“In all my past life I have done nothing either great or good.”

“I know only that it is time for me to be something when I am nothing.”

“Life is a downward journey; all concur in saying it carries us downhill.”

“In the next world I could not be worse than I am in this.”

“Backward I look upon my life,And see one waste of storm and strife,One wrack of sorrows, hopes, and pain,Vanishing to arise again!That life has moved through evening, whereContinual shadows veiled my sphere;From youth's horizon upward rolledTo life's meridian, dark and cold.”

“How strange this mass of ancient treasuresMementoes of past pains and pleasures;These volumes, clasped with costly stone,With print all faded, gilding gone”

“with the book on my knee , i was happy ,i feared nothing except interruption.”