#51 Shun murder

Character IX: Unconscionableness

Unconscionableness is ignoring one’s reputation for the sake of shameful profit. A truly unconscionable man might, for instance, borrow money from someone he already defaulted on. Having made a sacrifice, he might then eat dinner at somebody else’s place while salting away the sacrificial meat for himself. At a friend’s feast, he calls his personal attendant, hands him the bread and meat from the table, and announces in everyone’s hearing, “Eat up, Tibeius!”

In buying from the butcher, he reminds him of past favors, then stands at the scale trying to toss in an extra piece of meat—or if not meat, a bone. If nobody sees, great; if someone does see, he’ll just snatch up a bit of tripe and walk off, laughing. He’ll invite out-of-town friends to a show and pay for it, but then won’t hand over their shares to them, or else the next day brings his own children and their tutor to the same event for free. If you come home carrying something you bought cheap, he insists you share it with him. He’ll borrow barley from one neighbor one day and straw from another the next, then force them to deliver it to him when he returns it.

At the public baths, he might take someone else’s ladle, douse himself with water—despite the bathing attendant’s protests—and run off shouting, “I bathed, no thanks to you!” That’s Unconscionableness for you.

139

We are no sooner about to learn some great lesson than we take refuge in
our own innate poverty of soul, and yet for all that the lesson has not
been quite in vain.

You know I am not a champion of marriage. The real drawback to marriage is that it makes one unselfish, and unselfish people are colourless—they lack individuality. Still there are certain temperaments that marriage makes more complex. They retain their egotism, and add to it many other egos. They are forced to have more than one life. They become more highly organised, and to be highly organised is, I should fancy, the object of man's existence. Besides, every experience is of value, and whatever one may say against marriage it is certainly an experience.

#98 Give a timely response

xxvii. Prize Quality Over Quantity

Excellence is measured by quality, not sheer extent. The best things are rare and seldom abundant. Even among people, so-called “giants” may be true “dwarfs.” Some count books by their thickness as though weight were more important than the intellect inside. Mediocrity often swells; intensity wins distinction and may ascend to the heroic.

To influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.

To know nothing about our great men is one of the necessary elements of English education.

For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous.

83

Favour, as a symbol of sovereignty, is exercised by weak men.