“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”
“It was unbearable, and he thought again, 'How unhappy I am!' and became happier.”
“I only feel like myself when I am alone.”
“Having been bred amongst mountains I am always unhappy when in a flat country. Whenever the skirts of the horizon come on a level with myself I feel myself quite uneasy and generally have a headache.(Letter to Sir Walter Scott, 25 July 1802)”
“There is a question I have learned to ask myself when I am feeling bothered about others: am I holding myself to the same standard I am demanding of them?”
“If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”