Authors:

Charlotte Bronte Quotes - Page 15

All Quotes Affection Age Bliss Character Children Desire Destiny Dying Earth Effort Evil Fate Feelings Forgiveness Gender Giving Grief Happiness Hate Heart Heartbreak Heaven Home Husband Independence Inspirational Integrity Judging Kindness Liberty Life Loneliness Love Lying Memories Morning Nature Nursing Pain Passion Past Poverty Prayer Pride Reality Regret Revenge Silence Sleep Solitude Soul Spring Struggle Suffering Summer Sunshine Tranquility Vision Waiting Worry Writing Youth
I doubt if I have made the best use of all my calamities. Soft, amiable natures they would have refined to saintliness; of strong, evil spirits they would have made demons; as for me, I have only been a woe-struck and

I doubt if I have made the best use of all my calamities. Soft, amiable natures they would have refined to saintliness; of strong, evil spirits they would have made demons; as for me, I have only been a woe-struck and selfish woman.

Charlotte Bronte
Strong, Selfish, Evil
Charlotte Bronte (2009). “Villette”, p.80, The Floating Press

I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity?

Charlotte Bronte
Coward, Obscurity, Rust
Charlotte Bronte (2016). “Villette”, p.48, Xist Publishing

He is not to them what he is to me," I thought: "he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine- I am sure he is- I feel akin to him- I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him.

Charlotte Bronte
Believe, Heart, Blood
Charlotte Bronte (2013). “Jane Eyre”, p.224, Simon and Schuster

I thought I loved him when he went away; I love him now in another degree: he is more my own. [ . . . ] Oh! a thousand weepers, praying in agony on waiting shores, listened for that voice, but it was not uttered--not uttered till; when the hush came, some could not feel it: till, when the sun returned, his light was night to some!

Charlotte Bronte
I Love Him, Night, Light

Whatever the cause, I could not meet his sunshine with cloud. If this were my last moment with him, I would not waste it in forced, unnatural distance. I loved him well - too well not to smite out of my path even Jealousy herself, when she would have obstructed a kind farewell. A cordial word from his lips, or a gentle look from his eyes, would do me good, for all the span of life that remained to me; it would be comfort in the last strait of loneliness; I would take it - I would taste the elixir, and pride should not spill the cup.

Charlotte Bronte
Distance, Loneliness, Farewell
Charlotte Bronte (2016). “Villette”, p.464, Xist Publishing

I like this day; I like that sky of steel; I like the sternness and stillness of the world under this frost.

Charlotte Bronte
Sky, Steel, World
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.120, Penguin

For a long time the fear of seeming singular scared me away; but by degrees, as people became accustomed to me and my habits, and to such shadows of peculiarity as were engrained in my nature - shades, certainly not striking enough to interest, and perhaps not prominent enough to offend, but born in and with me, and no more to be parted with than my identity - but slow degrees I became a frequenter of this straight narrow path.

Charlotte Bronte
Long, People, Shadow

If he were insane, however, his was a very cool and collected insanity.

Charlotte Bronte
Insanity, Insane, Very Cool
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.307, Penguin

As far as my experience of matrimony goes -- I think it tends to draw you out of, and away from yourself.

Charlotte Bronte
Thinking, Matrimony, Draws

If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed.

Charlotte Bronte
Men, Would Be, Littles
Charlotte Bronte (2010). “Shirley and The Professor”, p.358, Everyman's Library

If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.

Charlotte Bronte
Hate, Wicked, Guilt
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.61, Penguin

The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed.

Charlotte Bronte
Heart, Silence, Broken Promises
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2014). “Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell”, p.73, The Floating Press

It would not be wicked to love me." "It would to obey you.

Charlotte Bronte
Wicked
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.257, Penguin

Rochester: I am to take mademoiselle to the moon, and there I shall seek a cave in one of the white valleys among the volcano-tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me there, and only me.

Charlotte Bronte
Moon, Volcanoes, White
Charlotte Brontë “Jane Eyre”, W. W. Norton & Company

'I wish I had only offered you a sovereign instead of ten pounds. Give me back nine pounds, Jane; I’ve a use for it.' 'And so have I, sir,' I returned, putting my hands and my purse behind me. 'I could not spare the money on any account.' 'Little niggard!' said he, 'refusing me a pecuniary request! Give me five pounds, Jane.' 'Not five shillings, sir; nor five pence.' 'Just let me look at the cash.' 'No, sir; you are not to be trusted.'

Charlotte Bronte
Hands, Giving, Wish

The negation of severe suffering was the nearest approach to happiness I expected to know. Besides, I seemed to hold two lives - the life of thought, and that of reality.

Charlotte Bronte
Live Life, Reality, Two
Charlotte Bronte (2016). “Villette”, p.76, Xist Publishing

He turned away; he threw himself on his face on the sofa. 'Oh, Jane! my hope - my love - my life!' broke in anguish from his lips.

Charlotte Bronte
Love Of My Life, Faces, Lips
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.259, Penguin

I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me.

Charlotte Bronte
Found, Notice Me
Charlotte Brontë “Jane Eyre”, W. W. Norton & Company

It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more.

Charlotte Bronte
Gone, Tranquility, Reason
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.73, Penguin

I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking,--a precious yet poignant pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony: a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless.

Charlotte Bronte
Men, Agony, Gold
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.145, Penguin

You mocking changeling- fairy-born and human-bred!

Charlotte Bronte
Fairy, Born, Changelings
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.356, Penguin

It is hard work to control the workings of inclination and turn the bent of nature; but that it may be done, I know from experience. God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate.

Charlotte Bronte
Hard Work, Fate, Done
Charlotte Bronte (2004). “Jane Eyre”, p.186, Variocity

My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol.

Charlotte Bronte
Husband, Men, Idols
Jane Eyre ch. 24 (1847)

Would you not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.

Charlotte Bronte
Life, Nursing, Together
"Jane Eyre". Ch. 6. Book by Charlotte Bronte, 1847.

You May Also Like: