"What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesnt come every day." 26
"MRS PEARCE. (...) It's not right. She should think of the future.
HIGGINS. At her age! Nonsense! Time enough to think of the future when you havnt any future to think of." 30-31
"Besides, do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it?" 31
"Have you ever met a man of good character where women are concerned?" 35
" DOOLITTLE. (...) Regarded in the light of a young woman, she's a fine handsome girl. As a daughter she's not worth her keep; and so I tell you straight. All I ask is my rights as a father; and youre the last man alive to expect me to let her go for nothing; for I can see youre one of the straight sort, Governor. Well, whats a five-pound note to you? And whats Eliza to me ? [He turns to his chair and sits down judicially]
PICKERING. I think you ought to know, Doolittle, that Mr Higgins's intentions are entirely honorable.
DOOLITTLE. Course they are, Governor. If I thought they wasnt, I'd ask fifty." 43
DOOLITTLE. Course they are, Governor. If I thought they wasnt, I'd ask fifty." 43
"PICKERING. Have you no morals, man?
DOOLITTLE [unabashed] Cant afford them, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me." 43
DOOLITTLE [unabashed] Cant afford them, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me." 43
"DOOLITTLE. (...) I'm one of the undeserving poor: thats what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he's up agen middle class morality all the time. If theres anything going, and I put in for a bit of it, it's always the same story: "Youre undeserving; so you cant have it." But my needs is as great as the most deserving widow's that ever got money out of six different charities in one week for the death of the same husband. I dont need less than a deserving man: I need more. I dont eat less hearty than him; and I drink a lot more. (...) I aint pretending to be deserving. I'm undeserving; and I mean to go on being undeserving. I like it; and thats the truth." 43-44
"HIGGINS. I suppose we must give him a fiver.
PICKERING. He'll make a bad use of it, I'm afraid.
DOOLITTLE. Not me, Governor, so help me I wont. Dont you be afraid that I'll save it and spare it and live idle on it. There wont be a penny of it left by Monday." 44-45
"DOOLITTLE. No, Governor. (...) Ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a man feel prudent like; and then goodbye to happiness." 45
"DOOLITTLE. (...) Ive no hold on her. I got to be agreeable to her. I got to give her presents. I got to buy her clothes something sinful. I'm a slave to that woman, Governor, just because I'm not her lawful husband. And she knows it too. (...) Take my advice, Governor: marry Eliza while she's young and dont know no better. If you dont youll be sorry for it after. If you do, she'll be sorry for it after; but better her than you, because youre a man, and she's only a woman and dont know how to be happy anyhow." 45
"HIGGINS. Doolittle: you have brought your daughter up too strictly.
DOOLITTLE. Me! I never brought her up at all, except to give her a lick of strap now and again." 47
"LIZA. (...) You dont know my father. All he come here for was to touch you for some money to get drunk on.
DOOLITTLE. Well, what else would I want money for? To put into the plate in church, I suppose." 47
"DOOLITTLE. (...) I aint such a mug as to put up my children to all I know myself. Hard enough to hold them in without that." 47
"you shouldnt cut your old friends now that you have risen in the world. Thats what we call snobbery." 48
"MISS EYNSFORD HILL (...) If people would only be frank and say what they really think!
HIGGINS. [relapsing into gloom] Lord forbid! (...) What they think they ought to think is bad enough, Lord knows; but what they really think would break up the whole show. Do you suppose it would be really agreeable if I were to come out now with what I really think?" 56
HIGGINS. [relapsing into gloom] Lord forbid! (...) What they think they ought to think is bad enough, Lord knows; but what they really think would break up the whole show. Do you suppose it would be really agreeable if I were to come out now with what I really think?" 56
"Theres lots of women has to make their husbands drunk to make them fit to live with." 59
"Doolittle: either youre an honest man or a rogue.
DOOLITTLE [tolerantly] A little bit of both, Henry, like the rest of us: a little of both." 88
DOOLITTLE [tolerantly] A little bit of both, Henry, like the rest of us: a little of both." 88
"HIGGINS. Dont you dare try this game on me. I taught it to you; and it doesnt take me in. Get up and come home; and dont be a fool.
(...)
MRS HIGGINS. Very nicely put, indeed, Henry. No woman could resist such an invitation." 92
(...)
MRS HIGGINS. Very nicely put, indeed, Henry. No woman could resist such an invitation." 92
"You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated." 93
"The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another." 98
"I think a woman fetching a man's slippers is a disgusting sight: did I ever fetch your slippers? I think a good deal more of you for throwing them in my face. No use slaving for me and then saying you want to be cared for: who cares for a slave?" 99
"Would the world ever have been made if its maker had been afraid of making trouble? Making life means making trouble. Theres only one way of escaping trouble; and thats killing things. Cowards, you notice, are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed." 100
"I know I'm a common ignorant girl, and you a book-learned gentleman; but I'm not dirt under your feet." 101-102
"if youre going to be a lady, youll have to give up feeling neglected if the men you know dont spend half their time snivelling over you and the other half giving you black eyes." 102
"If you cant appreciate what youve got, youd better get what you can appreciate." 102
The author's notes:
of Higgins "This makes him a standing puzzle to the huge number of uncultivated people who have been brought up in tasteless homes by commonplace or disagreeable parents, and to whom, consequently, literature, painting, sculpture, music, and affectionate personal relations come as modes of sex if they come at all. The word passion means nothing else to them" 106
"The weak may not be admired and hero-worshipped; but they are by no means disliked or shunned; and they never seem to have the least difficulty in marrying people who are too good for them. Them may fail in emergencies; but life is not one long emergency: it is mostly a string of situations for which no exceptional strentgh is needed, and with which even rather weak people can cope f they have a stronger partner to help them out" 108
"his indifference is deeper than the infatuation of commoner souls." 118
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