The trouble is that my heart is loath to be without love even for a single hour. ... If you want to keep me forever, then show as much friendship as love, and more than anything else, love me and tell me the truth.

I like to praise and reward loudly, to blame quietly.

I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

I sincerely want peace, not because I lack resources for war, but because I hate bloodshed.

I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.

to tempt and be tempted are closely allied; and in spite of all the finest moral maxims buried in the mind, when emotion interferes, when feeling makes its appearance, one is already much further involved that one realizes, and I have still not learnt how to prevent its appearance.

I cannot live one day without love.