To you I am neither man nor woman. I come before you as an author only. It is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me--the sole ground on which I accept your judgment.

Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.

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

My rest might have been blissful enough, only a sad heart broke it.

The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.

The eagerness of a listener quickens the tongue of a narrator.

His mind was indeed my library, and whenever it was opened to me, I entered bliss.