{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "slug": "jane-eyre-pg1260",
  "title": "Jane Eyre: An Autobiography",
  "quotes": [
    {
      "text": "Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion."
    },
    {
      "text": "To attack\nthe first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the\nPharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns."
    },
    {
      "text": "appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only\ntend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the\nworld-redeeming creed of Christ."
    },
    {
      "text": "It may hate\nhim who dares to scrutinise and expose—to rase the gilding, and show base metal\nunder it—to penetrate the sepulchre, and reveal charnel relics: but hate as it\nwill, it is indebted to him."
    },
    {
      "text": "Fielding could stoop\non carrion, but Thackeray never does."
    },
    {
      "text": "I was conscious that a moment’s mutiny had\nalready rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel\nslave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths."
    },
    {
      "text": "She’s an underhand little thing: I\nnever saw a girl of her age with so much cover."
    },
    {
      "text": "There is a man in our own days whose words are not framed to tickle delicate\nears: who, to my thinking, comes before the great ones of society, much as the\nson of Imlah came before the throned Kings of Judah and Israel; and who speaks\ntruth as deep, with a power as prophet-like and as vital—a mien as dauntless\nand as daring."
    },
    {
      "text": "I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had nothing in\nharmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage."
    },
    {
      "text": "I know that had I been a\nsanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child—though equally\ndependent and friendless—Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more\ncomplacently;"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a\ncompound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity."
    },
    {
      "text": "Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings;\nand if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to\nexpress the result of the process in words."
    },
    {
      "text": "Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children:\nthey have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they\nthink of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless\ngrates, rude manners, and debasing vices:"
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nwas not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste."
    },
    {
      "text": "human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects\nof affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded\ngraven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow."
    },
    {
      "text": "I feared to return\nto the nursery, and feared to go forward to the parlour; ten minutes I stood in\nagitated hesitation; the vehement ringing of the breakfast-room bell decided\nme; I must enter."
    },
    {
      "text": "I felt, though I could not have expressed the feeling, that she was\nsowing aversion and unkindness along my future path; I saw myself transformed\nunder Mr. Brocklehurst’s eye into an artful, noxious child, and what could I do\nto remedy the injury?"
    },
    {
      "text": "Humility is a Christian grace, and one peculiarly appropriate to the pupils of\nLowood; I, therefore, direct that especial care shall be bestowed on its\ncultivation amongst them."
    },
    {
      "text": "Consistency, my dear Mr. Brocklehurst; I\nadvocate consistency in all things."
    },
    {
      "text": "A child cannot quarrel with its\nelders, as I had done; cannot give its furious feelings uncontrolled play, as I\nhad given mine, without experiencing afterwards the pang of remorse and the\nchill of reaction."
    },
    {
      "text": "Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it\nseemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and\ncorroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned."
    },
    {
      "text": "Your Missis has not been my friend: she has been\nmy foe."
    },
    {
      "text": "The indefatigable bell now sounded for the fourth time: the\nclasses were marshalled and marched into another room to breakfast: how glad I\nwas to behold a prospect of getting something to eat!"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself,\nthan to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all\nconnected with you"
    },
    {
      "text": "it is weak\nand silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to\nbear"
    },
    {
      "text": "Then learn from me, not to judge by appearances"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was sent to Lowood to get an education; and it would be of\nno use going away until I have attained that object"
    },
    {
      "text": "She looks as if she were\nthinking of something beyond her punishment—beyond her situation: of something\nnot round her nor before her"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is not violence that best overcomes hate—nor vengeance that most certainly\nheals injury."
    },
    {
      "text": "Life appears to me too short\nto be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs."
    },
    {
      "text": "I can\nso clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely\nforgive the first while I abhor the last:"
    },
    {
      "text": "I live in calm, looking to the end."
    },
    {
      "text": "you are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever\ndesire to be."
    },
    {
      "text": "When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard;\nI am sure we should—so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it\nagain."
    },
    {
      "text": "It\nis as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to\npunishment when I feel it is deserved."
    },
    {
      "text": "I hold another\ncreed: which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I\ndelight, and to which I cling: for it extends hope to all:"
    },
    {
      "text": "I live in calm, looking to the end."
    },
    {
      "text": "Such is the imperfect nature of man! such spots are there on the disc of\nthe clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd’s can only see those minute\ndefects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb."
    },
    {
      "text": "If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience\napproved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends."
    },
    {
      "text": "Besides this earth, and besides the race of men,\nthere is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us,\nfor it is everywhere; and those spirits watch us, for they are commissioned to\nguard us;"
    },
    {
      "text": "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a\nstalled ox and hatred therewith."
    },
    {
      "text": "Hope traversed them at\nnight, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nhad imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits: more\nharmonious thoughts: what seemed better regulated feelings had become the\ninmates of my mind."
    },
    {
      "text": "It did not\nseem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was\nnot the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for\ntranquillity was no more."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had had no communication by letter or message with the\nouter world: school-rules, school-duties, school-habits and notions, and\nvoices, and faces, and phrases, and costumes, and preferences, and\nantipathies—such was what I knew of existence."
    },
    {
      "text": "Those who\nwant situations advertise; you must advertise in the ——shire Herald."
    },
    {
      "text": "A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; and when I\ndraw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a room in the\nGeorge Inn at Millcote"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite\nalone in the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the\nport to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments\nfrom returning to that it has quitted."
    },
    {
      "text": "The charm of adventure sweetens that\nsensation, the glow of pride warms it; but then the throb of fear disturbs it;\nand fear with me became predominant when half-an-hour elapsed and still I was\nalone."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nnever lived amongst fine people but once, and I was very miserable with them. I\nwonder if she lives alone except this little girl; if so, and if she is in any\ndegree amiable, I shall surely be able to get on with her; I will do my best;\nit is a pity that doing one’s best does not always answer."
    },
    {
      "text": "I anticipated only coldness and stiffness: this is not like what I have heard\nof the treatment of governesses; but I must not exult too soon."
    },
    {
      "text": "A more reassuring introduction for\na new governess could scarcely be conceived; there was no grandeur to\noverwhelm, no stateliness to embarrass; and then, as I entered, the old lady\ngot up and promptly and kindly came forward to meet me."
    },
    {
      "text": "sunshine and long days make such a difference"
    },
    {
      "text": "Externals have a great effect on the young"
    },
    {
      "text": "I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so\npale, and had features so irregular and so marked"
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nsometimes regretted that I was not handsomer; I sometimes wished to have rosy\ncheeks, a straight nose, and small cherry mouth"
    },
    {
      "text": "I dare say he is clever, but I never had much conversation with him"
    },
    {
      "text": "you cannot be always sure whether he is in jest or earnest,\nwhether he is pleased or the contrary"
    },
    {
      "text": "All these\nrelics gave to the third storey of Thornfield Hall the aspect of a home of the\npast: a shrine of memory"
    },
    {
      "text": "I had a reason, and a logical, natural reason\ntoo"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they\nmust have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."
    },
    {
      "text": "Millions are\ncondemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt\nagainst their lot."
    },
    {
      "text": "Women are supposed\nto be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise\nfor their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers\ndo;"
    },
    {
      "text": "it is narrow-minded in their more privileged\nfellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making\npuddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags."
    },
    {
      "text": "I valued what was good in Mrs. Fairfax, and what was good in Adèle;\nbut I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and\nwhat I believed in I wished to behold."
    },
    {
      "text": "Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political\nrebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth."
    },
    {
      "text": "to slip again over my faculties the viewless\nfetters of an uniform and too still existence"
    },
    {
      "text": "Little things recall us to\nearth"
    },
    {
      "text": "a rill from the outer world was flowing\nthrough it"
    },
    {
      "text": "harsh caprice laid me under no obligation"
    },
    {
      "text": "I have examined Adèle, and find you have\ntaken great pains with her"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was absorbed, sir: yes, and I was happy. To paint them, in short, was to\nenjoy one of the keenest pleasures I have ever known"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was tormented by the contrast between my idea and my handiwork"
    },
    {
      "text": "You had not enough of the artist’s skill and science to give it full being"
    },
    {
      "text": "These eyes in the Evening Star you must have seen in a dream"
    },
    {
      "text": "we can none of us help our nature"
    },
    {
      "text": "blood\nis said to be thicker than water"
    },
    {
      "text": "Beauty of little consequence, indeed!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me\nwith her knuckles"
    },
    {
      "text": "I have a past existence, a series of deeds, a colour of\nlife to contemplate within my own breast, which might well call my sneers and\ncensures from my neighbours to myself"
    },
    {
      "text": "Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of\nlife"
    },
    {
      "text": "Reformation may be its cure"
    },
    {
      "text": "happiness is irrevocably denied me, I\nhave a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what\nit may"
    },
    {
      "text": "I am forced to\nconfess that he and I are on a level"
    },
    {
      "text": "I wish I had stood firm—God knows I do!"
    },
    {
      "text": "remorse is the poison of\nlife"
    },
    {
      "text": "Reformation may be its cure"
    },
    {
      "text": "I am paving hell\nwith energy"
    },
    {
      "text": "I know what my aim is, what my motives are; and at\nthis moment I pass a law, unalterable as that of the Medes and Persians, that\nboth are right."
    },
    {
      "text": "The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which the divine and\nperfect alone can be safely intrusted."
    },
    {
      "text": "You think\nall existence lapses in as quiet a flow as that in which your youth has\nhitherto slid away. Floating on with closed eyes and muffled ears, you neither\nsee the rocks bristling not far off in the bed of the flood, nor hear the\nbreakers boil at their base."
    },
    {
      "text": "you will\ncome some day to a craggy pass in the channel, where the whole of life’s stream\nwill be broken up into whirl and tumult, foam and noise: either you will be\ndashed to atoms on crag points, or lifted up and borne on by some master-wave\ninto a calmer current"
    },
    {
      "text": "I will break obstacles to happiness, to goodness—yes,\ngoodness. I wish to be a better man than I have been, than I am; as Job’s\nleviathan broke the spear, the dart, and the habergeon, hindrances which others\ncount as iron and brass, I will esteem but straw and rotten wood."
    },
    {
      "text": "The more you and I converse, the better; for while I cannot\nblight you, you may refresh me."
    },
    {
      "text": "I have but half a liking to the blossom, especially when it looks so\nartificial as just now. I keep it and rear it rather on the Roman Catholic\nprinciple of expiating numerous sins, great or small, by one good work."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am not her father; but hearing that she was quite destitute, I e’en\ntook the poor thing out of the slime and mud of Paris, and transplanted it\nhere, to grow up clean in the wholesome soil of an English country garden."
