Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)

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It is a hard, embittering thing to have one's kind feelings and good intentions cast back in one's teeth.

Anne Brontë
My cup of sweets is not unmingled: it is dashed with a bitterness that I cannot hide from myself, disguise it as I will.

Anne Brontë
He knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness; he cannot bear that I should have a moon to mitigate the deprivation.

Anne Brontë
I may be permitted, like the doctors, to cure a greater evil by a less, for I shall not fall seriously in love with the young widow, I think, nor she with me - that's certain - but if I find a little pleasure in her society I may surely be allowed to seek it; and if the star of her divinity be bright enough to dim the lustre of Eliza's, so much the better, but I scarcely can think it.

Anne Brontë
All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.

Anne Brontë
In love affairs, there is no mediator like a merry, simple-hearted child - ever ready to cement divided hearts, to span the unfriendly gulf of custom, to melt the ice of cold reserve, and overthrow the separating walls of dread formality and pride.

Anne Brontë
Adoration isn't love. I adore Annabella, but I don't love her; and I love thee, Milicent, but I don't adore thee.

Anne Brontë
She, however, attentively watched my looks, and her artist's pride was gratified, no doubt, to read my heartfelt admiration in my eyes.

Anne Brontë
I have no cause to fear; and if they scorn me as a victim of their guilt, I can pity their folly and despise their scorn.

Anne Brontë
It is natural for our unamiable sex to dislike the creatures, for you ladies lavish so many caresses upon them.

Anne Brontë
If the generous ideas of youth are too often over- clouded by the sordid views of after-life, that scarcely proves them to be false

Anne Brontë
"And you thought to rob me of my son too, and bring him up to be a dirty Yankee tradesman, or a low, beggarly painter?"
"Yes, to obviate his becoming such a gentleman as his father."

Anne Brontë
Revenge! No - what good would that do? - it would make him no better, and me no happier

Anne Brontë
I can't love it - what is there to love? It can't love me - or you either; it can't understand a single word you say to it, or feel one spark of gratitude for all your kindness. Wait till it can show some little affection for me, and then I'll see about loving it. At present it is nothing more than a little selfish, senseless sensualist, and if you see anything adorable in it, it's all very well - I only wonder how you can.

Anne Brontë
I cannot express my joy. I find it very difficult to conceal it from my aunt; but I don't wish to trouble her with my feelings till I know whether I ought to indulge them or not. If I find it my absolute duty to suppress them, they shall trouble no one but myself; and if I can really feel myself justified in indulging this attachment, I can dare anything, even the anger and grief of my best friend.

Anne Brontë
I wanted no confidante in my distress. I deserved none, and I wanted none. I had taken the burden upon myself; let me bear it alone.

Anne Brontë
It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble the foe.

Anne Brontë
Since I love him so much, I can easily forgive him for loving himself

Anne Brontë
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
Farewell to Thee! But not farewell To all my fondest thoughts of Thee; Within my heart they still shall dwell And they shall cheer and comfort me.

Anne Brontë