Charlotte Brontë > Quotes

“Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time. As aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy; its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Graham’s thoughts of me were not entirely those of
a frozen indifference, after all. I believe in that goodly mansion, his
heart, he kept one little place under the sky-lights where Lucy might
have entertainment, if she chose to call. It was not so handsome as the
chambers where he lodged his male friends; it was not like the hall
where he accommodated his philanthropy, or the library where he
treasured his science, still less did it resemble the pavilion where
his marriage feast was splendidly spread; yet, gradually, by long and
equal kindness, he proved to me that he kept one little closet, over
the door of which was written “Lucy’s Room.” I kept a place for him,
too—a place of which I never took the measure, either by rule or
compass: I think it was like the tent of Peri-Banou. All my life long I
carried it folded in the hollow of my hand yet, released from that hold
and constriction, I know not but its innate capacity for expanse might
have magnified it into a tabernacle for a host.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“I knew,” he continued, “you would do me good in some way, at some time;—I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“There is something flattering to a man's strength, something consonant to his honourable pride, in the idea of becoming the providence of what he loves — feeding and clothing it, as God does the lilies of the field.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Professor

“Um homem sentimental é aquele que possuí pensamentos, ideias, noções; o homem que não é sentimental, é aquele que é incapaz de pensamentos, de ideias, de noções.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

“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."
-Jane Eyre”
― Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

“-Sila ne može nadvladati mržnju - ni osveta izliječiti nepravdu.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I saw by her look she wished no longer to talk to me, but rather to converse with her own thoughts.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Hush, Jane! you think too much of the love of human beings; you are too impulsive, too vehement; the sovereign hand that created your frame, and put life into it, has provided you with other resources than your feeble self, or than creatures feeble as you.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“O frumusete rasfranta nu in culori delicate si gene lungi, ci una a mintii, a gesturilor, a stralucirii”
― Charlotte Brontë

“Quando uma mulher sente desprezo pelo seu marido, o casamento passa a ser uma escravidão, e contra a escravidão toda a revolta é legítima. Ainda que a tortura seja o prémio da revolta, vale a pensa correr o risco de ser torturado; ainda mesmo que o caminho da luta pela liberdade fosse o caminho da morte, seria justo segui-lo. Eu resistiria tanto quanto as minhas forças o permitissem e, se elas por fim viessem a faltar, teria sempre certo esse refúgio. A morte livrar-me-ia das leis e das suas consequências.”
― Charlotte Brontë, The Professor

“I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Creo que la vida es demasiado corta para desperdiciarla en cultivar el rencor y en llevar minuciosamente la cuenta de los agravios.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“On quitting Bretton, which I did a few weeks after Paulina’s departure—little thinking then I was never again to visit it; never more to tread its calm old streets—I betook myself home, having been absent six months. It will be conjectured that I was of course glad to return to the bosom of my kindred. Well! the amiable conjecture does no harm, and may therefore be safely left uncontradicted. Far from saying nay, indeed, I will permit the reader to picture me, for the next eight years, as a bark slumbering through halcyon weather, in a harbour still as glass—the steersman stretched on the little deck, his face up to heaven, his eyes closed: buried, if you will, in a long prayer. A great many women and girls are supposed to pass their lives something in that fashion; why not I with the rest? Picture me then idle, basking, plump, and happy, stretched on a cushioned deck, warmed with constant sunshine, rocked by breezes indolently soft. However, it cannot be concealed that, in that case, I must somehow have fallen overboard, or that there must have been wreck at last. I too well remember a time—a long time—of cold, of danger, of contention. To this hour, when I have the nightmare, it repeats the rush and saltness of briny waves in my throat, and their icy pressure on my lungs. I even know there was a storm, and that not of one hour nor one day. For many days and nights neither sun nor stars appeared; we cast with our own hands the tackling out of the ship; a heavy tempest lay on us; all hope that we should be saved was taken away. In fine, the ship was lost, the crew perished. As far as I recollect, I complained to no one about these troubles. Indeed, to whom could I complain? Of Mrs. Bretton I had long lost sight. Impediments, raised by others, had, years ago, come in the way of our intercourse, and cut it off. Besides, time had brought changes for her, too: the handsome property of which she was left guardian for her son, and which had been chiefly invested in some joint-stock undertaking, had melted, it was said, to a fraction of its original amount. Graham, I learned from incidental rumours, had adopted a profession; both he and his mother were gone from Bretton, and were understood to be now in London. Thus, there remained no possibility of dependence on others; to myself alone could I look. I know not that I was of a self-reliant or active nature; but self-reliance and exertion were forced upon me by circumstances, as they are upon thousands besides; and when Miss Marchmont, a maiden lady of our neighbourhood, sent for me, I obeyed her behest, in the hope that she might assign me some task I could undertake.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Sir,” I answered, “a wanderer’s repose or a sinner’s reformation should never depend on a fellow-creature. Men and women die; philosophers falter in wisdom, and Christians in goodness: if any one you know has suffered and erred, let him look higher than his equals for strength to amend, and solace to heal.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more priveleged fellow- creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing the piano and embroidering bags. It is toughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“My living darling! These are certainly her limbs, and these her features; but I cannot be so blest, after all my misery. It is a dream; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once more to my heart, as I do now; and kissed her, as thus—and felt that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me.” “Which I never will, sir, from this day.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“I was a discord in Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“If I can make any sense of your nonsense, Miss,’ I said, ‘it only goes to convince me that you are ignorant of the duties you undertake in marrying; or else that you are a wicked, unprincipled girl. But trouble me with no more secrets: I’ll not promise to keep them.”
― 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…

