Skewered through and through with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape.
Interpretation
This quote humorously illustrates the overwhelming bureaucracy of office life.
Charles Dickens paints a vivid picture of the constraints and frustrations of work life through this quote. The imagery of being 'skewered' by office pens and bound by 'red tape' symbolizes the ways in which mundane office supplies and bureaucratic regulations can trap and hinder employees, suggesting a critique of the modern working environment where creativity and freedom are stifled by routine and red tape.
In practice
During a corporate presentation on company policy, one might use this quote to illustrate the burdens of bureaucracy.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
What is funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously.
I have no intention of retiring; I can't imagine not doing stand-up. That's where I started and where I'll be.
Twas Noah who first planted the vine_x000D_ _x000D_ And mended his morals by drinking its wine.
I didn't tell any of my friends that I wanted to be a comedian, because I was superstitious. I thought if I told people, it wouldn't happen. So I kept it all in my head for years and years.
Biologically, I'm 10. Chronologically, I'm 33. In hockey years, I'm 66.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.