Charlotte Brontë's greatest quotes ever

Happy 200th birthday Charlotte Brontë! Discover her greatest quotes

This year marks the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth in Thorton, Yorkshire in 1816. Best known for her much-loved novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte has inspired aspiring writers since it was first published in October 1847.

Under the male pseudonym Currer Bell, Charlotte brought us wonderful stories from the heartbreaking and desolate Villette to the bold and courageous Shirley. Charlotte loved and wrote so passionately and it is this desire that brings to life the characters from her pages of her novels, whether it’s the fairy-like Jane, brooding Edward Rochester, chilly Lucy Snowe, vibrant Shirley or the violent mad woman in the attic.

We have picked 10 of our favourite quotes:

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel.” — Jane Eyre

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”— Jane Eyre

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” — Jane Eyre

Reader, I married him.” — Jane Eyre

I could bend you with my finger and my thumb…But whatever I do with this cage, I cannot get at you, and it is your soul that I want.” — Jane Eyre

Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!” — Jane Eyre

I ask you to pass through life at my side to be my second self, and my best earthly companion.” — Jane Eyre

“Love is real — the most real, the most lasting, the sweetest and yet the bitterest thing we know.” — Shirley

I mean that I value vision, and dread being struck stone blind.” — Villette

The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.” — Evening Solace

There are so many captivating quotes to choose from. Tweet us your favourite Charlotte Brontë quotes and we will share a few here.

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