“It is painful to break the sad links to the past”

“They were moments when she was suddenly reminded of her child, and perhaps also of the man she had loved; the breaking of links with the past is a painful thing.”

“She was sad with an obscure sadness of which she had not the secret herself. There was in her whole person the stupor of a life ended but never commenced.”

“Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.”

“What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past.”

“The sadness which reigned everywhere was but an excuse for unfailing kindness.”

“The counterfeits of the past take assumed names, and are fond of calling themselves the future. That eternally returning spector, the past, not infrequently falsifies its passport.”