Borrowed Words

The Hand of Ethelberta - Thomas Hardy

1. She appeared to belong to that gentle order of society which has no worldly sorrow except when its jewellery gets stolen.

Thomas Hardy often has a technique in which he uses characteristics which are assumed of people to describe their personality instead of just stating the adjectives for it. So instead of saying that she seemed like a spoilt and rich woman he uses this example which makes gives this ordinary person so much depth.

2. It is a blessed arrangement that one does not feel a sentimental grief at all when additional grief comes in the shape of practical misfortune.

Since you have to deal with a practical misfortune at the moment it happens and that is the one which is visible to all, as well as that is the one which has direct ways of overcoming. So the author is admiring how the practical misfortune in a way saves the person from having to deal with the sentimental grief as their mind has to focus on more important things that moment. 

3. What seems to be the most prominent vice or most prominent virtue in, in anybody's writing is the one thing you're safest from personal dealing with the writer.

I personally doubt this theory, but a character in this novel said it and it did make sense that if somebody is writing about something in excess it probably is because they are craving that thing in reality..

4. Everybody is so talented these days that the only people I care to honour as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity.

Seriously don't you get annoyed by people who are just good at everything and want to applaud the people who aren't making you feel useless.

5. Like the British Constitution she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.

He's used satire, and he has successfully put the person on a pedestal while degrading them at the same time.

6. He was getting so well accustomed to the spectacle of the world passing him by and splashing him by the wheels that he wondered why he had ever minded it.

This is all of us whenever we get our hopes up and get them crashed.

7. If I had to describe you I should say that you were a child in your impulses and an old man in your reflections.

Of course, it is only when we have done the stupid thing that we look back at it and regret, and that is the time we decide to get tough on ourselves.

8. Experimentally, I don't care to succeed in society, but at the bottom of my heart I don't care.

Isn't that exactly how it should be! We don't really need to be successful with our people skills, but the effort should be because of our choice.