“Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae, don't you see - each with their peculiar propensities, necessities and structure.” — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
“Mademoiselle De Lafontaine – in right of her father, who was a German, assumed to be psychological, metaphysical and something of a mystic – now declared that when the moon shone with a light so intense it was well known… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
“From these foolish embraces, which were not of very frequent occurrence, I must allow, I used to wish to extricate myself; but my energies… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
You are afraid to die?' Yes, everyone is.' But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together.… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
Knowledge is power-and power of one sort or another is the secret lust of human souls; and here is, beside the sense of exploration,… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
“What was the power that induced strong soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of an unconscious calculation of chances that satisfies them that it is ultimately better… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share
What a fool I was! and yet, in the sight of angels, are we any wiser as we grow older? It seems to me,… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
For some nights I slept profoundly; but still every morning I felt the same lassitude, and a languor weighed upon me all day. I felt myself a changed girl. A strange melancholy was stealing over me, a melancholy that I would not have interrupted. Dim thoughts of death began to open, and an idea that I was slowly sinking took… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share
Old persons are sometimes as unwilling to die as tired-out children are to say good night and go to bed. — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
“The stream of life is black and angry; how so many of us get across without drowning, I often wonder. The best way is not to look too far before-just from one stepping-stone to another; and though you may wet your feet, He won't let you drown-He has not allowed me.” — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share
Women are so enigmatical – some in everything – all in matters of the heart. Don't they sometimes actually admire what is repulsive?... — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
I remember everything about it—with an effort. I see it all, as divers see what is going on above them, through a medium, dense,… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
“Thus fortified I might take my rest in peace. But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and… — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
“She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that her movements were languid—very languid—indeed, there was nothing in her appearance to indicate an invalid.” — Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Copy Share Image
