Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“I did not think I should tremble in this way when I saw him—or lose my voice or the power of motion in his presence.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Dar îți spun, și poți să ții minte aceste cuvinte ale mele, că într-o zi vei ajunge la o strâmtoare presărată cu stânci primejdioase și acolo întregul curent al vieții ți se va sfărâma între vârtejurile furioase, în spumă și vuiet. Atunci, fie vei fi sfărâmată și prefăcută în pulbere de vârfurile tăioase ale stâncilor, fie te vei vedea ridicată de vreun val puternic și aruncată pe ape mai liniștite, așa cum mă aflu eu acum.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs”
― Charlotte Brontë

“You are going, Jane?” “I am going, sir.” “You are leaving me?” “Yes.” “You will not come? You will not be my comforter, my rescuer? My deep love, my wild woe, my frantic prayer, are all nothing to you?” What unutterable pathos was in his voice! How hard it was to reiterate firmly, “I am going.” “Jane!” “Mr. Rochester!” “Withdraw, then,—I consent; but remember, you leave me here in anguish. Go up to your own room; think over all I have said, and, Jane, cast a glance on my sufferings—think of me.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“peace for war—freedom for bondage—religion for superstition—the hope of heaven for the fear of hell?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“My favourite seat was a smooth and broad stone, rising white and dry from the very middle of the beck, and only to be got at by wading through the water; a feat I accomplished barefoot. The stone was just broad enough to accommodate, comfortably, another girl and me, at that time my chosen comrade—one Mary Ann Wilson; a shrewd, observant personage, whose society I took pleasure in, partly because she was witty and original, and partly because she had a manner which set me at my ease. Some years older than I, she knew more of the world, and could tell me many things I liked to hear: with her my curiosity found gratification: to my faults also she gave ample indulgence, never imposing curb or rein on anything I said. She had a turn for narrative, I for analysis; she liked to inform, I to question; so we got on swimmingly together, deriving much entertainment, if not much improvement, from our mutual intercourse.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“your thoughts never seemed to wander while Miss Miller explained the lesson and questioned you. Now, mine continually rove away: when I should be listening to Miss Scatcherd, and collecting all she says with assiduity, often I lose the very sound of her voice; I fall into a sort of dream.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Why can she not influence him more, when she is privileged to draw so near to him?” I asked myself. “Surely she cannot truly like him, or not like him with true affection! If she did, she need not coin her smiles so lavishly, flash her glances so unremittingly, manufacture airs so elaborate, graces so multitudinous. It seems to me that she might, by merely sitting quietly at his side, saying little and looking less, get nigher his heart. I have seen in his face a far different expression from that which hardens it now while she is so vivaciously accosting him; but then it came of itself: it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated manoeuvres; and one had but to accept it—to answer what he asked without pretension, to address him when needful without grimace—and it increased and grew kinder and more genial, and warmed one like a fostering sunbeam.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Cuando nuestra energía nos pide un sustento que no podemos darle, cuando nuestra voluntad emprende un camino lleno de dificultades, no podemos morir de inanición o caer en la desesperación: lo único que tenemos que hacer es buscar otro alimento para la mente, tan fuerte como la comida prohibida que ansía probar, y quizá más puro. Y así lograremos abrirnos camino a través de una ruta tan ancha y directa como la que nos ha negado la Fortuna, aunque suponga un camino más escarpado.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I am no bird, and no net ensnares me.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“People who are only in each other's company for amusement never really like each other so well, or esteem each other so highly, as those who work together, and perhaps suffer together.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Professor

“Those who liked him more than they feared, came close, and these were chiefly little ones; those who feared more than they liked, kept somewhat aloof; those in whom much affection had given, even to what remained of fear, a pleasurable zest, observed the greatest distance.”
― charlotte bronte, Villette

