English novelist & poet (1820-1849)
My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring
And carried aloft on the wings of the breeze;
For above and around me the wild wind is roaring,
Arousing to rapture the earth and the seas.
ANNE BRONTË
"Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day"
You may rejoice to think yourselves secure,
You may be grateful for the gift divine,
That grace unsought which made your black hearts pure
And fits your earthborn souls in Heaven to shine.
But is it sweet to look around and view
Thousands excluded from that happiness,
Which they deserve at least as much as you,
Their faults not greater nor their virtues less?
ANNE BRONTË
"A Word to the Calvinists"
It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble your foe.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
I would not send a poor girl into the world, ignorant of the snares that beset her path; nor would I watch and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power or the will to watch and guard herself.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The brightest attractions to the lover too often prove the husband's greatest torments.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Where hope rises fear must lurk behind.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
But smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
All our talents increase in the using, and every faculty, both good and bad, strengthens by exercise: therefore, if you choose to use the bad, or those which tend to evil, till they become your masters, and neglect the good till they dwindle away, you have only yourself to blame.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
It is quite possible to be a good Christian without ceasing to be a happy, merry-hearted man.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Intimate acquaintance must precede real friendship.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
You will form a very inadequate estimate of a man's character, if you judge by what a fond sister says of him. The worst of them generally know how to hide their misdeeds from their sisters' eyes, and their mother's, too.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
There's nothing like active employment to console the afflicted.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
It is a troublesome thing, Halford, this susceptibility to affronts where none are intended.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
A sinless God, for sinful men,
Descends to suffer and to bleed;
Hell must renounce its empire then;
The price is paid, the world is freed,
And Satan's self must now confess,
That Christ has earned a Right to bless.
ANNE BRONTË
"Music on Christmas Morning"
You might as well sell yourself to slavery at once, as marry man you dislike.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
To regret the exchange of earthly pleasures for the joys of heaven, is as if the groveling caterpillar should lament that it must one day quit the nibbled leaf to soar aloft and flutter through the air, roving at will from flower to flower, sipping sweet honey from their cups, or basking in their sunny petals.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
But as the priceless treasure too frequently hides at the bottom of well, it needs some courage to dive for it, especially as he that does so will be likely to incur more scorn and obloquy for the mud and water into which he has ventured to plunge, than thanks for the jewel he procures; as like in manner, she who undertakes the cleansing of a careless bachelor's apartment will be liable to more abuse for the dust she raises than commendation for the clearance she effects.
ANNE BRONTË
preface, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one half his days and mad the other.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
If I hate the sins, I love the sinner, and would do much for his salvation.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
A burst of passion is a fine rousing thing upon occasion, Helen, and a flood of tears is marvelously affecting, but, when indulged too often, they are both deuced plaguy things for spoiling one's beauty and tiring out one's friends.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall