“I can see that the Lady has a genius for ruling, whilst I have a genius for not being ruled.”
Letter to Thomas Carlyle (28 September 1845).
Jane Welsh Carlyle was a Scottish writer. She was the wife of essayist Thomas Carlyle.
Their long marriage was close but tempestuous, complicated by other relationships on both sides, though these appear to have been platonic, as their own was believed to have been. Jane had first been introduced to Thomas by her tutor, who was in love with her but unable to break his engagement. Her closest romantic relationship seems to have been with Geraldine Jewsbury, though she resented Jewsbury’s free love life. Jane’s many passionate letters to her caught the interest of Virginia Woolf.
“I can see that the Lady has a genius for ruling, whilst I have a genius for not being ruled.”
Letter to Thomas Carlyle (28 September 1845).
“I am not at all the sort of person you and I took me for.”
Letter to Thomas Carlyle http://books.google.com/books?id=Fj10a_dl7IwC&q=%22I+am+not+at+all+the+sort+of+person+you+and+I+took+me+for%22&pg=PA32#v=onepage (7 May 1822).
Letter to John Sterling http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/carlyle/jwclam/lam101.html#LM1-5 (15 June 1835).
“Oh Lord! If you but knew what a brimstone of a creature I am behind all this beautiful amiability!”
Letter to Eliza Stodart (29 February 1836).
“When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour.”
Journal entry (25 November 1855).
Journal entry (August 1849).
Letter to Miss Barnes http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/carlyle/jwclam/lam301.html#LM3-207 (24 August 1859).