The capacity for passion is both cruel and divine.

[Failure is hard initially because] One knows what one has lost, but not what one may find [and learn from that failure]!

I was born to love - but none of you wanted to believe it, and that misunderstanding was crucial in forming my character. It's true that nature was strangely inconsistent in giving me a warm heart, but also a face that was like a stone mask and a tongue that was heavy and slow. She refused me what she bestowed freely on even the most loutish of my fellow men. . . . People judged my inner character by my outer covering, and like a sterile fruit, I withered under the rough husk I couldn't slough off.

I'm not full of virtues and noble qualities. I love, but I love strongly, exclusive, stedfasty.

Experience is always a trustworthy guide; it may not tell you everything, but it never lies.

The old woman I shall become will be quite different from the woman I am now. Another I is beginning.

I have no enthusiasm for nature which the slightest chill will not instantly destroy.