Catherine

“Please, please, monsieur et madame, mister, missis and miss, I am trying so hard to be like you. I know I don't succeed but look how hard I try.

Three hours to choose a hat; every morning an hour and a half trying to make myself look like everybody else. Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights.

Since I was born, hasn't every word I've said, every thought I've thought, everything I've done, been tied up, weighted, chained?

And, mind you, I know that with all this I don't succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well... But think how hard I try and how seldom I dare. Think – and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.”
― Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan