“Winds take a pensive tone and stars a tender fire And visions rise and change which kills me with desire.”

— Emily Brontë, "The Prisoner", st. 10, October 1841

About Emily Brontë

1818 – 1848

English novelist and poet, author of 'Wuthering Heights' (1847).

“I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas.”

“Shall Earth no more inspire thee, Thou lonely dreamer now?”

“The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.”

“The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.”

“Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning.”