Yes, in the long run there is something to be said for these shiftless days, each distilling its drop of poison until the cup is f...ull; there is something to be said for them because there is no escaping them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It hurts me to hear the tone in which the poor are condemned as "shiftless," or "having a pauper spirit," just as it would if a cr...owd mocked at a child for its weakness, or laughed at a lame man because he could not run, or a blind man because he stumbled.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All these young souls were passengers in the Durbeyfield ship--entirely dependent on the judgment of the two Durbeyfield adults fo...r their pleasures, their necessities, their health, even their existence. If the heads of the Durbeyfield household chose to sail into difficulty, disaster, starvation, disease, degradation, death, thither were these half-dozen little captives under their hatches compelled to sail with them--six helpless creatures, who had never been asked if they wished for life on any terms, much less if they wished for it on such hard conditions as were involved in being of the shiftless house of Durbeyfield. Some people would like to know whence the poet whose philosophy is in these days deemed as profound and trustworthy as his song is breezy and pure, gets his authority for speaking of "Nature's holy plan."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... nothing seems completely to differentiate the poor but poverty. We find no adjectives to fit them, as a whole, only those of w...hich Want is the mother. "Miserable" covers many; "shabby" most, and I am sadly aware that, in a large majority of minds, "disagreeable" includes them all.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »