Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who bel… - Mary Wollstonecraft

I heard of the discovery of the American hemisphere, and wept with Safie over the hapless fate of its original inhabitants.

"I thank you, Walton," he said, "for your kind intentions towards to miserable a wretch; but when you speak of new ties and fresh affections think you that any can replace those who are gone? Can any man be to me as Clerval was, or any woman another Elizabeth? Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives." — Victor Frankenstein; Frankenstein

I, a miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment.