I recently finished my Bronte bonanza, and I found the most wonderful quote in Agnes Grey, the first work of Anne.

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After an exchange with Mr. Weston...

"Well! what is there remarkable in all this? Why have I recorded it? Because, reader, it was important enough to give me a cheerful evening, a night of pleasing dreams, and a morning of felicitous hopes. Shallow-branded cheerfulness - foolish dreams - un-founded hopes - you would say; and I will not venture to deny it; suspicions to that effect arose too frequently in my own mind; but our wishes are like tinder: the flint and steel of circumstances are continually striking out sparks, which vanish immediately, unless they change to fall upon the tinder of our wishes; then, they instantly ignite, and the flame of hope is kindled in a moment."
--from the chapter Mirth and Mourning