Caleb felt a deep pity for him, but he could have used no pretexts to account for his resolve, even if they would have been of any use.
Bulstrode saw in it not only medical jealousy but a determination to thwart himself, prompted mainly by a hatred of that vital religion of which he had striven to be an effectual lay representative—a hatred which certainly found pretexts apart from religion such as were only too easy to find in the entanglements of human action.
Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963), "Texts and Pretexts", 1932 Experience teaches only the teachable.
