It is seldom that a person with much animal spirit does not feel that the fact of his life being his own is the one qualification which singles it out as a more hopeful life than that of others who may actually resemble him in every particular.
 Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). copy citation

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Author Thomas Hardy
Source Far from the Madding Crowd
Topic qualification spirit
Date 1874
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/107/107-h/107-h.htm

Context

“The planting of flowers on Fanny's grave had been perhaps but a species of elusion of the primary grief, and now it was as if his intention had been known and circumvented. Almost for the first time in his life, Troy, as he stood by this dismantled grave, wished himself another man. It is seldom that a person with much animal spirit does not feel that the fact of his life being his own is the one qualification which singles it out as a more hopeful life than that of others who may actually resemble him in every particular. Troy had felt, in his transient way, hundreds of times, that he could not envy other people their condition, because the possession of that condition would have necessitated a different personality, when he desired no other than his own.” source