...in certain moods, no man can weigh this world without throwing in something, somehow like Original Sin, to strike the uneven balance.

Surely a gentle sister is the second best gift to a man; and it is first in point of occurrence; for the wife comes after.

Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.

At my years, and with my disposition, or rather, constitution, one gets to care less and less for everything except downright goodfeeling. Life is so short, and so ridiculous and irrational (from a certain point of view) that one knows not what to make of it, unless--well, finish the sentence for yourself.

Better be secure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions of monarchs, though oneself be one of them.

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas.

We die, because we live.