The ugly can achieve an absoluteness beyond the reach of beauty.
Hope and despair ignore one another's cries.
Frivolous sorrow is folly. Frivolous enjoyment is not.
Sex and writing live on playful cruelties.
The soul is no longer honored as it once was, but it still keeps appetite from being the measure of all things.
Realism: the wealth of detail guarantees the truth of the tale.