“ . . . they would neither hate nor envy us if they did not deem us so much happier than themselves. ”
I would always rather be happy than dignified.
~ Charlotte Brontë
I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.
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!
Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear.