"Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea."

"I am like a mariner born and bred on board a buccaneer brig whose soul has become so inured to storm and strife that …"

"I would make any sacrifice but this; twenty times I can stake my life, even my honour, but my freedom I shall never s…"

"Happy people are ignoramuses and glory is nothing else but success, and to achieve it one only has to be cunning."

"I was born, so that the whole world could be a spectator Of my triumph or my doom..."

"For what did the creator prepare me, Why did he so terribly contradict The hopes of my youth?..."

"The public of this country is so youthful, not to say simple-minded, that it cannot understand the meaning of a fable…"

"I was involuntarily struck by the aptitude which the Russian displays for accommodating himself to the customs of the…"

"A childish feeling, I admit, but, when we retire from the conventions of society and draw close to nature, we involun…"

"O vanity! you are the lever by means of which Archimedes wished to lift the earth!"