Sublime

As there is always more misery at the lower end than humanity at the top, everything was given away before it was received, like water on parched soil. No matter how much money came to him, he never had enough. And then he robbed himself.

The property of love is to err. A love affair is not made to crouch down and brutalize itself like an English serving-maid who has callouses on her knees from scrubbing. It is not made for that; it errs gayly, our gentle love. It has been said, error is human; I say, error is love.

In that wan half-light where he crouched, whenever he turned his head and tried to raise his eyes, he would see, with mingled rage and terror, forming, massing, rising out of view above him with horrible ramparts, a frightening accumulation of laws, prejudices, men, and acts, whose outlines escaped him, whose weight appalled him—it was that prodigi

Their most tragic figure is that of the man who is already free of all those ills he had, and is only asking to be allowed to fly to others that he knows not of.

There is a sacred horror beneath the porches of the enigma;

The goal I have been aiming at for so many years, my nightly dream, the object of my prayers to heaven—security—I have gained. It is God’s will. I must do nothing contrary to the will of God.

As his growing fortune gave him more leisure, it seemed that he took advantage of it to cultivate his mind. Since he had been at Montreuil-sur-mer, it was noted that from year to year his language became more polished, more carefully chosen, and gentler.

She thought that, above this inn, she beheld the mysterious HERE of Providence.

As we have said, he had no vices. When he was pleased with himself, he permitted himself a pinch of snuff. Therein lay his connection with humanity.