“You do not know how the people of this country bear malice. It is the boast of some of them that they can keep a stone in their pocket seven years, turn it at the end of that time, keep it seven years longer, and hurl it and hit their mark at last.”

“I am disposed to be as content as a queen, and you try to stir me up to restlessness! To what end?"To the end of turning to profit the talents which God has committed to your keeping; and of which he will surely one day demand a strict account.”

“What will you do with your accomplishments? What, with the largest portion of your mind - sentiments - tastes?"Save them till they are wanted. They will keep.”

“St John Rivers: What will you do with all your fine accomplishments? Jane Eyre: I will save them until they're wanted. They will keep.”

“I have to live, perhaps, till seventy years. As far as I know, I have good health. Half a century of existence may lie before me. How am I to occupy it? What am I to do to fill the interval of time which spreads between me and the grave?”

“But this I know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master--something that at times strangely wills and works for itself. He may lay down rules and devise principles, and to rules and principles it will perhaps for years lie in subjection; and then, haply without any warning of revolt, there comes a time when it will no longer consent.”

“Reader, do you know, as I do, what terror those cold people can put into the ice of their questions? How much of the fall of the avalanche is in their anger? of the breaking up of the frozen sea in their displeasure?”