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

If you are ever drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations.

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

I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.

Men of genius are far more abundant than is supposed. In fact, to appreciate thoroughly the work of what we call genius, is to possess all the genius by which the work was produced.

In the marginalia ... we talk only to ourselves; we therefore talk freshly - boldly - originally - with abandonment - without conceit.

A fool, for example, thinks Shakespeare a great poet . . . yet the fool has never read Shakespeare.