Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“I wrote again: there was a chance of my first letter having missed. Renewed hope followed renewed effort: it shone like the former for some weeks, then, like it, it faded, flickered: not a line, not a word reached me. When half a year wasted in vain expectancy, my hope died out, and then I felt dark indeed. A fine spring shone round me, which I could not enjoy. Summer approached; Diana tried to cheer me: she said I looked ill, and wished to accompany me to the sea-side. This St. John opposed; he said I did not want dissipation, I wanted employment; my present life was too purposeless, I required an aim; and, I suppose, by way of supplying deficiencies, he prolonged still further my lessons in Hindostanee, and grew more urgent in requiring their accomplishment: and I, like a fool, never thought of resisting him—I could not resist him. One day”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“A ridge of lighted heath, alive, glancing, devouring, would have been a meet emblem of my mind when I accused and menaced Mrs. Reed: the same ridge, black and blasted after the flames are dead, would have represented as meetly my subsequent condition, when half-an-hour's silence and reflection had shown me the madness of my conduct, and the dreariness of my hated and hating position.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Det var synd att inte mr Brocklehurst också kunde se detta; kanske skulle han då ha insett att vad han än gjorde med bägarens utsida så förblev dess inre hopplöst oåtkomligt för honom (s. 72).”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Her eyes are fixed on the floor, but I am sure they do not see it -- her sight seems turned in, gone down into her heart: she is looking at what she can remember, I believe, not at what is really present.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“(…) Credete, Jane, di avere una sorta di parentela con me? ” 

Non osavo rispondere in quel momento: avevo il cuore gonfio.

“ Perché “ disse “ qualche volta, soprattutto quando mi siete vicina, come ora, ho nei vostri confronti una sensazione strana: mi sembra di avere una corda, sotto le costole, a sinistra, strettamente, inestricabilmente annodata a una corda analoga situata nella stessa zona del vostro corpo esile. E se quel tempestoso tratto di mare e tre, quattrocento chilometri di terra si metteranno con tutta la loro vastità tra noi, ho paura che quella corda che ci unisce verrà spezzata; e allora temo che comincerei a sanguinare internamente. Quanto a voi… mi dimenticherete. ”

Rochester”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Each picture told a story; mysterious often to m undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet every profoundly interesting:”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“This done, I lingered yet a little longer: the flowers smelt so sweet as the dew fell; it was such a pleasant evening, so serene, so warm; the still glowing west promised so fairly another fine day on the morrow; the moon rose with such majesty in the grave east. I was noting these things and enjoying them as a child might, when it entered my mind as it had never done before:— “How sad to be lying now on a sick bed, and to be in danger of dying! This world is pleasant—it would be dreary to be called from it, and to have to go who knows where?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Vi sono temperamenti umani, cortesi, ardenti e cordiali, nel raggio della cui influenza è salutare vivere per i poveri di spirito, come lo è per i deboli di corpo il riposare nella luce meridiana.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“This reproach of my dependence had become
a vague sing-song in my ear: very painful and crushing”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jan Eyre

“Heathcliff, indeed, stands unredeemed; never once swerving in his arrow-straight course to perdition”
― Charlotte Brontë

“My ear, too, felt the flow of currents; in what dales and depths I could not tell: but there were many hills beyond Hay, and doubtless many becks threading their passes. That evening calm betrayed alike the tinkle of the nearest streams, the sough of the most remote.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It is a crime against God to deny yourself love. It should be the 11th commandment.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Next morning I had the pleasure of encountering him; left a bullet in one of his poor etiolated arms, feeble as the wing of a chicken in the pip, and then thought I had done with the whole crew. But unluckily the Varens, six months before, had given me this filette Adèle, who, she affirmed, was my daughter; and perhaps she may be, though I see no proofs of such grim paternity written in her countenance:”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Finalmente sei uscita" disse. "È tanto che aspetto e che sto in ascolto; non ho sentito rumore, e non ho sentito piangere: altri cinque minuti di questo silenzio di morte, e avrei forzato la porta come un ladro. Mi eviti, dunque? Ti chiudi a chiave e rimani a soffrire da sola? Avrei preferito che venissi ad accusarmi con violenza. Hai una natura appassionata: mi aspettavo una scena. Ero pronto ad affrontare un diluvio di calde lacrime; ma volevo che fossero versate sul mio petto: ora le ha accolte un pavimento insensibile, o il tuo fazzoletto zuppo. No, mi inganno: non hai pianto. Sei pallida, hai gli occhi spenti, ma non vedo traccia di lacrime. Immagino che il tuo cuore abbia pianto sangue.
'Dunque, Jane, non una parola di rimprovero? Nessuna parola amara, pungente? Nulla che ferisca i sentimenti o provochi collera? Rimani seduta in silenzio dove io ti ho messo a sedere, e mi guardi con occhi stanchi, passivi.
"Jane, non volevo ferirti così. Se l'uomo che aveva soltanto un'agnellina che amava come una figlia, che mangiava il suo pane e beveva dalla sua tazza e dormiva sul suo petto, l'avesse per uno strano errore sgozzata al mattatoio, non avrebbe sofferto per il suo sanguinoso sbaglio più di quanto io ora soffra per il mio. Mi perdonerai mai?"
Lo perdonai subito, in quel preciso istante, lettori.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Listen, then, Jane Eyre, to your sentence: tomorrow, place the glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully, without softening one defect; omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity; write under it, ‘Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“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.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Αυτό είναι άδικο!" μου έλεγε η λογική μου. "Άδικο, άδικο" μα γιατί υπέφερα έτσι; Γιατί;
Το "γιατί" το κατάλαβα έπειτα από καιρό, όταν πια οι μεγάλες αυτές μέρες είχαν γίνει μακρινό παρελθόν. Ήμουν μια παράτονη νότα μέσα στο Γκάτεσηντ Χωλ. Δεν έμοιαζα με κανένα από τα πρόσωπα που ζούσαν εκεί. Δε μ'αγαπούσαν, η αλήθεια είναι όμως πως δεν τους αγαπούσα κι εγω. Δεν ήταν υποχρεωμένοι να μεταχειρίζοντα με στοργή ένα πλάσμα, που ήταν ανίκανο να νιώσει συμπάθεια, έστω για ένα από τα πρόσωπα του σπιτιού.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Much pain, much fear, much struggle, would have troubled the very lines of your features, broken their regularity, would have harassed your nerves into the fever of habitual irritation you would have lost in health and cheerfulness, in grace and sweetness. Providence has protected and cultured you, not only for your own sake, but I believe for Graham’s. His star, too, was fortunate: to develop fully the best of his nature, a companion like you was needed: there you are, ready.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Young ladies have a remarkable way of letting you know that they think you a quiz without actually saying the words.”
― Charlotte Bront�, Jane Eyre

“«Mejor es comer hierbas con quienes nos aman que un buey con quienes nos odian».”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He was resolved, he said, to return home to the Hollow that very afternoon. Mr. Yorke, instead of opposing, aided and abetted him. The chaise was sent for, though Mrs. Yorke declared the step would be his death. It came. Moore, little disposed to speak, made his purse do duty for his tongue. He expressed his gratitude to the servants and to Mrs. Horsfall by the chink of his coin. The latter personage approved and understood this language perfectly; it made amends for all previous contumacy. She and her patient parted the best friends in the world.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Brontës Complete Works

“It is by compulsion that I do the slightest act not prompted by one thought, and by compulsion, that I notice anything alive or dead, which is not associated with one universal idea. I have a single wish, and my whole being and faculties are yearning to attain it. - pg 388”
― Charlotte Brontë

“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 -- and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Erye

“Like heath that, in the wilderness, The wild wind whirls away.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Friends always forget those whom fortune forsakes,”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I know what I feel, and how averse are my inclinations to the bare thought of marriage. No one would take me for love; and I will not be regarded in the light of a mere money speculation. And I do not want a stranger — unsympathising, alien, different from me; I want my kindred: those with whom I have full fellow- feeling.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Laws and principals are not for times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“... she does not resent her grief. No; the weakness of that word would make it a lie. To her, what hurts becomes immediately embodied: she looks on it as a thing that can be attacked, worried down, torn in shreds. Scarcely a substance herself, she grapples to conflict with abstractions. Before calamity she is a tigress; she rends her woes, shivers them in convulsed abhorrence. Pain, for her, has no result in good; tears water no harvest of wisdom; on sickness, on death itself, she looks with the eye of a rebel. Wicked, perhaps, she is, but also she is strong: and her strength has conqueredBeauty, has overcome Grace, and bound both at her side, captives peerlessly fair, and docile as fair. Even in the uttermost frenzy of energy is each maenad movement royally, imperially, incedingly upborne. ... Fallen, insurgent, banished, she remembers the heaven where she rebelled.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Trup ostenit, picioarele - o rană,
Drumul e lung, munții pierduți în fum;
Amurgul cu posomorâtă geană
Orfanului sărman îi cade-n drum.

De ce mă sfâșie surghiun și plângeri,
Tot printre stânci, prin mlaștina ursuză?
Au inimi aspre oamenii; voi, îngeri
Orfanului îi sunteți călăuză.

Dar vântul serii liniștit adie,
Senin e cerul, stelele-s ivite;
În mila lui doar Dumnezeu mă știe,
Căci el e al orfanului părinte.

Chiar dac-ar fi și-n mlaștini aș rămâne,
Eu împăcat îmi voi primi destinul.
Tatăl din cer va fi mereu cu mine,
El îi va da orfanului alinul,

Acesta-i gândul ce mă-mbărbătează,
Deși părinții mei sunt azi morminte.
Cămin mi-e cerul, el îmi stă de pază,
Căci Domnul e-al orfanului părinte.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre