Household Words: A weekly Journal, Volume 9, Volume 9 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
amber arms asked beautiful Bedouin better Bounderby brother called CHARLES DICKENS child church Coketown colour dakhal death door dress English eyes face father fire flowers French gentleman girl give Gradgrind Greek hair hand Harthouse head hear heard heart Holland House honour horse hour HOUSEHOLD WORDS hundred John Dunton Jupe Kazan kind Klephts knew lady legs light live London look Lord Louisa ma'am Madame de Sablé marquetry ment mind Miss Furbey morning mother Mytilene nature never niello night once passed perhaps poor pounds present Rachael returned round seemed seen soon Sparsit Stephen stood story streets Tattyboys tell things thought thousand tion told took town Turk Turkey Turkish turned walk Wellington Street North whole wife wire woman young
Popular passages
Page 137 - With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to.
Page 138 - Give me your definition of a horse." (Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.) "Girl number twenty unable to define a horse !" said Mr. Gradgrind, for the general behoof of all the little pitchers. " Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals ! Some boy's definition of a horse.
Page 137 - Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts : nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir...
Page 137 - ... warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was - all helped the emphasis. "In this life, we want nothing but facts, sir; nothing but facts.
Page 139 - ... altogether. You have nothing to do with it. You are not to have, in any object of use or ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact. You don't walk upon flowers in fact ; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets. You don't find that foreign birds and butterflies come and perch upon your crockery ; you cannot be permitted to paint foreign birds and butterflies upon your crockery. You never meet with quadrupeds going up and down walls ; you must not have quadrupeds represented...
Page 77 - In the most literal of senses, "the earth hath bubbles as the water hath ; and these are of them.
Page 165 - There was an old woman, and what do you think? She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink; Victuals and drink were the whole of her diet, And yet this old woman would never be quiet.
Page 234 - What did you say ?" asked Louisa. " Miss Louisa, I said I didn't know. I thought I couldn't know whether it was a prosperous nation or not, and whether I was in a thriving state or not, unless I knew who had got the money, and whether any of it was mine. But that had nothing to do with it. It was not in the figures at all,
Page 138 - Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?" "He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, Sir." Mr. Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand. "We don't want to know anything about that, here. You mustn't tell us about that, here. Your father breaks horses, don't he?" "If you please, Sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the ring, Sir.
Page 284 - TIME went on in Coketown like its own machinery : so much material wrought up, so much fuel consumed, so many powers worn out, so much money made. But, less inexorable than iron, steel, and brass, it brought its varying seasons even into that wilderness of smoke and brick, and made the only stand that ever was made in the place against its direful uniformity. " Louisa is becoming," said Mr. Gradgrind, f< almost a young woman.