"Pelf" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... story: What glow worms ye look, and how lost in his glory? Blush, butchers, whose banners red massacre shames, That Honest and Great should bear different names! Go waste the creation for empire and pelf: The globe you may win, but he conquers himself! To spare he subdues; as he sought to defend; Dire war's his forc'd mean: but fair peace his lov'd end. Tho' trophies in battles o'er your's he can raise; Yet these he accounts but a second rate praise. Who ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis
... to the making matches for herself, And daughters, brothers, sisters, kith or kin, Arranging them like books on the same shelf, There's nothing women love to dabble in More (like a stock-holder in growing pelf) Than match-making in general: 't is no sin Certes, but a preventative, and therefore That is, no doubt, the only ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... for thyself, Wealth-giver, ignorant of pelf; Fain would I learn thy upright ways And heart thus redolent ...
— Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... house whose mistress was a slave! So say old saws, my own in aid I crave; Woe to the court whose judge once spake for fees, Though he were readier than Isocrates! An advocate that pleaded once for pelf Scarce on the ...
— Briefless Ballads and Legal Lyrics - Second Series • James Williams
... were I so wise, I might seem to advise So great a potentate as yourself; They should, sir, I tell ye, spare't out of their belly, And this way spend some of their pelf. ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris
... they please about what they call pelf, And how one ought never to think of one's self, And how pleasures of thought surpass eating and drinking— My pleasure of thought is the pleasure of thinking How pleasant it is to have money, heigh ho! How pleasant it is ...
— The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition • Upton Sinclair
... dollars) to unite him with them, and that he had thought of giving Asaad the same sum, that no obstacle might remain to his leaving them. "This money," said he, "with which the English print books, and hire men into their service is but the pelf of the man of sin, and could you but be present to hear what the people say of you, through the whole country, for your associating with the English, you would never be ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox
... a wedding-gown. If he fall sick, he had rather die a thousand deaths than pay for any physic; and if he might have his choice, he would not go to heaven but on condition he may put money to use there. In fine, he lives a drudge, dies a wretch that leaves a heap of pelf, which so many careful hands had scraped together, to haste after him to hell, and by the way it ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various
... noble mind, Who loves me more than praise or pelf, Reproves my faults with spirit kind, And thinks of me as ...
— Gleams of Sunshine - Optimistic Poems • Joseph Horatio Chant
... gain and profit I had made till, one day, as I sat making merry and enjoying myself with my friends, there came in to me a company of merchants whose case told tales of travel, and talked with me of voyage and adventure and greatness of pelf and lucre. Hereupon I remembered the days of my return from abroad, and my joy at once more seeing my native land and foregathering with my family and friends; and my soul yearned for travel and traffic. ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... hundred worldly snares, Self-seeking men, by ignorance deluded, Strive by unrighteous means to pile up riches. Then, in their self-complacency, they say, "This acquisition I have made to-day, That will I gain to-morrow, so much pelf Is hoarded up already, so much more Remains that I have yet to treasure up. This enemy I have destroyed, him also, And others in their turn, I will despatch. I am a lord; I will enjoy myself; I'm wealthy, noble, strong, successful, happy; I'm absolutely perfect; no one else In all the ...
— Book of Wise Sayings - Selected Largely from Eastern Sources • W. A. Clouston
... To royalty, thus newly made, "Great sire, I know a place," said he, "Where lies conceal'd a treasure, Which, by the right of royalty, Should bide your royal pleasure." The King lack'd not an appetite For such financial pelf, And, not to lose his royal right, Ran straight to see it for himself. It was a trap, and he was caught. Said Reynard, "Would you have it thought, You Ape, that you can fill a throne, And guard the rights of all, alone. Not knowing how ...
