It's hard for a man to turn down sex. . . if they chase us, we can't run that fast.
There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.
I don't like work. . . but I like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - which no other man can ever know.
You must squeeze out of yourself every sensation, every thought, every image, - mercilessly, without reserve and without remorse: you must search the darkest corners of your heart, the most remote recesses of your brain, - you must search them for the image, for the glamour, for the right expression. And you must do it sincerely, at any cost: you must do it so that at the end of your day's work you should feel exhausted, emptied of every sensation and every thought, with a blank mind and an aching heart, with the notion that there is nothing, - nothing left in you.
If you don't make mistakes, you don't make anything.
You’re not making my mistakes, Bella. You sound like you’re scared silly, and I’m guessing it’s because you’re afraid of me.
Your shame will be your torture, and your torture will be your life. I wish it long.
A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily convinced, from experience as well as philosophy, that the difference of fortune makes less difference in happiness than is vulgarly imagined; such a one does not measure out degrees of esteem according to the rent-rolls of his acquaintance. . . . his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men, than by the accidental and capricious favors of fortune.
It's not always going to be smooth sailing or everyone will do it. If you have something people want, it should be the perfect recipe for success.