My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.
- Source
- Wuthering Heights, ch. 9
- Written
- 1847
About this quotation
Catherine Earnshaw says this to the housekeeper Nelly Dean while explaining why she has accepted Edgar Linton’s proposal even though she loves Heathcliff. It comes in the same conversation as her line “I am Heathcliff”.