It's a lucky man, a very lucky man, who is committed to what he believes, who has stifled intellectual detachment and can relax in the luxury of his emotions - like a tipsy traveller resting for the night at wayside inn.

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It's a lucky man who leaves early from life's banquet, before he's drained to the dregs his goblet - full of wine; yes, it's a lucky man who has not read life's novel to the end, but has been wise enough to part with it abruptly - like me with my Onegin.

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Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.

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Two fixed ideas can no more exist together in the moral world than two bodies can occupy one and the same place in the physical world.

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I’ve lived to bury my desires, And see my dreams corrode with rust; Now all that’s left are fruitless fires That burn my empty heart to dust.

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People are so like their first mother Eve: what they are given doesn't take their fancy. The serpent is forever enticing them to come to him, to the tree of mystery. They must have the forbidden fruit, or paradise will not be paradise for them.

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My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?

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Better the illusions that exalt us than ten thousand truths.

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If you but knew the flames that burn in me which I attempt to beat down with my reason.

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Ecstasy is a glass full of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth.

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