"Overshoot" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... have my number. I'm not telling. But look here: You're so prejudiced against Gopher Prairie that you overshoot the mark; you antagonize those who might be inclined to agree with you in some particulars but——Great guns, the town can't be ...
— Main Street • Sinclair Lewis
... go down stream, I shall have to slide the boat down the overshoot. Better go up, and then you'll have the stream with you coming back. Hello, here's ...
— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn
... When Sir Roger Twysden pronounced it 'to be written with so great moderation, learning and wisdom, as might deserve a place among the exactest pieces of ecclesiastic story any age had produced,' he did not overshoot the mark. Nor has the avowedly hostile investigation to which Cardinal Pallavicini submitted it, done more than to confirm its credit by showing that a deadly enemy, with all the arsenal of Roman documents at his command, ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds
... circumstance, however, occurred. It had often been prophesied by Mr. Molyneux, who knew the species of bargains which Hopkins drove with all manner of people by whose distresses he could make money, that he would sooner or later overshoot his mark, as cunning persons often do. Mr. Molyneux predicted that, amongst the medley of his fraudulent purchases, he would at length be the dupe of some unsound title; and that, amongst the multitudes whom he ruined, he would at last meet with some one who would ruin ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... days of trial, are the days that do most aptly give an occasion to Christians to take the exactest measures and scantlings of ourselves. We are apt to overshoot in days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher and more strong than we find we are when the trying day is upon us. The mouth of Gaal, Judges 9:38, and the boasts of Peter, were great and ...
— The Riches of Bunyan • Jeremiah Rev. Chaplin
... contribution to philosophical thought, for his mind was devoid both of the method and of the force necessary for the pursuit and discovery of really significant intellectual truths. To claim for him such titles of distinction is to overshoot the mark, and to distract attention from his true eminence. Montaigne was neither a great artist nor a great philosopher; he was not great at all. He was a charming, admirable human being, with the most ...
— Landmarks in French Literature • G. Lytton Strachey
... not know what they know. A series of assertions are made with utter certainty. Yet when these are successively subjected to closer examinations, tested for their ground and source, only a very small portion can be retained unaltered. Of course, one may here overshoot the mark. It often happens, even in the routine of daily life, that a man may be made to feel shaky in his most absolute convictions, by means of an energetic attack and searching questions. Conscientious and sanguine people are particularly easy subjects of such doubts. ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden
... observation, was I3 deg. 46' S. and at this time we had no land in sight. At six in the evening we shortened sail and brought the ship to, with her head to the N.E.; and at six in the morning made sail and steered west, in order to get within sight of the land, that I might be sure not to overshoot the passage, if a passage there was, between this land and New Guinea. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 13 deg. 2' S., longitude 216 deg. W.; which was 1 deg. 23' W. of Lizard Island: At this time we had no land in sight; but a little before one o'clock, we saw high ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr
... for soldiers at once, and to agree upon a plan for a campaign in case of necessity. The deputies, with the exception of those from Basel and St. Gall, said that they had no authority for going so far. If Zurich were attacked, the Bernese thought she should "not be too ardent, and overshoot the mark, but wait for an advantage and not make assault, until well assured, though obliged to restrain one hamlet, or two or three together, and then she should hasten to inform us and the other Christian ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... absolutely right. One cannot camp in Africa as one would at home. The experimenter would be dead in a month. In his application of that principle, however, he seems to the American point of view to overshoot. Let us examine his proposition in terms of the essentials-food, clothing, shelter. There is no doubt but that a man must keep in top condition as far as possible; and that, to do so, he must have plenty of good food. He can never do as we do on very hard ...
— The Land of Footprints • Stewart Edward White
... element is rarely absent from great Roman work, which is wanting in the nice adaptation of the means to the end. The means are always exaggerated; the end is so much more than attained. The Roman rigidity was apt to overshoot the mark, and I suppose a race which could do nothing small is as defective as a race that can do nothing great. Of this Roman rigidity the Pont du Gard is an admirable example. It would be a great injustice, however, not to insist upon its beauty, ...
— A Little Tour in France • Henry James |
