"Misunderstand" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... accents of her native dialect were flavored with the strong waters which she seemed always to have been drinking, and she put her face close up to that of the good, all-sympathizing Amerikaner who alone patronized her shop, and talked her sorrows loudly into him, so that he should not misunderstand. ...
— A Little Swiss Sojourn • W. D. Howells
... Do not misunderstand me. Carefully weigh, probe, and examine, before God, your impressions and desires. Go into your closet, spread them there before the Lord. Lay them out, examine your own heart. Be sure there is no self-interest, no vain glory, no desire to be great, or to do some ...
— Godliness • Catherine Booth
... we won't acknowledge. How many times have you thought of my brother? I've thought of him every day—not in love; don't misunderstand; only as a medicine I shirked. Down in what they call the subconscious self he has been hurting me." His voice broke. "Oh, my darling, we acted a lie then, and this letter reminds us of it and gives us one more chance. I have to say 'we' lied. I should be lying again if I took ...
— The Longest Journey • E. M. Forster
... mistaken, or rather you pretend to misunderstand my remark. I did not say that he was a greater sufferer in body than myself; but his ...
— Louise de la Valliere • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... misunderstand me," he lifted his hand as the Secretary endeavoured to break in. "I thoroughly realize the responsibility of my position and that my great wealth is a sacred trust. Upon the answer to the question you have just put to me depends the destiny of the world, whether ...
— L. P. M. - The End of the Great War • J. Stewart Barney
... nor mistrust, nor misunderstand the tears in his eyes, nor despise him because I knew they would soon enough be dry. I did not doubt his sincerity when he said, "I have never done so bitter a thing as say 'good-bye' to this—though I know but too well ...
— Told in a French Garden - August, 1914 • Mildred Aldrich
... intention of quarreling with you, my child," said Frau Regine in an arrogant tone. "But I am, as you say, Toni's future mother-in-law, and as such deem it my duty to protect her from all improper intercourse. I beg you will not misunderstand me. I am not proud, and the grandchild of Dr. Volkmar is, in my eyes, a fit companion for my niece; but a lady of the theatre will, rightly enough, seek her companions among the theatrical circle, but here at Fuerstenstein—you ...
— The Northern Light • E. Werner
... misunderstand," smiled Silence. "I'm not fretting about you in the least. Far from it. I was seeking to give you a little compliment. Better tell your friends of the great Merriwell baseball team to do their level ...
— Frank Merriwell's Son - A Chip Off the Old Block • Burt L. Standish
... "You misunderstand me, my dear," she said quietly. "I allow myself to wonder at you a little, but I think no hard things of you ever. I believe ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... mind the obscure dramatist. But, Ellesmere, you really are unreasonable, if you suppose that, in the limits of a short essay, you can accurately distinguish all you write between the use and the abuse of a thing. The question is, will people misunderstand you—not, is the language such as to be logically impregnable? Now, in the present case, no man will really suppose it is a wise and just conformity that I ...
— Friends in Council (First Series) • Sir Arthur Helps
... goodness of her heart, and because of some sad and bitter circumstances, came here to-day to ask me to talk with you. I do this for her sake. You must not misunderstand me." He laid his hand a moment on her arm, ...
— The Price of the Prairie - A Story of Kansas • Margaret Hill McCarter
... named me would have pleased me as well. During the wild climb, and wilder drop, we had hardly spoken to each other, yet I felt that I could never misunderstand him, or try frivolously to aggravate him again. He was too good for all that, too good to be ...
— The Motor Maid • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson
... sudden spasm in the sunlight, a change so instantaneous that it left no trace behind it; and his features seemed still carved into a cold stare. But when he spoke again he seemed like a man who was placidly pretending to misunderstand something that he understood ...
— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton
... Do not misunderstand me as disparaging the construction companies: they do excellent work—and get excellent prices. You may not be able to afford an Italian garden, with hundreds of dollars' worth of rare plants, but that does not prevent your ...
