Did Charlotte Brontë say "Conventionality is not morality"?

Q: Did Charlotte Brontë say "Conventionality is not morality"?

Yes. This line opens the Preface to the Second Edition of Jane Eyre, dated 21 December 1847 and signed "Currer Bell" — Brontë's own pseudonym. She wrote it to answer critics who accused the novel of being irreligious and immoral.

Who really said it

Conventionality is not morality

Written by Charlotte Brontë 1816–1855 · English novelist

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This line opens the Preface to the Second Edition of Jane Eyre, dated 21 December 1847 and signed “Currer Bell” — Brontë's own pseudonym. She wrote it to answer critics who accused the novel of being irreligious and immoral.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Conventionality is not morality” Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. — Charlotte Brontë, Preface to the Second Edition of Jane Eyre, 1847

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Provenance

The source

Work: Preface to the Second Edition of Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
Written: 21 December 1847
First published: Second edition, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1848
Signed: Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë's pseudonym)

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.

From the closing paragraphs of the Preface to the Second Edition.

Preface to the Second Edition, in the full text of Jane Eyre

How we verified this

Jane Eyre was first published anonymously as by “Currer Bell” on 19 October 1847; Brontë added this preface for the second edition, dated 21 December 1847.
The passage is preserved in the Wikisource transcription of the preface, which matches the Gutenberg text word for word.
A summary of the preface's argument — that challenging convention is not the same as rejecting religion — is corroborated by Victorian Web's annotated edition of the preface.

Public domain

The Preface to the Second Edition of Jane Eyre was first published in 1848, well before the 1931 U.S. public-domain cutoff, so the text is in the public domain.

Context

Why Brontë wrote it

Jane Eyre was an immediate popular success after its October 1847 publication, but some reviewers attacked it as subversive and anti-Christian in its sympathies. When Brontë prepared a second edition, she added a new preface to answer those critics directly.

In it she argues that questioning rigid social convention is not the same as attacking real morality, and that unmasking false piety is not an assault on genuine religion — the distinction captured in this line.

To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.

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More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Jane Eyre, full text (Project Gutenberg)gutenberg.org

Complete novel including the Preface to the Second Edition, containing the exact quote

Preface (Wikisource transcription)en.wikisource.org

Independent transcription of the same preface text

Annotated Preface to the Second Editionvictorianweb.org

Scholarly presentation of the preface with context on the critics Brontë was answering

Jane Eyre (publication history)en.wikipedia.org

Confirms first publication date (19 October 1847) and pseudonym Currer Bell

Charlotte Brontëen.wikipedia.org

Biographical details and life dates (1816–1855)

The author

About Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë

1816–1855 · English novelist

Charlotte Brontë was the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived to adulthood and published Jane Eyre in October 1847 under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. The novel's frank first-person voice and its heroine's insistence on moral and emotional independence made it both a sensation and, for some critics, a scandal — prompting the defense Brontë wrote into her Preface to the Second Edition.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Brontë, Charlotte [as Currer Bell]. "Preface to the Second Edition." Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. 2nd ed. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1848.

MLA (9th ed.)

Brontë, Charlotte. Preface. Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, 2nd ed., Smith, Elder & Co., 1848.

APA (7th ed.)

Brontë, C. (1848). Jane Eyre: An autobiography (2nd ed.). Smith, Elder & Co.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Conventionality is not morality’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/conventionality-is-not-morality