Even the eternal skies weep, I thought; is there any shame then, that mortal man should spend himself in tears?

Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people!

How dreadful it is, to emerge from the oblivion of slumber, and to receive as a good morrow the mute wailing of one's own hapless heart - to return from the land of deceptive dreams to the heavy knowledge of unchanged disaster!

From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition.

If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.

Even the eternal skies weep, I thought; is there any shame then, that mortal man should spend himself in tears?

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.