    },
    {
      "text": "I believed he was naturally a man of better tendencies,\nhigher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed,\neducation instilled, or destiny encouraged."
    },
    {
      "text": "Silence composes the nerves"
    },
    {
      "text": "Sense would resist delirium: judgment would warn passion."
    },
    {
      "text": "Providence will not\ndispense with the means, though He often blesses them when they are used\ndiscreetly."
    },
    {
      "text": "People talk of natural sympathies; I have\nheard of good genii: there are grains of truth in the wildest fable."
    },
    {
      "text": "I wanted again to introduce the\nsubject of Grace Poole, and to hear what he would answer; I wanted to ask him\nplainly if he really believed it was she who had made last night’s hideous\nattempt; and if so, why he kept her wickedness a secret."
    },
    {
      "text": "a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life; that\na more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed\npoison as if it were nectar."
    },
    {
      "text": "It does good to no woman to be flattered by\nher superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is madness in all\nwomen to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and\nunknown, must devour the life that feeds it"
    },
    {
      "text": "He is not of your order: keep to your caste,\nand be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and\nstrength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised."
    },
    {
      "text": "Whenever, in future, you should chance to fancy Mr. Rochester thinks well of\nyou, take out these two pictures and compare them: say, ‘Mr. Rochester might\nprobably win that noble lady’s love, if he chose to strive for it; is it likely\nhe would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?’"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was actually permitting\nmyself to experience a sickening sense of disappointment; but rallying my wits,\nand recollecting my principles, I at once called my sensations to order"
    },
    {
      "text": "He made me love him without looking at\nme."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had not intended to love\nhim; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of\nlove there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they\nspontaneously arrived, green and strong!"
    },
    {
      "text": "I know I must\nconceal my sentiments: I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care\nmuch for me. For when I say that I am of his kind, I do not mean that I have\nhis force to influence, and his spell to attract; I mean only that I have\ncertain tastes and feelings in common with him."
    },
    {
      "text": "I must, then, repeat\ncontinually that we are for ever sundered:—and yet, while I breathe and think,\nI must love him."
    },
    {
      "text": "I saw Mr.\nRochester smile:—his stern features softened; his eye grew both brilliant and\ngentle, its ray both searching and sweet."
    },
    {
      "text": "I could not keep their lids under control: they would rise, and the irids would\nfix on him."
    },
    {
      "text": "as to the gentlemen, let them be solicitous to possess\nonly strength and valour: let their motto be:—Hunt, shoot, and fight: the rest\nis not worth a fillip."
    },
    {
      "text": "I will suffer no\ncompetitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions\nshall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror."
    },
    {
      "text": "She was very showy, but she was not genuine: she had a fine person, many\nbrilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature:\nnothing bloomed spontaneously on that soil; no unforced natural fruit delighted\nby its freshness."
    },
    {
      "text": "Arrows that\ncontinually glanced off from Mr. Rochester’s breast and fell harmless at his\nfeet, might, I knew, if shot by a surer hand, have quivered keen in his proud\nheart—have called love into his stern eye, and softness into his sardonic face;"
    },
    {
      "text": "If she did, she need not coin her smiles so lavishly, flash her\nglances so unremittingly, manufacture airs so elaborate, graces so\nmultitudinous."
    },
    {
      "text": "The sarcasm that had repelled, the harshness that\nhad startled me once, were only like keen condiments in a choice dish: their\npresence was pungent, but their absence would be felt as comparatively insipid."
    },
    {
      "text": "extremes\nmeet."
    },
    {
      "text": "You are cold, because you are alone: no contact strikes\nthe fire from you that is in you."
    },
    {
      "text": "The materials are all prepared;\nthere only wants a movement to combine them."
    },
    {
      "text": "Chance laid them somewhat apart;\nlet them be once approached and bliss results."
    },
    {
      "text": "You could scarcely find me one. If you knew it, you are peculiarly situated:\nvery near happiness; yes, within reach of it."
    },
    {
      "text": "The utmost I hope is, to save money enough out of my earnings to set up\na school some day in a little house rented by myself."
    },
    {
      "text": "Have you no present interest in any of the company who occupy the sofas\nand chairs before you? Is there not one face you study? one figure whose\nmovements you follow with at least curiosity?"
    },
    {
      "text": "The eagerness of a listener quickens the tongue of a narrator."
    },
    {
      "text": "You have seen love: have you not?—and, looking forward, you have seen him\nmarried, and beheld his bride happy?"
    },
    {
      "text": "I know she considers the Rochester estate eligible to the last\ndegree; though (God pardon me!) I told her something on that point about an\nhour ago which made her look wondrous grave: the corners of her mouth fell half\nan inch."
    },
    {
      "text": "Your fortune is yet doubtful: when I examined your face, one trait\ncontradicted another."
    },
    {
      "text": "It depends on yourself to stretch out your hand,\nand take it up: but whether you will do so, is the problem I study."
    },
    {
      "text": "The flame flickers in the eye; the eye shines like dew; it looks soft and full\nof feeling; it smiles at my jargon: it is susceptible; impression follows\nimpression through its clear sphere; where it ceases to smile, it is sad; an\nunconscious lassitude weighs on the lid: that signifies melancholy resulting\nfrom loneliness."
    },
    {
      "text": "I see no enemy to a fortunate issue but in the brow; and that brow professes\nto say,—‘I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to\ndo. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with\nme, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or\noffered only at a price I cannot afford to give.’"
