“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?”

—  Charlotte Brontë, book Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and…" by Charlotte Brontë?
Charlotte Brontë photo
Charlotte Brontë83
English novelist and poet 1816–1855

Related quotes

Anthony de Mello photo

“There were rules in the monastery, but the Master always warned against the tyranny of the law.
"Obedience keeps the rules," he would say. "Love knows when to break them."”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Revolution
One Minute Wisdom (1989)

Leo Tolstoy photo

“Saying that what we call our “selves” consist only of our bodies and that reason, soul, and love arise only from the body, is like saying that what we call our body is equivalent to the food that feeds the body. It is true that my body is only made up of digested food and that my body would not exist without food, but my body is not the same as food. Food is what the body needs for life, but it is not the body itself. The same thing is true of my soul. It is true that without my body there would not be that which I call my soul, but my soul is not my body. The soul may need the body, but the body is not the soul.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Path of Life (1909), p. 12

Solón photo

“Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.”

Solón (-638–-558 BC) Athenian legislator

Reported in George Shelley Hughs, Ancient Civilizations (1896), p. 596.

Victor Hugo photo

“Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Variant: There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.

Derek Landy photo

“If there is one regret that I have had in my life, it is that I never fathered any children. There are times, when I look at what Fergus and Beryl have produced, when I consider myself fortunate, but there are also times when it breaks my heart.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Bobby Fischer photo

“I like the moment when I break a man's ego”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

Fernando Pessoa photo

“A sort of anteneurosis of what I will be when I will not longer be freezes my body and soul. A kind of remembrance of my future death makes me shudder from the inside.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 91
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Uma espécie de anteneurose do que serei quando já não for gela-me o corpo e alma. Uma como que lembrança da minha morte futura arrepia-me dentro.

Rutherford B. Hayes photo

“Perhaps the happiest moment of my life was then, when I saw that our line didn’t break and that the enemy’s did.”

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)

About the success of the crucial charge he led at Opequon, in a letter to Sardis Birchard (20 December 1864)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

Orson Scott Card photo

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them…. I destroy them.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Sara Teasdale photo

“O lovely chance, what can I do
To give my gratefulness to you?
You rise between myself and me
With a wise persistency;
I would have broken body and soul,
But by your grace, still I am whole.”

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American writer and poet

"Lovely Chance"
Flame and Shadow (1920)

Related topics