I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul.  I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years.  If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel.

It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed.  I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men.