"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me."
“Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”
"You shall not defend her…you shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavor to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger, security for happiness."
”We tolerate the worst portrayal because we are used to seeing even worse originals.”
"I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed."
"Tell me with whom you consort and I will tell you who you are; if I know how you spend your time, then I know what might become of you."
"I felt the urge many times to start screaming, 'for God's sake, let men remain men! You have defaced them already, fine, now have mercy on their condition. While you are busy trying to make gods out of them, those poor wretches are losing whatever humanity they do have!'"
“Sometimes she felt that, though she had not sold herself, people had slyly bought her anyway.”
“How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way! I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! —When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
"Where is my youth, where is my freshness!"
"Beauty, for me, is something to be praised quietly; not loudly and garishly." (My Name is Radha)
"Love equates people."
"…what meaning this communion of one person with another will have in the destiny of the person communed with?…Here the whole of life stands before us and the countless number of ramifications that are hidden from us."
"If you married for love, love passes, and you just continue out of habit, and if you don't marry for love, the result is just the same: you get used to your wife. Love is one thing, and marriage is another, and the two things don't always coincide, and it's better when they don't."
"…When the struggle is over, before you know it, life itself is over: a man has worked, loved, experienced pleasure, suffered, done what he had to do - in other words, he has lived!"
"I see in turmoil and trouble the hand of Providence, which faces man with an endless task — to keep moving forward, to aim higher than his appointed goal while struggling at every turn against illusory hopes, against painful impediments. I see too that this struggle and this turmoil are a necessary part of life, and that without them life would not be life, but stagnation, sleep…"
"Perhaps. But there was just one thing you left out of the picture, happiness. What you forgot was that it is a man's delusions, dreams, and hopes that make him happy — not reality."
"It would seem that the human heart is nothing if not perverse; if it weren't for this, there would be no need for us to have hearts at all."
… like to flirt; they enjoy being out and about in society; they like the noise and the action. I have never taken to that. My character is different. I love quiet, seclusion, books, music — but more than anything on earth, I love you…"
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