One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive one.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

A new person is to me a great event, and hinders me from sleep. I have often had fine fancies about persons which have given me delicious hours; but the joy ends in the day; it yields no fruit.

Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.

I grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature.

The love of novels is the preference of sentiment to the senses.