I have heard that, with some persons, temperance – that is, moderation – is almost impossible; and if abstinence be an evil (which some have doubted), no one will deny that excess is a greater. Some parents have entirely prohibited their children from tasting intoxicating liquors; but a parent’s authority cannot last forever; children are naturally prone to hanker after forbidden things; and a child, in such a case, would be likely to have a strong curiosity to taste, and try the effect of what has been so lauded and enjoyed by others, so strictly forbidden to himself – which curiosity would generally be gratified on the first convenient opportunity; and the restraint once broken, serious consequences might ensue.

— Anne Brontë

I have often wished in vain,' said she, 'for another's judgment to appeal to when I could scarcely trust the direction of my own eye and head, they're having been so long occupied with the contemplation of a single object as to become almost incapable of forming a proper idea respecting it.'' That,' replied I, 'is only one of many evils to which a solitary life exposes us.

— Anne Brontë

I imagine there must be only a very, very few men in the world, that I should like to marry; and of those few, it is ten to one I may never be acquainted with one; or if I should, it is twenty to one he may not happen to be single, or to take a fancy to me.

— Anne Brontë

I’ll promise to think twice before I take any important step you seriously disapprove of.

— Anne Brontë

I’ll tell you a piece of news--I hope you have not heard it before: for good, bad, or indifferent, one always likes to be the first to tell.

— Anne Brontë

I love the silent hour of night, For blissful dreams may then arise, Revealing to my charmed sight What may not bless my waking eyes.

— Anne Brontë

I may be permitted, like the doctors, to cure a greater evil by a less, for I shall not fall seriously in love with the young widow, I think, nor she with me - that's certain - but if I find a little pleasure in her society I may surely be allowed to seek it; and if the star of her divinity be bright enough to dim the luster of Eliza's, so much the better, but I scarcely can think it

— Anne Brontë

I possess the faculty of enjoying the company of those I - of my friends as well in silence as in conversation.

— Anne Brontë

I returned, however, with unabated vigor to my work—a more arduous task than anyone can imagine, who has not felt something like the misery of being charged with the care and direction of a set of mischievous, turbulent rebels, whom his utmost exertions cannot bind to their duty; while, at the same time, he is responsible for their conduct to a higher power, who exacts from him what cannot be achieved without the aid of the superior’s more potent authority; which, either from indolence, or the fear of becoming unpopular with the said rebellious gang, the latter refuses to give. I can conceive few situations more harassing than that wherein, however you may long for success, however you may labor to fulfil your duty, your efforts are baffled and set at bought by those beneath you, and unjustly censured and misjudged by those above.

— Anne Brontë

I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one-half his days and mad the other.

— Anne Brontë