All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

Everything belonged to him--but that was a trifle. The thing to know was what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.

In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.

It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.

Things and men have always a certain sense, a certain side by which they must be got hold of if one wants to obtain a solid grasp and a perfect command.

There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.

I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life.