Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.
Charlotte BronteRochester: "I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchardโฆAnd what right would that ruin have to bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness?" Jane: "You are no ruin sir - no lighting-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop.
Charlotte BronteIt did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more.
Charlotte Bronte