Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Awkwardness
Awkward, embarrassed, stiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully or standing still,
One leg, as if suspicious of his brother,
Desirous seems to run away from t’other.
Churchill—Rosciad. L. 438.
What’s a fine person, or a beauteous face,
Unless deportment gives them decent grace?
Blessed with all other requisites to please,
Some want the striking elegance of ease;
The curious eye their awkward movement tires:
They seem like puppets led about by wires.
Churchill—Rosciad. L. 741.
God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth.
Emerson—Society and Solitude.
With ridiculous and awkward action,
Which, slanderer, he imitation calls.
Troilus and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 149.