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About this quote

What does it mean?
Inner moral approval is more valuable than external validation, providing true companionship even when the world is hostile.
In plain terms
If your conscience is clear, you still have friends even if everyone else hates you.
What can you take from it?
Your conscience matters more than public opinion.

Where it applies

  • facing public scorn
  • ethical standpoints
  • social rejection

Putting it to work

  • practice self-reflection
  • trust your moral compass
  • seek like-minded allies

Questions to consider

  • Whose approval do you value most?
  • Can conscience truly replace friendship?

Another view

Inner approval alone may not provide practical help during crises.

More from Charlotte Bronte

  1. What have I to do with millions [of people]? The eighty I know despise me.

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  2. And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell: and for the first it recoiled baffled; a…

    Permalink to quote #14
  3. I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last.

    Permalink to quote #11

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