"When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? I cannot describe to you the agony that these re…"

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

"I have often thought that the world is a vast prison, where the greater part of mankind are condemned to wear their fetters."

"It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason."

"What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them."