There is no loneliness like the loneliness of crowds, especially to those who are unaccustomed to them. - H. Rider Haggard

It is well to be wise sometimes, for others’ sake, but not for our own, oh! not for our own.

The truth is that we fear to die because all the religions are full of uncomfortable hints as to what may happen to us afterwards as a reward for our deviations from their laws and we half believe in something . . . For very few inhabitants of this earth can attain either to complete belief or to its absolute opposite. They can seldom lay their hands upon their hearts, and say that they know that they will live for ever, or sleep for ever; there remains in the case of most honest men an element of doubt in either hypothesis.

. . . the extreme of unmorality is as fascinating to study as the extreme virtue and often more so.