Home > Topic > housebreaking
1 " I told them he'd be able to get you to go out." Rianne folded her winnings and tucked the bills into her blazer pocket. " Look at him." " He's right here, Ri," Carla murmured, shooting Keenan an apologetic look." We've tried to teach her manners, but..." She shrugged. " It's like housebreaking a dog. If we'd had her when she was a puppy, maybe." Rianne smacked her on the arm, but she was grinning. " Woof, woof. "
2 " The doctor seemed especially troubled by the fact of the robbery having been unexpected, and attempted in the night-time; as if it were the established custom of gentlemen in the housebreaking way to transact business at noon, and to make an appointment, by the twopenny post, a day or two previous. "
― Charles Dickens , Oliver Twist
3 " Teach him something useful, will you?" Elorian shook his head. " It is like housebreaking a puppy. There are bound to be lots of accidents and lots of cleanups." Frustrated beyond measure with the whole situation, her missing staff, an out-of control mage, a frozen mage, and a cursed phantom fae turned raven, Ena couldn't believe the mess they were in. "
4 " Another savage trait of our time is the disposition to talk about material substances instead of about ideas. The old civilisation talked about the sin of gluttony or excess. We talk about the Problem of Drink--as if drink could be a problem. When people have come to call the problem of human intemperance the Problem of Drink, and to talk about curing it by attacking the drink traffic, they have reached quite a dim stage of barbarism. The thing is an inverted form of fetish worship; it is no sillier to say that a bottle is a god than to say that a bottle is a devil. The people who talk about the curse of drink will probably progress down that dark hill. In a little while we shall have them calling the practice of wife-beating the Problem of Pokers; the habit of housebreaking will be called the Problem of the Skeleton-Key Trade; and for all I know they may try to prevent forgery by shutting up all the stationers' shops by Act of Parliament. "
― G.K. Chesterton , All Things Considered
