His sudden mad love for Sibyl Vane was a psychological phenomenon of no small interest. There was no doubt that curiosity had much to do with it, curiosity and the desire for new experiences; yet it was not a simple but rather a very complex passion.

Man is many things, but he is not rational.

It was the passions about whose origin we deceived ourselves that tyrannized most strongly over us.

Human life--that appeared to him the one thing worth investigating. Compared to it there was nothing else of any value. It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one's face a mask of glass, nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams.

Κανένας δε μπορεί να υποφέρει τους άλλους όταν βλέπει πως έχουν τα ίδια ελαττώματα με τον εαυτό του