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

If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.

I am not a person of opinions because I feel the counter arguments too strongly.

The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.

The agony of my feelings allowed me no respite; no incident occurred from which my rage and misery could not extract its food.

But he found that a traveller's life is one that includes much pain amidst its enjoyments. His feelings are for ever on the stretch; and when he begins to sink into repose, he finds himself obliged to quit that on which he rests in pleasure for something new, which again engages his attention, and which also he forsakes for other novelties.

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