Be hypocritical, be cautious, be Not what you seem, but always what you see. - Lord Byron

Without a friend, what were humanity,
To hunt our errors up with a good grace?
Consoling us with — 'Would you had thought twice!
Ah, if you had but follow'd my advice!

She was like me in lineaments — her eyes — Her hair — her features — all, to the very tone
Even of her voice, they said were like to mine;
But softened all, and tempered into beauty:
She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings,
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind 110
To comprehend the Universe: nor these
Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine,
Pity, and smiles, and tears — which I had not;
And tenderness — but that I had for her;
Humility — and that I never had.
Her faults were mine — her virtues were her own — I loved her, and destroyed her! Witch. With thy hand? Man. Not with my hand, but heart, which broke her heart;
It gazed on mine, and withered. I have shed
Blood, but not hers — and yet her blood was shed; 120
I saw — and could not stanch it.

I live,
But live to die: and, living, see no thing
To make death hateful, save an innate clinging,
A loathsome and yet all invincible
Instinct of life, which I abhor, as I
Despise myself, yet cannot overcome—
And so I live. Would I had never lived!