Whether you love or hate Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, you can’t deny its raw power and scarcely hidden feral rage. 

When it was first published, the fury and the violence evident in its pages sparked controversy. It was branded brutal, and immoral, and, throughout the years, a common theme has been the denial that it could ever have been written by a woman. 

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Emily was one of the Brontë sisters, along with Charlotte and Anne. Three successful, inspired female novelists, and each remarkable in her own way. 

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Between them, from their home in Yorkshire, they penned some of the greatest works of the 19th century: Charlotte’s Jane Eyre; Emily’s Wuthering Heights; and Anne’s Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. 

And, perhaps the most remarkable thing, is that they did it all at a time when women didn’t have much freedom, and certainly weren’t expected to be writing novels.

As a result, they published their works under male pseudonyms: Charlotte was Currer Bell, Emily was Ellis Bell, and Anne was Acton Bell. 

The sisters had a brother, too, Branwell, and while he was expected to provide for his sisters, Branwell instead failed in most of his endeavours and began to drink heavily.

Charlotte, Anne, and Emily, meanwhile worked as governesses and teachers, supporting themselves and looking after their elderly father — all while working on their literary masterpieces.  

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And even now, for women and girls around the world, they continue to be an inspiration; their works proof that women can be just as strong, passionate, wild, and successful as men. 

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So, on what would have been Emily’s 200th birthday, July 30, 2018, here are a collection of some of the most awe-inspiring, powerful quotes from Wuthering Heights. 

1. “I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free.” 

2. “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in 80 years as I could in a day.” 

3. “She was a wild, wicked slip of a girl. She burned too bright for this world.” 

4. “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 colour of my mind.” 

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5. “We 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. I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine.” 

6. “A person who has not done one half his day’s work by 10 o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.” 

7. “I’ll be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty!” 

8. “I’m not going to act the lady among you, for fear I should starve.” 

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