Petty sessions

“ But should any one of these adopt a lower standard of conduct, you should tolerate such behaviour, if it goes no farther than a breach, in his private capacity, of the rules by which he was bound, but not if it goes to the extent of employing for gain the authority which you granted him as a promotion. For I am far from thinking, especially since the moral sentiments of the day are so much inclined to excessive laxity and self-seeking, that you should investigate every case of petty misconduct, and thoroughly examine every one of these persons ”

“ There are some people who say that etiquette, that manners, are petty shams that polish the surface with the gilt edge of hypocrisy. We all know that a few people believe this. Who of us has not heard the uncultured boor boast that he is not restricted by any "sissy manners"? Who of us has not heard the successful business man decline an invitation to a reception because he "had no time for such nonsense"? ”

“ Petty lapses of this order, especially when the delinquent may be seen to hesitate and excuse himself, are more irritating than many larger and more brazen offences, for they give us the sense of not knowing where we are. ”

“ How petty will our present age seem in comparison! This fawning for favors and good-will from above, this servile disposition, this envious struggle against one another for the best place, carried on by the lowest and most spiteful means, and, at the same time, suppression of one’s true convictions, concealing of good qualities that might displease those whose favor it sought, emasculation of character, the feigning of opinions and feelings that one does not possess—all these qualities that may be termed cowardice and hypocrisy, are daily becoming more pronounced. ”

“ It may be doubted whether people are really ever made better by petty slights and undeserved scorn. Elizabeth had tried the discipline for three years, and every Sabbath evening her face burned with the same anger, and her heart was full of the same resentment. ”

“ She laid her hands in her lap, pressing them hotly together, and returned his gaze fearlessly because of her rising anger: "You are given power to lead, the right to lead, and in your stupid self-glorification you step into by-ways hugging your petty vanity. ”

“ To you, in a personal conference, I shall at all times be ready to vindicate my conduct; but to sink myself into a level with my rebellious subjects, and to be a party in a suit or trial with them, is an indignity so vile, that I can never submit to it. I can die, but I cannot meet dishonour. Consult, I conjure you, what is right and proper, and entitle yourself to my warmest gratitude; or, if you are inclined not to know me as a sister, and to withhold your kindness, abstain at least from rigour and injustice. Be neither my enemy nor my friend ”

“ Ah, well, my woman’s vanity is on the rack. Though some troubles may seem petty indeed, I have learned, unfortunately, that in the home there are no petty troubles. For everything there is magnified by incessant contact with sensations, with desires, with ideas. ”

“ Who hath fawned less upon the thriving party? Who has made fewer staggers in his profession for one or t'other Faction? Did I ever betray any secret? Have I sold one friend to buy another? Or done ugly things with one Man, to ingratiate my self with another, his enemy? ”

“ You've already over-cut twice. What excuse do you intend to give when the Self-Government Committee asks for an explanation?"
"'Sufficient unto the day,'" laughed Patty. "When the time comes I'll think of a beautiful new excuse that will charm the committee."
"You ought to be ashamed to evade the rules the way you do."
"Where is the fun of living if you are going to make yourself a slave to all sorts of petty rules?" asked Patty, wearily.
"I don't know why you have a right to live outside of rules any more than the rest of us." ”

“ It is impossible for me to assure myself that I would consider interference in their affairs warrantable if I cared nothing for him. I cannot afford to despise myself for tattling out of petty jealousy. ”

“ You are squeezed, hampered, harnessed in your ball accoutrement: you count your steps as you walk, you look around, you observe, you contemplate talking business on neutral ground with a stock-broker, a notary or a banker, to whom you would not like to give an advantage over you by calling at their house.
A singular fact which all have probably observed, but the causes of which can hardly be determined, is the peculiar repugnance which men dressed and ready to go to a party have for discussions or to answer questions. ”

“ It is the continual petty fret to one’s feelings, and a disregard to the small courtesies of daily life, that we find more galling and more difficult to bear than the open insult: the latter may be atoned for and forgiven, but the former grows like a canker, spreading over and destroying all social relations. ”

