Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
A physical description of extreme fear or nervousness using a simile involving fragile vegetables.
In plain terms
He was shaking badly from fear.
What can you take from it?
Vivid imagery conveys emotional states effectively.

Where it applies

  • stress
  • conflict
  • public scrutiny

Putting it to work

  • recognize stress
  • use imagery

Questions to consider

  • How do you recognize fear?
  • What signals nervousness?

Another view

It reduces complex emotion to physical weakness.

More from P. G. Wodehouse

  1. Blizzard was of the fine old school of butlers. His appearance suggested that for fifteen years he had not let a day pass without its pint of port. He radiated…

    Permalink to quote #39
  2. A certain critic-for such men, I regret to say, do exist-made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under di…

    Permalink to quote #41
  3. While they were content to peck cautiously at the ball, he never spared himself in his efforts to do it a violent injury.

    Permalink to quote #38

Related quotes

  1. My valor is certainly going!-it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!

    Richard Brinsley SheridanRichard Brinsley Sheridan quote #18
  2. Fear... can make you do more wrong than hate or jealousy. If you're afraid you don't commit yourself to life completely; fear makes you always, always hold som…

    Philip Kindred DickPhilip Kindred Dick quote #37
  3. Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.

    Vannevar BushVannevar Bush quote #55