Emotion is always new and the word has always served; therein lies the difficulty of expressing emotion.

Let us admit, without bitterness, that the individual has his distinct interests and can, without felony, stipulate for those interests and defend them. The present has its pardonable amount of egotism; momentary life has its claims, and cannot be expected to sacrifice itself incessantly to the future. The generation which is in its turn passing over the earth is not forced to abridge its life for the sake of the generations, its equals after all, whose turn shall come later on.

We may remark in passing that to be blind and beloved may, in this world where nothing is perfect, be among the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. The supreme happiness in life is the assurance of being loved; of being loved for oneself, even in spite of oneself; and this assurance the blind man possesses. In his affliction, to be served is to be caressed. Does he lack anything? no. Possessing love he is not deprived of light. A love, moreover, that is wholly pure. There can be no blindness where there is this certainty.

The realities of life do not allow themselves to be forgotten.

You would have imagined her at one moment a maniac, at another a queen.

It is ourselves we have to fear. Prejudice is the real robber, and vice the real murderer.

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.