"Marvelous is the power which can be exercised, almost unconsciously, over a company, or an individual, or even upon a crowd by one person gifted with good temper, good digestion, good intellects, and good looks"
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Charm, in Trollope's hands, is less a mystical aura than a bodily technology. The sly genius of this line is how it drags influence down from the realm of lofty “character” and plants it in the gut. “Good temper” and “good intellects” sound like virtues you cultivate; “good digestion” and “good looks” are the blunt instruments of the everyday, half luck and half maintenance. Trollope is puncturing the Victorian fantasy that authority is purely moral or earned. Power, he implies, often arrives “almost unconsciously,” transmitted through mood, energy, and physical ease before anyone has time to argue with it.
The sentence also works as a quiet social indictment. A “company,” an “individual,” even “a crowd” can be steered not by the best idea but by the person whose body signals comfort and whose demeanor makes others relax into agreement. It’s a portrait of soft coercion: influence that doesn’t feel like force because it’s delivered as pleasantness. Trollope understands the politics of likability long before it became a management doctrine or a campaign strategy.
Context matters: Trollope wrote in an era obsessed with manners, class performance, and the fine gradations of respectability. By bundling digestion with intellect, he exposes how often social success depends on appearing unruffled, well-fed, and at ease in one’s skin. The subtext is bracingly modern: charisma is not just personality; it’s metabolism, presentation, and the privilege of not being visibly strained.
The sentence also works as a quiet social indictment. A “company,” an “individual,” even “a crowd” can be steered not by the best idea but by the person whose body signals comfort and whose demeanor makes others relax into agreement. It’s a portrait of soft coercion: influence that doesn’t feel like force because it’s delivered as pleasantness. Trollope understands the politics of likability long before it became a management doctrine or a campaign strategy.
Context matters: Trollope wrote in an era obsessed with manners, class performance, and the fine gradations of respectability. By bundling digestion with intellect, he exposes how often social success depends on appearing unruffled, well-fed, and at ease in one’s skin. The subtext is bracingly modern: charisma is not just personality; it’s metabolism, presentation, and the privilege of not being visibly strained.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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