    },
    {
      "text": "Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst\naway and hurry her to wild chasms."
    },
    {
      "text": "I wish to foster, not to blight—to earn gratitude, not to\nwring tears of blood—no, nor of brine: my harvest must be in smiles, in\nendearments, in sweet—"
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nhad been on my guard almost from the beginning of the interview. Something of\nmasquerade I suspected."
    },
    {
      "text": "The night—its silence—its rest, was rent in twain by a savage, a sharp, a\nshrilly sound that ran from end to end of Thornfield Hall."
    },
    {
      "text": "I must keep to my post, however. I must watch this ghastly countenance—these\nblue, still lips forbidden to unclose—these eyes now shut, now opening, now\nwandering through the room, now fixing on me, and ever glazed with the dulness\nof horror."
    },
    {
      "text": "What crime was this, that lived incarnate in\nthis sequestered mansion, and could neither be expelled nor subdued by the\nowner?—what mystery, that broke out now in fire and now in blood, at the\ndeadest hours of night?"
    },
    {
      "text": "To live,\nfor me, Jane, is to stand on a crater-crust which may crack and spue fire any\nday."
    },
    {
      "text": "The results of what you have done become in time to you utterly\ninsupportable; you take measures to obtain relief: unusual measures, but\nneither unlawful nor culpable."
    },
    {
      "text": "God, who does the work, ordains the\ninstrument."
    },
    {
      "text": "Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and\nthe three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the\nkey."
    },
    {
      "text": "I never laughed at presentiments in my life, because I have had strange\nones of my own."
    },
    {
      "text": "he ruined his health and his estate amongst\nthe worst men and the worst women."
    },
    {
      "text": "the knaves he lived amongst\nfooled him beyond anything I ever heard."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is a happy thing that time quells the longings of vengeance and hushes the\npromptings of rage and aversion."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had left this woman in bitterness and hate,\nand I came back to her now with no other emotion than a sort of ruth for her\ngreat sufferings, and a strong yearning to forget and forgive all injuries"
    },
    {
      "text": "unimpressionable natures are not so soon\nsoftened, nor are natural antipathies so readily eradicated."
    },
    {
      "text": "I felt pain, and then I felt ire; and then I felt a determination to subdue\nher—to be her mistress in spite both of her nature and her will."
    },
    {
      "text": "A\ncertain superciliousness of look, coolness of manner, nonchalance of tone,\nexpress fully their sentiments on the point, without committing them by any\npositive rudeness in word or deed."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had other things to think about; within the last few months\nfeelings had been stirred in me so much more potent than any they could\nraise—pains and pleasures so much more acute and exquisite had been excited\nthan any it was in their power to inflict or bestow—that their airs gave me no\nconcern either for good or bad."
    },
    {
      "text": "Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but\njudgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human\ndeglutition."
    },
    {
      "text": "Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you\nseek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person’s strength:"
    },
    {
      "text": "Take one day;\nshare it into sections; to each section apportion its task: leave no stray\nunemployed quarters of an hour, ten minutes, five minutes—include all; do each\npiece of business in its turn with method, with rigid regularity."
    },
    {
      "text": "You\nwere born, I think, to be my torment: my last hour is racked by the\nrecollection of a deed which, but for you, I should never have been tempted to\ncommit."
    },
    {
      "text": "living, she had ever hated me—dying, she must hate\nme still."
    },
    {
      "text": "With her constitution she should have lived to a good old age: her life was\nshortened by trouble."
    },
    {
      "text": "what is so headstrong as youth? What so blind as inexperience?"
    },
    {
      "text": "when friends are on the eve of separation, they like to spend the little\ntime that remains to them close to each other."
    },
    {
      "text": "This was a blow: but I did not let it prostrate me."
    },
    {
      "text": "I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart!"
    },
    {
      "text": "it\nis my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the\ngrave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal,—as we are!"
    },
    {
      "text": "I am a free human being with an\nindependent will, which I now exert to leave you."
    },
    {
      "text": "I would as soon\nsee you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as myself clad in a\ncourt-lady’s robe; and I don’t call you handsome, sir, though I love you most\ndearly: far too dearly to flatter you."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had rather be a thing than an angel."
    },
    {
      "text": "I love it now."
    },
    {
      "text": "I never met your likeness. Jane, you please me, and you master me—you seem to\nsubmit, and I like the sense of pliancy you impart; and while I am twining the\nsoft, silken skein round my finger, it sends a thrill up my arm to my heart."
    },
    {
      "text": "Station! station!—your station is in my heart, and on the necks of those who\nwould insult you, now or hereafter."
    },
    {
      "text": "I would rather be excused."
    },
    {
      "text": "I like you more than I can say; but I’ll not sink into a bathos of\nsentiment: and with this needle of repartee I’ll keep you from the edge of the\ngulf too; and, moreover, maintain by its pungent aid that distance between you\nand myself most conducive to our real mutual advantage."
    },
    {
      "text": "I care not in this moment sweet,\n\nThough all I have rushed o’er\n\nShould come on pinion, strong and fleet,\n\nProclaiming vengeance sore:\n\nThough haughty Hate should strike me down,\n\nRight, bar approach to me,\n\nAnd grinding Might, with furious frown,\n\nSwear endless enmity."
    },
    {
      "text": "I would consent to be at your mercy, Jane."
    },
    {
      "text": "My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more\nthan the world: almost my hope of heaven."
    },
    {
      "text": "He stood between me and every thought\nof religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun."
