The interests of capital and labour are at war with each other; the rich and the poor are as two armies made ready for battle, and the question is, What can we do to bridge over the gulf between the classes, and to induce them each to work for, instead of against, the other?
It is these transition stages which have proved the most difficult epochs in the world's history." "I hate transition stages and revolutions, they are so unsettling.

It seems to me they are just like the day when your room is cleaned; and that is the most uncomfortable day in the whole week.

Don't you know it?
You go upstairs in the accustomed way, fearing nothing; but when you open the door you find the air dark with dust and the floor with tea-leaves, and nothing looking as it ought to look.

Prone on its face on the bed, covered with a winding-sheet, lies your overthrown looking-glass; and underneath it, in a shapeless mass, are huddled together all the things that you hold dearest upon earth.

You thrust in your hand to get something that you want, and it is a pure chance whether your Bible or your button-hook rises to the surface.