Our wishes never seem so little desirable as when on the verge of accomplishment; we draw back instinctively, they look so different from what we expected.

Love ... is a sacred fire that must not be burnt to idols.

One's conscience reproaches one much more stingingly for one's follies than one's crimes.

What would become of the world without the Devil? Under all the different systems of religion that have guided or misguided the world for the last six thousand years, the Devil has been the grand scapegoat. He has had to bear the blame of every thing that has gone wrong. All the evil that gets committed is laid to his door, and he has, besides, the credit of hindering all the good that has never got done at all. If mankind were not thus one and all victims to the Devil, what an irredeemable set of scoundrels they would be obliged to confess themselves!

society ... is tolerant of crimes, and long suffering with dullness, but it shows no mercy to those who are different from other people.

People always make mistakes when they fancy themselves exceptions.

Did you ever see a giraffe? It is like something from between the regions of truth and fiction.