““The son of a respectable Collector of Customs, he had been educated at Winchester and Oxford, where his industry and piety had given him a conspicuous place among his fellow students. It is true that, as a schoolboy, a certain pompousness in the style of his letters home suggested to the more clear-sighted among his relatives the possibility that young Thomas (Arnold) might grow up into a prig; but, after all, what else could be expected from a child who, at the age of three, had been presented by his father, as a reward for proficiency in his studies, with the twenty-four volumes of Smollett's History of England?””
![“His adolescents are displaced aristocrats who have lost their kingdom and wealth, which was childhood. [On J.D. Salinger]” quote by Heather O'Neill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b03/heather-o-neill-4972_aristocrats_his-adolescents-are-displaced-aristocrat_1671859.jpg)
![“[My grandfather] returned to what he called ‘studying.’ He sat looking down at his lap, his left hand idle on the chair arm, his right scratching his head, his white hair gleaming in the lamplight. I knew that when he was studying he was thinking, but I did not know what about. Now I have aged…” quote by Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8b6/wendell-berry-236_civil-war_my-grandfather-returned-to-what-he-calle_1877401.jpg)