— Gardening Indoors and Under Glass • F. F. Rockwell
... this impulse with the idea of the Last Supper: "Your remarks about the Lord's Supper in 'Whitman' make it natural to me to tell you my thoughts about that 'central sacrament of Christianity.' I cannot tell many people because they misunderstand, and a clergyman, a very great friend of mine, when I once told what I thought and felt, said I was carnal. He did not understand the divinity and intensity of human love as I understand it. Well, when one loves anyone very much,—a child, a woman, or a man,—one loves everything ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... bask happily in its warmth and light. Morally she seemed to be impotent. And the great gulf which must for ever divide her husband from her was his absolute disbelief that any human being can be morally impotent. He must for ever misunderstand her, because his power to read character was less acute than his power to love. And she, in her inmost chamber of the soul, though she might play a part to deceive, though she might seldom be, however often appearing to be, truly her natural self, had the desire, active surely ...
— Bella Donna - A Novel • Robert Hichens
... sentiments, he spoke, not as an individual, but as an Englishman, and most thoroughly did he believe that all who heard him owed in their hearts allegiance to the same faith. He is, if you like, a Pharisee—but do not misunderstand; his Pharisaism has nothing personal. That would be quite another kind of man; existing, to be sure, in England, but not as a national type. No; he is a Pharisee in the minor degree with regard to those of his countrymen who differ from him in dogma; he is Pharisee absolute ...
— The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft • George Gissing
... misunderstand the offer of credit. "Thank y'," he replied stiffly, "but we certainly ...
— The Plow-Woman • Eleanor Gates
... tragedy, and that the thought tormented her. But neither of them mentioned Falloden's name. Sorell put out his hand and grasped hers. "Otto's only thought about you is that you gave him the happiest evening he ever spent in England," he said with energy. "You won't misunderstand." ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... general elections. He said that Arthur Balfour was "like a general who, having given the command to his men to attack, found them attacking one another; when informed of this, he shrugs his shoulders and says that he can't help it if they will misunderstand his orders!" ...
— Margot Asquith, An Autobiography: Volumes I & II • Margot Asquith
... nature took offence at his apparent motive, as she understood it—a motive that appeared more selfish and unworthy every moment. He was asking what he had no right to expect of any one. But she would not misunderstand him, and therefore said with a grave, searching look, "Only then as I give you the hope you ask for, will you make the effort ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe
... this little book spent several years in composing his work, to the best of his ability, making the treatise brief and to the point, so that the reader may not become weary and misunderstand the true meaning. ...
— ABC's of Science • Charles Oliver
... not. I rather fancy we're good enough friends not to misunderstand each other. If you'll let me come and make up my time some other night, I'll skip out now, so quick you can't ...
— Patty's Success • Carolyn Wells
... more obvious and more stable. It was like some tropical plant which, for being cut down, grew ever with greater luxuriance. And there was a mischievous devil present at all their conversations that made them misunderstand one another as completely as though they spoke in different tongues. Notwithstanding their love, they were like strangers together; they could look at nothing from the ...
— The Hero • William Somerset Maugham
... now inhabits the land from which he came. When you read Uncle Tom's Cabin, remember that Uncle Tom was a product of slavery and that the fairer side as presented by Mrs. Stowe was the most common in the whole South. Do not misunderstand me; together with a large majority of the thinking white men of the South, I rejoice that slavery is a thing of the past; I would not have it again if I could; I see its frightful evils; but we must all acknowledge that slavery has been a potent factor for good in the evolution ...
— Church work among the Negroes in the South - The Hale Memorial Sermon No. 2 • Robert Strange
... he observed deliberately, "to talk as I do. Of course I do not mind what you choose to think of me; or rather I am sure you will not misunderstand." ...
— The Pagans • Arlo Bates
... "You misunderstand the fundamentals of friendship if you can talk like that," she said gently. "It is rooted in reticence in respect for another's individuality. Whatever you choose to do, you may be very sure that I shall neither doubt your good reasons, ...
— The Great Amulet • Maud Diver
... and appreciated. But the Roman Catholics are neither to be argued nor laughed out of their 'awful doctrine' of the real presence, to which they cling with desperate earnestness. Proselytes are apt to misunderstand, and make sad mistakes about, that doctrine. Two cases are cited by Hume in his 'Essay of the Natural History of Religion,' which he announces as 'pleasant stories, though somewhat profane.' According to one, a Priest gave inadvertently, instead of the sacrament, a counter, which had by ...
— An Apology for Atheism - Addressed to Religious Investigators of Every Denomination - by One of Its Apostles • Charles Southwell
... "Don't misunderstand me. One of my first thoughts admittedly was that here were millions waiting to be picked up. But the investigation soon made a number of ...
