I, a miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment.

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

A truce to philosophy!—Life is before me, and I rush into possession. Hope, glory, love, and blameless ambition are my guides, and my soul knows no dread. What has been, though sweet, is gone; the present is good only because it is about to change, and the to come is all my own.

Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it.

I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other.

He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.

His conversation was marked by its happy abundance.