“Vorpal had the trick of adding a Malay enclitic to his utterances. This also had power to irritate, especially in the mornings. It irritated Nabby Adams that this should irritate him, but somewhere at the back of his brain was the contempt of the man learned in languages for the silly show-off, jingling the small change of ‘wallah’ and charpoy…”

“The man irritated her just like a rash.”

“The day obedience becomes a quest and not an irritation is the day you gain power.”

“I have tried to be impartial, though I know that a man's past always colors his views, and that nothing else is so irritating as impartiality.”

“He was meaner, more irritable, more impatient for the ultimate power which could only be his through the elimination of all rivals; and if he had ever had any scruples, any love at all for even a monkey, a book, or a sword-hilt, all this, and even this, had been cauterized and drowned away.”

“Nothing is more irritating and hurtful than a person who makes promises and breaks them over and over again. It shows lack of consideration for the other's feelings and also means the person cannot be trusted or relied upon. Do not make promises you feel you may not be able to keep, because besides being irritating, it also ruins character.”

“I was half asleep but I smiled. In spite of all his irritating qualities, I couldn't help liking a man who despised a fictional character with such passion.”

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.”

“Knowledge, having irritated and stimulated our appetite for power, will lead us inexorably to our ruin.”

“A dog,” said Mr. Baldock, in his lecture-room style, which was capable of rousing almost anybody to violent irritation, “has an extraordinary power of bolstering up the human ego.”