We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imagining share, the judgments of the other mind.

The bashful are always aggressive at heart.

Every general increase of freedom is accompanied by some degeneracy, attributable to the same causes as the freedom.

The more developed sexual passion, in both sexes, is very largely an emotion of power, domination, or appropriation. There is no state of feeling that says mine, mine, more fiercely.

By recognizing a favorable opinion of yourself, and taking pleasure in it, you in a measure give yourself and your peace of mind into the keeping of another, of whose attitude you can never be certain. You have a new source of doubt and apprehension.

The literature of the inner life is very largely a record of struggle with the inordinate passions of the social self.

Prudence and compromise are necessary means, but every man should have an impudent end which he will not compromise.