Vic

“Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other's character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good-fellowship—camaraderie—usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labours, but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstance permits its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death—that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam.”
― Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd

“Thought constitutes the greatness of man. Man is a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.”
― Blaise Pascal

“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.”
― Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd

“It seems to be the rule of this world.  Each person has what he doesn’t want, and other people have what he does want.”
― Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat