From ‘Dead Souls’, Nikolai Gogol, Naxos Audiobook, uncertain translator

“You would never hear from him [Manilov] a hasty or even overeager word, such as you may hear from almost anyone if you touch on a subject that upsets him. Everyone has his weak spot. In one man, it takes the form of hounds. Another imagines that he is a great amateur of music and has a wonderful feeling for its inmost depths. A third is proud of his feats at the dining table. A fourth is for playing a part if only one inch higher than that allotted him by fate. A fifth with more limited aspirations dreams waking and sleeping of being seen on the promenade with a court agitant to the admiration of his friends and acquaintances and of strangers too indeed. A sixth is endowed with a hand which feels a supernatural prompting to turn down the corner of an ace of diamonds or a two, while a seventh positively itches to maintain discipline everywhere and to enforce his views on stationmasters and cabmen. In short, everyone has some peculiarity.”