    },
    {
      "text": "I could\nnot, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol."
    },
    {
      "text": "I thought of the life that lay before me—your\nlife, sir—an existence more expansive and stirring than my own: as much more so\nas the depths of the sea to which the brook runs are than the shallows of its\nown strait channel."
    },
    {
      "text": "Everything in life seems unreal."
    },
    {
      "text": "You, sir, are the most phantom-like of all: you are a mere dream."
    },
    {
      "text": "I saw plainly how\nyou would look; and heard your impetuous republican answers, and your haughty\ndisavowal of any necessity on your part to augment your wealth, or elevate your\nstanding, by marrying either a purse or a coronet."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nthought, sir, that you were on the road a long way before me; and I strained\nevery nerve to overtake you, and made effort on effort to utter your name and\nentreat you to stop—but my movements were fettered, and my voice still died\naway inarticulate; while you, I felt, withdrew farther and farther every\nmoment."
    },
    {
      "text": "I heard the gallop of a horse at a distance on the\nroad; I was sure it was you; and you were departing for many years and for a\ndistant country."
    },
    {
      "text": "the wall\ncrumbled; I was shaken; the child rolled from my knee, I lost my balance, fell,\nand woke."
    },
    {
      "text": "It seemed, sir, a woman, tall and large, with thick and dark hair hanging long\ndown her back. I know not what dress she had on: it was white and straight; but\nwhether gown, sheet, or shroud, I cannot tell."
    },
    {
      "text": "Fearful and ghastly to me—oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a\ndiscoloured face—it was a savage face."
    },
    {
      "text": "nerves like yours were not made for rough handling."
    },
    {
      "text": "It was half dream, half reality."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am little better than a devil at this\nmoment; and, as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest\njudgments of God, even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm."
    },
    {
      "text": "I wanted her just as a change after that\nfierce ragout."
    },
    {
      "text": "Compare these clear\neyes with the red balls yonder—this face with that mask—this form with that\nbulk; then judge me, priest of the gospel and man of the law, and remember with\nwhat judgment ye judge ye shall be judged!"
    },
    {
      "text": "A\nChristmas frost had come at midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over\nJune; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hayfield\nand cornfield lay a frozen shroud: lanes which last night blushed full of\nflowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden snow; and the woods, which twelve\nhours since waved leafy and fragrant as groves between the tropics, now spread,\nwaste, wild, and white as pine-forests in wintry Norway."
    },
    {
      "text": "My hopes were all\ndead—struck with a subtle doom, such as, in one night, fell on all the\nfirst-born in the land of Egypt."
    },
    {
      "text": "I looked on my cherished wishes, yesterday so\nblooming and glowing; they lay stark, chill, livid corpses that could never\nrevive."
    },
    {
      "text": "Conscience, turned tyrant, held Passion by the throat, told her tauntingly, she\nhad yet but dipped her dainty foot in the slough, and swore that with that arm\nof iron he would thrust her down to unsounded depths of agony."
    },
    {
      "text": "you shall yourself\npluck out your right eye; yourself cut off your right hand: your heart shall be\nthe victim, and you the priest to transfix it."
    },
    {
      "text": "Friends always forget those whom fortune forsakes,"
    },
    {
      "text": "I would rather you had come and\nupbraided me with vehemence. You are passionate: I expected a scene of some\nkind. I was prepared for the hot rain of tears; only I wanted them to be shed\non my breast: now a senseless floor has received them, or your drenched\nhandkerchief."
    },
    {
      "text": "If the man who had but one little ewe\nlamb that was dear to him as a daughter, that ate of his bread and drank of his\ncup, and lay in his bosom, had by some mistake slaughtered it at the shambles,\nhe would not have rued his bloody blunder more than I now rue mine."
    },
    {
      "text": "Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me\nas my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my\ntreasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved,\nmy arms should confine you, and not a strait waistcoat—your grasp, even in\nfury, would have a charm for me: if you flew at me as wildly as that woman did\nthis morning, I should receive you in an embrace, at least as fond as it would\nbe restrictive."
    },
    {
      "text": "I felt an inward power; a sense of influence, which\nsupported me. The crisis was perilous; but not without its charm: such as the\nIndian, perhaps, feels when he slips over the rapid in his canoe."
    },
    {
      "text": "There is no\nfolly so besotted that the idiotic rivalries of society, the prurience, the\nrashness, the blindness of youth, will not hurry a man to its commission."
    },
    {
      "text": "Your pity, my darling, is the suffering mother of love: its\nanguish is the very natal pang of the divine passion."
    },
    {
      "text": "I resolved to be clean in my own\nsight—and to the last I repudiated the contamination of her crimes, and\nwrenched myself from connection with her mental defects."
    },
    {
      "text": "Hiring a mistress is the next\nworse thing to buying a slave: both are often by nature, and always by\nposition, inferior: and to live familiarly with inferiors is degrading."
    },
    {
      "text": "I longed\nonly for what suited me—for the antipodes of the Creole"
    },
    {
      "text": "I was surly; but the thing would not\ngo: it stood by me with strange perseverance, and looked and spoke with a sort\nof authority."
    },
    {
      "text": "I did not then know that it was no\ntransitory blossom, but rather the radiant resemblance of one, cut in an\nindestructible gem."
    },
    {
      "text": "Laws and\nprinciples are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such\nmoments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour;"
    },
    {
      "text": "I care for myself. The more solitary,\nthe more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself."
    },
    {
      "text": "He who is taken out to pass through a fair scene to\nthe scaffold, thinks not of the flowers that smile on his road, but of the\nblock and axe-edge;"
    },
    {
      "text": "I had injured—wounded—left my master. I was hateful in my own\neyes."
    },
    {
      "text": "I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the\nprinciples received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now."
    },
    {
      "text": "I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I,\nwho from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her\nwith filial fondness."
    },
    {
      "text": "I felt the might and strength of God.\nSure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that\nneither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured."
    },
    {
      "text": "The burden must be carried; the want provided for; the\nsuffering endured; the responsibility fulfilled."
    },
    {
      "text": "I must struggle on:\nstrive to live and bend to toil like the rest."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nwas seized with shame: my tongue would not utter the request I had prepared. I\ndared not offer her the half-worn gloves, the creased handkerchief:"
    },
    {
      "text": "I blamed none of those who repulsed me. I felt it was\nwhat was to be expected, and what could not be helped: an ordinary beggar is\nfrequently an object of suspicion; a well-dressed beggar inevitably so."
    },
    {
      "text": "And far better that crows and ravens—if any ravens there be in\nthese regions—should pick my flesh from my bones, than that they should be\nprisoned in a workhouse coffin and moulder in a pauper’s grave."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is the clergyman’s function to help—at\nleast with advice—those who wished to help themselves."
    },
    {
      "text": "We mean to teach it some time—or at least the elements, as they say; and then\nwe shall get more money than we do now."
    },
    {
      "text": "Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to\neradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by\neducation: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."
    },
    {
      "text": "Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am;\nand if you are a Christian, you ought not to consider poverty a crime."
    },
    {
      "text": "I will trust you. If I were a masterless and stray\ndog, I know that you would not turn me from your hearth to-night: as it is, I\nreally have no fear."
    },
    {
      "text": "She possessed\neyes whose gaze I delighted to encounter. Her whole face seemed to me full of\ncharm."
    },
    {
      "text": "Diana looked and spoke with a certain authority: she had a will,\nevidently. It was my nature to feel pleasure in yielding to an authority\nsupported like hers, and to bend, where my conscience and self-respect\npermitted, to an active will."
    },
    {
      "text": "He was young—perhaps from twenty-eight to thirty—tall,\nslender; his face riveted the eye; it was like a Greek face, very pure in\noutline: quite a straight, classic nose; quite an Athenian mouth and chin."
    },
    {
      "text": "Quiescent as he now sat, there was something about\nhis nostril, his mouth, his brow, which, to my perceptions, indicated elements\nwithin either restless, or hard, or eager."
    },
    {
      "text": "He seemed to use them rather as\ninstruments to search other people’s thoughts, than as agents to reveal his\nown: the which combination of keenness and reserve was considerably more\ncalculated to embarrass than to encourage."
    },
    {
      "text": "I felt a burning glow mount to my face; for bitter and agitating recollections\nwere awakened by the allusion to marriage."
    },
    {
      "text": "You have never been married? You are a spinster?"
    },
    {
      "text": "I am an orphan, the daughter of a clergyman. My parents died before I could\nknow them. I was brought up a dependent; educated in a charitable institution."
    },
    {
      "text": "I left Lowood nearly a year since to become a private governess. I obtained a\ngood situation, and was happy. This place I was obliged to leave four days\nbefore I came here."
    },
    {
      "text": "I slept two\nnights in the open air, and wandered about two days without crossing a\nthreshold: but twice in that space of time did I taste food; and it was when\nbrought by hunger, exhaustion, and despair almost to the last gasp, that you,\nMr. Rivers, forbade me to perish of want at your door, and took me under the\nshelter of your roof."
    },
    {
      "text": "you and your sisters have done me a great\nservice—the greatest man can do his fellow-being; you have rescued me, by your\nnoble hospitality, from death."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am but the incumbent of a poor\ncountry parish: my aid must be of the humblest sort. And if you are inclined to\ndespise the day of small things, seek some more efficient succour than such as\nI can offer."
    },
    {
      "text": "I will be a dressmaker; I will be a plain-workwoman; I will be a servant, a\nnurse-girl, if I can be no better"
    },
    {
      "text": "I feel more\ninclination to put you in the way of keeping yourself, and shall endeavour to\ndo so; but observe, my sphere is narrow."
    },
    {
      "text": "The more I knew of the inmates of Moor House, the better I liked them. In a few\ndays I had so far recovered my health that I could sit up all day, and walk out\nsometimes."
    },
    {
      "text": "If in our trio there was a superior and a leader, it was Diana. Physically, she\nfar excelled me: she was handsome; she was vigorous."
    },
    {
      "text": "Our natures dovetailed: mutual affection—of the\nstrongest kind—was the result."
    },
    {
      "text": "he seemed of a reserved, an abstracted, and even of a brooding nature.\nZealous in his ministerial labours, blameless in his life and habits, he yet\ndid not appear to enjoy that mental serenity, that inward content, which should\nbe the reward of every sincere Christian and practical philanthropist."
    },
    {
      "text": "I hold that the\nmore arid and unreclaimed the soil where the Christian labourer’s task of\ntillage is appointed him—the scantier the meed his toil brings—the higher the\nhonour."
    },
    {
      "text": "His, under such circumstances, is the destiny of the pioneer; and the\nfirst pioneers of the Gospel were the Apostles—their captain was Jesus, the\nRedeemer, Himself."
