I learned that he that will be a hero will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work is sure of his manhood.

No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it--no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather!

I believe in fate, never in chance.

What distressed me most - more even than my own folly - was the perplexing question - How can beauty and ugliness dwell so near? Even with her altered complexion and face of dislike; disenchanted of the belief that clung around her; known for a living, walking sepulcher, faithless, deluding, traitorous; I felt, notwithstanding all this, that she was beautiful. Upon this I pondered with undiminished perplexity.

Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.

It needs brains to be a real fool.

If both Church and fairy-tale belong to humanity, they may occasionally cross circles, without injury to either.