Charlotte Bronte II

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

I would always rather be happy than dignified.

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.

The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.

I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.

Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.

If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.

I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.