18 Iconic Quotes From Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
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Considered to be one of the literary greats, here are 18 quotes about love, life and heartbreak from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
Her first and only novel, Wuthering Heights was published by Emily Brontë in 1847, shortly before her death in 1848. Emily passed away from tuberculosis at 30 years of age and was buried under the floor of St. Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Emily was the second youngest of the four Brontë siblings: Charlotte, Branwell and Anne. All three of the women were published authors, although it was common for female writers to publish under pseudonyms during this time.
Today, Emily’s grave remains under the church floor in Haworth, next door to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Here you can visit Emily’s siblings Charlotte and Branwell, while Anne was buried in the St Mary's Church graveyard in Scarborough.
Here are some of Emily’s best quotes about love, heartbreak and life from Wuthering Heights.
Quotes About Love and Heartbreak
One of the book’s main themes, Wuthering Heights has many famous quotes about the highs and lows of romance.
“He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire.”
“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad!”
“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
“I’ve fought through a bitter life since I last heard your voice”
“I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death; and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him.”
“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”
“You know that I could as soon forget you as my existence!”
“I hate him for himself, but despise him for the memories he revives.”
“I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and everything he touches, and every word he says. I love all his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely and altogether. There now!”
Quotes about Life
Although Wuthering Heights is known to be a great romance novel, Emily’s writing contains many iconic quotes about life in general. Here are some of my favourites.
“I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free.”
“Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.”
“I’m now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”
“He must have had some ups and downs in life to make him such a churl.”
“Should the meanest thing alive slap me on the cheek, I’d not only turn the other, but I’d ask pardon for provoking it.”
“I’ll be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty!”
“We must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering.”
Do you have a favourite quote from Wuthering Heights? Leave a comment and let me know.
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