— Gone Fishing • James H. Schmitz
... her eyes from the girl's ingenuous face and permitted her to reveal the unselfishness and sacred pride of her nature; then she said gently and firmly: "No, Ella, I did not misunderstand you a moment, and I want you to understand me. In one sense we have been acquainted always, yet we have loved each other from personal knowledge but a few short hours. We Southern girls need no apologies for our swift intuitions, our quick, warm feelings. I had ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe
... rather accentuates than removes limitations, multiplies mistakes and embitters them. With a half-knowledge we misunderstand each other's ideals, we lose the point of the best things that are said, we fail to catch the aroma of the spices and the spirit of the living word; in fact, we are mere tourists in each other's mental world, and what word could better ...
— The Education of Catholic Girls • Janet Erskine Stuart
... she is," said Case. "I believe she's as right as the mail. Keeps to herself, don't go round with the gang, and that. O no, don't you misunderstand me—Uma's on the square." He spoke eager, I thought, and that surprised and pleased me. "Indeed," he went on, "I shouldn't make so sure of getting her, only she cottoned to the cut of your jib. All you have to do is to keep dark and let me work the mother my own way; and I'll bring the ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... not altogether to be blamed for occasional lapses; but this verdict he should not know. A moderately intelligent General will waste six months in mastering the craft of the particular war that he may be waging; a Colonel may utterly misunderstand the capacity of his regiment for three months after it has taken the field, and even a Company Commander may err and be deceived as to the temper and temperament of his own handful: wherefore the soldier, and the soldier of to-day more ...
— This is "Part II" of Soldiers Three, we don't have "Part I" • Rudyard Kipling
... "Don't misunderstand. There is no sentiment behind this promise. I imagine your protector will sacrifice much for your sake. Simply it is unnecessary to offer you any violence. Do you know who the man is ...
— The Drums Of Jeopardy • Harold MacGrath
... as you and I agreed was indispensable, is entirely absorbed in my personality. In your last letter you throw cold water on my proposed journey to Hamburg; and perhaps you are right in thinking the coup I planned not so great and critical as I have been imagining. But how you misunderstand my motives when you write: 'Cannot you, till your health is re-established, find contentment for a while in science, in friendship, in Nature?' You think politics the breath of my nostrils. Ah, how little ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... misunderstand me. I am not a closet Futurist, nor am I a strict pacifist, I just can't help feeling that there is another way. But I understand the selection of ideologies, how the stronger breaks the weaker to submission, and while one flourishes, the other diminishes, ...
— The Revolutions of Time • Jonathan Dunn
... lasted. He waited for her to speak; she tried repeatedly to do so. At length with apparent fear that he might misunderstand, ...
— The Mettle of the Pasture • James Lane Allen
... thinking of your own mother. You forget that you never see her. Any son can live with any mother under those conditions. The fact remains: nobody can misunderstand a boy like his own mother. Look around you, and see if it is not true! Honour thy father and thy mother. Perhaps. But we must civilize our mothers before we can expect any rational companionship between them and their sons. Girls are different. ...
— South Wind • Norman Douglas
... in the cabin when at last, detaching himself from his usual lounging place, the door-post, he walked to the window and leaned, more shadowy than ever, over Wayne's chair. "I want to tell you suthin'," he said slowly, "that I don't want you to misunderstand—you follow me? and that ain't no ways carpin' or criticisin' nor reflectin' on YOU—you understand what I mean? Ever sens you and me had that talk here about you and Safie, and ever sens I got the hang of your ways and your style o' thinkin', I've been as sure of you and her as if I'd been myself ...
— The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... hastily interposed Miss Elting. "Please do not misunderstand me. We are quite satisfied with you, but I hope you will be cautious. It is plain that you have an enemy, and, what is more, I am positive that I have talked with that man, and that we ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills - The Missing Pilot of the White Mountains • Janet Aldridge
... was to her the most precious thing in her life. In closing she emphasized the counsel she had given, to be "United and conciliatory in our relations with each other; to be just; to suspend judgment; and to wait long and trust God who knows all. He," she declared, "will not misunderstand you." ...
— Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June" • Various
... said he, "how yon misunderstand me, and how unwelcome I must be; but I had to come, so as to assure you that I hope to find this man who is missing. I—I hope to do so before the—the trial. I have been searching all along, but without success—thus far. I wish to assure you that I have found out a way by which you—will ...
