Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882)
One of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era.
“See what we Conservatives can do. In fact we will conserve nothing when we find that you do not desire to have it conserved any longer. ‘Quod minime reris Graiâ pandetur ab urbe.’”
One doesn't have an agreement to that effect written down on parchment and sealed; but it is as well understood and ought to be as faithfully kept as any legal contract.
She had married a vulgar man; and, though she had not become like the man, she had become vulgar.
“Perhaps I had better tell you the truth, Mr. Gresham.”
“Oh, certainly,” said the Prime Minister, who knew very well that on such occasions nothing could be worse than the telling of disagreeable truths.
He made his point well; but he made it too often. And an attack of that kind, personal and savage in its nature, loses its effect when it is evident that the words have been prepared. A good deal may be done in dispute by calling a man an ass or a knave, — but the resolve to use the words should have been made only at the moment, and they should come hot from the heart.
Always remember, Mr. Robarts, that when you go into an attorney's office door, you will have to pay for it, first or last.
He never went very far astray in his official business, because he always obeyed the clerks and followed precedents.
I would recommend all men in choosing a profession to avoid any that may require an apology at every turn; either an apology or else a somewhat violent assertion of right.
If you cross the Atlantic with an American lady you invariably fall in love with her before the journey is over. Travel with the same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, and you will have written her down in your own mind in quite other language than that of love.
She certainly had a little syllogism in her head as to the Duke ruling the borough, the Duke's wife ruling the Duke, and therefore the Duke's wife ruling the borough; but she did not think it prudent to utter this on the present occasion.
A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency.
You can never teach them, except by the slow lesson of habit.
"I can never bring myself to believe it, John," said Mary Walker, the pretty daughter of Mr. George Walker, attorney, of Silverbridge.
Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stony-hearted Rome.
As for offending him, you might as well swear at a tree, and think to offend it.
Because we have been removing restraints on Papal aggression, while other nations have been imposing restraints. There are those at Rome who believe all England to be Romish at heart, because here in England a Roman Catholic can say what he will, and print what he will.
But as the clerical pretensions are more exacting than all others, being put forward with an assertion that no answer is possible without breach of duty and sin, so are they more galling.
Then Lady Chiltern argued the matter on views directly opposite to those which she had put forward when discussing the matter with her husband.
Every man worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to night... Other men, the world over, worship regularly at the shrine with matins and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever other daily services may be known to the religious houses; but the New Yorker is always on his knees.
In these days, — when no palpable and immediate punishment is at hand for personal insolence from man to man, — personal insolence to one man in a company seems almost to constitute an insult to every one present.