“Swear at me two or three times, and then perhaps I shall feel that I am properly punished.”

Turning an apology for delayed correspondence into playful self-punishment · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Friendship
• Humour
• Letters

“I think it may be an object of curiosity to you, though it cannot have much interest to one who does not know the characters concerned.”

Recognising how much humour depends upon shared knowledge and context · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Conversation
• Humour
• Understanding

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

Celebrating careful observation of what ordinary attention overlooks · Literary remark, quoted in the memoir

• Attention
• Discovery
• Observation