Charlotte Brontë

“At eighteen most people wish to please, and the conviction that they have not an exterior likely to second that desire brings anything but gratification.”

“Religion called – Angels beckoned – God commanded – life rolled together like a scroll – death's gates opening showed eternity beyond.”

“And who talks of error now? I scarcely think the notion that flittered across my brain was an error. I believe it was an inspiration rather than a temptation: it was very genial, very soothing—I know that. Here it comes again! It is no devil, I assure you; or if it be, it has put on the robes of an angel of light. I think I must admit so fair a guest when it asks entrance to my heart.”“Distrust it, sir; it is not a true angel.”“Once more, how do you know? By what instinct do you pretend to distinguish between a fallen seraph of the abyss and a messenger from the eternal throne—between a guide and a seducer?”“I judged by your countenance, sir, which was troubled when you said the suggestion had returned upon you. I feel sure it will work you more misery if you listen to it.”“Not at all—it bears the most gracious message in the world: for the rest, you are not my conscience-keeper, so don’t make yourself uneasy. Here, come in, bonny wanderer!”He said this as if he spoke to a vision, viewless to any eye but his own; then, folding his arms, which he had half extended, on his chest, he seemed to enclose in their embrace the invisible being.“Now,” he continued, again addressing me, “I have received the pilgrim—a disguised deity, as I verily believe. Already it has done me good: my heart was a sort of charnel; it will now be a shrine.”

“I smiled: I thought to myself Mr. Rochester is peculiar — he seems to forget that he pays me £30 per annum for receiving his orders."The smile is very well," said he, catching instantly the passing expression; "but speak too.""I was thinking, sir, that very few masters would trouble themselves to inquire whether or not their paid subordinates were piqued and hurt by their orders.”

“I am sure there is a future state; I believe God is good; I can resign my immortal part to Him without any misgiving. God is my father; God is my friend: I love Him; I believe He loves me.”

“my fear had by now passed its limit, and other feelings took its place.”

“To live amidst general regard, though it be but the regard of working people, is like 'sitting in sunshine, calm and sweet': serene inward feelings bud and bloom under the ray.”

“She did not exist: she would not be born till tomorrow, some time after eight o'clock a.m.; and I would wait to be assured she had come into the world alive before I assigned to her all that property.”

“What tale do you like best to hear?' 'Oh, I have not much choice! They generally run on the same theme - courtship; and promise to end in the same catastrophe - marriage.”

“I could not unlove him, because I felt sure he would soon marry this very lady-because I read daily in her a proud security in his intentions respecting her-because I witnessed hourly in him a style of courtship which, if careless and choosing rather to be sought than to seek, was yet, in its very carelessness, captivating, and in its very pride, irresistible.”

“You transfix me quite.”

“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!”

“A child cannot quarrel with it's elders, as I had done-cannot give its furious feelings uncontrolled play, as I had given mine-without experiencing afterwards the pang of remorse and the chill of reaction.”

“You know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love which I am capable.”

“Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world.”

“More unequal matches are made everyday.”

“I wanted to hear his voice again, yet feared to meet his eye.”

“Justly thought, rightly said.”

“Since happiness is irrevocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may.”

“I might have been different, I might have been as good as you - wiser - almost stainless. I envy your peace of mind, your clean conscience, your unpolluted memory.”

“If he expects me to talk for the mere sake of talking and showing off, he will find he has addressed himself to the wrong person.”

“Women are supposed to be calm generally: but women feel just as men feel...”

“I am unhappy - very unhappy, for other things.”

“Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win anyone's favour?”

“I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon.”

“Vaikka koko maailma vihaisi sinua ja pitäisi sinua pahana, mutta omatuntosi hyväksyisi sinut ja vapauttaisi sinut syytöksistä, et olisi vailla ystävää.""En, tiedän että voisin hyväksyä itseni, mutta se ei riitä! Jos muut eivät rakasta minua, kuolen mieluummin kuin elän - en jaksa kestää yksinäisyyttä ja vihaa, Helen. Katsohan, saadakseni osakseni hiukan rakkautta sinun tai neiti Templen tai jonkun muun rakastamani ihmisen taholta antaisin mielelläni vaikka katkaista käteni, tai antautuisin härän puskettavaksi, tai asettuisin seisomaan potkivan hevosen taakse, niin että se voisi iskeä kavioillaan rintaani -""Vaikene jo, Jane, sinulla on liian suuret luulot ihmisten rakkaudesta. Olet liian kiihkeä, liian raju. - -”

“Teistä on siis hauskaa lähteä pois luotani?""Ei ollenkaan, Bessie! Totta puhuen, tällä hetkellä oikeastaan suren sitä.""Tällä hetkellä! ja oikeastaan! Miten kylmästi pikku neiti sen sanookaan. Luulenpa, että jos pyytäisin teiltä suukon ette antaisi sitä vaan sanoisitte, että että oikeastaan halua.""Annan sinulle suukon mielihyvin, kumarruhan alas.”

