50 Classic Wuthering Heights Quotes

By Stephanie Kirby

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Published June 30, 2021

These Wuthering Heights quotes are for the classic literature reader and anyone who loves a touch of romanticism.

The classic novel, Wuthering Heights, written in 1847 by Emily Brontë is the tale of two British elite families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their challenges with Heathcliff, the Earnshaw’s adopted son.

While now considered a classic, this novel received very mixed reviews at the time of its publishing due to its controversial take on the morals and values of society at the time.

This novel marries the gothic and romantic writing styles of the time bringing an emotionally turbulent tone with no shortage of love and longing to the story.

Here are some of our favorite Wuthering Heights quotes and excerpts from the book.

Don’t forget to also check out these book quotes: from romantic, funny, inspiring and sad books.

If you love this quote collection, read out our most popular quote article about short inspirational quotes for daily motivation.

If you need more inspirational quotes, check out our motivational quotes category page.

Famous Wuthering Heights Quotes

1. “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Wuthering Heights

2. “I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free.” – Wuthering Heights

3. “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.” – Wuthering Heights

4. “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.” – Wuthering Heights

5. “I have to remind myself to breathe — almost to remind my heart to beat!” – Wuthering Heights

6. “Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!” – Wuthering Heights

7. “She burned too bright for this world.” – Wuthering Heights

8. “It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn.” – Wuthering Heights

9. “Honest people don’t hide their deeds.” – Wuthering Heights

10. “I have not broken your heart – you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.” – Wuthering Heights

Romantic Wuthering Heights Quotes about Love

11. “If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave.” – Wuthering Heights

12. “I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and in it.” – Wuthering Heights

13. “In every cloud, in every tree-filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object, by day I am surrounded with her image!”- Wuthering Heights

14. “She could be soft and mild as a dove, and she had a gentle voice and pensive expression: her anger was never furious; her love never fierce; it was deep and tender.” – Wuthering Heights

15. “You know that I could as soon forget you as my existence!” – Wuthering Heights

16. “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.” – Wuthering Heights

17. “They forgot everything the minute they were together again.” – Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights Quotes That Portray Pain

18. “Do I want to live? . . .[W]ould you like to live with your soul in the grave?” – Wuthering Heights

19. “You teach me now how cruel you’ve been—cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort.” – Wuthering Heights

20. “You loved me—then what right had you to leave me?” – Wuthering Heights

21. “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.” – Wuthering Heights

22. “Existence, after losing her, would be hell.” – Wuthering Heights

23. “‘Are you possessed with a devil,’ he pursued, savagely, ‘to talk in that manner to me when you are dying? Do you reflect that all those words will be branded in my memory, and eating deeper eternally after you have left me?‘” – Wuthering Heights

24. “You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style, and refrain from insult as much as you are able.” – Wuthering Heights

Emotionally Charged Wuthering Heights Quotes

25. “Terror made me cruel.” – Wuthering Heights

26. “Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.” – Wuthering Heights

27. “I seek no revenge on you. That’s not the plan. The Tyrant grinds down his slaves, and they don’t turn against him; they crush those beneath them.” – Wuthering Heights

28. “It is a moral teething; and I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain.” – Wuthering Heights

29. “I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails!” – Wuthering Heights

30. “I want you to be aware that I know you have treated me infernally—infernally! . . . and if you think I can be consoled by sweet words, you are an idiot: and if you fancy I’ll suffer unrevenged, I’ll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while!” – Wuthering Heights

31. “However miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery.” – Wuthering Heights

32. “If you have not the courage to attack him, make an apology or allow yourself to be beaten. It will correct you of feigning more valor than you possess.” – Wuthering Heights

33. “In my soul and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong!” – Wuthering Heights

Aloof Wuthering Heights Quotes

34. “He shall never know I love him.” – Wuthering Heights

35. “I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. And this is one: I’m going to tell it – but take care not to smile at any part of it.” – Wuthering Heights

36. “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” – Wuthering Heights

37. “It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not?” – Wuthering Heights

38. “He might as well plant an oak in a flower-pot and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigor in the soil of his shallow cares!” – Wuthering Heights

39. “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.” – Wuthering Heights

40. “But I begin to fancy you don’t like me. How strange! I thought, though everybody hated and despised each other, they could not avoid loving me.” – Wuthering Heights

41. “Guests are so exceedingly rare in this house that I and my dogs, I am willing to own, hardly know how to receive them.” – Wuthering Heights

More Wuthering Heights Quotes

42. “A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.” – Wuthering Heights

43. “A wild, wicked slip she was.” – Wuthering Heights

44. “I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.” – Wuthering Heights

45. “Time brought resignation, and a melancholy sweeter than common joy.” – Wuthering Heights

46. “You needn’t have touched me! I shall be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty.” – Wuthering Heights

47. “Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels grew so angry that they flung me out onto the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke to sob for joy.” – Wuthering Heights

48. “Misery and death and all the evils that God and man could have ever done would never have patted us.” – Wuthering Heights

49. “It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,’ he answered. ‘Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?” – Wuthering Heights

50. “He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk.” – Wuthering Heights

Which of these Wuthering Heights quotes is your favorite?

True to the romantic and gothic styles of the time, the characters in Wuthering Heights experience quite a bout of emotional turbulence throughout their relationships with one another.

Author Emily Brontë does a fantastic job bringing the story to life allowing the readers to feel the emotions of the characters without bounds.

There are not many books that stand the test of time.

But this book has continued to be a favorite even though it was written almost 175 years ago.

Whether you are a dedicated reader of the classics, an English teacher, or just someone who appreciates a good book, you can allow your emotions to dance as you read this classic novel.