10 Jane Eyre Quotes
Jane's declarations of independence, Rochester's proposals and the most famous three words in the novel, checked against Brontë's text.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847) is in the public domain. Every quote here is copied from the original text, with who says it, so you can use it with confidence.
Reader, I married him.
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.
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!
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do…
The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.
I would always rather be happy than dignified.
“I am not an angel,” I asserted; “and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.”
Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.
Reader, I forgave him at the moment and on the spot.
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
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Questions about Jane Eyre quotes
What is the most famous line in Jane Eyre?
"Reader, I married him," which opens the final chapter. Jane addresses the reader directly throughout the novel, and this is the moment everyone remembers.
What is the first line of Jane Eyre?
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."
Who says "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me"?
Jane, to Rochester, when she believes he is about to marry Blanche Ingram. It comes just before his proposal.
Who says "Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity"?
Helen Burns, Jane's friend at Lowood School, explaining why she doesn't hold grudges.