“Все мы ищем в жизни идеальное. Когда-то мной владела сладкая иллюзия, будто в положенное время большинство людей находит предмет своих исканий и происходит это скорее рано, нежели поздно. Хотя мне не довелось найти его в годы моей юности, твёрдая уверенность в том, что он всё же существует, продолжала жить в моей душе в самую лучшую, светлую пору жизни, сохраняя надежду. Но я не нашла его и в зрелости и смирилась с тем, что отныне так всегда и будет. Несколько бесцветных лет я жила спокойно, ничего не ожидая от грядущего.”

“...[M]y inner self moved; my spirit shook its always-fettered wings half loose. I had a sudden feeling as if I, who never yet truly lived, were at last about to taste life.”

“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?”

“A strong, vague persuasion that it was better to go forward than backward, and that I could go forward— that a way, however narrow and difficult, would in time open— predominated over other feelings: its influence hushed them so far, that at last I became sufficiently tranquil to be able to say my prayers and seek my couch. I had just extinguished my candle and lain down, when a deep, low, mighty tone swung through the night. At first I knew it not; but it was uttered twelve times, and at the twelfth colossal hum and trembling knell, I said: “I lie in the shadow of St. Paul’s.”

“...it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever. I see the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity of death.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Well, what did he want?" "Merely to tell you that your uncle, Mr. Eyre of Madeira, is dead; that he has left you all his property, and that you are now rich--merely that--nothing more.”

“My rest might have been blissful enough, only a sad heart broke it.”

“Yes," he replied, "absolutely sans mademoiselle; for 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." "She will have nothing to eat--you will starve her," observed Adèle. "I shall gather manna for her morning and night; the plains and hell-sides in the moon are bleached with manna, Adèle." "She will want to warm herself; what will she do for a fire?" "Fire rises out of the lunar mountains; when she is cold, I'll carry her up to a peak and lay her down on the edge of a crater." "Oh, she'll be uncomfortable there! And her clothes, they will wear out; how can she get new ones?" Mr. Rochester professed to be puzzled. "Hem!" said he. "What would you do, Adèle? Cudgel your brains for an expedient. How would a white or a pink cloud answer for a gown, do you think? And one could cut a pretty enough scarf out of a rainbow." "She is far better as she is," concluded Adèle, after musing some time; "besides, she would get tired of living with only you in the moon. If I were mademoiselle, I would never consent to go with you.”

“Leaving superiority out of the question, then, you might still agree to receive my orders now and then, without being piqued of hurt but the tone of command-will you?" I smiled. I thought to myself Mr. Rochester is peculiar. He seems to forget that he pays me £30 per annum for receiving his orders.”

“Speak," he urged. "What about, sir?" "Whatever you like. I leave both the choice of subject and the manner of treating it entirely to yourself." Accordingly I sat and said nothing. "If he expects me to talk, for the mere sake of talking and showing off, he will find he has addressed himself to the wrong person," I thought.”

“Where did you get your copies?" "Out of my head." "That head I see now on your shoulders?" "Yes, sir.”

“Which is better? - To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort - no struggled; - but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flower covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure villa: to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester's mistress; delirious with his love half my time - for he would - oh, yes, he would have love me well for a while.”

“I was tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea, where billows of trouble rolled under surges of joy. I thought sometimes I saw beyond its wild waters a shore, sweet as the hills of Beulah; and now and then a freshening gale, wakened my hope, bore my spirit, triumphantly towards the bourne: but I could not reach it, even in fancy,--a counteracting breeze blew off land, and continually drove me back. Sense would resist delirium; judgment would warn passion”

“Is your book interesting?' I had already formed the intention of asking her to lend it to me some day.”

“I think you will learn to be natural with me, as I find it impossible to be conventional with you”

“Now I have performed the part of a good host,” pursued Mr. Rochester, “put my guests into the way of amusing each other, I ought to be at liberty to attend to my own pleasure.”

“Mark my words—you will come some day to a craggy pass in the channel, where the whole of life’s stream will be broken up into whirl and tumult, foam and noise: either you will be dashed to atoms on crag points, or lifted up and borne on by some master-wave into a calmer current—as I am now.”

“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.”

“And with that answer, he left me. I would much rather he had knocked me down.”

“... in short, as a man, he would have wished to coerce me into obedience;”

“I know my Leader; that He is just as well as mighty; and while He has chosen a feeble instrument to perform a great task, He will, from the boundless stores of His providence, supply the inadequacy of the means to the end.”