“My grandmother used to tell us a story of a mountain of loadstone. When any vessels came near it, they were instantly deprived of their ironwork: the nails flew to the mountain, and the unhappy crew perished amidst the disjointed planks.”

“The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.”

“one must submit, like a traveller who has to ascend a mountain: if the mountain was not there, the road would be both shorter and pleasanter; but there it is, and he must get over it.”

“Sweet moonlight, shining full and clear,Why do you light my torture here?How often have you seen me toil,Burning last drops of midnight oil.On books and papers as I read,My friend, your mournful light you shed.If only I could flee this denAnd walk the mountain-tops again,Through moonlit meadows make my way,In mountain caves with spirits play -Released from learning's musty cell,Your healing dew would make me well!”

“I am the spirit that negates.And rightly so, for all that comes to beDeserves to perish wretchedly;'Twere better nothing would begin.Thus everything that that your terms, sin,Destruction, evil represent—That is my proper element.”

“When any distress or terror surprises us in the midst of our amusements, it naturally makes a deeper impression than at other times, either because the contrast makes us more keenly susceptible, or rather perhaps because our senses are then more open to impressions, and the shock is consequently stronger.”

“To me the mountain mass lies nobly mute,The whences and the whys I don't dispute.When Nature by and in herself was founded,In purity the earthen sphere she rounded.In summit and in gorge did pleasure seek,And threaded cliff to cliff and peak to peak;Then did she fashion sloping hills at peaceAnd gently down into the vale release.All greens and grows, and to her gay abundanceYour swirling lunacies are sheer redundance.”