— The Talking Beasts • Various
... declare Many words in English are From the Latin tongue deriv'd, Of whose sense girls are depriv'd 'Cause they do not Latin know.— But if all this anger grow From this cause, that you suspect By proceedings indirect, I would keep (as misers pelf) All this learning to myself; Sister, to remove this doubt, Rather than we will fall out, (If our parents will agree) You shall ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... had known his weakness before, but had scarce ventured to speak of it in public. In his cabinets he had suffered no rival. To those who submitted he was sweet as summer. He would give everything to or for them, keeping nothing for himself. They might have the pelf if he had the power. Proposals that did not emanate from himself got scant justice in council or caucus. This egoism, which long feeding on popular applause had developed into a vanity almost incomprehensible in one so strong, was not {141} known ...
— The Tribune of Nova Scotia - A Chronicle of Joseph Howe • W. L. (William Lawson) Grant
... no pelf or harm, By red Priapus sentinelled; By his huge sickle's formidable charm ...
— The Elegies of Tibullus • Tibullus
... an apostate black, In the resemblance one thing thou dost lack, When he had gotten his ill-purchased pelf, He went away and wisely hanged himself; This thou may'st do at last; yet much I doubt, If thou hast ...
— Charles Lamb • Walter Jerrold
... was silent as a miser hoarding pelf. He knew 'twas time to put his grouch away upon the shelf. And so he did.—You see, I was just talking ...
— It Can Be Done - Poems of Inspiration • Joseph Morris
... leaded down; His decent heirs enjoyed his pelf, Mourning-coaches, many a one, 680 Followed his hearse along the town:— Where was the ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... The soldier his worth must understand; Whoe'er doesn't nobly drive the trade, 'Twere best from the business far he'd stayed. If I cheerily set my life on a throw, Something still better than life I'll know; Or I'll stand to be slain for the paltry pelf, As the Croat still does—and ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... Freedom's glorious Cause I've meanly quitted For the sake of pelf; But ah, the Devil has me outwitted; Instead of hanging ...
— Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times - 1769 - 1776 A Historical Romance • Charles Carleton Coffin
... and Canning ever sent forth against those who bear it. It is confidently asserted by those who profess to know his private concerns, that he has feathered his dirty nest well, and that, as the best means of securing his ill gotten pelf, he has lately invested it in the French funds, to the amount of ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 1 • Henry Hunt
... One ancient institution Still doing business at the same old stand; 'Tis Messrs. Barclay's Bank, or I'm a Proossian, That erst dispensed my slender cash-in-hand; I'll borrow of their pelf And buy some War ...
— Punch, or The London Charivari, Vol. 152, February 21st, 1917 • Various
... fancy that when I'm king, And my gallant courtiers form a ring, Each so careless of power and pelf, Each so thoughtful for all but self, I'd give the best on his bended knee— Yes, barter them all, for the loyalty Of ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester
... is as corrupting to vulgar souls as money, this man seems to have been as regardless as he was of pelf. He received the Cross of the Iron Crown from the Emperor of Austria. He accepted what was graciously offered, but he said that, as an Englishman, he did not know what good Crosses were to him. The circumstance reminded him that he ...
— Lectures and Essays • Goldwin Smith
... the McCalls, the Perkinses, the Hydes, the McCurdys, and the Alexanders, whose eminent physiognomies looked out at them from their insurance policies, as lofty and generous souls far removed from thoughts of pelf or self-aggrandizement, that my assertion caused consternation such as would occur in a Chinese temple if some rough intruder struck the idol, before whom a congregation was worshipping, with a stone. At once an avalanche of letters—protests, ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson
... insufficient nourishment, was happy in these strange days—even to the extent of looking with wondrous eyes on the nooks which we loved—nooks which previously for him had only sheltered possible "dead-falls" or not, as the discerning eye of the trapper decided the prospects for pelf. ...
— Crooked Trails • Frederic Remington
... generous spirits are ye, who, with small care for fame, and little reward from pelf, have opened to the intellects of the poor the portals of wisdom! I honour and revere ye; only do not think ye have done all that is needful. Consider, I pray ye, whether so good a choice from the tinker's bag would have been made by a boy whom religion had not scared ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... gods, I crave no pelf; I pray for no man but myself; Grant I may never prove so fond, To trust man ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett
... the little Chicks to call him Father, And he sold his stolen Pelf, And bought a Palace, Horses, Slaves, and Peacocks To ease his ...
