Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?

Sensations are the great things, after all. Should you ever be drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations; they will be worth to you ten guineas a sheet.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.

I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.