    },
    {
      "text": "in your nature is an alloy as detrimental to repose as that in mine, though\nof a different kind."
    },
    {
      "text": "I must not forget that these\ncoarsely-clad little peasants are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of\ngentlest genealogy; and that the germs of native excellence, refinement,\nintelligence, kind feeling, are as likely to exist in their hearts as in those\nof the best-born."
    },
    {
      "text": "Whether is it better, I ask, to be a slave in a fool’s\nparadise at Marseilles—fevered with delusive bliss one hour—suffocating with\nthe bitterest tears of remorse and shame the next—or to be a\nvillage-schoolmistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the\nhealthy heart of England?"
    },
    {
      "text": "God has given us, in a\nmeasure, the power to make our own fate; and when our energies seem to demand a\nsustenance they cannot get—when our will strains after a path we may not\nfollow—we need neither starve from inanition, nor stand still in despair: we\nhave but to seek another nourishment for the mind, as strong as the forbidden\nfood it longed to taste—and perhaps purer; and to hew out for the adventurous\nfoot a road as direct and broad as the one Fortune has blocked up against us,\nif rougher than it."
    },
    {
      "text": "I was weakly dismayed at the ignorance, the poverty,\nthe coarseness of all I heard and saw round me. But let me not hate and despise\nmyself too much for these feelings; I know them to be wrong—that is a great\nstep gained; I shall strive to overcome them."
    },
    {
      "text": "I feel now that I was right when I adhered to principle and law, and\nscorned and crushed the insane promptings of a frenzied moment. God directed me\nto a correct choice: I thank His providence for the guidance!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their\nsentiments and griefs more than the expansive."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is dearer than the blood in my veins. It is what I have\nto look forward to, and to live for."
    },
    {
      "text": "Natural affection only, of all the sentiments, has permanent power over\nme."
    },
    {
      "text": "Reason, and not feeling, is my guide; my ambition is unlimited: my desire\nto rise higher, to do more than others, insatiable."
    },
    {
      "text": "I honour endurance,\nperseverance, industry, talent; because these are the means by which men\nachieve great ends and mount to lofty eminence."
    },
    {
      "text": "From the minute germ, natural affection, she has developed the\novershadowing tree, philanthropy."
    },
    {
      "text": "From the wild stringy root of human\nuprightness, she has reared a due sense of the Divine justice."
    },
    {
      "text": "So much has religion done for me; turning the original materials to the best\naccount; pruning and training nature."
    },
    {
      "text": "But she could not eradicate nature: nor\nwill it be eradicated ‘till this mortal shall put on immortality.’"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is a fine thing, reader, to be lifted in a\nmoment from indigence to wealth—a very fine thing; but not a matter one can\ncomprehend, or consequently enjoy, all at once."
    },
    {
      "text": "Besides, the words Legacy, Bequest, go side by side with the words, Death,\nFuneral."
    },
    {
      "text": "It was a grand boon doubtless; and\nindependence would be glorious—yes, I felt that—that thought swelled my\nheart."
    },
    {
      "text": "I now clapped\nmy hands in sudden joy—my pulse bounded, my veins thrilled."
    },
    {
      "text": "This was wealth\nindeed!—wealth to the heart!—a mine of pure, genial affections."
    },
    {
      "text": "Now the wealth did not weigh\non me: now it was not a mere bequest of coin,—it was a legacy of life, hope,\nenjoyment."
    },
    {
      "text": "Those who had saved my life, whom, till this hour, I had\nloved barrenly, I could now benefit."
    },
    {
      "text": "They were under a yoke,—I could free them:\nthey were scattered,—I could reunite them:"
    },
    {
      "text": "as stone is worn by continual dropping."
    },
    {
      "text": "Whereas I am hot, and fire dissolves ice."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am\nnot brutally selfish, blindly unjust, or fiendishly ungrateful."
    },
    {
      "text": "I\nmust indulge my feelings; I so seldom have had an opportunity of doing so."
    },
    {
      "text": "I want my\nkindred: those with whom I have full fellow-feeling."
    },
    {
      "text": "Good fortune opens the hand as well as the\nheart wonderfully;"
    },
    {
      "text": "The best things the world has!"
    },
    {
      "text": "It is in scenes of strife\nand danger—where courage is proved, and energy exercised, and fortitude\ntasked—that he will speak and move, the leader and superior."
    },
    {
      "text": "He had performed an act of duty; made an exertion; felt his own\nstrength to do and deny, and was on better terms with himself."
    },
    {
      "text": "The event of the conflict is decisive: my way\nis now clear; I thank God for it!"
    },
    {
      "text": "St. John was not a man to be lightly refused: you felt that every impression\nmade on him, either for pain or pleasure, was deep-graved and permanent."
    },
    {
      "text": "I found him a very patient, very forbearing, and yet an exacting master: he\nexpected me to do a great deal; and when I fulfilled his expectations, he, in\nhis own way, fully testified his approbation."
    },
    {
      "text": "I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with\npositive, hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission\nand determined revolt."
    },
    {
      "text": "God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife. It is not personal, but\nmental endowments they have given you: you are formed for labour, not for love."
    },
    {
      "text": "I have watched you ever since we first met:\nI have made you my study for ten months. I have proved you in that time by\nsundry tests: and what have I seen and elicited?"
    },
    {
      "text": "He prizes me as a soldier would a good weapon; and that is all."
