I stood lonely enough, but to that feeling of isolation I was accustomed: it did not oppress me much.

Unheard-of combinations of circumstances demand unheard-of rules.

It does good to no woman to be flattered [by a man] who does not intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.

Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.

On the contrary, I'm a universal patriot, if you could understand me rightly: my country is the world.

I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.

You mocking changeling- fairy-born and human-bred!