That’s just why—because talent isn’t genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing.

I am not proud; I am simply a man who has suffered, and who has resolved that others shall suffer in their turn.

You think me rich because I have gold; I am rich because I have time.

If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.

I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create.

There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery.