Perspectives on Ideas March 12, 2007

Character (Continued)
390 Heathcliff: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.

19 [Mrs. Woodhouse] could never believe other people to be different from herself. Austen, Emma.

91 There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves. Austen, Emma

96 Mr. Weston is rather an easy, cheerful tempered man, than a man of strong feelings; he takes things as he finds them, and makes enjoyment of them somehow or other, depending, I suspect, much more upon what is called society for his comforts, that is, upon the power of eating and drinking, and playing whist with his neighbors five times a week than upon family affection, or anything that home affords. Austen, Emma

227 He [Mr. Frank Churchill] was accused of having a delightful voice, and a perfect knowledge of music; which was properly denied; and that he knew nothing of the matter, and had no voice at all, roundly asserted. Austen, Emma

281 Emma on Mrs. Elton: …self-important, presuming, familiar, ignorant and ill-bred…so little judgment that she thought herself coming with superior knowledge of the world, to enliven and improve a country neighborhood. Austen, Emma

411 How to understand the deceptions she [Emma] had been thus practicing on herself, and living under!—the blunders, the blindness of her own head and heart…. Austen, Emma

412 With insufferable vanity had she [Emma] believed herself in the secret of everybody’s feelings, with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everybody’s destiny. Austen, Emma

445 Mr. Knightley on Mr. Frank Churchill: Always deceived in fact by his own wishes, and regardless of little besides his own convenience. Austen, Emma

249 “He has seen such service,” answered Fergus, “and one is sometimes astonished to find how much nonsense and reason are mingled in his composition." Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.

294 The Baron of Bradwardine being asked what he thought of these recruits, took a long pinch of snuff, and answered dryly, that he could not but have an excellent opinion of them, since they resembled precisely the followers who attached themselves to the good King David at the cave of Adullam; ...every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt and every one that was discontented, which the Vulgate renders bitter of soul.... Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.

350 Lancelot began to shudder, not at the knight but at the cruelty in himself. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

371 If there is one thing I can’t stand, it is being treated like a possession. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

461 …the faculty to look short life in the face…. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

227 Laugh!—nobody ever understood papa’s jokes half so well as Mr. Tupple, who laughs himself into convulsions at every fresh burst of facetiousness. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

305 “Disgusting machines!” rejoined Evenson, who extended his dislike to almost every created object, masculine, feminine, or neuter. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

433 “Tottle,” said Mr. Gabriel Parsons, “you know my way—off-hand, open, say what I mean, mean what I say, hate reserve and can’t bear affectation.” Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

467 Mr. Nicodemus Dumps, or, as his acquaintance called him, “long Dumps,” was a bachelor, six feet high, and fifty years old: cross, cadaverous, odd, and ill-natured…never happy but when he was miserable…only real comfort of his existence was to make everybody about him wretched—then he might be truly said to enjoy life…adored King Herod for his massacre of the innocents, and if he hated one thing more than another, it was a child. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

539 There is another great characteristic of the throwing-off young gentleman, which is, that he “happens to be acquainted” with a most extraordinary variety of people in all parts of the world…in all disputed questions, when the throwing-off young gentleman has no argument to bring forward, he invariably happens to be acquainted with some distant person, intimately connected with the subject, whose testimony decides the point against you…. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.