— The Living Link • James De Mille
... are going to misunderstand me! Of course, you are not a trouble to me. You know that I love you better than ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... in contrast with her composure: 'You will misunderstand me for a day or two, Renee. I say if you were free I should have my first love mine for ever. Don't fear me: I have no right even to press your fingers. He may throw you into my arms. Now you are the same as if you were in your own home: and you must accept me for your guide. By all I hope for ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... 'You misunderstand me,' he said quietly. 'It is because I have sucked civilization dry that I know the bitterness of the fruit. I want a simpler and better world, and I want that world for my own people. I am a Christian, and will you tell me that your civilization pays much attention ...
— Prester John • John Buchan
... simply enforced but it shall seem to countenance a vice; while the work of qualification and explanation both weakens the force of what is said, and is not perhaps always likely to be with patience received: so also those who desire to misunderstand or to oppose have it always in their power to become obtuse listeners or specious opponents. Thus I hardly dare insist upon the virtue of completion, lest I should be supposed a defender of Wouvermans or Gerard Dow; neither can I adequately praise the power of Tintoret, without ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin
... quarters, near Columbus, a preacher came in and said he wanted to sell all the property he could to the army and get greenbacks, as he desired to move to Illinois, where his brother-in-law resided, and his Confederate notes would not be worth a dime there. "How is that, Parson," said Davis, affecting to misunderstand him; "not worth a damn there?" "No, sir, no, sir; not worth a dime, sir. You misunderstood me, sir. I said not worth a dime there." "I beg your pardon, Parson," responded Davis; "I thought you said not worth a damn there, and was surprised ...
— The Citizen-Soldier - or, Memoirs of a Volunteer • John Beatty
... true that one of the most important functions of the municipal and state "Bosses" has been that of conducting negotiations with the corporations. But to consider the specialized organization of our local politics as the direct result of specialized organization of American business is wholly to misunderstand its significance. The two processes are the parallel effects of the same conditions and ideas working in different fields. Business efficiency under the conditions prevailing in our political and economic fabric demanded the "Captain of Industry." ...
— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly
... "Do not misunderstand me," she proceeded. "I give it to King James—not so you: for the furtherance of a great and holy cause, not for the prosecution of ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth
... you would not misunderstand me," she said, triumphantly. "Prince S. and Evgenie Pavlovitch and Alexandra don't understand anything about these two kinds of mind, ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... a joke, or whether it's too serious by half. We are quicker than they, though we talk so much more slowly. We think fast, and yet we talk as deliberately as if we were speaking a foreign language. They toss off their sentences with an air of easy familiarity with the tongue, and yet they misunderstand two-thirds of what people say to them. Perhaps, after all, it is only OUR thoughts they think slowly; they think their own often to a lively tune enough. Mr. Antrobus arrived here at eight o'clock in the morning; I don't know how he managed it; it appears to be his favourite hour; wherever ...
— The Point of View • Henry James
... power that demanded this war will demand the complete fulfillment of its purpose. It will demand, in tones which none can misunderstand and which no power or party can be strong enough to disregard, that the United States' flag shall never be furled in any Spanish province where it has been planted by the heroism of our army ...
— Porto Rico - Its History, Products and Possibilities... • Arthur D. Hall
... to purposely misunderstand me, Blanchard. I never, never, meant any such thing. Am I one to gratuitously insult or offend another? Typical this! Your cursed temper it is that keeps you back in the world and makes a failure of you," answered the student of stones, his own temper ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts
... to notice these things—or rather, not to seem to notice them—but you cannot help doing so, and you are afraid he'll notice that you see these things, and put a wrong construction on it. How men will misunderstand each other! You greet him with more than the necessary enthusiasm. In your anxiety to set him at his ease and make him believe that nothing—not even money—can make a difference in your friendship, you over-act the business; and presently you are afraid that he'll notice that too, and put a wrong ...
— On the Track • Henry Lawson
... to speak. Mary, desirous that Mr. Crusoe should not misunderstand their flight, explained the affair to Mr. Hunter, a little more rationally than ...
— Virginia of Elk Creek Valley • Mary Ellen Chase
... you to misunderstand our claims for the science. Character analysis is not a science in the mathematical sense. As we said in our introduction, we cannot place a man on the scales and determine that he has so many milligrams of industry, or apply measurements and prove ...
