How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
But thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous. (2.170)
The lawyer is saying he decided to get rid of Bartleby because his friends were less generous than him and nagged him. But the truth is that the lawyer always takes the easiest path. He didn't bother doing anything about Bartleby because that would have taken effort; then his friends prodded him, and so it became easier to follow along with them and try to get rid of Bartleby after all. The lawyer isn't generous; he's just lazy.
Quote #8
"Or does he live without dining?"
"Lives without dining," said I, and closed his eyes.
"Eh!—He's asleep, ain't he?"
"With kings and counselors," murmured I. (2.247-250)
Bartleby lived without doing anything, so living for him wasn't that much different from being dead. But the Biblical quotation suggests that Bartleby wasn't that unusual; everyone dies eventually, no matter what they did with their lives. Bartleby just preferred not to pretend otherwise.
Quote #9
Captain Delano was not without the idea, that had Benito Cereno been a man of greater energy, misrule would hardly have come to the present past. (3.23)
Don Benito is described through much of the book as lacking energy, or being lazy. And he is—Babo is a lot more effective than Benito is. So Benito's pretense of passivity is actually a real truth of passivity. He is as ineffectual as he looks.