"Why, Jack shall make a fortune, dine on venison, and drink claret. --Ay, but Tom--Tom shall dine with his brother, when his pride will let him; at other times, he shall bless God over a half-pint of ale and a Welsh-rabbit; and both shall go to heaven as they may."
"By the time he had reached the Square, and was walking along the pavement which led to the baronet's he had brought his reasoning on the subject to such a point, that the conclusion, by every rule of logic, should have led him to a thorough indifference in his approaches to a fellow-mortal, whether that fellow-mortal was possessed of six or six thousand pounds a year. It is probable, however, that the premises had been improperly formed: for it is certain, that when he approached the great man's door he felt his heart agitated by an unusual palpitation."
"'And I propose we do one of two things upon the instant: either quarrel and be done; or make a sure bargain to bear everything at each other's hands. . . if we are to have our noses rubbed together in this course of flight, let us each dare to be ourselves like savages, and each swear that he will neither resent nor deprecate the other. I am a pretty bad fellow at bottom, and I find the pretence of virtues very irksome.'
'O, I am as bad as yourself,' said I. 'There is no skim milk in Francis Burke.'"
"'It's the finest boy I ever saw in all my life,' said the doctor. 'I never saw such a baby.'
It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last."-- Dickens, Nickelby, 1838
"There was a time, indeed, I fretted myself about the mistakes of government, like other people; but finding myself every day grow more angry, and the government growing no better, I left it to mend itself."
"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs."
"Thus, cases of injustice, and oppression, and tyranny, and the most extravagant bigotry, are in constant occurrence among us every day. It is the custom to trumpet forth much wonder and astonishment at the chief actors therein setting at defiance so completely the opinion of the world; but there is no greater fallacy; it is precisely because they do consult the opinion of their own little worlds that such things take place at all, and strike the great world dumb with amazement."
Ex Libris Kirkland (formerly known as "I Just Read . . .") is where I quote, at length, something I found interesting in my reading. The selected passages might be funny, or sad, or true, or false, or irritating, but they all bear thinking about - or at least writing down.
