Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë, published under the pen name “Currer Bell”, on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Profoundly inspirational Jane Eyre quotes will get you through anything when the going gets tough and help you succeed in every aspect of life.
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Famous Jane Eyre Quotes
I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me. Charlotte Bronte
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me I am a free human being with an independent will. Charlotte Brontë
Do you think I am an automaton? a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! Charlotte Bronte
I would always rather be happy than dignified. Charlotte Brontë
Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Charlotte Bronte
I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. Charlotte Brontë
I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me. Charlotte Bronte
Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. Charlotte Bronte
Reader, I married him. Charlotte Bronte
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
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. Charlotte Bronte
I have for the first time found what I can truly love I have found you. You are my sympathy my better self my good angel I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one. Charlotte Bronte
It does good to no woman to be flattered by a man who does not intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis fatuus like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication. Charlotte Bronte
If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends. Charlotte Brontë
I must, then, repeat continually that we are forever sundered and yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him. Charlotte Bronte
Jane, be still; don’t struggle so like a wild, frantic bird, that is rending its own plumage in its desperation. I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you. Charlotte Brontë
No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Charlotte Bronte
I am not an angel I asserted. And I will not be one till I die I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you which I do not at all anticipate. Charlotte Brontë
I knew, you would do me good, in some way, at some time; I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you their expression and smile did not again he stopped did not he proceeded hastily strike delight to my very inmost heart so for nothing. Charlotte Bronte
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you! Charlotte Brontë
You are no ruin sir no lighting struck tree you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop. Charlotte Bronte
I can live alone, if self respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. 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. Charlotte Brontë
I have little left in myself I must have you. The world may laugh may call me absurd, selfish but it does not signify. My very soul demands you it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame. Charlotte Bronte
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education they grow there, firm as weeds among stones. Charlotte Brontë
I have for the first time found what I can truly love I have found you. You are my sympathy my better self my good angel I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one. Charlotte Bronte
Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Charlotte Brontë
And it is you, spirit with will and energy, and virtue and purity that I want, not alone with your brittle frame. Charlotte Bronte
I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me. Charlotte Brontë
You, Jane, I must have you for my own entirely my own. Charlotte Bronte
Flirting is a woman’s trade, one must keep in practice. Charlotte Brontë
Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words. Charlotte Bronte
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. Charlotte Bronte
I have as much soul as you and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal as we are! Charlotte Bronte
The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter in the eye. Charlotte Brontë
I like this day; I like that sky of steel; I like the sternness and stillness of the world under this frost. Charlotte Bronte
I ask you to pass through life at my side to be my second self, and best earthly companion. Charlotte Brontë
A loving eye is all the charm needed to such you are handsome enough; or rather, your sternness has a power beyond beauty. Charlotte Bronte
Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine. Charlotte Brontë
A beauty neither of fine colour nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance. Charlotte Bronte
There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort. Charlotte Brontë
You have rather the look of another world. I marvelled where you had got that sort of face. Charlotte Bronte
We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. Charlotte Brontë
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me I am a free human being with an independent will. Charlotte Bronte
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? Charlotte Brontë
I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close set bars of a cage a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar Cloud high. Charlotte Bronte
I am not an angel, I asserted; and I will not be one till I die I will be myself. Charlotte Brontë
I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. Charlotte Bronte
I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitments, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into it’s expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst it’s perils. Charlotte Brontë
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 Bronte
Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear. Charlotte Bronte
I can live alone, if self respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. 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. Charlotte Bronte
Conventionality is not morality. Charlotte Bronte
I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. Charlotte Bronte
