If I can get on to my sofa and occupy myself for four hours, at intervals through the day, scribbling my notes, and able to read the books that belong to me, in that they clarify the density, and shape the formless mass within, life seems inconceivably rich.

Who would ever give up the reality of dreams for relative knowledge?

The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right moment of escape

Destitution and excessive luxury develop apparently the same ideals, the same marauding attitude towards mankind, the intensity of struggle for material goods, -- surely showing how perfect is the meeting of extremes.

Truly nothing is to be expected except for the unexpected.

You must remember that a woman, by nature, needs much less to feed upon than a man, a few emotions and she is satisfied.

It is an immense loss to have all robust and sustaining expletives refined away from one! At. moments of trial refinement is a feeble reed to lean upon.