— Analyzing Character • Katherine M. H. Blackford and Arthur Newcomb
... totally misunderstand me. Hypocrisy! No; there is not a woman upon earth whom I believe to be so far above all hypocrisy, all ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth
... my dear, don't misunderstand me. I meant that people generally prefer to keep to the old-fashioned ways of ...
— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn
... voice of the general indignation reached him in his retreat, and even his son refused to leave his post in the army. The murmurs of a disappointed people rose into clamors which he could not affect to misunderstand. They reproached him with having burdened them with taxes, without having paid the Khan his tribute; and that, now the Tartars had come into Russia to demand restitution, he fled from vindication of his own acts, and left the people to extricate ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson
... "Ah! you misunderstand me, mon vieux. I insinuate nothing," replied Carlier. "I scent danger, that is all. She may turn from you when—well—when she knows ...
— The White Lie • William Le Queux
... vulgarly, flushing with anger that was not unmixed with shame. "Why will you wilfully misunderstand me? Put it on, Deb—put it on, ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge
... stand in the holy place," said He, according to Matthew's account, and virtually so also as stated by Mark, or "when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies" as Luke writes, "then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." This was a specific sign that none could misunderstand. Daniel the prophet had foreseen the desolation and abominations thereof, which comprized the forcible cessation of temple rites, and the desecration of Israel's shrine by ...
— Jesus the Christ - A Study of the Messiah and His Mission According to Holy - Scriptures Both Ancient and Modern • James Edward Talmage
... plainly shown his love for her. She pleaded with him to start at once for Manila with the wounded, supporting her extraordinary request with the opinion that they could not receive proper care from the two young surgeons. Bray was surprised and distressed; he could not misunderstand her motive. ...
— Jane Cable • George Barr McCutcheon
... They—and I are the same. But I can't understand them! In France, in England, in Germany, I could understand the crowd better. But these men and women are so far from my conception.... And they all pay me back with the same coin: they not only misunderstand me and my kin,—but they mistrust me. I can deceive a bolshevik commissary, or the Princess G.; these—with their psychology never would let me come closer. I am an ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe
... "You misunderstand me," she said. "That is not why I am anxious. I am anxious because of something I have just learnt about Percy. I am afraid he is ...
— The Sunny Side • A. A. Milne
... their sandwiches at six o'clock to get into the opera or theatre—the live human beings behind that abstraction "Germany." And I said that it seemed unfortunate that two peoples with so many apparent grounds of contact as the Germans and French must so misunderstand each other. Their temperament and culture were different, to be sure, but they were both idealistic, sentimental people, to whom things of the mind and spirit were important. It seemed particularly unfortunate ...
— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts—and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl
... think she could misunderstand me. I felt sure the struggle and the suffering and the desire must be printed in my face. I knew she must see in it that I was not cold before the despairing, passionate longing I saw stirring all her pained, excited frame. To me it seemed as if she must see me ageing and my face lining before ...
— To-morrow? • Victoria Cross
... up at him, and then her eyes fell. The mingled adoration and hunger and dismay written plainly in the Lad's frank eyes were impossible to misunderstand. She had seen that look there before many times in the past winter. She had been afraid of it then, and she had run away from his good-bye that snowy day when he had left Algonquin. For then she ...
— The End of the Rainbow • Marian Keith
... the doctor, "you must not misunderstand me. I only said that the new commandant had ordered that you should be tried by court-martial, but that is a very different thing from its being done. We must get you out of ...
— Jack Archer • G. A. Henty
... amusement of his charge on that sunny April morning, but he did his valiant best to keep her thoughts on the move. He compelled her to talk when she yearned to be silent, and again in a vague, disjointed fashion Olga wondered at his lack of penetration. Yet, since he was actually obtuse enough to misunderstand her preoccupation and to be even mildly hurt thereby, she exerted herself for his sake to respond intelligently to his remarks. So, with cheery indifference on his part and aching suspense on hers, they passed that dreadful interval ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell
... what he thinks. But it's absurd. I'm not going to marry Dobyans Verinder because I want to. He knows that as well as you do. Why does he blame me, then? Goodness knows, it's hard enough to marry the man without having my friends misunderstand." ...
— The Highgrader • William MacLeod Raine
... be calm. You misunderstand me completely. I have never suspected you. Indeed, I have the most profound esteem and friendship for you—a loving friendship which grows greater every day. I have no wish to comment upon that past with which you reproach ...
— A Comedy of Marriage & Other Tales • Guy De Maupassant
... wrong. Gulden never had a friend or a partner. I don't misunderstand his position regarding Bailey. What did he care for that soak? Gulden's cross-grained. He opposes anything or anybody. He's got a twist in his mind that makes him dangerous.... I wanted to get rid of him. I decided to—after ...
— The Border Legion • Zane Grey
... thing that was drawing you along your true path. It was a cancerous egotism of mine that was trying to eat you up, live you up into myself. That, thank God, has been cut out of me! I think it has. Don't misunderstand me, though. I'm not going to relinquish anything of you that I can keep;—that I ever had ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster
... most mediaeval of modern institutions, the Trades Unions, do not fight for the same ideal of aesthetic finish is true and certainly tragic; but to make it a matter of blame is wholly to misunderstand the tragedy. The Trades Unions are confederations of men without property, seeking to balance its absence by numbers and the necessary character of their labour. The Guilds were confederations of men ...
— A Short History of England • G. K. Chesterton
... beak that you wear is so frightful a feature, It makes you appear a most singular creature." The crane, much offended at what she had heard, March'd off at full speed, without saying a word: "Oh dear!" said the fox, "Mrs. Crane, I protest You misunderstand me, 'twas only a jest." "Come, don't be affronted—stay with me and dine; You know very well 'tis this temper of mine To say such odd things to my intimate friends; But you know that poor Reynard no mischief ...
— Aesop, in Rhyme - Old Friends in a New Dress • Marmaduke Park
... his face twisted sourly. He said now, "You misunderstand. I realize that the military's the only quick way of getting a bounce in caste. I wish I'd figured that out sooner, before I made a trade out of the one I was born into, Communications. It's too late now, I'm into my forties with a busted marriage but the proud papa of ...
— Frigid Fracas • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... misunderstand me." Miss Hopkins spoke with the deadly gentleness of suppressed fury. "I had no slightest intention of reflecting upon the character of so eminent a writer, with whose career, Miss Gaines, I am thoroughly familiar. I was merely trying to explain ...
— A Woman Named Smith • Marie Conway Oemler
... me; how I welcome a sympathetic friend! but—why speak of it?" she passed him her cigarette case, and they began to smoke companionably. "So few understand me," said she in subdued tones. "So many misunderstand! I ask you, what is life worth to a young woman in my position?" her chest heaved, her eyes filled with self-pity. "And who can stifle nature and be happy?—the ache for human sympathy—tenderness—love...." ...
— Banked Fires • E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
... misunderstand me," exclaimed the Colonel trying hard to be gentle. "I never meant to recommend an ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge
... of defense recommended these cuts after consultation with the joint chiefs of staff. And I make them with confidence. But do not misunderstand me: The reductions I have approved will save us an additional $50 billion over the next five years. By 1997 we will have cut defense by 30 percent since I took office. These cuts are deep, and you must know my resolve: this deep, and no deeper. To do less ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... the usual word for wild duck, the falcon's prey, and Marion knew it as well as he, but she chose to misunderstand him:— ...
— Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres • Henry Adams
... long," she assured him, as she went over to the tiger skin before the fire-place, and standing there looked down into the core of the burning logs. "We have only just begun to talk, so it isn't that which has tried me. But—if you won't misunderstand—pray don't—the thought of—of you, and of all that which lies between us, is still very new to me. I haven't quite found you, or myself in my relation to you, yet. Give me time, and indeed, ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet
... Don't misunderstand me! If you are wanted out there, and the thing is going to be very serious, if you are wanted, you must go; but decidedly you are not wanted yet. And you are an only son; all your mother has. John, you must think of her, and you will ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell
... she would not. But it was almost inevitable that Eliot would misunderstand—distrust her, if he learned that she had ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler
... misunderstand me, sir," said Alison. "I have not found the thief—I have not the faintest idea who stole that money; I only know that I did not, and that nothing will induce me to set foot again in this shop as one of the staff until I ...
— Good Luck • L. T. Meade
... that she should misunderstand me, and think of me as absorbed in things remote from her life. The knowledge you suggest might make her very sad, for there never was a gentler-hearted girl. You have remarkable tact. Please use it to prevent the constraint which might arise ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe
... late a man in trouble has been on my mind—" She paused, her glance having caught the peculiar light which her words had caused to appear in Rance's eyes, and lest he should misunderstand her meaning, she hastened to add: "Sid, o' course,—an' I fell to thinkin' o' the Prodigal Son. He ...