“ Who in the place and credit I was once in, with so powerful a person as the said Lord Lieutenant formerly was, would not by a closer adherence to some party, have built himselfe a larger interest, then I did? And (not despising the thanks of such as had good Lots) have trusted to my bare innocency, against the frowns of them that had bad: Who would not have bent all proceedings to have made sure of one party; rather then by a consciencious impartiality, to be grownd between many? ”

“ There is with these a softness of deportment and delicacy of expression, an abstinence from all violent and boisterous expressions of their feelings and sentiments, and above all, the entire freedom from petty scandal, which makes them lovely, and to be loved by every honorable and high-bred gentleman who may chance to know them and cultivate their association. ”

“ And then again, suddenly, it does seem very petty, and I feel that I should despise a man who allowed himself to be duped by such vulgar seductions. No sooner do I perceive our power and like it, than I know it to be horrible and I abhor it. ”

“ The petty annoyance, instead of being thrown from us, sits down beside us and becomes a sorrow, and the little offense is brooded over till, in the hot-bed of rumination, it grows into a great injury, under whose poisonous shadow springs up hatred and revenge. ”

“ Those who out of modesty are not importunate in their visits and solicitations, may seem uncivil or to scorn all friendship and assistance: (as thinking themselves above the help of others) Those who are very innocent, may by too much neglecting to satisfie mistakes or mis-informations, incurr an evil Fame, how clear soever their consciences be. ”

“ The delusion of the public mind, or the confusion of affairs is such, that, while petty culprits are tumbled into prison, a cool, calculating and immense scoundrel is pitied, dandled and nursed by a sympathizing community. ”

“ In this house, where there was a constant scene of hurry and dissipation, the child had frequent opportunities and temptations to be dishonest. For some time she was not detected; her caressing manners pleased her patroness, and servile compliance with the humours of the children of the family secured their goodwill. Encouraged by daily petty successes in the art of deceit, she became a complete hypocrite. ”

“ Speaker, that God gave me courrage to oppose the greatest persons, though allways with due respect to their condition, meerly to maintaine strickness of rule, allthough, Sir, those worthy persons have afterwards accompted our severity their security, and have thanked us for itt. The truth of it is, Mr. Speaker, this kind of severity to those that could not beare it hath made us enemyes, whereas corrupt partiallity would have made us a kind of friends: and this is not the course of corrupt and guilty ministers. ”

“ We are in some danger of becoming petty in our study of pettiness; there is a terrible Circean law in the background that if the soul stoops too ostentatiously to examine anything it never gets up again. There is no class of vulgar publications about which there is, to my mind, more utterly ridiculous exaggeration and misconception than the current boys' literature of the lowest stratum. ”

“ That although Sir Hierome and Mr Worsly have calumniated me with most monstrous imputations, and have possessed many with a belief of them, yet no man to this day ever taxed me with the least to my face: The which if any person shall think it worth his pains to do hereafter, I shall willingly give a meeting to hear him, or to prove any of the particulars which I have alledged in this Discourse. ”

“ I remember I once told him: "Women's minds are so petty, so crooked!" "Like the feet of Chinese women," he replied. "Has not the pressure of society cramped them into pettiness and crookedness? They are but pawns of the fate which gambles with them. What responsibility have they of their own?" ”

“ His voice had a quaver. He was explaining as he would explain to a child. “All the timber interests are behind me. See what it means if I am turned down? A scandal would do it. It’s the petty scandal that kills a man in this State quicker than anything else—scandal or a laugh! I can’t carry that girl out of the woods and declare her to be my daughter. ”

“ Would we codify the laws that should reign in households, and whose daily transgression annoys and mortifies us, and degrades our household life—we must learn to adorn every day with sacrifices. Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices. ”

“ One may imagine the emotions of shame, sorrow, and indignation with which the vast assembly, consisting of both sexes, listened to the words of an instrument, every sentence of which seemed to convey a personal indignity to the hearers—an outrage on all those ideas of decorum and decency in which they had been nurtured from infancy ”

