Daily Inspiration Quote by William Hamilton Maxwell

A line like this is a novelist's quiet trapdoor: it drops you into a room full of friction before you even know who is speaking. "Never were two people more opposite" has the hyperbolic snap of oral storytelling, the kind that primes a reader for comedy, conflict, or both. Maxwell isn't merely sketching personalities; he's staging a social experiment. By framing the companions as polarities in "sentiment", he signals that what's at stake isn't just taste or temperament, but values, loyalties, and the emotional politics of a group.

The phrasing also does sly narrative work. "My companions" sounds casual, even affectionate, yet the absolute claim ("never") reveals a narrator already sorting people into types. That taxonomic impulse is a classic engine of 19th-century fiction: characters become readable as embodiments of competing moral moods - cynicism versus idealism, prudence versus passion, patriotism versus opportunism. The subtext is that opposition is useful. It sharpens dialogue, forces choices, and gives the narrator an excuse to hover above the scene as interpreter and judge.

Contextually, Maxwell's era prized the social tableau: travel, military life, and clubby masculinity offered ready-made ensembles where class and ideology collided under the cover of camaraderie. "Sentiment" carries extra period weight, pointing to sensibility and moral feeling as much as opinion. The intent, then, is not neutral description; it's an invitation to watch how incompatible emotional codes coexist - briefly - before the plot demands someone yield, erupt, or reveal their true colors.