Anne Brontë > Quotes

“He knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“But our wishes are like tinder: the flint and steel of circumstances are continually striking out sparks, which vanish immediately, unless they chance to fall upon the tinder of our wishes; then, they instantly ignite, and the flame of hope is kindled in a moment.”
― Anne Brontë

“When we hear a little good and no harm of a person, it is easy and pleasant to imagine more:”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

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

“No one cares for the exterior.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“Her speculations on the future are full of buoyant hope - so were mine once. I shudder to think of her being awakened like me to a sense of their delusive vanity.”
― 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

“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

“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

“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

“Kindness, which had been the food of my life through so many years, had lately been so entirely denied me, that I welcomed with grateful joy the slightest semblance of it.”
― 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

“Of him to whom less is given, less will be required, but our utmost exertions are required of us all.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“There are, I suppose, some men as vain, as selfish, and as heartless as she is, and, perhaps, such women may be useful to punish them.”
― 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

“Oh, they have robbed me of the hope
My spirit held so dear;
They will not let me hear that voice
My soul delights to hear.

They will not let me see that face
I so delight to see;
And they have taken all thy smiles,
And all thy love from me.

Well, let them seize on all they can;-
One treasure still is mine,-
A heart that loves to think on thee,
And feels the worth of thine.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

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

“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

“...sick of mankind and their disgusting ways...”
― anne bronte

“I began this book with the intention of concealing nothing; that those who liked might have the benefit of perusing a fellow-creature’s heart: but we have some thoughts that all the angels in heaven are welcome to behold, but not our brother-men—not even the best and kindest amongst them.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“But is not active employment the best remedy for overwhelming sorrow—the surest antidote for despair?”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“With such reflections as these, I was endeavouring to console myself, as I plodded home from the fields, one cold, damp, cloudy evening towards the close of October. But the gleam of a bright red fire through the parlour window, had more effect in cheering my spirits, and rebuking my thankless repinings, than all the sage reflections and good resolutions I had forced my mind to frame; for I was young then, remember — only four and twenty — and had not acquired half the rule over my own spirit, that I now possess — trifling as that may be.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn, Should never crave the rose.”
― Anne Brontë

“Patience, Firmness, and Perseverance were my only weapons; and these I resolved to use to the utmost.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“It is enough you dislike him”
― Anne Brontë , The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Oh, Youth may listen patiently,
While sad Experience tells her tale,
But Doubt sits smiling in his eye,
For ardent Hope will still prevail!

He hears how feeble Pleasure dies,
By guilt destroyed, and pain and woe;
He turns to Hope—and she replies,
“Believe it not-it is not so!”
― Anne Brontë, Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

“if I can gain the public ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much soft nonsense”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“I am not sure the loneliness of the place was not one of its chief recommendations. I take no pleasure in watching people pass the windows; and I like to be quiet.’

‘Oh! as good as to say you wish we would all of us mind our own business, and let you alone.’

‘No, I dislike an extensive acquaintance; but if I have a few friends, of course I am glad to see them occasionally. No one can be happy in eternal solitude.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Habitual associates are known to exercise a great influence over each other’s minds and manners. Those whose actions are for ever before our eyes, whose words are ever in our ears, will naturally lead us, albeit against our will—slowly—gradually—imperceptibly, perhaps, to act and speak as they do.”
― Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey