“Why is it that I can't feel this tragedy as much as I want to?”

“I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.”

“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

“I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial.”

“Never regret thy fall,O Icarus of the fearless flightFor the greatest tragedy of them all Is never to feel the burning light.”

“After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears.”

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. (Mr. Dumby, Act III)”