Perspectives on Ideas March 17, 2007

Character (continued)
767 That cold tendency, between instinct and intellect, which made me pry with a speculative interest into people’s passions and impulses, appeared to have gone far towards unhumanizing my heart. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance.

792 The man had laid no real touch on any mortal’s heart. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance.

793 In truth, it was Fauntleroy’s fatality to behold whatever he touched dissolve. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance.

377 …the torpid recluse, looking forward to the cold, sunless, stagnant calm of a day that is to be like innumerable yesterdays. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.

255 Anatole was not quick-witted, nor ready or eloquent in conversation, but he had the faculty, so invaluable for social purposes, of composure and imperturbable assurance. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

507 What impressed Prince Andrei as the leading trait of Speransky’s mentality was his absolute and unshakable belief in the power and authority of reason…that he had never known doubt, never asked himself, “Might not everything I think and believe be nonsense?” Tolstoi, War and Peace.

649 She [Julie] affected the air of one who has suffered a great disappointment, like a girl who has either lost her lover or been cruelly deceived by him…though nothing of the kind had happened to her…. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

699 ‘Yes there goes a true sage,’ said Pierre to himself, ‘…sees nothing beyond the enjoyment of the moment…nothing worries him…always cheerful, satisfied and serene.’ Tolstoi, War and Peace.

761 He [Pfuhl] was ridiculous, he was disagreeable with his sarcasm, yet he inspired an involuntary feeling of respect by his boundless devotion to an idea. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

144 I mean those honest gentlemen that are always exposed to the wit and raillery of their well-wishers and companions; that are pelted by men, women, and children, friends, and foes, and, in a word, stand as butts in conversation, for every one to shout at that pleases. Addison, 4/24/1711. The Spectator.

333 …he ruined everybody that had anything to do with him, but never said a rude thing in his life. Steele, 7/5/1711. The Spectator.

108 …I’ve never encountered any genuinely, consistently detestable human beings in all my life. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.

131 They [Custom-House officers] spent a good deal of time, also, asleep in their accustomed corners, with their chairs tilted back against the wall; awaking, however, once or twice in a forenoon, to bore one another with the several thousandth repetition of old sea stories, and moldy jokes, that had grown to be pass-words and countersigns among them. Introductory: “The Custom House.” Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.

135 The chief tragic event of the old man’s life, so far as I could judge, was his mishap with a certain goose, which lived and died some twenty or forty years ago; a goose of most promising figure, but which, at table, proved so inveterately tough that the carving knife would make no impression on its carcass; and it could only be divided with an axe and a handsaw. Introductory: “The Custom House.” Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.

277 She [Pearl] wanted--what some people want [need] throughout life--a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.

304 No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.

68 It is often commented that Peter Gomes was born an old man and has since grown progressively younger. The New Yorker. Nov. 11, 1996. Robert S. Boynton, “God and Harvard” about Harvard’s Peter Gomes.