The moment ached, as if music were being played somewhere on an instrument whose strings had some connexion with her heart. - Rebecca West

Everyone realizes that one can believe little of what people say about each other, but it is not so widely realized that even less can one trust what people say about themselves.

It's the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this.