— Peacock Pie, A Book of Rhymes • Walter de la Mare
... cries for workers; not toilers for pelf, But souls who have sought to eliminate self. Can the lame lead the race? Can the blind guide the blind? We must better ourselves ere we better ...
— Three Women • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... and storehouse treasure Did He take thy hoarded pelf? Yes: to feed thee was His pleasure, Like the ...
— A Brief Memoir with Portions of the Diary, Letters, and Other Remains, - of Eliza Southall, Late of Birmingham, England • Eliza Southall
... Trafalgar; Who, born to guide such high emprise, For Britain's weal was early wise; Alas! to whom the Almighty gave, For Britain's sins, an early grave! His worth, who in his mightiest hour A bauble held the pride of power, Spurned at the sordid lust of pelf, And served his Albion for herself; Who, when the frantic crowd amain Strained at subjection's bursting rein, O'er their wild mood full conquest gained, The pride he would not crush restrained, Showed their fierce zeal ...
— Lyra Heroica - A Book of Verse for Boys • Various
... political grace by withdrawing from the fellowship of the knaves and traders that formed the body-guard of the President, and were using the Republican party as the instrument of wholesale schemes of jobbery and pelf? To charge the Liberal Republicans with apostasy because they had the moral courage to disown and denounce these men was to invent a definition of the term which would have made all the great apostates of history ...
— Political Recollections - 1840 to 1872 • George W. Julian
... thought to be deranged? And the Reformers—Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Knox and others—were not they thought to be enthusiasts and zealots? Why? Because they were somewhat in earnest in the cause of Christ. Worldly men toil and strive night and day, in collecting together a little of the pelf and dust of the earth, and think themselves wise in doing so; but if the disciples of Christ show zeal or earnestness, in pursuits as much higher than theirs as heaven is higher than the earth, and as much more important as the immortal soul is more valuable than ...
— Thoughts on Missions • Sheldon Dibble
... within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering in a foreign strand! If such there be, go mark him well: For him no minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim: Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch concentered all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, ...
— Composition-Rhetoric • Stratton D. Brooks
... assisting at the trance of a peasant girl named Mariana; and when Kirkup withdrew for a moment, the entranced Mariana relieved herself from the fatigue of her posturing, at the same time inviting Browning with a wink to be a charitable confederate in the joke by which she profited in admiration and in pelf. Browning, who would have waged immitigable war against the London dog-stealers, and opposed all treaty with such rogues, even at the cost of an unrecovered Flush, could not but oppose the new trade of elaborate deception. But his feeling was intensified by the personal repulsiveness of ...
— Robert Browning • Edward Dowden
... his head, and he warily said: "Though cunning be good, we take money instead, On the Rhine, thrifty Rhine; If ye fancy ye may without pelf have your way You'll find that there's both host and the devil to pay ...
— Songs and Other Verse • Eugene Field
... pals of such reglar old foes; The horse don't half like him, I'm bound to admit it, Between you and me I don't like it myself, For me and dear JOSEPH have not always hit it. But then, he stands in; we must look to the pelf; Can't afford to offend him, our Stable can't—blow it! Eh! What? You have heard me disparage Boy Bill As too Free in his ways by long chalks. Well, I know it; But JOE is dead nuts on his go and his skill— The Blinkers? Oh yes! Horse not ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, May 30, 1891 • Various
... is daily avenged," replied Lopez. "How many wicked, how many low souls, who basely squander divine gifts to obtain worthless pelf, there are among my people! More than half of them are stripped of honor and dignity on your altar of vengeance, and thrust into the arms of repulsive avarice. And this, all this. . . . But enough of these things! ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... the Circean spell! Rouse to the dangers of impending fate! Grasp your keen swords, and all may yet be well— More gain, more pelf, and ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... Rubies and yellowbacks! Madison's lips thinned and curled downward at the corners. Oh, it was coming all right, money, jewels, pelf, rolling in merrily every day, there wasn't any stopping it, but he was paying for it, and paying for it at a price he didn't like—Helena. Helena! She wanted Thornton, did she—with his money! Wanted ...
