Aya
https://www.goodreads.com/aya19
This explains the fact that we generally find pleasure to be not nearly so pleasant as we expected, and pain very much more painful.
“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. 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; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”
― Jane Eyre
― Jane Eyre
“I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”
― Jane Eyre
― Jane Eyre
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”
― Conversations with William Styron
― Conversations with William Styron
“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”
― Jane Eyre
― Jane Eyre
Read Women
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A group for readers of all genders to discover and share their passion for books by women authors. We enjoy monthly book discussions, challenges, budd ...more
Classics and the Western Canon
— 4961 members
— last activity May 29, 2026 06:35PM
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
Aya’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Aya’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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