I have found that a story leaves a deeper impression when it is impossible to tell which side the author is on.

Every time I tried to express my most heartfelt desires to be morally good I met with contempt and ridicule; and as soon as I would give in to vile passions I was praised and encouraged. Ambition, love of power, self-interest, lechery, pride, anger, vengeance-all of it was highly esteemed.

it is hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame some one else, and especially the person nearest of all to him, for the ground of his dissatisfaction.

Each time of life has its own kind of love.

I often think that men don't understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre

From the child of five to myself is but a step. But from the newborn baby to the child of five is an appalling distance.