    },
    {
      "text": "it\nis not the insignificant private individual—the mere man, with the man’s\nselfish senses—I wish to mate: it is the missionary."
    },
    {
      "text": "that would be only adding the husk and shell to the kernel. For them he has no\nuse: I retain them."
    },
    {
      "text": "I saw his fallibilities: I comprehended them. I\nunderstood that, sitting there where I did, on the bank of heath, and with that\nhandsome form before me, I sat at the feet of a man, erring as I."
    },
    {
      "text": "Once wrench your heart from man, and fix it on your Maker, the advancement of\nthat Maker’s spiritual kingdom on earth will be your chief delight and\nendeavour;"
    },
    {
      "text": "I should suffer often, no doubt,\nattached to him only in this capacity: my body would be under rather a\nstringent yoke, but my heart and mind would be free."
    },
    {
      "text": "forced to keep the fire of my nature continually\nlow, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned\nflame consumed vital after vital—this would be unendurable."
    },
    {
      "text": "I scorn the counterfeit\nsentiment you offer: yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it."
    },
    {
      "text": "the very name of love\nis an apple of discord between us."
    },
    {
      "text": "Refuse to be my wife, and you limit yourself for ever to a track\nof selfish ease and barren obscurity."
    },
    {
      "text": "He experienced no suffering from estrangement—no\nyearning after reconciliation; and though, more than once, my fast falling\ntears blistered the page over which we both bent, they produced no more effect\non him than if his heart had been really a matter of stone or metal."
    },
    {
      "text": "I had burnt it in."
    },
    {
      "text": "He would\nnot want me to love him; and if I showed the feeling, he would make me sensible\nthat it was a superfluity, unrequired by him, unbecoming in me. I know he\nwould."
    },
    {
      "text": "It is better,\ntherefore, for the insignificant to keep out of his way, lest, in his progress,\nhe should trample them down."
    },
    {
      "text": "Earnestness is ever\ndeeply solemn: first, as I listened to that prayer, I wondered at his; then,\nwhen it continued and rose, I was touched by it, and at last awed."
    },
    {
      "text": "Oh, that gentleness! how far more potent is\nit than force!"
    },
    {
      "text": "Where there is energy to command\nwell enough, obedience never fails."
    },
    {
      "text": "To prolong doubt was to\nprolong hope."
    },
    {
      "text": "I was a fool\nboth times. To have yielded then would have been an error of principle; to have\nyielded now would have been an error of judgment."
    },
    {
      "text": "The one candle was dying out: the room was full of\nmoonlight."
    },
    {
      "text": "He was not a man given to wine, or cards, or\nracing, as some are, and he was not so very handsome; but he had a courage and\na will of his own, if ever man had."
    },
    {
      "text": "He would be alone, too. He sent Mrs. Fairfax,\nthe housekeeper, away to her friends at a distance; but he did it handsomely,\nfor he settled an annuity on her for life: and she deserved it—she was a very\ngood woman."
    },
    {
      "text": "He was taken out from under\nthe ruins, alive, but sadly hurt: a beam had fallen in such a way as to protect\nhim partly; but one eye was knocked out, and one hand so crushed that Mr.\nCarter, the surgeon, had to amputate it directly. The other eye inflamed: he\nlost the sight of that also. He is now helpless, indeed—blind and a cripple."
    },
    {
      "text": "My uncle in Madeira is dead, and he left me five thousand pounds."
    },
    {
      "text": "I am my own mistress."
    },
    {
      "text": "I don’t care about being married."
    },
    {
      "text": "The world may\nlaugh—may call me absurd, selfish—but it does not signify. My very soul demands\nyou: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame."
    },
    {
      "text": "I find you lonely: I will be your companion—to read to you, to\nwalk with you, to sit with you, to wait on you, to be eyes and hands to you."
    },
    {
      "text": "Blind as he was, smiles played over his face, joy dawned on his forehead:\nhis lineaments softened and warmed."
    },
    {
      "text": "I did not like to put my hand into a hireling’s, but it is pleasant\nto feel it circled by Jane’s little fingers."
    },
    {
      "text": "To\nbe privileged to put my arms round what I value—to press my lips to what I\nlove—to repose on what I trust: is that to make a sacrifice?"
    },
    {
      "text": "I love you better now, when I can really be useful\nto you, than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained\nevery part but that of the giver and protector."
    },
    {
      "text": "He sees not as man\nsees, but far clearer: judges not as man judges, but far more wisely."
    },
    {
      "text": "I began to experience remorse,\nrepentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker."
    },
    {
      "text": "I hold myself supremely blest—blest beyond what\nlanguage can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine."
    },
    {
      "text": "No\nwoman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his\nbone and flesh of his flesh."
    },
    {
      "text": "to talk to each other is but a more animated\nand an audible thinking."
    },
    {
      "text": "He loved me so truly, that he knew no reluctance in profiting by\nmy attendance: he felt I loved him so fondly, that to yield that attendance was\nto indulge my sweetest wishes."
    },
    {
      "text": "his is the sternness of the warrior\nGreatheart, who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon."
    },
    {
      "text": "His is the ambition of the high master-spirit, which aims to\nfill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth—who\nstand without fault before the throne of God,"
    },
    {
      "text": "No fear of death will darken St. John’s\nlast hour: his mind will be unclouded, his heart will be undaunted, his hope\nwill be sure, his faith steadfast."
    }
  ]
}