My life shall be free and broad and great, and I will not be the slave to the sense delights which chained my ancient ancestry. I reject the heritage. I break the entail. And who are you to say I am unwise?

There is such a thing as anaesthesia of pain, engendered by pain too exquisite to be borne.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Having no new companions, nothing remained for him but to read.

Life? Bah! It has no value. Of cheap things it is the cheapest. Everywhere it goes begging. Nature spills it out with a lavish hand. Where there is room for one life, she sows a thousand lives, and it's life eats life till the strongest and most piggish life is left.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.