“The main thing for inner contentment is to be in a state of grace. And there is an artistic state of grace, for art is a kind of religion.”

“The beauty of sorrow is superior to the beauty of life.”

“As he walked, the sad faded leaves were driven pitilessly around him by the wind, and under the mingling influences of autumn and evening, a craving for the quietude of the grave … overtook him with unwanted intensity.”

“The widower reviewed his past in a sunless light which was intensified by the greyness of the November twilight, whilst the bells subtly impregnated the surrounding atmosphere with the melody of sounds that faded like the ashes of dead years.”

“Dissonance is as fatal in ailments of the mind as it is in those of the body.”

“There are women whose love only ends with death.”

“Can there be anything more sad than a girl dying on the day of her first communion, in her new dress. A little bride of death...”