“Eu nu cunosc cale de mijloc; niciodată în viața mea, de câte ori am avut de-a face cu potrivnici neînduplecați, tari, n-am cunoscut cale de mijloc între deplina supunere și revolta fățișă. Totdeauna am păstrat-o pe cea dintâi, până-n clipa când am izbucnit, uneori cu violență vulcanică.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“At this crisis certain inventions in machinery were introduced into the staple manufactures of the north, which, greatly reducing the number of hands necessary to be employed, threw thousands out of work, and left them without legitimate means of sustaining life. A bad harvest supervened. Distress reached its climax. Endurance, overgoaded, stretched the hand of fraternity to sedition. The throes of a sort of moral earthquake were felt heaving under the hills of the northern counties. But, as is usual in such cases, nobody took much notice. When a food-riot broke out in a manufacturing town, when a gig-mill was burnt to the ground, or a manufacturer’s house was attacked, the furniture thrown into the streets, and the family forced to flee for their lives, some local measures were or were not taken by the local magistracy. A ringleader was detected, or more frequently suffered to elude detection; newspaper paragraphs were written on the subject, and there the thing stopped. As to the sufferers, whose sole inheritance was labour, and who had lost that inheritance — who could not get work, and consequently could not get wages, and consequently could not get bread — they were left to suffer on, perhaps inevitably left. It”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Brontës Complete Works

“God waits only the separation of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness - to glory?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“He stood considering me some minutes; then added, “She looks sensible, but not at all handsome.” “She is so ill, St. John.” “Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“I saw even that to be thus frankly addressed on a subject he had deemed unapproachable—to hear it thus freely handled—was beginning to be felt by him as a new pleasure—an unhoped-for relief. 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.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Kalau dulu aku mengalah, aku pasti menyalahi prinsip. Kalau sekarang aku mengalah, berarti pertimbanganku yang kacau.”
― Charlotte Bronte

“É insensatez condená-las, ou rir delas, se procurarem fazer mais ou aprender mais do que o costume determinou que é necessário ao seu sexo.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Y regresé bajo una fuerte lluvia con la ropa empapada, pero con el corazón ligero.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“If this my pale little elf? Is this my mustard-seed?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“–Jane: nunca he hallado a nadie como tú. Nadie me ha sometido, nadie ha influido tan dulcemente como tú lo has hecho. Esta influencia que ejerces sobre mí es mucho más encantadora de cuanto se pueda expresar.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Life, however, was yet in my possession, with all its requirements, and pains, and responsibilities. The burden must be carried; the want provided for; the suffering endured; the responsibility fulfilled.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I stood, a wretched child enough, whispering to myself over and over again, “What shall I do?—what shall I do?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Sunt oameni care nu dau prea mare însemnătate sentimentelor nobile și mărinimoase. Dar aici, înaintea mea, se aflau două ființe care nu cunoșteau asemenea simțăminte: una era insuportabil de acră, cealaltă n-avea nici un fel de sare. Duioșia fără judecată e o băutură leșietică, dar judecata fără duioșie, o licoare prea amară și prea tare ca să poată fi sorbită de oameni.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Det är inte våldet som som bäst besegrar hat, och hämnden kan inte försona en oförrätt (s. 65).”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“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 forever.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And, moreover, you need not for a moment to insinuate that the virtues have taken refuge in cottages and wholly abandoned slated houses. Let me tell you, I particularly abominate that sort of trash, because I know so well that human nature is human nature everywhere, whether under tile or thatch, and that in every specimen of human nature that breathes, vice and virtue are ever found blended, in smaller or greater proportions, and that the proportion is not determined by station. I have seen villains who were rich, and I have seen villains who were poor, and I have seen villains who were neither rich nor poor,”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Brontës Complete Works

“Nothing moved [Emily Bronte] more than any insinuation that the faithfulness and clemency, the long-suffering and loving-kindness which are esteemed virtues in the daughters of Eve, become foibles in the sons of Adam.”
― Charlotte Brontë