How terrible it would have been. . . to have lived without even attempting to lay claim to one’s portion of the earth; to have lived and died as one has been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated. (Prologue)

He has begun to wait, not only for love, but for the world to yield its sweetness and romance. He deferred all his pleasure in life until that day. (Chapter 2)

Mr. Biswas has no money or position. He was expected to become a Tulsi. (Chapter 3)

There is, in some weak people who feel their own weakness and resent it, a certain mechanism which, operating suddenly and without conscious direction, releases them from final humiliation. (Chapter 3)

Living in a wife-beating society, he couldn’t understand why women were even allowed to nag or how nagging could have any effect. (Chapter 4)

For Shama and her sisters and women like them, ambition, if the word could be used, was a series of... (Chapter 4)