But suppose I hang about till eighty and die a childish old gentleman with a mind all gone to seed. What am I going to do then? I shall have to begin all over again: perhaps worse off than I was before. That's not going to help us much."
Joan explained it to him: that old age might be likened to an illness. A genius lies upon a bed of sickness and babbles childish nonsense. But with returning life he regains his power, goes on increasing it. The mind, the soul, has not decayed. It is the lines of communication that old age has destroyed.英文原著 · 《All Roads Lead to Calvary》
He asked her what her father used to do, and was assured that he did everything--that there was nothing he could not do. Divine absurdity of childish faith!--infinite artlessness of childish love! Probably the little girl's parents had been residents of New Orleans--dwellers of the old colonial quarter,--the faubourg, the faubou'.英文原著 · 《Chita-A Memory of Last Island》
She resolved to plead with him for Beatrice, to ask him to forget a childish, foolish promise--a childish error. "My sister is very unhappy," she said, bravely; "so unhappy that I do not think she can bear much more; it will kill her or drive her mad."
"It is killing me," he interrupted. "You do not look cruel, Mr. Fernely," continued Lillian. "Your face is good and true--I would trust you. Release my sister. She was but a foolish, impetuous child when she made you that promise. If she keeps it, all her life will be wretched.英文原著 · 《Dora Thorne》
The sunlight through an oriel window fell on the childish face and figure, glinting the yellow hair, and lighting up the radiant face, that yet had a tender, loving glance for the two who waited for her below. One little foot was poised, just in the act of stepping down to the next lower stair, and the fat hand grasped the polished railing, expressive of just enough caution to make it truly childish. In after years Jasper never thought of Phronsie without bringing up this picture on that April morning, when Polly and he sat at the foot of the stairs, and looked up and saw it.英文原著 · 《Five Little Peppers And How They Grew》
'And what made him drink?' said Madalina with emphasis. 'Never mind. I decline altogether to speak of it. Such a scene as I have had! I was driven at last to tell her what I thought of her. Anything so callous, so heartless, so selfish, so stone-cold, and so childish, I never saw before! That Maria was childish and selfish I always knew;--but I thought there was some heart--a vestige of heart. I found today that there was none--none.英文原著 · 《The Last Chronicle of Barset》
"I don't think I ought to be judged as if I were in my sober senses," she replied. "I was frightened within an inch of my life. I told you this morning that I was dreadfully afraid of bulls, especially mad ones, and I told you that my nurse frightened me, when I was a child, with awful stories about them, and that I never outgrew my childish terror. I looked everywhere about: the barn was too far, the fence too high, I saw him coming, and there was nothing but you and the open country; of course I took you. It was very natural, I'm sure,--any girl would have done it."英文原著 · 《A Cathedral Courtship》
That's why you're lashing out in here, defensive, allowing your rage at yourself to manifest in boorish, childish behavior.美剧 · 《Billions》