— The Girl of the Golden West • David Belasco
... "Don't misunderstand me," he replied. "Where there is absolute cruelty, or where there is deliberate desertion, on the husband's part, I see the use and the reason for Divorce. If the unhappy wife can find an honorable ...
— The Evil Genius • Wilkie Collins
... he said, "I have that to tell you which will make you sad— unless I greatly misunderstand your nature. Gunrig, your enemy, ...
— The Hot Swamp • R.M. Ballantyne
... has been noticed above (note, p. 153) that Josephus appears to misunderstand or deliberately misinterpret the Hebrew [Hebrew: aror] (cursed be!), which precedes many prohibitions of the Mosaic law, to mean "he shall be ...
— Josephus • Norman Bentwich
... would have gone; but the widow could stand no more: this nautical phrase, familiar to the streets of Bristol, allowed her no longer to misunderstand his meaning; and she quitted the room in a tumult of laughter, sending a servant to show her unfortunate suitor out of the house, with his false friend the dictionary; whose help he might, perhaps, invoke ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... cold at heart. How could she tell? John's words went for nothing; Miss Christie might have mistaken them. She did not pretend to misunderstand, but said she did not know; she had no reason to ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... so tired," Francis Ronald said gravely, "I'd have this thing out with you, here and now. I'd make you tell me why you so wilfully misunderstand. Why you seem to take pleasure in saying things that are meant to hurt me, and must hurt you. As ...
— Martha By-the-Day • Julie M. Lippmann
... convent to see the Mother Superior Marfa, who had given each of the visitors a bead purse; he recalled the hot, endless typically Russian arguments in which the opponents, spluttering and banging the table with their fists, misunderstand and interrupt one another, unconsciously contradict themselves at every phrase, continually change the subject, and after arguing for two or three hours, laugh and say: "Goodness knows what we have been arguing about! Beginning with ...
— The Chorus Girl and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov
... Chi Foxy earnestly. "Don't you go and misunderstand me. I didn't mean to be mistook that way. I do want fifty cents. ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler
... rose up to look at the brigand, the latter made still more signs of submission, and now he could no longer misunderstand. ...
— Jack Harkaway and his son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece • Bracebridge Hemyng
... of the poet. He sat writhing and indignant, and tried by gentle asides to make me see the real meaning of the verse. But somehow the mischief proved irreparable, for a few of the actors during the rehearsals chose to continue to misunderstand the text, and never took the interest in the play which they would have done had Mr. ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr
... be sent to the Senate as soon as Congress meets." I cordially thanked the President, and assured him that he would have no occasion to regret making the change. In explanation of his Civil Service order the President remarked that quite a number of office-holders had seemed to misunderstand it, although it was plainly worded, and, as he thought, not difficult to understand. There had never been any serious complaints growing out of active participation in political campaigns on the part of office-holders, ...
— The Facts of Reconstruction • John R. Lynch
... seem to you impertinent, but I believe nothing more subtly and powerfully affects men than the aristocratic feeling. Do not misunderstand me,' he added, seeing that they would protest; 'it is not my own experience alone that guides me. All history bears ...
— The Path to Rome • Hilaire Belloc
... right, Bee. Don't you worry. All friends misunderstand each other, but the real ones ...
— The Big-Town Round-Up • William MacLeod Raine
... made. "'My father was Aunt Debby's brother.' It was a lie—nothing less than a lie," she kept saying to herself and the thought spoiled the entire day for her. It spoiled more than that, too. Perhaps, had she told the truth, she would never again have need to blush for her lack of name or to misunderstand her people for not coming in search for her. Her little sin bore its own fruits with it; yet Hester believed she was paying the debt ...
