“I had been in love before, but never found it necessary.”

“I feel that it is possible that I might never have existed, for my self consists in thought; therefore I who think would never have been if my mother had been killed before I had come to life; therefore I am not a necessary being. I am not eternal or infinite either…”

“Bennifer was so big it was as though two people had never been in love before, and they had discovered it.”

“...it was necessary to love silence, but before you could love silence you had to have noise.”

“Above all, there was Almah. Everything combined to make her most dear to me. My life has been such that I never before had seen anyone whome I loved; and here Almah was the one congenial and sympathetic, and I loved her dearly, even before I understood what my feelings were. One day I learned all, and found that she was more precious to me than all the world.”

“I had never been the receptacle of someone's hope, and found this weightless thing to be a heavy burden.”