His high-mindedness and loftiness of thought blinded him to the sordidness of purpose which appears to have induced the general acquiescence in his desired system of mandates, and the same qualities of mind caused him to listen sympathetically to proposals, the acceptance of which would give actual proof of the unselfishness of the United States.

Sordidness in commercial life is not necessary: greed is not foreordained.

There is nothing in it of sordidness for sordidness' sake nor have the realists any philosophy of an unhappy ending.

They seemed to have inherited all the vice, the bad language, the ugly sordidness with which the place reeked.