English novelist & poet (1820-1849)
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
Because the road is rough and long,
Shall we despise the skylark's song?
ANNE BRONTË
Views of Life
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
But he that dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.
ANNE BRONTË
"The Narrow Way"
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, shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.
ANNE BRONTË
Agnes Grey
I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect ... But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa's and Charlotte's sakes, but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practice -- humble and limited indeed -- but still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God's will be done.
ANNE BRONTË
letter to Ellen Hussey, 5 April 1849
If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them -- not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
When I feel it my duty to speak an unpalatable truth, with the help of God, I will speak it, though it be to the prejudice of my name and to the detriment of my readers immediate pleasure as well as my own.
ANNE BRONTË
preface, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
There is always a 'but' in this imperfect world.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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
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
If your wife gives you her heart, you must take it, thankfully, and use it well, and not pull it in pieces, and laugh in her face, because she cannot snatch it away.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
What can't be cured must be endured.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
What shall I do, if all my love,
My hopes, my toil, are cast away,
And if there be no God above,
To hear and bless me when I pray?
ANNE BRONTË
The Doubter's Prayer
If we can only speak to slander our betters, let us hold our tongues.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
At your time of life, it's love that rules the roast: at mine, it's solid, serviceable gold.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
If she were more perfect, she would be less interesting.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
You may have as many words as you please -- only I can't stay to hear them.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.
ANNE BRONTË
preface, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Since I love him so much, I can easily forgive him for loving himself.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall