orchid

“To wonder sadly, did I say? No: a new influence began to act upon my life, and sadness, for a certain space, was held at bay. Conceive a dell, deep-hollowed in forest secresy; it lies in dimness and mist: its turf is dank, its herbage pale and humid. A storm or an axe makes a wide gap amongst the oak-trees; the breeze sweeps in; the sun looks down; the sad, cold dell becomes a deep cup of lustre; high summer pours her blue glory and her golden light out of that beauteous sky, which till now the starved hollow never saw. A new creed became mine - a belief in happiness.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Happiness is the cure—a cheerful mind the preventive: cultivate both.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“Dr. John, throughout his whole life, was a man of luck - a man of success. And why? Because he had the eye to see his opportunity, the heart to prompt to well-timed action, the nerve to consummate a perfect work. And no tyrant-passion dragged him back; no enthusiasms, no foibles encumbered his way.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Villette

“He is so used to living a purely spiritual life that he cannot reconcile himself to realities, and, after all, Varenka is a reality!”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina