Jane Eyre

50 Timeless Quotes From The Brontë Sisters To Remind You Women Are Unstoppable

What business had I to think of one that never thought of me?
Holly Riordan
December 20, 2016
“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Love, Dating, Relationships
“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Love, Dating, Relationships
“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Love, Heartbroken, Heartbreak
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Tagged: Freedom, Free, Independence
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Tagged: Independent, Respect, Friendless
“I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Tagged: Control, Power, superior
“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Tagged: Happiness, dignity, Choices
“But smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Happiness, Sadness, Crying, smiling
“It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior.”
— Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Tagged: beauty, wishes, Exterior
“I cannot love a man who cannot protect me.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Love, Protection, strength
“Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read.”
— Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Tagged: Books, Reading, Bookworm
“What business had I to think of one that never thought of me?”
— Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Tagged: Missing You, Thoughts, one-sided
“His heart was like a sensitive plant, that opens for a moment in the sunshine, but curls up and shrinks into itself at the slightest touch of the finger, or the lightest breath of wind.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Sensitive, Insecure, Closed Off
“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.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Single, Unmarried, Men
“The ties that bind us to life are tougher than you imagine, or than any one can who has not felt how roughly they may be pulled without breaking.”
— Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Tagged: Living, Life, Survival
“Beauty is that quality which, next to money, is generally the most attractive to the worst kinds of men; and, therefore, it is likely to entail a great deal of trouble on the possessor.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: beauty, Money, rich
“I always lacked common sense when taken by surprise.”
— Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Tagged: Common Sense, surprise, Confused
“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Tagged: Alone, Self-Respect, Independent
“The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter - in the eye.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Tagged: Eyes, body language, emotions
“Honest people don't hide their deeds.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Honesty, Secrets, suspicious
“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Love, soulmates, romance
“A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Hard Work, Effort, laziness
“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; and if such an occasion should never present itself, comfort your mind with this reflection, that though in single life your joys may not be very many, your sorrows, at least, will not be more than you can bear. Marriage may change your circumstances for the better, but, in my private opinion, it is far more likely to produce a contrary result.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Marriage, Caution, wedding
“He never could have loved me, or he would not have resigned me so willingly.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Breakups, Heartbroken, Left Behind
“If she were more perfect, she would be less interesting.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Perfection, interesting, Personality
“No one can be happy in eternal solitude.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Alone, Single, Solitude
“I possess the faculty of enjoying the company of those I - of my friends as well in silence as in conversation.”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
Tagged: Silence, Conversation, Friends
“I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free... Why am I so changed?”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Youth, Childhood, Change
“It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Forgivenes, God, punishment
“I hate him for himself, but despise him for the memories he revives.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Tagged: Memories, Hate, Anger