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Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be; and those that wish to be foul, foul they will be.
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“Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be; and those that wish to be foul, foul they will be.”

Charles Kingsley

Source
The Water-Babies
Date
1863
Local voice
Fictional character · Irishwoman
Meaning

Meaning of “Those that wish to be clean, clean they…”

The fairy-tale warning connects desired moral change with the direction a person repeatedly chooses, while the surrounding story makes that lesson part of Tom’s larger transformation.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Water-Babies, represented by Project Gutenberg #1018. Tom recalls the mysterious Irishwoman’s warning while half asleep. The cleanliness language participates in Kingsley’s Victorian Christian moral fantasy and is not a scientific claim about character or hygiene.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

The Water-Babies. Tom remembers the mysterious Irishwoman’s warning while half asleep; this is fairy-tale character speech inside Kingsley’s Victorian moral fantasy.

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DeepGrowthInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityLifeLife AdviceMotivation For LifePersonal GrowthSelf ImprovementSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionReligion
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Source details

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“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.”

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Circumstances can expose habits of thought and character that were already present, turning difficulty into information about what needs attention or change.

Source details

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“Rest, that is to say, is not a thing that can be given, but a thing to be acquired.”

Henry Drummond · Pax Vobiscum · 1890
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Drummond treats inward rest as a condition developed through changed habits and spiritual orientation rather than something another person can simply hand over.

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“Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness.”

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Cather’s narrator presents artistic development as increasingly exact honesty about perception and expression rather than as mere technical display or sudden inspiration.

Source details

The Song of the Lark, Part VI, Chapter X, Project Gutenberg #44. ‘Artistic growth is... a refining of the sense of truthfulness’ is narrator reflection immediately after Harsanyi calls passion the artist's ‘open secret’ and as Thea Kronborg comes into fuller command of her mature performance. It belongs to Cather's fictional account of artistic formation and performance, not an empirical measurement of artistic development or a guarantee that all artists mature in the same way.

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“Culture is then properly described not as having its origin in curiosity, but as having its origin in the love of perfection.”

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Curiosity becomes more than collecting information when it is directed toward fuller development, better judgment, and a serious desire to improve understanding.

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“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

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Intellectual confidence can be improved by beginning with questions rather than pretending certainty too early.

Source details

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