte Bronte Quotes

“And as for the vague something --- was it a sinister or a sorrowful, a designing or a desponding expression? --- that opened upon a careful observer, now and then, in his eye, and closed again before one could fathom the strange depth partially disclosed; that something which used to make me fear and shrink, as if I had been wandering amongst volcanic-looking hills, and had suddenly felt the ground quiver, and seen it gape: that something, I, at intervals, beheld still; and with throbbing heart, but not with palsied nerves. Instead of wishing to shun, I longed only to dare --- to divine it; and I thought Miss Ingram happy, because one day she might look into the abyss at her leisure, explore its secrets and analyse their nature.”

SoulCharacterDarknessInsightIntuitionAnalysisSecretsAbyssPsychePsychological Insight
Book:Jane Eyre
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“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

IfsNeedsGivingShouldI CanSoulSelfBornAliveCircumstancesSellsDelightTreasureMy SoulBlissSelf RespectInward
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“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 revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”

KnowsFirstsMadeSoulHardStrongViewsReaderAffectionMy SoulJaneGerms
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“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)
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“I have little left in myself -- I must have you. The world may laugh -- may call me absurd, selfish -- but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.”

WorldMayLittlesDoeSoulLeftLaughingDemandSelfishSatisfiedAbsurdCall MeVengeance
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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“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
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“You never felt jealousy, did you, Miss Eyre? Of course not: I need not ask you; because you never felt love. You have both sentiments yet to experience: your soul sleeps; the shock is yet to be given which shall waken it.”

NeedsSoulCoursesAsksGivenFeltSleepLove YouMissingYour SoulShockSentiments
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive. The sternest-seeming stoic is human after all, and to burst with boldness and good-will into the silent sea of their souls is often to confer on them the first of obligations.”

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