I have a strange feeling with regard to you. As if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in you. And if you were to leave I’m afraid that cord of communion would snap. And I have a notion that I’d take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, you’d forget me. Charlotte Brontë
I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading. It vexes me to choose another guide. Charlotte Bronte
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Charlotte Brontë
I would always rather be happy than dignified. Charlotte Bronte
I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine. Charlotte Brontë
Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. Charlotte Bronte
It is not violence that best overcomes hate nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury. Charlotte Bronte
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity they must have action, and they will make it if they cannot find it. Charlotte Bronte
Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive. Charlotte Brontë
Even for me, life had its gleams of sunshine. Charlotte Bronte
He is not to them what he is to me, I thought he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine I am sure he is I feel akin to him I understand the language of his countenance and movements though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. Charlotte Bronte
There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort. Charlotte Bronte
I am not deceitful if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world. Charlotte Brontë
I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine. Charlotte Bronte
I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me. Charlotte Brontë
Remorse is the poison of life. Charlotte Bronte
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. Charlotte Brontë
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education they grow there, firm as weeds among stones. Charlotte Bronte
It is a pity that doing one’s best does not always answer. Charlotte Brontë
Flirting is a woman’s trade, one must keep in practice. Charlotte Bronte
I could not help it the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes. Charlotte Brontë
I ask you to pass through life at my side to be my second self, and best earthly companion. Charlotte Bronte
I know I must conceal my sentiments I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care much for me. For when I say that I am of his kind, I do not mean that I have his force to influence, and his spell to attract I mean only that I have certain tastes and feelings in common with him.I must, then, repeat continually that we are forever sundered and yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him. Charlotte Brontë
Women are supposed to be very calm generally but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. Charlotte Bronte
And it is you, spirit with will and energy, and virtue and purity that I want, not alone with your brittle frame. Charlotte Brontë
Conventionality is not morality. Self righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. Charlotte Bronte
I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close set bars of a cage a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar Cloud high. Charlotte Brontë
I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils. Charlotte Bronte
I liked my name pronounced by your lips in a grateful, happy accent. Charlotte Brontë
It is not violence that best overcomes hate nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury. Charlotte Bronte
I thank my Maker, that in the midst of judgment he has remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto. Charlotte Brontë
It is a pity that doing one’s best does not always answer. Charlotte Bronte
A beauty neither of fine colour nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance. Charlotte Brontë
If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way; they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. Charlotte Bronte
I am paving hell with energy. I am laying down good intentions which I believe durable as flint. Charlotte Brontë
No sooner have you got settled in a pleasant resting place, than a voice calls out to you to rise and move on, for the hour of repose is expired. Charlotte Bronte
No reflection was to be allowed now, not one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward. Not one thought was to be given either to the past or the future. The first was a page so heavenly sweet, so deadly sad, that to read one line of it would dissolve my courage and break down my energy. The last was an awful blank, something like then world when the deluge was gone by. Charlotte Brontë
You are cold, because you are alone: no contact strikes the fire from you that is in you. You are sick; because the best of feelings, the highest and the sweetest given to man, keeps far away from you. You are silly, because, suffer as you may, you will not beckon it to approach, nor will you stir one step to meet it where it waits you. Charlotte Bronte
Mademoiselle is a fairy, he said, whispering mysteriously. Charlotte Bronte
You are human and fallible. Charlotte Bronte
When you are inquisitive, Jane, you always make me smile. You open your eyes like an eager bird, and make every now and then a restless movement, as if answers in speech did not flow fast enough for you, and you wanted to read the tablet of one’s heart. Charlotte Brontë
It is hard work to control the workings of inclination and turn the bent of nature; but that it may be done, I know from experience. Charlotte Bronte
Oh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force! Charlotte Brontë
But what is so headstrong as youth? What so blind as inexperience? Charlotte Bronte
What necessity is there to dwell on the Past, when the Present is so much sürer the Future so much brighter? Charlotte Brontë
If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends. Charlotte Brontë
I envy you your peace of mind, your clean conscience, your unpolluted memory. Little girl, a memory without blot of contamination must be an exquisite treasure an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment is it not? Charlotte Brontë
The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter in the eye. Charlotte Brontë
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you. Charlotte Brontë
Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear. Charlotte Brontë
