Top 25 Quotes by Charlotte Bronte of 374 - Page 6

That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life; that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.

That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life; that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.

Charlotte Bronte

Sweet, Lying, Poison

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.133, Penguin

I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world.

Charlotte Bronte

Lying, Love You, Deceit

Charlotte Bronte, Sherri Browning Erwin (2010). “Jane Slayre: The Literary Classic with a Bloodsucking Twist”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

Sometimes I have the strangest feeling about you. Especially when you are near me as you are now. It feels as though I had a string tied here under my left rib where my heart is, tightly knotted to you in a similar fashion. And when you go to Ireland, with all that distance between us, I am afraid that this cord will be snapped, and I shall bleed inwardly.

Charlotte Bronte

Fashion, Distance, Heart

"Fictional character: Mr. Rochester". "Jane Eyre", www.imdb.com. 1996.

The charm of variety there was not, nor the excitement of incident; but I liked peace so well, and sought stimulus so little, that when the latter came I almost felt it a disturbance, and rather still wished it had held aloof.

Charlotte Bronte

Peace, Littles, Excitement

Charlotte Bronte (2016). “Villette”, p.6, Xist Publishing

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Charlotte Bronte

Motivation, Action, Tranquility

Charlotte Bronte (2014). “The Complete Works Of Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor”, p.152, Harper Collins

Is not the real experience of each individual very limited? And, if a writer dwells upon that solely or principally, is he not in danger of repeating himself, and also of becoming an egotist? Then, too, imagination is a strong, restless faculty, which claims to be heard and exercised: are we to be quite deaf to her cry, and insensate to her struggles? When she shows us bright pictures, are we never to look at them, and try to reproduce them? And when she is eloquent, and speaks rapidly and urgently in our ear, are we not to write to her dictation?

Charlotte Bronte

Strong, Real, Struggle

Charlotte Brontë “Jane Eyre”, W. W. Norton & Company

Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am; and if you are a Christian, you ought not to consider poverty a crime.

Charlotte Bronte

Christian, People, Poverty

Charlotte Bronte (2004). “Jane Eyre”, p.176, Variocity

I sat down and tried to rest. I could not; though I had been on foot all day, I could not now repose an instant; I was too much excited. A phase of my life was closing tonight, a new one opening tomorrow: impossible to slumber in the interval; I must watch feverishly while the change was being accomplished.

Charlotte Bronte

Feet, Watches, Tonight

Charlotte Brontë “Jane Eyre”, W. W. Norton & Company

Poverty, for me, is synonymous with degradation.

Charlotte Bronte

Degradation, Poverty

He made me love him without looking at me.

Charlotte Bronte

Made, Jane

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

It does good to no woman to be flattered [by a man] who does not intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.

Charlotte Bronte

Women, Secret Love, Doe

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.134, Penguin

Oh madam, when you put bread and cheese, instead of burnt porridge, into these children's mouths, you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!

Charlotte Bronte

Children, Thinking, Soul

Charlotte Bronte, K. M. Weiland (2014). “Jane Eyre”, p.65, "F+W Media, Inc."

Who has words at the right moment?

Charlotte Bronte

Moments, Right Moment

Charlotte Bronte (2009). “Villette: Easyread Edition”, p.94, ReadHowYouWant.com

I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest -- blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine.

Charlotte Bronte

Husband, Earth, Language

Charlotte Bronte (2009). “Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte, Updated Edition”, p.5, Infobase Publishing

You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength.

Charlotte Bronte

Use, Born, Parasites

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.194, Penguin

You never felt jealousy, did you, Miss Eyre? Of course not: I need not ask you; because you never felt love. You have both sentiments yet to experience: your soul sleeps; the shock is yet to be given which shall waken it.

Charlotte Bronte

Love You, Sleep, Missing

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

Presentiments are strange things: and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key.

Charlotte Bronte

Keys, Humanity, Three

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.182, Penguin

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 soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness -- to glory?

Charlotte Bronte

Waiting, Crowns, Flesh

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

Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words.

Charlotte Bronte

Children, Feelings, Analysis

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.23, Penguin

Amid the worry of a self- condemnatory soliloquy, his demeanour seemed grave, perhaps cold, both to me and his mother. And yet there was no bad feeling, no malice, no rancour, no littleness in his countenance, beautiful with a man's best beauty, even in its depression. When I placed his chair at the table, which I hastened to do, anticipating the servant, and when I handed him his tea, which I did with trembling care, he said: "Thank you, Lucy," in as kindly a tone of his full pleasant voice as ever my ear welcomed.

Charlotte Bronte

Beautiful, Mother, Men

In sunshine, in prosperity, the flowers are very well; but how many wet days are there in life—November seasons of disaster, when a man's hearth and home would be cold indeed, without the clear, cheering gleam of intellect.

Charlotte Bronte

Cheer, Flower, Home

Charlotte Bronte (2010). “Shirley and The Professor”, p.666, Everyman's Library

I both wished and feared to see Mr. Rochester on the day which followed this sleepless night. I wanted to hear his voice again, yet feared to meet his eye.

Charlotte Bronte

Eye, Night, Voice

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.128, Penguin

No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure. Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of Heaven. She is a divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise.

Charlotte Bronte

Summer, Morning, Mean

"Villette". Book by Charlotte Bronte, Ch. XXII: The Letter, 1853.

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 ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

Charlotte Bronte

Law, Temptation, Soul

Charlotte Bronte (2009). “Jane Eyre: Easyread Edition”, p.149, ReadHowYouWant.com