There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a strange fear and elation โ an ascent above the reach of life's expectations or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgivings.
Joseph Sheridan Le FanuI remember everything about itโwith an effort. I see it all, as divers see what is going on above them, through a medium, dense, rippling, but transparent.
Joseph Sheridan Le FanuKnowledge is power-and power of one sort or another is the secret lust of human souls; and here is, beside the sense of exploration, the undefinable interest of a story, and above all, something forbidden, to stimulate the contumacious appetite.
Joseph Sheridan Le FanuHow marvellously lie our anxieties, in filmy layers, one over the other! Take away that which has lain on the upper surface for so long - the care of cares - the only one, as it seemed to you, between your soul and the radiance of Heaven - and straight you find a new stratum there.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu