Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!

Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

Shame and guilt are noble emotions essential in the maintenance of civilized society, and vital for the development of some read more

Shame and guilt are noble emotions essential in the maintenance of civilized society, and vital for the development of some of the most refined and elegant qualities of human potential.

There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.

There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

Don't tell me peace has broken out.

There is no aphrodisiac like innocence.

There is no aphrodisiac like innocence.

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, read more

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character. So, melancholy is morbid only when it occupies too much place in life; but it is equally morbid for it to be wholly excluded from life.

There is no such thing as happiness, only lesser shades of melancholy.

There is no such thing as happiness, only lesser shades of melancholy.

I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.
I am read more

I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.
I am terrified by this dark thing
That sleeps in me;
All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.