Quotes from Anne Bronte

Let your eyes be blind to all external attractions, your ears deaf to all the fascinations of flattery and light discourse.—These are nothing—and worse than nothing—snares and wiles of the tempter, to lure the thoughtless to their own destruction.

Maybe Anne felt men did not really make sense, a suspicion that has occurred to women before and since.

Now I am a wife: my bliss is sobered, but not destroyed; my hopes diminished, but not departed; my fears increased, but notyet thoroughly confirmed.

Because, I imagine, there must be only a very, very few men in the world that I should like to marry; and of those few, it is ten to one I may never be acquainted with one; or if I should, it is twenty to one he may not happen to be single, or to take a fancy to me.

I can feel for anyone that is unjustly treated...and I can feel for those that injure them too.

Habitual associates are known to exercise a great influence over each other's minds and manners. Those whose actions are for ever before our eyes, whose words are ever in our ears, will naturally lead us, albeit against our will—slowly—gradually—imperceptibly, perhaps, to act and speak as they do.

But where hope rises, fear must lurk behind.

If ever I am a mother I will zealously strive against this crime of over-indulgence.  I can hardly give it a milder name when I think of the evils it brings.

But that word refuge disturbed me.  Had their unkindness then really driven her to seek for peace in solitude? 'Why have they left you alone?' I asked. 'It is I who have left them,' was the smiling rejoinder.  'I was wearied to death with small talk—nothing wears me out like that.  I cannot imagine how they can go on as they do.' I could not help smiling at the serious depth of her wonderment.

It may seem a hard matter," says he, "to love our neighbours, who have so much of what is evil about them, and whose faults so often awaken the evil that lingers within ourselves; but remember that he made them, and he loves them; and whosoever loveth him that begat, loveth him that is begotten also.

Patience, Firmness, and Perseverance were my only weapons; and these I resolved to use to the utmost.

A hardness such as this is taught by rough experience and despair alone

however little you may value the opinions of those about you—however little you may esteem them as individuals, it is not pleasant to be looked upon as a liar and a hypocrite, to be thought to practise what you abhor, and to encourage the vices you would discountenance, to find your good intentions frustrated, and your hands crippled by your supposed unworthiness, and to bring disgrace on the principles you profess.

There is such a thing as looking through a person's eyes into the heart, and learning more of the height, and breadth, and depth of another's soul in one hour than it might take you a lifetime to discover, if he or she were not disposed to reveal it, or if you had not the sense to understand it.

But supposing I could be so generous as to take delight in this, stil it is only a child; and I can't centre all my hopes in a child: that is only one degree better than devoting oneself to a dog

ALL true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.

a soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger.

she sat opposite, watching me (as I thought) and endeavouring to sustain something like a conversation — consisting chiefly of a succession of commonplace remarks, expressed with frigid formality: but this might be more my fault than hers, for I really could not converse.

You think, because I always do as you bid me, I have no judgement of my own: but only try me — that is all I ask — and you shall see what I can do.

you have blighted the promise of youth, and made my life a wilderness!

I am not sure the loneliness of the place was not one of its chief recommendations. I take no pleasure in watching people pass the windows; and I like to be quiet.' 'Oh! as good as to say you wish we would all of us mind our own business, and let you alone.' 'No, I dislike an extensive acquaintance; but if I have a few friends, of course I am glad to see them occasionally. No one can be happy in eternal solitude.

When I tell you not to marry without love, I do not advise you to marry for love alone: there are many, many other things to be considered. Keep both heart and hand in your own possession, till you see good reason to part with them . . . .

Oh, I beg your pardon!  I perceive Cupid's arrows have been too sharp for you: the wounds, being more than skin-deep, are not yet healed, and bleed afresh at every mention of the loved one's name.

When she was gone, I felt as if there was to be no more fun—though it is difficult to say what she had contributed to the hilarity of the party. No jests, and little laughter, had escaped her lips; but her smile had animated my mirth; a keen observation or a cheerful word from her had insensibly sharpened my wits, and thrown an interest over all that was done and said by the rest.