"Anguish and despair had penetrated into the core of my heart; I bore a hell within me, which nothing could extinguish."

"Oh! grief is fantastic; it weaves a web on which to trace the history of its woe from every form and change around; it incorporates itself with all living nature; it finds sustenance in every object; …"

"The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even the enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone."

"I was born with a love for the marvellous."

"Solitude was my only consolation - deep, dark, deathlike solitude."