I was a moral coward, and he was not losing his life and desires through fear — which the majority of us do. - Theodore Dreiser

How could they judge him, these people, all or any one of them, even his own mother, when they did not know what his own mental, physical and spiritual suffering had been? And

A half-equipped little knight she was, venturing to reconnoiter the mysterious city and dreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, which should make it prey and subject - the proper penitent, groveling at a woman's slipper.

But, oh, gentlemen, the ways of nature, or of God, and the Providence that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we may! It is man who proposes, but God — God — who disposes!