Word: trait
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...utter folly of prohibition is not so much that it gives rise to law-breaking of every description, as that it disregards a fundamental trait of man: deny him something and he wants it more than ever. If our fourteen years under this travesty of legislation have done nothing else, they have conclusively proved that man's habits cannot be regulated...
...Some families has one weakness and some has another." The Jeeter weakness, sufficiently pronounced to be recognized by everybody as a family trait, was the girls' tendency to have babies before they were married. Ma Jeeter admitted the tendency frankly, philosophically, but she never made the mistake of regarding it as more than a minor failing...
...find another of their kind to mate with. They seem to be less hardy than normal mice. Waltzing mothers often tangle their babies so tightly in the nest material or in their own long tails that the mouselets suffocate or starve. Captivity and inbreeding are necessary to perpetuate the trait in whole families...
...impossible to associate such cheap tactics with one whose conduct heretofore was strictly noblesse oblige. A characteristic prodigality has always been the Prince's distinguishing trait. A good illustration of this was the time when, having only fifteen dollars between him and the park bench, he dined on caviar. Strassbourgh goose liver, and champagne to the tune of twelve dollars, left a three dollar tip, and then stalked royally out without a cent in his pocket...
Competition is the keynote of Yale. Though this generalization may not be airtight, to the outsider the most noticeable trait of the Yale undergraduate is that of being "on the make." The competition takes place in athletics and other forms of extra-curricular activity. Success is measured in terms of social recognition. There exists a good deal of equality of opportunity...