"The Remains of the Day" [.]

I didn't realize it at that time, but "Lords of Finance" is excellent background reading for this novel. The motives of the British, the French, the Germans, and the Americans are much easier to follow if one can remember who owes money to whom. Of course, attitudes is a slightly different matter.

• 'Such persons are not only socially repugnant, in the climate of our present day they are extremely dangerous... To what extent does his abominable behaviour exemplify the attitude of the present American administration?'
• 'The days when you could act out of your noble instincts are over... You here in Europe need professionals to run your affairs.'
• 'What you describe as "amateurism", sir, is what I think most of us here still prefer to call "honour".' {It's interesting to compare 'honour' with 'dignity'.}
• (That yeoman's) statements were, surely, far too idealistic, far too theoretical, to deserve respect... It is.. absurd that anyone should presume to define a person's 'dignity' in these terms.
• (Lord Darlington:) 'Democracy is something for a bygone era. The world's far too complicated a place now for universal suffrage and such like.'  

The tragedy:

• We were a much more idealistic generation. .. we tended to concern ourselves much more with the _moral status of an employer. .. we were ambitious, in a way that would have been unusual a generation before, to serve gentlemen who were, so to speak, furthering the progress of humanity.
• Our generation was the first to recognize something..: debates are conducted, and crucial decisions arrived at, in the privacy and calm of the great houses of this country... To us, the world was a wheel, revolving with these great houses at the hub.
• The surest means of doing so would be to serve the great gentlemen of our times in whose hands civilization had been entrusted.
• For it is, in practice, simply not possible to adopt such a critical attitude towards an employer and at the same time provide good service.
• There must surely come a time when (a butler) ceases his searching; a time when he must say to himself: 'This employer embodies all that I find noble and admirable. I will hereafter devote myself to serving him.' This is loyalty intelligently bestowed. What is there 'undignified' in this?
• It is hardly my fault if his lordship's life and work have turned out today to look, at best, a sad waste - and it is quite illogical that I should feel any regret or shame on my own account.
• 'At least (Lord Darlington) had the privilege of being able to say at the end of his life that he made his won mistakes.'

__ It is not such a foolish thing to indulge in - particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.<<