— The Miracle Man • Frank L. Packard
... nothing—tremble and revere: No forceful eagles, butterflies e'er look. They love not thee: of them then little seek, And wish for readers triflers like thyself. Of ludeful matron watchful catch the beck, Or gorgeous countess full of pride and pelf. They may say "pish!" and frown, and yet read on: Cry odd, and silly, coarse, and yet amusing. Should dainty damsels seek thy page to con, Spread thy best stores: to them be ne'er refusing: Say, fair one, master loves thee dear as life; Would he were here to gaze on thy sweet look. Should ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... great, and he alone, Who serves a greatness not his own, For neither praise nor pelf; Content to know and be unknown: Whole ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various
... spiritual hedger, Who backs his rigid Sabbath, so to speak, Against the wicked remnant of the week, A saving bet against his sinful bias— "Rogue that I am," he whispers to himself, "I lie—I cheat—do anything for pelf, But who on earth can say ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... become, whether by overwork, unnatural city life, alcohol, recrudescent polygamic inclinations, exclusive devotion to greed and pelf; whether they become weak, stooping, blear-eyed, bald-headed, bow-legged, thin-shanked, or gross, coarse, barbaric, and bestial, the more they lose the power to lead woman or to arouse her nature, which is essentially ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall
... thou dost then, farewel Pelf, Farewel Bridget, for I vow I'll: Either in my Bason hang my self, Or drown me in ...
— Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6 • Various
... in the foothills; Got a tent to sleep in nights, Far away from beaten highways And the talk of human rights; Far away from din and tumult, Where the greed of pelf consumes— I've a corner, here, of heaven Where the ...
— The California Birthday Book • Various
... thy meditative air, I hold thy stock of wit but paltry pelf— Thou show'st that same grave aspect everywhere, And wouldst look thoughtful, ...
— Poems of Henry Timrod • Henry Timrod
... love my neighbour as myself, Myself like him too, by his leave— Nor to his pleasure, pow'r, or pelf, Came I to crouch, as I conceive: Dame Nature doubtless has design'd A man the monarch of ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 348, December 27, 1828 • Various
... all. Every foul bird comes abroad and every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by maladministration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for pelf, proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion. These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general. The newspaper files, those chroniclers of current events, will show that the evils now complained ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay
... Eton stripling, training for the law, A dunce at syntax, but a dab at law, One happy christmas laid upon the shelf His cap and gown, and stores of learned pelf. With all the deathless bards of Greece and Rome, To spend a fortnight at his uncle's home. Arriv'd, and pass'd the usual how d'ye do's, Inquiries of old friends and college news; "Well Tom—the road—what saw you worth discerning? Or how goes study:—what ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810 • Various
... mind is fixed On one point and made up: To accept my lot unmixed; Never to drug the cup But drink it by myself. I'll not be wooed for pelf; I'll not blot out my shame With any man's good name; But nameless as I stand, My hand is my own hand, And nameless as I came I go to the ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti
... owner of land in Thimbleby, in the 15th century, whose apparent love of pelf would seem to have tempted him to defraud the king of his dues. A certain Thomas Knyght, of the City of Lincoln, Esquire, died in the 10th year of the reign of Henry VII. (A D 1495), seized of lands ...
— A History of Horncastle - from the earliest period to the present time • James Conway Walter
... popular with the greater number of his men, for the energetic man was bent on making them, as well as himself, work for glory to the uttermost, and the common run of seamen care more for ease and pelf than for fame. Jones's unpopularity with the crew of the Ranger is attested by a passage from the diary of Ezra Green, one of Jones's officers, on the occasion, at a later period, of the Ranger's sailing back to America: "This day Thomas Simpson, ...
