Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“Oh, my childhood! I had feelings.”
― CHARLOTTE BRONTË.

“Not one spark of spirit, not one symptom of resistance, would they have shown till the hand of the Corsican bandit had grasped that beloved purse; then, perhaps, transfigured at once into British bulldogs, they would have sprung at the robber’s throat, and there they would have fastened, and there hung, inveterate, insatiable, till the treasure had been restored.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Brontës Complete Works

“My pupil was a lively child, who had been spoilt and indulged, and therefore was sometimes wayward; but as she was committed entirely to my care, and no injudicious interference from any quarter ever thwarted my plans for her improvement, she soon forgot her little freaks, and became obedient and teachable. She had no great talents, no marked traits of character, no peculiar development of feeling or taste which raised her one inch above the ordinary level of childhood; but neither had she any deficiency or vice which sunk her below it. She made reasonable progress, entertained for me a vivacious, though perhaps not very profound, affection; and by her simplicity, gay prattle, and efforts to please, inspired me, in return, with a degree of attachment sufficient to make us both content in each other’s society. This, par parenthèse, will be thought cool language by persons who entertain solemn doctrines about the angelic nature of children, and the duty of those charged with their education to conceive for them an idolatrous devotion: but I am not writing to flatter parental egotism, to echo cant, or prop up humbug; I am merely telling the truth.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jan Eyre

“All that surrounds him hastens to decay; all declines and degenerates under his sceptre. Your god is a masked Death.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“Many, already smitten, went home only to die: some died at the school, and were buried quietly and quickly,”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“«Το πρόσωπο και οι κινήσεις σας θα πάρουν περισσότερη ζωντάνια και περισσότερη ποικιλία στις εκφράσεις τους, κάτι που το εμποδίζει τώρα η ατολμία σας. Στιγμές- στιγμές, βλέπω στα μάτια σας το βλέμμα ενός περίεργου πουλιού που κοιτάζει μέσα απ’ τα κάγκελα του κλουβιού του. Ενός πουλιού φυλακισμένου, που είναι όμως γεμάτο ζωή, ανησυχία, αποφασιστική ορμή. Αν μπορούσε να ελευθερωθεί, θα ξεπετιόταν και θα ορμούσε ψηλά, στα σύννεφα…»”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“What crime was this, that lived incarnate in this sequestered mansion, and could neither be expelled nor subdued by the owner? — what mystery, that broke out, now in fire and now in blood, at the deadest hours of night? What creature was it, that, masked in an ordinary woman's face and shape, uttered the voice, now of a mocking demon and anon of a carrion-seeking bird of prey?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Para ambos, estar juntos implica mezclar ese sentimiento de libertad que procede de la soledad con la alegría de sabernos cómplices.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And this is Jane Eyre? Are you coming from Millcote, and on foot? Yes—just one of your tricks: not to send for a carriage, and come clattering over street and road like a common mortal, but to steal into the vicinage of your home along with twilight, just as if you were a dream or a shade. What the deuce have you done with yourself this last month?”

“I have been with my aunt, sir, who is dead.”

