Anne Brontë > Quotes

“...he dislikes me to have any pleasure but in himself, any shadow of homage or kindness but such as he chooses to vouchsafe: he knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness; he cannot bear that I should have a moon to mitigate the deprivation.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“A spirit of candor and frankness, when wholly unaccompanied with coarseness, he
admired in others, but he could not acquire it himself.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“O Reader! If there were less of this delicate concealment of facts- this whispering ''Peace, Peace," when there is no peace- there would be less of sin and misery to the young of both sexes who are left to wring their bitter knowledge from experience.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“When my foot was on the sands and my face towards the broad, bright bay, no language can describe the effect of the deep, clear azure of the sky and ocean, the bright morning sunshine on the semicircular barrier of craggy cliffs surmounted by green swelling hills, and on the smooth, wide sands, and the low rocks out at sea—looking, with their clothing of weeds and moss, like little grass-grown islands—and above all, on the brilliant, sparkling waves. ”
― Anne Brontë , Agnes Grey

“To think I could be such a fool as to fall in love! It is quite beneath the dignity of a woman to do such a thing.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“He is very fond of me, almost too fond.  I could do with less caressing and more rationality.  I should like to be less of a pet and more of a friend, if I might choose; but I won’t complain of that: I am only afraid his affection loses in depth where it gains in ardour. ”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Filibooks Classics

“You don’t know what happiness lies before you yet, you are now only in the commencement of your journey.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“He cannot endure Rachel, because he knows she has a proper appreciation of him.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“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

“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. So said the teachers of our childhood; and so say we to the children of the present day. All very judicious and proper, no doubt; but are such assertions supported by actual experience?

We are naturally disposed to love what gives us pleasure, and what more pleasing than a beautiful face--when we know no harm of the possessor at least? A little girl loves her bird--Why? Because it lives and feels; because it is helpless and harmless? A toad, likewise, lives and feels, and is equally helpless and harmless; but though she would not hurt a toad, she cannot love it like the bird, with its graceful form, soft feathers, and bright, speaking eyes. If a woman is fair and amiable, she is praised for both qualities, but especially the former, by the bulk of mankind: if, on the other hand, she is disagreeable in person and character, her plainness is commonly inveighed against as her greatest crime, because, to common observers, it gives the greatest offence; while, if she is plain and good, provided she is a person of retired manners and secluded life, no one ever knows of her goodness, except her immediate connections. Others, on the contrary, are disposed to form unfavourable opinions of her mind, and disposition, if it be but to excuse themselves for their instinctive dislike of one so unfavoured by nature; and visa versa with her whose angel form conceals a vicious heart, or sheds a false, deceitful charm over defects and foibles that would not be tolerated in another. They that have beauty, let them be thankful for it, and make a good use of it, like any other talent; they that have it not, let them console themselves, and do the best they can without it: certainly, though liable to be over-estimated, it is a gift of God, and not to be despised.”
― Anne Brontë

“Already, I seemed to feel my intellect deteriorating, my heart petrifying, my soul contracting; and I trembled lest my very moral perceptions should become deadened, my distinctions of right and wrong confounded, and all my better faculties be sunk, at last, beneath the baneful influence of such a mode of life.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“[T]here is nothing like a cheerful mind to keep the body in health.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“nothing was seen or heard of Mr. Weston; until, at last, I gave up hoping, for even my heart acknowledged it was all in vain. But still, I would think of him: I would cherish his image in my mind; and treasure every word, look, and gesture that my memory could retain;”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë -

“...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.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“I always lacked common sense when taken by suprise.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“The best way to enjoy yourself is to do what is right and hate nobody”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“Aquel que no se atreve a agarrar la espina no debería ansiar la rosa".”
― Anne Brontë

“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.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“being a great despiser of tea and such slops, and a patron of malt liquors, bacon and eggs, ham, hung beef, and other strong meats, which agreed well enough with his digestive organs, and therefore were maintained by him to be good and wholesome for everybody, and confidently recommended to the most delicate convalescents or dyspeptics, who, if they failed to derive the promised benefit from his prescriptions, were told it was because they had not persevered, and if they complained of inconvenient results therefrom, were assured it was all fancy.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“The best way to enjoy yourself is to do what is right and hate nobody.”
― Anne Brontë

“I should think you will be willing enough to go?'
'Yes — for some things,' I replied.
'For some things only — I wonder what should make you regret it?'
I was annoyed at this in some degree; because it embarrassed me: I had only one reason for regretting it; and that was a profound secret, which he had no business to trouble me about.”
― Anne Brontë

“Yes, but the surest means will be to endeavour to fortify him against temptation, not to remove it out of his way.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“But was there any harm in wishing that, among the many thousands whose souls would certainly be required of them before the year was over, this wretched mortal might be one? I thought not; and therefore I wished with all my heart that it might please Heaven to remove him to a better world, or if that might not be, still, to take him out of this...”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“I did not put my request in words: she understood it instinctively, and this time she yielded too—or rather, there was nothing so deliberate as requesting or yielding in the matter: there was a sudden impulse that neither could resist. One moment I stood and looked into her face, the next I held her to my heart, and we seemed to grow together in a close embrace from which no physical or mental force could rend us. A whispered ‘God bless you!’ and ‘Go—go!’ was all she said; but while she spoke she held me so fast that, without violence, I could not have obeyed her. At length, however, by some heroic effort, we tore ourselves apart, and I rushed from the house.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Tis but the frost that clears the air,
And gives the sky that lovely blue;
They're smiling in a winter's sun,
Those evergreens of sombre hue.”
― Anne Brontë, The Complete Poems of Anne Bronte

“I am not alone, you see;—and those whose time is fully occupied seldom complain of solitude.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“If you require perfection, you never will”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“And why should he interest himself at all in my moral and intellectual capacities: what is it to him what I think or feel?" I asked myself.
And my heart throbbed in answer to the question.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“there is nothing like a cheerful mind for keeping the body in health.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“And yet, how dreary to turn my eyes from the contemplation of that bright object and force them to dwell on the dull, grey, desolate prospect around: the joyless, hopeless, solitary path that lay before me.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey