Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“Are there wicked things, not human, which envy human bliss?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Știam că Dumnezeu e peste tot, dar firește că-i simțim mai deplin prezența când zidirile lui se înfățișează înaintea noastră în întreaga lor măreție; și nicăieri nu citim mai desăvârșit nemărginirea, atotputernicia și omniprezența celui prea înalt decât pe cerul senin al nopții unde luminile sale își împlinesc tăcute calea fără sfârșit.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Опитвам се да не гледам напред или назад, опитвам се да продължа нагоре”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Η κουρτίνα μαζεύτηκε στην άκρη και μέσα από την αψίδα φάνηκε η τραπεζαρία με τον αναμμένο πολυέλαιο της, που έχυνε το φως του στα ασημικά και τα κρύσταλλα ενός υπέροχου σερβίτσιου στρωμένου πάνω στο μεγάλο τραπέζι. Μια παρέα κυρίες στεκόταν στο άνοιγμα. Μπήκαν και η κουρτίνα έπεσε πίσω τους. Δεν ήταν παρά οχτώ. Μπαίνοντας όλες μαζί μέσα, έδιναν την εντύπωση πως ήταν πολύ περισσότερες. Κάποιες τους ήταν πολύ ψηλές, πολλές ήταν ντυμένες στα λευκά και όλες είχαν φαρδιές τουαλέτες που σέρνονταν στο πάτωμα και έδειχναν να μεγεθύνουν το παρουσιαστικό τους, όπως η ομίχλη μεγεθύνει τη σελήνη… Σκόρπισαν μέσα στο δωμάτιο, θυμίζοντας μου, με την ελαφράδα και την ρευστότητα των κινήσεων τους, κοπάδι από λευκά φουντωτά πουλιά.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jan Eyre

“We are, and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It can never be, sir; it does not sound likely. Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world. I was not born for a different destiny to the rest of my species: to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale--a day dream.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“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?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Every joy that life gives must be earned ere it is secured; and how hardly earned, those only know who have wrestled for great prizes.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Creo que la vida es demasiado corta para pasarla fomentando la mala voluntad y recordando los agravios. Todos estamos cargados de defectos en este mundo, y así debe ser, pero pronto llegará el momento de deshacernos de ellos, cuando nos deshagamos de nuestros cuerpos corruptibles.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Lived and loved!” said she, “is that the summit of earthly happiness, the end of life—to love? I don’t think it is. It may be the extreme of mortal misery, it may be sheer waste of time, and fruitless torture of feeling. If Schiller had said to be loved, he might have come nearer the truth. Is not that another thing, Lucy, to be loved?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“for in your nature is an alloy as detrimental to repose as that in mine;”
― Charlotte Brontë

“I so dreaded a reply that would crush me with despair. To prolong doubt was to prolong hope.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Then you are mistaken, and you know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“why I thus suffered;”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And it is you, spirit--with will and energy, and virtue and purity--that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you could come with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you would: seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence--you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“...I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me...”
― Charlotte Brontë

“I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I have 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, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“As we are!” repeated Mr. Rochester—“so,” he added, enclosing me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: “so, Jane!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“The antipathy which had sprung up between myself and my employer striking deeper root and spreading denser shade daily, excluded me from every glimpse of the sunshine of life; and I began to feel like a plant growing in humid darkness out of the slimy walls of a well.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Professor

“What would Uncle Reed say to you, if he were alive?” was my scarcely voluntary demand. I say scarcely voluntary, for it seemed as if my tongue pronounced words without my will consenting to their utterance: something spoke out of me over which I had no control. “What?” said Mrs. Reed under her breath: her usually cold composed grey eye became troubled with a look like fear; she took her hand from my arm, and gazed at me as if she really did not know whether I were child or fiend. I was now in for it. “My Uncle Reed is in heaven, and can see all you do and think; and so can papa and mama: they know how you shut me up all day long, and how you wish me dead.” Mrs. Reed soon rallied her spirits: she shook me most soundly, she boxed both my ears, and then left me without a word.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Still indomitable was the reply - "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad - as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the 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. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth - so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane - quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Con su envoltura carnal puedo hacer lo que quiera, pero lo que habita en ella escapará siempre a mi voluntad. Y es su alma, su alma enérgica y pura, lo que yo deseo de ella, no sólo su cuerpo.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“A volte ho una strana sensazione nei vostri riguardi... specialmente quando mi siete vicina come adesso: è come se avessi un laccio in qualche parte del mio petto, vicino al cuore, annodato stretto e in modo indistricabile a un laccio eguale situato nella parte corrispondente della vostra piccola persona. E se quel tempestoso Canale e circa duecento miglia di terra si frapporranno fra di noi, temo che questo legame che ci unisce si spezzerà; e ho l'intima convinzione che comincerò a sanguinare qui dentro.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I commenced reading. Just as the stilly hum, the embowering shade, the warm, lonely calm of my retreat were beginning to steal meaning from the page, vision from my eyes and to lure me along the track of reverie, down into some deep dell of dream-land — just then, the sharpest ring of the street-door bell to which that much-tried instrument had ever thrilled, snatched me back to consciousness.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“No, Jane,’ he returned: ‘what necessity is there to dwell on the Past, when the Present is so much surer – the Future so much brighter?”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey

“I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“That I should like to have it is certain: whether it would be judicious or wise is another question.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“So don't make him the object of your fine feelings, your raptures, agonies, and so forth.... be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Good-night, my – ” He stopped, bit his lip, and abruptly left me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre