"Were I to be asked what it is that gives me the most intense delight, I should say a conversation with a beautiful woman."

"I have no doubt that the universe is a gigantic practical joke."

"I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow."

"I have... for the metaphysical poets [William Wordsworth, etc.], as poets, the most sovereign contempt. That they have followers proves nothing."

"I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him."