“ Our moral sense learns the manners of good society and smiles when others smile, but when some rude person gives rough names to our actions, she is apt to take part against us. ”
George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859). copy citation
| Author | George Eliot |
|---|---|
| Source | Adam Bede |
| Topic | action society |
| Date | 1859 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/507/507-h/507-h.htm |
Context
“And if no one had told him the contrary, he could have persuaded himself so much better. Nemesis can seldom forge a sword for herself out of our consciences—out of the suffering we feel in the suffering we may have caused: there is rarely metal enough there to make an effective weapon. Our moral sense learns the manners of good society and smiles when others smile, but when some rude person gives rough names to our actions, she is apt to take part against us. And so it was with Arthur: Adam's judgment of him, Adam's grating words, disturbed his self-soothing arguments.
Not that Arthur had been at ease before Adam's discovery. Struggles and resolves had transformed themselves into compunction and anxiety.”
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