"You all imagine that things must be arranged entirely according to your caprices.

'Because I desire thee, thou must be mine....' And what if I don't want to ?...

And if I don't feel any necessity of being loved ?...
If I wish only to live in liberty, with no other love than that which I feel for myself ?..." She considered it a great misfortune to be a woman.

She always envied men for their independence.

They could hold themselves aloof, abstaining from the passions that waste life, without anybody's coming to importune them in their retreat.