It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It cost one man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yet another man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly an element of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves.

To underestimate oneself is as much an exaggeration of one's powers than the other.

There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.

It is the sweetest spring within the memory of man. So green, so mild, so beautiful! Ah, what a contrast between nature without and my own soul so torn with doubt and terror!

The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.

Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation.

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.