This wretched brain gave way, and I became a wreck at random driven, without one glimpse of reason or heaven.

The problem in narcissism is not the high ideals and ambitions, it's the difficulty one encounters when trying to give them body.

The devil...the prowde spirite...cannot endure to be mocked.

And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.

Disappointments in love, even betrayals and losses, serve the soul at the very moment they seem in life to be tragedies. The soul is partly in time and partly in eternity. We might remember the part that resides in eternity when we feel despair over the part that is in life.

Though an angel should write, still 'tis devils must print.

It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity.