There is nothing to save, now all is lost, but a tiny core of stillness in the heart like the eye of a violet.

But that is how men are! Ungrateful and never satisfied. When you don't have them they hate you because you won't; and when you do have them they hate you again, for some other reason. Or for no reason at all, except that they are discontented children, and can't be satisfied whatever they get, let a woman do what she may.

A man must keep his earnestness nimble, to escape ridicule.

That was the birth of sin. Not doing it, but KNOWING about it. Before the apple, [Adam and Eve] had shut their eyes and their minds had gone dark. Now, they peeped and pried and imagined. They watched themselves.

Good God, what does it matter? If life is a tragedy, or a farce, or a disaster, or anything else, what do I care! Let life be what it likes. Give me a drink, that's what I want just now.

Poe tried alcohol, and any drug he could lay his hands on. He also tried any human being he could lay his hands on.

Every man has a mob self and an individual self, in varying proportions.