“...no hace ninguna falta rememorar el pasado cuando el presente es más seguro y el futuro tanto más luminoso.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“The furniture once appropriated to the lower apartments had from time to time been removed here, as fashions changed: and the imperfect light entering by their narrow casements showed bedsteads of a hundred years old; chests in oak or walnut, looking, with their strange carvings of palm branches and cherubs’ heads, like types of the Hebrew ark; rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow; stools still more antiquated, on whose cushioned tops were yet apparent traces of half-effaced embroideries, wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say:”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“After a youth and manhood passed half in unutterable misery and half in dreary solitude, I have for the first time found what I can truly love-- I have found you. You are my sympathy-- my better self-- my good angel-- I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wraps my existence about you-- and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me into one.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Degeaba se crede că oamenii ar trebui să fie fericiți atunci când au liniște; lor le trebuie acțiune și dacă n-o au, și-o creează. Milioane de ființe sunt condamnate la viață mai monotonă decât a mea și milioane se răzvrătesc împotriva soartei. Nimeni nu-și închipuie câte revolte, afară de cele politice, dospesc în masa ființelor vii care populează pământul. Ne închipuim că femeile sunt totdeauna foarte potolite, dar femeile sunt ca și bărbații; au nevoie să-și folosească puterile ca și frații lor, le trebuie un câmp pe care să-și desfășoare strădaniile, întocmai ca și bărbații lor. Ele suferă din pricina constrângerii prea strașnice, și a nemișcării prea absolute, exact așa cum ar suferi și bărbații. Frații lor mai "fericiți" dau dovadă de orbire când spun că ele trebuie să se mărginescă la aface budinci, a împleti ciorapi, a cânta la pian și a broda săculețe. E o nesocotință să le condamni ori să le iei în râs dacă încearcă să facă sau să învețe mai mult decât statornicește tradiția că-i de trebuință pentru ele.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Oh!  I will give my heart to God,” I said.  “You do not want it.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: 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. “Unjust!—unjust!” said my reason,”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Unabridged and Complete Edition

“Love me, then, or hate me, as you will... you have my full and free forgiveness: ask now for God’s, and be at peace.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“You are altogether a human being, Jane? You are certain of that?’
'I conscientiously believe so, Mr. Rochester.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Criticise me: does my forehead not please you?”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“No sight so sad as that of a naughty child, especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?

They go to hell.

And what is hell? Can you tell me that?

A pit full of fire.

And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?

No, sir.

What must you do to avoid it?

I must keep in good health and not die.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre