C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.

Awkwardness

Awkwardness is a more real disadvantage than it is generally thought to be; it often occasions ridicule, it always lessens dignity.

Chesterfield.

Not all the pumice of the polish’d town
Can smooth the roughness of the barnyard clown;
Rich, honor’d, titled, he betrays his race
By this one mark—he’s awkward in his face.

Holmes.

Awkward, embarrassed, stiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully or standing still,
One leg, as if suspicious of his brother,
Desirous seems to run away from t’other.

Churchill.

What’s a fine person, or a beauteous face,
Unless deportment gives them decent grace?
Blessed with all other requisites to please,
Some want the striking elegance of ease;
The curious eye their awkward movement tires:
They seem like puppets led about by wires.

Churchill.

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