Now, what I want is, Facts.
Here is a wonderful excerpt from a lesser known book by Charles Dickens called “Hard Times“. Every now and then I go looking for this bit, and so I post it here for my own benefit, as well as by way of a recommendation of this book. It is rather a scathing indictment of many of the driving principles of Victorian England. Dickens executes this polemic with a wry acerbity that makes me laugh out loud:
Thomas Gradgrind, Sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, Sir—peremptorily Thomas—Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, Sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic. You might hope to get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George Gradgrind, or Augustus Gradgrind, or John Gradgrind, or Joseph Gradgrind (all supposititious, non-existent persons), but into the head of Thomas Gradgrind—no, Sir!
I nicked the excerpt from a page at randomhouse.com. And there is more where that came from.