Now literary success can only be won in solitude by persevering labor.

Men are so made that they can resist sound argument, and yet yield to a glance.

Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart like a viper in its hole.

A sick man, surrounded by those who love him, nursed by those who wish earnestly that he should live, will recover (all other things being equal), when another patient tended by hirelings will die. Doctors decline to see unconscious magnestism in this phenomenon; for them it is the result of intelligent nursing, of exact obedience to their orders; but many a mother knows the virtue of such ardent projections of strong, unceasing prayer.

My writing table has seen all my wretchedness, knows all my plans, has overheard all my thoughts.

Any man, however blase or depraved, finds his love kindled anew when he sees himself threatened by a rival.

Poetry is only born after painful journeys into the vast regions of thought.