{"quotes":[{"text":"The charm of variety there was not, nor the excitement of incident; but I liked peace so well, and sought stimulus so little, that when the latter came I almost felt it a disturbance, and rather still wished it had held aloof.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["excitement","peace","villette"],"id":12035,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"I do not think the sunny youth of either will prove the forerunner of stormy age. I think it is deemed good that you two should live in peace and be happy - not as angels but as few are happy amongst mortals. Some lives are thus blessed: it is God's will: it is the attesting trace and lingering evidence of Eden. Other lives run from the first another course. Other travellers encounter weather fitful and gusty wild and variable - breast adverse winds are belated and overtaken by the early closing winter night. Neither can this happen without the sanction of God and I know that amidst His boundless works is somewhere stored the secret of this last fate's justice: I know that His treasures contain the proof as the promise of its mercy.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["happiness","lucy-snowe","paulina-bassompierre","providnece","villette"],"id":26631,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"I replied that I did not quite know what my ailment had been, but that I had certainly suffered a good deal especially in mind. Further, on this subject, I did not consider it advisable to dwell, for the details of what I had undergone belonged to a portion of my existence in which I never expected my godmother to take a share. Into what a new region would such a confidence have led that hale, serene nature! The difference between her and me might be figured by that between the stately ship cruising safe on smooth seas, with its full complement of crew, a captain gay and brave, and venturous and provident; and the life-boat, which most days of the year lies dry and solitary in an old, dark boat-house, only putting to sea when the billows run high in rough weather, when cloud encounters water, when danger and death divide between them the rule of the great deep. No, the 'Louisa Bretton' never was out of harbour on such a night, and in such a scene: her crew could not conceive it; so the half-drowned life-boat man keeps his own counsel, and spins no yarns.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["confidence","healing","loved-ones","suffering","villette"],"id":29113,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"Amid the worry of a self- condemnatory soliloquy, his demeanour seemed grave, perhaps cold, both to me and his mother. And yet there was no bad feeling, no malice, no rancour, no littleness in his countenance, beautiful with a man's best beauty, even in its depression. When I placed his chair at the table, which I hastened to do, anticipating the servant, and when I handed him his tea, which I did with trembling care, he said: 'Thank you, Lucy,' in as kindly a tone of his full pleasant voice as ever my ear welcomed.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["fanshawe","graham","lucy","unrequited-love","villette"],"id":35104,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"His veins were dark with a vivid belladonna tincture, the essence of jealousy.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["emmanuel","jealousy","villette"],"id":36043,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"His will be done, as done it surely will be, whether we humble ourselves to resignation or not. The impulse of creation forwards it; the strength of powers, seen and unseen, has its fulfillment in charge. Proof of a life to come must be given. In fire and in blood, if needful, must that proof be written. In fire and in blood do we trace the record throughout nature. In fire and in blood does it cross our own experience. Sufferer, faint not through terror of this burning evidence. Tired wayfarer, gird up thy loins, look upward, march onward. Pilgrims and brother mourners, join in friendly company. Dark through the wilderness of this world stretches the way for most of us: equal and steady be our tread; be our cross our banner. For staff we have His promis, whose 'word is tried, whose way perfect': for present hope His providence, 'who gives the shield of salvation, whose gentleness makes great'; for final home His bosom, who 'dwells in the height of Heaven'; for crowning prize a glory exceeding and eternal. Let us so run that we may obtain: let us endure hardness as good soldiers; let us finish our course, and keep the faith, reliant in the issue to come off more than conquerors: 'Art though not from everlasting mine Holy One? WE SHALL NOT DIE!","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["god-s-will","hope","perseverance","salvation","villette"],"id":104289,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"Once I saw Graham - wholly unconscious of her proximity - push her with his restless foot. She receded an inch or two. A minute after one little hand stole out from beneath her face, to which it had been pressed, and softly caressed the heedless foot.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["adoration","graham","polly","unrequited-love","villette"],"id":110716,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"Entering by the carré, a piece of mirror- glass, set in an oaken cabinet, repeated my image. It said I was changed: my cheeks and lips were sodden white, my eyes were glassy, and my eyelids swollen and purple.On rejoining my companions, I knew they all looked at me - my heart seemed discovered to them: I believed myself self-betrayed. Hideously certain did it seem that the very youngest of the school must guess why and for whom I despaired.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["jealousy","lucy-snowe","madame-beck","paul-emmanuel","unmarriageble","villette"],"id":124741,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"But if I feel, may I never express?” “Never!” declared Reason.I groaned under her bitter sternness. Never - never - oh, hard word! This hag, this Reason, would not let me look up, or smile, or hope; she could not rest unless I were altogether crushed, cowed, broken-in, and broken down. According to her, I was born only to work for a piece of bread, to await the pains of death, and steadily through all life to despond. Reason might be right; yet no wonder we are glad at times to defy her, to rush from under her rod and give a truant hour to Imagination - her soft, bright foe, our sweet Help, our divine Hope.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["emotion","feelings","villette"],"id":146522,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"},{"text":"The spring which moved my energies lay far away beyond seas, in an Indian isle.","author":"Charlotte Brontë","tags":["absence","emmanuel","energy","faraway-love","lucy-snow","separation","villette"],"id":157631,"author_id":"Charlotte+Bront%C3%AB"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}