The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (75 page)

Brontë, Charlotte
1816–55

1
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

Jane Eyre
(1847), opening words

2
Reader, I married him.

Jane Eyre
(1847) ch. 38

3
Be a governess! Better be a slave at once!

Shirley
(1849) ch. 13

4
I shall soon be 30—and I have done nothing yet…I feel as if we were all buried here.

letter to Ellen Nussey, 24 March 1845

 
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Brontë, Emily
1818–48

1
No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

"No coward soul is mine" (1846)

2
Cold in the earth—and fifteen wild Decembers,
From those brown hills, have melted into spring.

"Remembrance" (1846)

3
My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath:—a source of little visible delight, but necessary.

Wuthering Heights
(1847) ch. 9

4
I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

Wuthering Heights
(1847), closing words

 
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Brontë, Patrick
1777–1861

1
Charlotte has been writing a book, and it is much better than likely.
to his younger daughters, on first reading Jane Eyre

Elizabeth Gaskell
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
(1857)

2
No quailing, Mrs Gaskell! no drawing back!
apropos her undertaking to write the life of Charlotte Brontë

letter from Mrs Gaskell to Ellen Nussey, 24 July 1855

 
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Brooke, Henry
1703–83

1
For righteous monarchs,
Justly to judge, with their own eyes should see;
To rule o'er freemen, should themselves be free.

Earl of Essex
(performed 1750, published 1761) act 1.

 
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Brooke, Rupert
1887–1915

1
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth.

"The Dead" (1914)

2
Unkempt about those hedges blows
An English unofficial rose.

"The Old Vicarage, Grantchester" (1915)

3
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?

"The Old Vicarage, Grantchester" (1915)

4
Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour.

"Peace" (1914)

5
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.

"The Soldier" (1914)

 
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Brookner, Anita
1928–

1
Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.

Hotel du Lac
(1984) ch. 7

2
They were reasonable people, and no one was to be hurt, not even with words.

Hotel du Lac
(1984) ch. 9

3
Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.

A Start in Life
(1981) ch. 1

 
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