Perspectives on Ideas March 13, 2007

Character (Continued)
542 The young ladies’ young gentleman: This young gentleman has several titles… “a nice young man” … “a fine young man” … “quite a lady’s man” … “a handsome man” … “a remarkably good-looking young man” … “a perfect angel” … “quite a love” … a charming creature, a duck, and a dear. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

588 You cannot…tell the egotistical couple anything they don’t know, or describe to them anything they have not felt…they have been everything but dead. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.

61 …for thirty-five years he had not stopped talking and almost nothing of fundamental value had emerged. Watson, The Double Helix.

601 …believed that if a man were patient he could persuade fate to behave in a rational manner. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).

14 Fyodor Pavlovitch was all his life fond of acting, of suddenly playing an unexpected part, sometimes without any motive for doing so, and even to his direct disadvantage. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

22 There was something about him [Alyosha] which made one feel at once…that he did not care to be a judge of others—that he would never take it upon himself to criticize and would never condemn anyone for anything. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

65 Even when he was excited and talking irritably, his eyes somehow did not follow his mood, but betrayed something else, sometimes quite incongruous with what was passing. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

77 He is one of those who don’t want millions, but an answer to their questions. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

208 It’s a feature of the Karamazovs it’s true, that thirst for life regardless of everything…. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

251 Don’t watch his eyes, you won’t find out anything from his eyes. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

273 But about himself he scarcely ever said a word, yet continually asked me about myself. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

633 …Karamazov character…capable of combining the most incongruous contradictions, and capable of the greatest heights and the greatest depths….two extremes at the same moment, or they are miserable and dissatisfied and their existence is incomplete…wide, wide as Mother Russia; they include everything and put up with everything. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

315 Lincoln: …the tired part of me is inside and out of reach. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

808 Those who had sought cunningly to lead him [Lincoln], slowly found that he was leading them. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

84 Anne’s object was not to be in the way of anybody…. Austen, Persuasion.

97 He had a pleasing face and a melancholy air, just as he ought to have, and drew back from conversation. Austen, Persuasion.

199 Mr. Elliott is a man without heart or conscience; a designing, wary, cold-blooded being, who thinks only of himself; who, for his own interest or ease would be guilty of any cruelty or any treachery, that could be perpetrated without risk of his general character… has no feeling for others…whom he has been the chief cause of leading into ruin, he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction…totally beyond the reach of any sentiment of justice or compassion…black at heart, hollow and black. Austen, Persuasion.

242 …he had learnt to distinguish between the steadiness of principle and the obstinacy of self-will, between the darings of heedlessness and the resolution of a collected mind. Austen, Persuasion.

279 Wordsworth recognized that simple people and animals often show more courage and loyalty and unselfishness than sophisticated people, and also a greater sense of the wholeness of life. Clark, Civilization.