“The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which the divine and perfect alone can be safely intrusted.Chapter 14 · Jane Eyre · ★★★☆☆→
“Most people would have termed her a splendid woman of her age: and so she was, no doubt, physically speaking; but then there was an expression of almost insupportable haughtiness in her bearing and countenance.Chapter 17 · Narrator · ★★★☆☆→
“It seemed to me that she might, by merely sitting quietly at his side, saying little and looking less, get nigher his heart. I have seen in his face a far different expression from that which hardens it now while she is so vivaciously accosting him; but then it came of itself: it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated manoeuvres.Chapter 18 · Narrator · ★★★☆☆→
“I think (with deference be it spoken) the contrast could not be much greater between a sleek gander and a fierce falcon: between a meek sheep and the rough-coated keen-eyed dog, its guardian.Chapter 18 · Narrator · ★★★☆☆→
“My nerves vibrated to those low-spoken words as they had never vibrated to thunder—my blood felt their subtle violence as it had never felt frost or fire; but I was collected, and in no danger of swooning.Chapter 26 · Narrator · ★★★☆☆→
“He could not—he would not—renounce his wild field of mission warfare for the parlours and the peace of Vale Hall.Chapter 32 · Narrator · ★★★☆☆→
“I am simply, in my original state—stripped of that blood-bleached robe with which Christianity covers human deformity—a cold, hard, ambitious man. Natural affection only, of all the sentiments, has permanent power over me. Reason, and not feeling, is my guide; my ambition is unlimited: my desire to rise higher, to do more than others, insatiable.Chapter 32 · St John Rivers · ★★★☆☆→
“Merry days were these at Thornfield Hall; and busy days too: how different from the first three months of stillness, monotony, and solitude I had passed beneath its roof!Chapter 18 · Narrator · ★★☆☆☆→