The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Graham? Is it the circumstance of being able and willing to resist temptation or that of having no temptations to resist? - Is he a strong man that overcomes great obstacles and performs surprising achievements, though by dint of great muscular exertion, and at the risk of some subsequent fatigue, or he that sits in his chair all day, with nothing to do more laborious than stirring the fire, and carrying his food to his mouth? If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them - not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.' “What is it that constitutes virtue, Mrs. If you should marry the handsomest, and most accomplished and superficially agreeable man in the world, you little know the misery that would overwhelm you if, after all, you should find him to be a worthless reprobate, or even an impracticable fool.” Principle is the first thing, after all and next to that, good sense, respectability, and moderate wealth. These are nothing - and worse than nothing - snares and wiles of the tempter, to lure the thoughtless to their own destruction. Let your eyes be blind to all external attractions, your ears deaf to all the fascinations of flattery and light discourse. Receive, coldly and dispassionately, every attention, till you have ascertained and duly considered the worth of the aspirant and let your affections be consequent upon approbation alone. “Keep a guard over your eyes and ears as the inlets of your heart, and over your lips as the outlet, lest they betray you in a moment of unwariness.

The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë