“He was a great deal too full of the market to think of any thing else – which is just as it should be, for a thriving man. What has he to do with books? And I have no doubt that he will thrive, and be a very rich man in time – and his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb us.”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 4. Farmer Robert Martin admits to being too busy and forgetting to pick up a book recommended by Harriet. Emma uses this to persuade Harriet to rule him out as a romantic partner. She criticizes him, unfairly, as an illiterate man too focused on business and becoming rich.