A withered maple leaf has left its branch and is falling to the ground; its movements resemble those of a butterfly in flight. Isn't it strange? The saddest and deadest of things is yet so like the gayest and most vital of creatures?

I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But i do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible.

I never started from ideas but always from character.

Everyone needs help from everyone else.

It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.

I was as happy as a fish in water, and I could have stayed in that room for ever, have never left that place.

The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they've suddenly become nihilists.