Phineas Redux

"Then he would be penniless, with the world before him as a closed oyster to be again opened, and he knew, — no one better, — that this oyster becomes harder and harder in the opening as the man who has to open it becomes older."

"Of all hatreds that the world produces, a wife’s hatred for her husband, when she does hate him, is the strongest."

"I show Baby, and Oswald shows the hounds. We’ve nothing else to interest anybody."

"She rides to hounds, and talks Italian, and writes for the Times."

"I fancy that he will be a great statesman. After all, Mr. Finn, that is the best thing a man can be, unless it is given him to be a saint and a martyr and all that kind of thing, — which is not just what a mother looks for."

"We all profess to believe when we’re told that this world should be used merely as a preparation for the next; and yet there is something so cold and comfortless in the theory that we do not relish the prospect even for our children."

"“But what made Miss Boreham turn nun?” “I fancy she found the penances lighter than they were at home,” said the lord. “They couldn’t well be heavier.”"

"Men are so seldom really good. They are so little sympathetic. What man thinks of changing himself so as to suit his wife? And yet men expect that women shall put on altogether new characters when they are married, and girls think that they can do so."

"It is the necessary nature of a political party in this country to avoid, as long as it can be avoided, the consideration of any question which involves a great change."

"Mr. Browborough, whose life had not been passed in any strict obedience to the Ten Commandments, and whose religious observances had not hitherto interfered with either the pleasures or the duties of his life, repeated at every meeting which he attended, and almost to every elector whom he canvassed, the great Shibboleth which he had now adopted — “The prosperity of England depends on the Church of her people.”"

"But he could stand up with unabashed brow and repeat with enduring audacity the same words a dozen times over — “The prosperity of England depends on the Church of her people.” Had he been asked whether the prosperity which he promised was temporal or spiritual in its nature, not only would he not have answered, but he would not in the least have understood the question."

"“They’re giving £2 10s. a vote at the Fallgate this minute” said Ruddles to him at a quarter past three. “We shall have to prove it.” “We can do that, I think,” said Ruddles."

"He too, liked his party, and was fond of loyal men; but he had learned at last that all loyalty must be built on a basis of self-advantage. Patriotism may exist without it, but that which Erie called loyalty in politics was simply devotion to the side which a man conceives to be his side, and which he cannot leave without danger to himself."

"The bucolic mind of East Barsetshire took warm delight in the eloquence of the eminent personage who represented them, but was wont to extract more actual enjoyment from the music of his periods than from the strength of his arguments."

"It seemed, indeed, to Phineas that as Mrs. Low was buckled up in such triple armour that she feared nothing, she might have been less loud in expression her abhorrence of the enemies of the Church. If she feared nothing, why should she scream so loudly?"

"He is one of those men who, on marrying, assume that they have at last got a person to do a duty which has always hitherto been neglected."

"When once a woman is married she should be regarded as having thrown off her allegiance to her own sex. She is sure to be treacherous at any rate in one direction."

"“I am sorry for that, — very sorry.” “Why so, Lord Chiltern?” “Because if you were engaged to him I thought that perhaps you might have introduced him to ride a little less forward.”"

"As for offending him, you might as well swear at a tree, and think to offend it."

"Flirting I take to be the excitement of love, without its reality, and without its ordinary result in marriage."

"A bull in a china shop is not a useful animal, nor is he ornamental, but there can be no doubt of his energy. The hare was full of energy, but he didn't win the race. The man who stands still is the man who keeps his ground."

"It may, indeed, be assumed that a man who loses his temper while he is speaking is endeavouring to speak the truth such as he believes it to be, and again it may be assumed that a man who speaks constantly without losing his temper is not always entitled to the same implicit faith."

"In former days the Earl had been a man quite capable of making himself disagreeable, and probably had not yet lost the power of doing so. Of all our capabilities this is the one which clings longest to us."

"You men find so many angels in your travels. You have been honester than some. You have generally been off with the old angel before you were with the new, — as far at least as I knew."

"Men when they are true are simple. They are often false has hell, and then they are crafty as Lucifer. But the man who is true judges others by himself, — almost without reflection. A woman can be true as steel and cunning at the same time."

"When you have done the rashest thing in the world it is very pleasant to be told that no man of spirit could have acted otherwise."

"Would it not be better to go home and live at the family park all the year round, and hunt, and attend Quarter Sessions, and be able to declare morning and evening with a clear conscience that the country was going to the dogs? Such was the mental working of many a Conservative who supported Mr. Daubeny on this occasion."

"In former days, when there were Whigs instead of Liberals, it was almost a rule of political life that all leading Whigs sould be uncles, brothers-in-law, or cousins to each other. This was pleasant and gave great consistency to the party; but the system has now gone out of vogue."

"“Why should he do it at all?” asked Phineas. “That’s what everybody asks, but the answer seems to be so plain! Because he can do it, and we can’t.”"

"A drunkard or a gambler may be weaned from his ways, but not a politician."

"What binds him, Oswald? A man can’t be bound without a penalty."

"Why not? His wife is dead, and he hasn’t got a child, not yet an acre of property. I don’t know who is entitled to break his neck if he is not."

"When one wants to be natural, of necessity one becomes the reverse of natural."

"Lord Chiltern recognizes the great happiness of having a grievance. It would be a pity that so great a blessing should be thrown away upon him."

"“They have been saying ever so long that the old Duke of Omnium means to marry her on his deathbed, but I don’t suppose there can be anything in it.” “Why should he put it off for so very inopportune an occasion?” asked Phineas."

"Why is it that when men and women congregate, though the men may beat the women in numbers by ten to one, and through they certainly speak the louder, the concrete sound that meets the ears of any outside listener is always a sound of women’s voices?"

"To get away well is so very much! And to get away well is often so very difficult!"

"“I haven’t the slightest direction of anything.” “Nor have I; but as we clearly can’t get out this way we might as well try the other.”"

"He has the power of making the world believe him simply because he has been rich and a duke."

"Perhaps there is nothing so generally remarkable in the conduct of young ladies in the phase of life of which we are now speaking as the facility, — it may almost be said audacity, — with which they do make up their minds."

"She’s a screw, of course, but there isn’t anything carries Chiltern so well. There’s nothing like a good screw. A man’ll often go with two hundred and fifty guineas between his legs, supposed to be all there because the animal’s sound, and yet he don’t know his work. If you like schooling a young ’un, that’s all very well. I used to be fond of it myself."

"Ride at any fence hard enough, and the chances are you’ll get over. The harder you ride the heavier the fall, if you get a fall; but the greater the chance of your getting over."

"But the school in which good training is most practiced will, as a rule, turn out the best scholars."

"A Minister can always give a reason; and, if he be clever, he can generally when doing so punish the man who asks for it. The punishing of an influential enemy is an indiscretion; but an obscure questioner may often be crushed with good effect."

"He had married, let us say for love; — probably very much by chance."

"Late hours, nocturnal cigars, and midnight drinkings, pleasurable through they may be, consume too quickly the free-flowing lamps of youth, and are fatal at once to the husbanded candle-ends of age."

"He possessed the rare merit of making a property of his time and not a burden."

"He had never done any good, but he had always carried himself like a duke, and like a duke he carried himself to the end."

"Some people fall to their feet like cats; but you are one of those who never fall at all. Others tumble about in the most unfortunate way, without any great fault of their own."

"Let a man be of what side he may in politics, — unless he be much more of a partisan than a patriot, — he will think it well that there should be some equity of division in the bestowal of crumbs of comfort."