My New Favorite Quote

Jane Eyre is so madly in love with Mr. Rochester...they are clearly meant for each other. They are about to be married when someone shouts from the back of the chapel that Mr. Rochester is already married to someone else! For page after arduous page, Mr. Rochester explains that in his youth he was forced to marry, and never really loved...and that this woman was and is clinically insane, and a danger to himself (having tried to kill him numerous times), and has been privately tended to by a caretaker for years and years. He pleads with Jane to stay with him - to be his and live with him as his wife, though he has this prior commitment and obligation. He makes such a case for himself that while reading, I (Aimee) thought that if I were Jane, I would probably have conceded. It is at that moment that Jane makes this resolve and tells him:

"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am quite insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."

At that moment, with everything in her (and the only man to ever have loved her) telling her to change her mind and give in, she refuses. If all the young people in the world could read this! In your most sane moment, and before any temptation comes your way, write down your goals, your principles, and your LIMITS. Know what you are willing to do and what you will never do. These limits might not make much sense now, but if you already have your mind made up - when temptation comes, you will not have a choice to make, because you have already made it. Plant your foot there! Don't budge!