In the book "Jane Eyre," Jane struggles with feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. All her life, she has been seen as plain and "less than" her family members and other children. This has caused her to be mistreated, cast aside, and ostracized. Her friend Helen, however, has a slightly more positive outlook on life. During their conversation in Chapter 8, Jane expresses concern that she has no friends other than Helen, because everyone sees her as a liar. Helen tries to reassure her that nobody in the school despises her, they simply pity her. She tries to convince Jane that the teachers and children do not think badly of her, but rather harbor true feelings of kindness in their hearts for her. Jane acts confused, and Helen then says "If all the world hated you, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends." There are essentially two takeaways from this quote: Helen believes that one should never seek approval from outside sources, but rather from inside oneself, and that if a person does that, they will never be unhappy, no matter what anyone else says about them.
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