“ The significant may be deceptive but sweet, though it's even quite possible to put up with the insignificant . . . But petty squabbles, petty squabbles . . . that's a misery."
"Petty squabbles don't exist for the man who refuses to recognize them as such." ”

“ Perhaps those seven Gentlemen who took upon them to inspect me, may think themselves reflected upon, if ever you should let this Letter come abroad: But I assure you, Sir, that although I have no reason to make it my business to praise some of them, yet by Enemies and Prosecutors, I meant very few of them, thinking they did but their duty; and believing, That if Sir Jerome had let them and me alone, that long ere this I had satisfied them, and they had vindicated me. ”

“ I have seen men at a banquet, or some other assembly, rise and voluntarily take the lowest place, because they had not been assigned the head of the table, and this under cover of humility, although pride was the real motive. I have seen another so weak as even to leave the room. Thus anger sometimes, and sometimes pride, leads men to act as though one who did not enjoy the highest seat, which in the nature of things cannot be assigned to more than a single individual, was necessarily unworthy of any place except perhaps the lowest. ”

“ Axiom.—When a woman ceases to quarrel with her husband, the Minotaur has seated himself in a corner arm-chair, tapping his boots with his cane.
Every woman must remember her last quarrel, that supreme petty trouble which often explodes about nothing, but more often still on some occasion of a brutal fact or of a decisive proof. ”

“ I hope you will not require from mee much method or politeness; for if oppression make a wise man mad, you may well pardon both confusion and rudeness in mee, whose Brain as it is naturally not of the firmest fabrick, so it hath been accidentally shaken into an incapacity of such performance. ”

“ Gossip, of course, prevalent—even malicious; constant observation of one another, jealousies, quarrels, inevitable when authority was divided between three people, the governor, chaplain, and matron, and it was not clearly made out which was the most worthy; subordinates ever on the look-out to make capital of the differences of their betters, and alive to the fact that they were certain of a hearing when they chose to carry any slanderous tale, or make any underhand complaint. ”

“ Now because the world abounds with this kinde of fools, it is not fit that every man that will, may cheat every man that would be cheated; but it is rather ordained, that the Sovereign should have the Guardianship of these fools, or that some Favourite should beg the Sovereigns right of taking advantage of such mens folly, even as in the case of Lunaticks and Idiots. ”

“ Private official enquiries give opportunity for petty persecution on the part of any Jack-in-office who fancies his abilities are equal to his position, and whose spleen may be raised against better men than himself. ”

“ If you would serve yourselves or your countrymen in your conversation with those whose good will you desire to conciliate, seek it by the honest avowal of your convictions rather than the unappreciated flattery of inconsiderate assent; never demean yourselves by condescending to that pitiful weapon of the coward, the anonymous slander of a neighbour. If, after due inquiry, you have satisfied yourselves that there is an injustice that calls for remedy, denounce it openly, but in terms that evince just resentment and mot vindictiveness. ”

“ Petty—I—mean Captain Petty." (Strain, who didn't get one, said a March '67 brevet was of no earthly account, and he for one proposed to ignore them) . "May I ask what were your words when you—you have given us Mr. Loring's—were communicating the General's message to him? Were they, for example, carefully chosen? Did you observe courtesy of manner, avoiding all that could irritate, or——"
"Of course I did. You never saw a man so contemptuously, insultingly cool in your life. ”

“ Knowing your trials, and"—glancing at the girl's pale face—"with what object you suffered them, I had respected you, whilst desiring an opportunity to point out to you the falsity of your position. I had thought that a man who could win such a prize as has fallen to your lot must, essentially, be above all that was petty—all that was mean." ”

“ But should not good sense and paternal affection impel me to make you capable of preserving and defending that fortune, at all events, if not of developing it? My ignorance of the law had placed me a hundred times at the mercy of foolish or treacherous advice. I had been victimized by those parasites of pettifoggery who, having neither any genuine knowledge nor any healthy understanding of business, demand blind submission from their clients, and endanger their most valuable interests by folly, obstinacy, presumption, false tactics, useless subtleties and the rest. ”