Charlotte Brontë

-But where are you going to, Helen? Can you see? Do you know?-I believe; I have faith: I am going to God.-Where is God? What is God?-My maker and yours, who will never destroy what He created. I rely implicitly on His power, and confide wholly in His goodness: I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to Him, reveal Him to me.

Endurance over-goaded, stretched the hand of fraternity to sedition.

And who talks of error now? I scarcely think the notion that flittered across my brain was an error. I believe it was an inspiration rather than a temptation: it was very genial, very soothing__ know that. Here it comes again! It is no devil, I assure you; or if it be, it has put on the robes of an angel of light. I think I must admit so fair a guest when it asks entrance to my heart.___istrust it, sir; it is not a true angel.___nce more, how do you know? By what instinct do you pretend to distinguish between a fallen seraph of the abyss and a messenger from the eternal throne__etween a guide and a seducer?___ judged by your countenance, sir, which was troubled when you said the suggestion had returned upon you. I feel sure it will work you more misery if you listen to it.___ot at all__t bears the most gracious message in the world: for the rest, you are not my conscience-keeper, so don__ make yourself uneasy. Here, come in, bonny wanderer!__e said this as if he spoke to a vision, viewless to any eye but his own; then, folding his arms, which he had half extended, on his chest, he seemed to enclose in their embrace the invisible being.__ow,_ he continued, again addressing me, __ have received the pilgrim__ disguised deity, as I verily believe. Already it has done me good: my heart was a sort of charnel; it will now be a shrine.

This pure little drop from a pure little source was too sweet: it penetrated deep, and subdued the heart

Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.

Childish and slender creature! It seemed as if a linnet had hopped to my foot and proposed to bear me on its tiny wing.

The hiss of the quenched element, the breakage of the pitcher which I had flung from my hand when I had emptied it, and, above all, the splash of the shower-bath I had liberally bestowed, roused Mr Rochester at last though it was dark, I knew he was awake; because I heard him fulminating strange anathemas at finding himself lying in a pool of water. 'Is there a flood?' he cried

St. John's eyes, though clear enough in a literal sense, in a figurative one were difficult to fathom. He seemed to use them rather as instruments to search other people's thoughts, than as agents to reveal his own: the which combination of keenness and reserve was considerably more calculated to embarrass than to encourage.

You would say you don't see it: at least I flatter myself I read as much in your eye (beware, by-the-by, what you express with that organ, I am quick at interpreting its language).

(...)because Miss Temple has generally something to say which is newer than my own reflections; her language is singularly agreeable to me, and the information she communicates is often just what I wished to gain.___ell, then, with Miss Temple you are good?___es, in a passive way: I make no effort; I follow as inclination guides me. There is no merit in such goodness.___ great deal: you are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be. 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 sothey would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should__o hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.___ou will change your mind, I hope, when you grow older: as yet you are but a little untaught girl.___ut I feel this, Helen; I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.___eathens and savage tribes hold that doctrine, but Christians and civilised nations disown it._ __ow? I don__ understand.___t is not violence that best overcomes hate__or vengeance that most certainly heals injury.___hat then?___ead the New Testament, and observe what Christ says, and how He acts; make His word your rule, and His conduct your example.___hat does He say?___ove your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you.

I will bestir myself,' was her resolution, 'and try to be wise if I cannot be good.

... your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me...

Sir,' I interrupted him, 'you are inexorable for that unfortunate lady; you speak of her with hate --- with vindictive antipathy. It is cruel --- she cannot help being mad.

. . . still we are none of us perfect . . .

Novelists should never allow themselves to weary of the study of real life. If they observed this duty conscientiously, they would give us fewer pictures chequered with vivid contrasts of light and shade; they would seldom elevate their heroes and heroines to the heights of rapture _ still seldomer sink them to the depths of despair; for if we rarely taste the fulness of joy in this life, we yet more rarely savour the acrid bitterness of hopeless anguish.

Yet, when this cherished volume was now placed in my hand__hen I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find__ll was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions._ I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart.

They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathise with one amongst them; a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest, or adding to their pleasure; a noxious thing, cherishing the germs of indignation at their treatment, of contempt of their judgment._ I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child__hough equally dependent and friendless__rs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have entertained...

Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver__ Travels from the library._ This book I had again and again perused with delight._