Frasi di Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

“Alla luce del sole non perdeva nulla della propria avvenenza; era senza dubbio la creatura più bella che avessi mai visto e la spiacevole somiglianza con il viso del mio sogno aveva perso l'effetto della prima, inaspettata scoperta.”

“Credo che nella vita di tutti ci siano dei momenti di particolare intensità durante i quali le passioni vengono scatenate con forza e violenza, e altri momenti che si ricordano con meno precisione.”

“Siamo nelle mani di Dio; nulla può accadere senza il Suo permesso e tutto si concluderà bene per coloro che Lo amano. Egli è il nostro amorevole creatore; Lui ci ha creato e Lui si prenderà cura di noi.”

“Poiché egli non è un uomo come lo sono io, dobbiamo riunirci; né esiste alcuno che possa levare le mani su di noi. Lascialo, quindi, portare la sua verga lungi da me, e non permettere che la sua paura mi spaventi.”

“Tuttavia, la vita e la morte sono stati misteriosi e sappiamo poco delle risorse di nessuno dei due.”

“Nevertheless, life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either.”

“But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together.”

“But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.”

“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, rippling, but transparent.”

“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.”

“but curiosity is a restless and scrupulous passion, and no one girl can endure, with patience, that hers should be baffled by another.”

“What a fool I was! and yet, in the sight of angels, are we any wiser as we grow older? It seems to me, only, that our illusions change as we go on; but, still, we are madmen all the same.”

“He has attained supremacy in one particular line: he succeeds in inspiring a mysterious terror better than any other writer.”

“How marvellously lie our anxieties, in filmy layers, one over the other! Take away that which has lain on the upper surface for so long – the care of cares – the only one, as it seemed to you, between your soul and the radiance of Heaven – and straight you find a new stratum there.”

“There comes with old age a time when the heart is no longer fusible or malleable, and must retain the form in which it has cooled down.”

“The world," he resumed after a short pause, "has no faith in any man's conversion; it never forgets what he was, it never believes him anything better, it is an inexorable and stupid judge.”

“There is no dealing with great sorrow as if it were under the control of our wills. It is a terrible phenomenon, whose laws we must study, and to whose conditions we must submit, if we would mitigate it.”