"I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished and he remained I should still continue to be; and if all else remained and he were annihilated the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. 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. Nelly I am Heathcliff! He's always always in my mind: not as a pleasure any more than I am always a pleasure to myself but as my own being."