— Hester's Counterpart - A Story of Boarding School Life • Jean K. Baird
... eraro. Mistaken, to be trompigxi. Mistletoe visko. Mistress (house) mastrino. Mistress (lover) amantino. Mistress (school) instruistino. Mistrust malfido. Mistrust suspekti. Misty nebuleta. Misunderstand malkompreni. Misuse maluzi, malbonuzi. Mite akaro. Mite (coin) monereto. Mitre mitro. Mitigate moderigi. Mix miksi. Mixture miksajxo. Moan gxemi. Moat fosajxo. Mob amaso. Mobile movebla. Mobilise mobilizi. Mock moki. Mockery ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... compel you to yield to my wish. The matter really deserves careful reflection on your part as to how you can make amends for having spoilt this day so bright for me, owing as much to my frame of mind as to the cheerful weather. When I said that you misunderstand me, your present judgment of me shows that I was quite right—not to speak of what you thought to yourself about it. When I said that something bad would come of it if I came to you, this was more as a joke. The object was to show you how much everything connected with you attracts me, so that ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... not quarrel," she said, gently. "We must not misunderstand each other," she added, with a quick and uneasy laugh, "for we have only five minutes in ...
— The Vultures • Henry Seton Merriman
... swallow something that threatened to choke him; and then, while the boys hung on his every word, and wondered how they had ever come to misunderstand him as they had, ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren
... in, and after an earnest and melancholy look at the fowl, retired with a sigh. Repeating his visit he exclaimed, "That fowl will never be done in time." "What do you mean?" said the gentleman, "that fowl is for my supper, and you shan't touch a bit of it." "Oh," replied the other, "you misunderstand me; I don't want the fowl; but I am to play Oroonoko this evening, and we cannot begin for want of the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 396, Saturday, October 31, 1829. • Various
... misunderstand me," went on Patience. "I know I have no right to criticize you, but as your roommate, I feel a certain interest ...
— Grace Harlowe's Fourth Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... with Neh. xiii: 15-22, we learn that this prohibition related to what was lawful for them to do on the other six days of the week, viz. merchandise and trading. See proof, Neh. x: 31; also unlawful, as in Amos viii: 5. We need not nor we cannot misunderstand the fourth commandment taken in connection with the other nine; they were simple and pure written by the finger of God; but in the days of our Saviour it had become heavily laden with Jewish traditions, hence when ...
— The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign - 1847 edition • Joseph Bates
... misunderstand me," he said earnestly. "As I see it, that land belonged to you by all that is right and fair. Legally, perhaps, it didn't, but legal honesty isn't always moral honesty. I've found that out even in my ...
— Thankful's Inheritance • Joseph C. Lincoln
... their imaginations; murder, rapine, and bloodshed, now dance before their affrighted visions. Well, sir, I say to them, this is your policy, not mine. You have prepared the cup, and I will press it to your lips till the very dregs shall be drained. Let no one misunderstand me. Let no one say I desire a slave insurrection; but, sir, I doubt not that hundreds of thousands of honest and patriotic hearts will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. No, sir; ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various
... Stephen, what an absurd idea! Fancy talking of Lydia Martin, every one knows she is making a dead set at Mr. Germaine, although poor Jack Martin has hardly been dead a year. She is Mrs. Broderick's exact opposite. Please do not misunderstand me in this tiresome way," and here Mrs. Tolman frowned slightly. "It is the manner in which Mrs. Broderick speaks of her husband that offends my tastes. In my opinion"—compressing her lips as she spoke—"our departed dear ...
— Doctor Luttrell's First Patient • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... when we are fierce and prejudiced, with that still small voice—so sweet and yet so keen, "Understand those who misunderstand thee. Be fair to those who are unfair to thee. Be just and merciful to those whom thou wouldst like to hate. Forgive and thou shalt be forgiven." He comes to us surely, when we are selfish and luxurious, in every sufferer who needs our help, and says, "If you do good to one of these, ...
— Daily Thoughts - selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife • Charles Kingsley
... young lady?' wilfully seeming to misunderstand her; 'most young gentlemen have so at one period or another, sure enough; but his ...
— Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... insult—I understand. But I do not mean it as an insult. I mean it only as a tribute to your exquisite goodness, your sweetness, which would not let me pass upon my way without a word of kindly greeting—and yet what can I say, for I did not misunderstand that kindliness. I was not such a fool as to do that! No, I never really hoped; I never thought that you could for a moment look at me; believe me when I say that, even in my wildest dreams, I knew myself ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... They therefore blended plant, daphne, and heroine's name, Daphne, and decided that the phrase 'Apollo pursues Daphne' meant that Apollo chased a nymph, Daphne, who, to escape his love, turned into a laurel. I cannot give Mr. Max Muller's theory of the Daphne story more clearly. If I misunderstand it, that does not come from ...
— Modern Mythology • Andrew Lang |
