Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated.

Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.

There are some souls, bright and precious, which, like gold and silver, may be subdued by the fiery trial, and yield to new moulds; but there are others, pure and solid as the diamond, which may be shivered to pieces, yet in every fragment retain their indelible characteristics.

One as deformed and horrible as myself, could not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects... with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being...

So much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men