How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
Poor fellow! thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary […] if I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to starve. Yes. Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby, to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience. (35)
Oh, interesting…the "moral" impulse we recognize here in the Narrator turns out to have a slightly sordid edge of self-serving satisfaction. We have to wonder how much of "morality" is actually motivated by this kind of desire.
Quote #5
up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. And when at last it is perceived that such pity cannot lead to effectual succor, common sense bids the soul be rid of it. (56)
The Narrator, perhaps in some bid to excuse his own inability to help Bartleby, tries here to convince us that perhaps morality and moral responsibility only stretch so far – and when it's obvious that there's nothing to be done, we might as well give up trying to help. Hmm…
Quote #6
Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle – a great safeguard to its possessor. (93)
Again we see the Narrator's interestingly pragmatic approach to morality rear its head; he seizes upon charity as a mode of self-preservation, rather than genuine goodwill.