How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"[…] death, destruction, anarchy, progress, ambition, and self-improvement were to be Piers' new fate. And a vicious fate it was to be: now he was faced with the perversion of having to GO TO WORK." (2.4)
Here Ignatius is explaining how the man of the Middle Ages has been forced to become the worker of the modern era. It's silly to say that folks in the Middle Ages didn't work, of course, but the main point here is that Ignatius is predicting his own horrible destiny. It's a foreshadowing of the job applications on the horizon.
Quote #2
"Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel," Ignatius belched. "Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity." (2.7)
Ignatius is lying down while praying and belching—you can almost see the wheel being turned by the gas from his eruptions. You also get a sense of why the philosophy of Fortuna is so pleasing to the inert. Since you can't affect your fate, you can just lie back and burp and wait.
Quote #3
"If I must go out tomorrow, I am not leaving the house so early. I felt very disoriented all the while I was downtown."
"You didn't leave here until after lunch." (3.40-41)
Ignatius's laziness is the main excuse for him and his mother to bicker. His tireless invention in the service of his tiredness is continually impressive.