Quotes from Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you.

Childish and slender creature! It seemed as if a linnet had hopped to my foot and proposed to bear me on its tiny wing.

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading. It vexes me to choose another guide.

There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.

Human life and human labour were near. I must struggle on: strive to live and bend to toil like the rest.

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.

Friends always forget those whom fortune forsakes.

Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.

[O]ur honeymoon will shine our life long: its beams will only fade over your grave or mine.

And it is you, spirit--with will and energy, and virtue and purity--that I want, not alone with your brittle frame.

Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home—my only home.

Jane! will you hear reason?' (he stooped and approached his lips to my ear) 'because, if you won't, I'll try violence.

... your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me...

How can it be that Jane is with me, and says she loves me? Will she not depart as suddenly as she came? To-morrow, I fear I shall find her no more.

You, Jane, I must have you for my own--entirely my own.

Make my happiness--I will make yours.

his wife might, I verily believe, be the very happiest woman the sun shines on

It is a pity that doing one's best does not always answer.

I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.

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?

Your will shall decide your destiny.