Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?

Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain.

How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sky.

Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help you.

Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than it can bear? Shall there be no strong meat at table because there happen to be some guests there whose stomachs are weak, or who have spoiled their own digestions?

Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last.

There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They are likethin-skinned insects whose visible play of muscles seem to make them deformed, though in fact, everything soon turns to its normal shape again.