Quotes by Ik Marvel

“Is it dream, or is it earnest, — those moon-lit walks upon the hills that skirt the city, when you watch the stars, listening to her voice, and feel the pressure of that jewelled hand upon your arm? — when you drain your memory of its whole stock of poetic beauties, to lavish upon her ear? Is it love, or is it madness, when you catch her eye, as it beams more of eloquence than lies in all your moonlight poetry, and feel an exultant gush of the heart, that makes you proud as a man, and yet timid as a boy, beside her?”

“Why is it always, that a man of whatever age or condition, forbears to exhibit to those, whose respect for his judgment, and mental abilities he seeks only, the most earnest qualities of the heart, and those intenser susceptibilities of love, which underlie his nature, and which give a color, in spite of him, to the habit of his life? Why is he so morbidly anxious to keep out of sight any extravagances of affection, when he blurts officiously to the world, his extravagances of action, and of thought? Can any lover explain this to me?”