As we have said, robust souls are sometimes almost, but not entirely, overthrown by strokes of misfortune....Despair has steps leading upward. From total depression we rise to despondency, from despondency to affliction, from affliction to melancholy. Melancholy is a twilight state in which suffering transmutes into a somber joy....Melancholy is the enjoyment of being sad.

What says the law? You will not kill. How does it say it? By killing!

Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.

It is from books that wise men derive consolation in the troubles of life.

This book should be read as one would read the book of a dead man.

The rich's paradise was created by the poor's hell.

Nobody knows like a woman how to say things at the same time sweet and profound. Sweetness and depth, this is all of woman; this is all of Heaven.