Obliged

Famous quotes containing the word obliged:

    “Of course we all know that you are a gentleman.”
    “I am much obliged to you; but I do not know any word that requires a definition so much as that.”
    Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)

    When a man of sense happens to be in that disagreeable situation in which he is obliged to ask himself more than once, What shall I do? he will answer himself, Nothing. When his reason points out to him no good way, he will stop short, and wait for light. A little busy mind runs on at all events, must be doing; and, like a blind horse, fears no dangers, because he sees none. Il faut scavoir s’ennuïer.*
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)