"What are we, the inhabitants of this globe, least among the many that people infinite space? Our minds embrace infinity; the visible mechanism of our being is subject to merest accident."

"Solitude was my only consolation - deep, dark, deathlike solitude."

"A truce to philosophy! —Life is before me, and I rush into possession. Hope, glory, love, and blameless ambition are my guides, and my soul knows no dread."

"It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason."

"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."