Bartleby, the Scrivener

by Herman Melville

the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.

His countenance became intolerably fervid, as he oratorically assured me--gesticulating with a long ruler at the other end of the room--that if his services in the morning were useful, how indispensable, then, in the afternoon? With submission, sir, said Turkey on his occasion, I consider myself your right-hand man. In the morning I but marshal and deploy my columns; but in the afternoon I put myself at their head, and gallantly charge the foe, thus! --and he made a violent thrust with the ruler.

I always deemed him the victim of two evil powers--ambition and indigestion.

Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.