Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.

It may...be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.

. . . the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.

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

My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.

What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?

I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?