“A true Janian reply! Good angels be my guard! She comes from the other world—from the abode of people who are dead; and tells me so when she meets me alone here in the gloaming! If I dared, I’d touch you, to see if you are substance or shadow, you elf!—but I’d as soon offer to take hold of a blue ignis fatuus light in a marsh. Truant! truant!” he added, when he had paused an instant. “Absent from me a whole month, and forgetting me quite, I’ll be sworn!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Jūs nekad neizjutāt greizsirdību, vai ne, mis Eira? Pro​tams, ne; nemaz nevajadzēja jautāt, jo jūs nekad nejūtat mīlu. Jums šīs abas jūtas vēl jāiepazīst, jūsu dvēsele dus; vēl jānāk satricinājumam, kas to atmodinās. Jūs domājat, ka visa dzīve slīd garām tādā mierīgā plūdumā, kādā līdz šim jūsu jaunība ritējusi. Jūs peldat pa dzīves straumi ar aizvērtām acīm un nedzirdīgām ausīm un neredzat klintis, kas pavisam tuvu draud jūs ieraut dzelme, nedzirdat ari bangas plīstam, atsitoties pret tām. Bet es jums saku, un iegaumējiet manus vārdus — kādu dienu jus nokļū​siet klinšaina kanāla šaurumā, kur visa dzīves plūsma tiks ierauta virpuļos un trokšņos, putās un šalkās: vai nu jus tad pret šķautnainām klintīm sašķīdīsiet atomos, vai pa- celsieties augšup un kāds varens vilnis aiznesīs jus mie​rīgākā plūdumā”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Minusta oli hauska köydä taulukokoelmissa, ja olin ihastuksissani jos minut jätettiin niihin yksin. Kun olin seurassa, kielsi eräs harmillinen ominaisuuteni minua näkemästä paljoa ja tuntemasta mitään. Oudossa seurassa, kun oli välttämätöntä pitää yllä katkeamatonta keskustelua nähdyn johdosta, riitti puolisen tuntia uuvuttamaan minut kokonaan, sekä ruumiillisesti väsyttämään että henkisesti tylsistämään. En ole koskaan nähnyt hyvin kasvatettua lasta, vielä vähemmän sivistynyttä aikuista, joka ei saattaisi minua häpeään jatkuvassa vireydessä ja älykkäässä käytöksessä sellaisen tulikokeen aikana kuin on seurusteleva, keskusteleva käynti taulukokoelmissa, historiallisissa rakennuksissa tai muissa nähtävyyspaikoissa.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“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 arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Oh, you need not be jealous! I wanted to tease you a little to make you less sad: I thought anger would be better than grief. But if you wish me to love you, could you but see how much I do love you, you would be proud and content. All my heart is yours, sir: it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence for ever.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I shall never more know the sweet homage given to beauty, youth, and grace for never to any one else shall I seem to possess these charms. He was fond and proud of me -- it is what no man besides will ever be. Whether is it better, I ask, to be a slave in a fool's paradise at Marseilles - fevered with delusive bliss one hour -- suffocating with the bitterest tears of remorse and shame the next - or to be a village schoolmistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“But all this was nothing; I too felt those autumn suns and saw those harvest moons, and I almost wished to be covered in with earth and turf, deep out of their influence; for I could not live in their light, nor make them comrades, nor yield them affection.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Parecia-me estar estendida no leito seco de um rio a ouvir a água furiosa descer das montanhas para me cobrir; não tinha vontade nem forças para me erguer e debandar. Ali ficava, à espera da morte.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“straining to satisfy St. John till my sinews ache, I shall satisfy him—to the finest central point and farthest outward circle of his expectations. If I do go with him—if I do make the sacrifice he urges, I will make it absolutely: I will throw all on the altar—heart, vitals, the entire victim. He will never love me; but he shall approve me; I will show him energies he has not yet seen, resources he has never suspected. Yes, I can work as hard as he can, and with as little grudging.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable.’
‘Because you are not fit to go there,’ I answered. ‘All sinners would be miserable in heaven.”
― 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…

“heart. I just put my two arms round her and said, “Come, Bessie! don’t scold.” The action was more frank and fearless than any I was habituated to indulge in: somehow it pleased her.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Am I hideous, Jane?” “Very, sir: you always were, you know.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“am glad you are no relation of mine: I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Never did I weary conducting him where he wished to go; of doing for him what he wished to be done.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“The right path is that which necessitates the greatest sacrifice of self-interest -- which implies the greatest good to others; and this path, steadily followed, will lead, I believe, in time, to prosperity and to happiness; though it may seem, at the outset, to tend quite in a contrary direction.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Life of Charlotte Brontë Volume I and II

“A beauty neither of fine colour, nor long eyelash, nor penciled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Loucura é não amar coisa nenhuma.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Nunca había pensado que pudiera temblar de aquel modo ante su presencia, que perdiera así la voz y hasta el movimiento al verle".”
― Charlotte Brontë

“You had not enough of the artist’s skill and science to give it full being: yet the drawings are, for a school-girl, peculiar. As to the thoughts, they are elfish. These eyes in the Evening Star you must have seen in a dream. How could you make them look so clear, and yet not at all brilliant? for the planet above quells their rays. And what meaning is that in their solemn depth?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Mr. Rochester, allow me to disown my first answer: I intended no pointed repartee: it was only a blunder.” “Just so: I think so: and you shall be answerable for it. Criticise me: does my forehead not please you?” He lifted up the sable waves of hair which lay horizontally over his brow, and showed a solid enough mass of intellectual organs, but an abrupt deficiency where the suave sign of benevolence should have risen.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“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 Eyre