— Paul Jones • Hutchins Hapgood
... warfare at its best, and to present in the most poetic light the rampant, untamable individualism of the ancient Germanic paganism. In defiance of his friend Bjoern's advice, Frithjof, weary of this bootless chase for glory and pelf, resolves to see Ingeborg once more before he dies, and, disguised as a salt-boiler, he enters King Ring's hall. There he sees his beloved sitting in the high-seat beside her aged lord; and the sorrow which the years had dulled revives with ...
— Essays on Scandinavian Literature • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... But was so dirty, pale, and thin, Old Read[10] would hardly let him in. Said Harley, "Welcome, rev'rend dean! What makes your worship look so lean? Why, sure you won't appear in town In that old wig and rusty gown? I doubt your heart is set on pelf So much that you neglect yourself. What! I suppose, now stocks are high, You've some good purchase in your eye? Or is your money out at use?"— "Truce, good my lord, I beg a truce!" The doctor in a passion cry'd, "Your raillery is misapply'd; ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... love, so pure, so vain. And thereby win forgetfulness And pardon of the spirit's excess, Which soar'd too nigh that jealous Heaven Ever, save thus, to be forgiven. No Gospel has come down that cures With better gain a loss like yours. Be pious! Give the beggar pelf, And love your neighbour as yourself! You, who yet love, though all is o'er, And she'll ne'er be your neighbour more, With soul which can in pity smile That aught with such a measure vile As self should be at all named "love!" Your sanctity the priests reprove; Your case of ...
— The Victories of Love - and Other Poems • Coventry Patmore
... Aitkins himself, For a shilling a day of poor pelf, And for love of his King, And the fun of the thing, He fights till he's laid ...
— War Rhymes • Abner Cosens
... therefore it is fitting that thou shouldst spend it. Moreover, if I want money, doubtless Antony, who is henceforth my master, will give me more; he is much beholden to me, and this he knows well. There, waste not the precious time in haggling o'er the pelf—not yet art thou all a merchant, Harmachis;" and, without more words, she thrust the pieces into the leather bag that hung across my shoulders. Then she made fast the sack containing the spare garments, and, so womanly thoughtful ...
— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard
... prefer his scandalous pelf, the dust and dregs of the earth, to the prosperity and grandeur of ...
— The History of John Bull • John Arbuthnot
... self-sacrifice, and practically man dislikes self-sacrifice save where love is very strong. Duty chains a man to his task where he is inclined for a holiday. Duty may demand a man's life, and that sacrifice seems easier for men to make than the giving up of power and pelf. (In the late war it was no great trouble to pass laws conscripting life; it was impossible to pass laws conscripting wealth. It was easier for a man to allow his son to go to war than to give up his wealth ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson
... is nothing in itself; It but reflects the lives of men; And they who lived and toiled for pelf Went out as vipers in a den. God cleans the sky from time to time Of every tyrant flag that flies, And every brazen badge of crime Falls to the ground and swiftly dies. Proud kings are mouldering in the dust; Proud flags of ages past are gone; Only the symbols of the just Have lived ...
— The Path to Home • Edgar A. Guest
... the Cafe I said to myself, They may talk as they please about what they call pelf, They may sneer as they like about eating and drinking, But help it I cannot, I cannot help thinking How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho! How pleasant it ...
— English Satires • Various
... facile pen Successive stages of the L. of N. With calorimetric and statistic arts Administer the prog of Foreign Parts, Or, eager not to do the thing by halves, To reconcile the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs— I will, resigning honours, kudos, pelf, Administer hot cocoa to myself; Then to repose; for it is truly said The best location of mankind ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Feb. 12, 1919 • Various
... with the pelf, which must take its chance. Only, I pray you—I trust it to your honour and to your love of an old friend to bury it, burn it, cast it to the four winds of heaven before you suffer a Spaniard to touch a gem or ...
— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard
... you about myself? 25 Do I live in a house you would like to see? Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf? "Unlock ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning
... if an ignorant elf, Who has caught a rich patient 'twere madness to kill, Should have all the credit, and pocket the pelf, Whilst you are requested to furnish the skill. No! no! amor patriae's a phrase I admire, But I own to an amor that stands in its way; And if England should e'er my ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... pomp of towns he must onward roam; In the village-green with its cheerful game, In the mirth of the vintage or harvest-home, No part or lot can the soldier claim. Tell me then, in the place of goods or pelf, What has he unless to honour himself? Leave not even this his own, what wonder The man should burn and kill ...
— The Life of Friedrich Schiller - Comprehending an Examination of His Works • Thomas Carlyle
... for pelf, Not, be sure, to please myself, Not for any meaner ends,— Always "by request ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... mean while observe what a cheap purchase of happiness is made by the strength of fancy. For whereas many things even of inconsiderable value, would cost a great deal of pains and perhaps pelf, to procure; opinion spares charges, and yet gives us them in as ample a manner by conceit, as if we possessed them in reality. Thus he who feeds on such a stinking dish of fish, as another must hold his nose at a yard's distance from, yet if he feed heartily, and relish them palateably, ...
— In Praise of Folly - Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts • Desiderius Erasmus
... begg'd for my master, And got him store of pelf, But goodness now be praised, I'm begging for myself. And a-begging we will go, Will go, will go, ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various
... landlord had the power of distraint, but he merely held the goods he seized to compel the tenant to perform personal service. It would be impossible for a tenant to pay his rent if his stock or implements were sold off the land. As the Tudor policy of money payments extended, the greed for pelf led to an alteration in the law, and the act of William and Mary allowed the landlord to sell the goods he had distrained. The tenant remained in possession of the land without the means of tilling it, which was opposed to public policy. This power of distraint was, however, ...
— Landholding In England • Joseph Fisher
... two other brothers as ancient as himself had been quarrelling over for twenty years, and were likely to go on quarrelling over, till all three litigants had closed their eyes on a mortal scene which had afforded them on the whole vast entertainment, though little pelf. Next him was a bowed and twisted old tramp who had been shepherd in the district in his youth, had then gone through the Crimea and the Mutiny, and was now living about the commons, welcome to feed here and sleep there for the sake of his ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... a shame of nobleness Confronting sudden pelf, — A finer shame of ecstasy Convicted ...
— Poems: Three Series, Complete • Emily Dickinson
... of policy before peasant, lord and king, and used the applause and brain of each for his personal advancement, and yet he never sacrificed principle for pelf or bedraggled the skirts of virtue in ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... own self Who forked over the gold, With a smile. "Thar's the pelf," He remarked. "I make bold To advance it, and go twenty better that I'll find it ...
— Complete Poetical Works of Bret Harte • Bret Harte
... World, and its dearly Bought triumph,—its fugitive bliss; Sometimes I half wish I were merely A plain or a penniless Miss; But, perhaps, one is blest with "a measure Of pelf," and I'm not sorry, too, That I'm pretty, because it's a ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 4 (of 4) • Various
... currency, coin, capital, funds, finances, change, legal tender, lucre, pelf, specie, sterling, revenue, assets, wherewithal, spondulics (Slang); wampum; boodle; bribe; bonus. Associated Words: bullion, cambist, bank, banker, capitalist, chrysology, till, coffer, economics, coin, coinage, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... little pets, but father loved the pelf, So Johnnie left his father's farm and struck out for himself. Said Johnnie's pa, one summer day, "I often wonder why Boys don't like life upon the farm, 'the city' ...
— Community Civics and Rural Life • Arthur W. Dunn
... learned labour Any sordid quid pro quo: Not to rise above your neighbour (Comrades ne'er are treated so): Not to change your lowly station, Not for rank and not for pelf, Academic education ...
— The Casual Ward - academic and other oddments • A. D. Godley
... with his penchant for painting and pelf The tasteful Sir Charles,[1] so renowned far and near For purchasing pictures and selling himself— And both (as the public well knows) ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... my grave that dischargeth all cares, and leave you to the world that increaseth many sorrows: my silver hairs containeth great experience, and in the number of my years are penned down the subtleties of fortune. Therefore, as I leave you some fading pelf to countercheck poverty, so I will bequeath you infallible precepts that shall lead you unto virtue. First, therefore, unto thee Saladyne, the eldest, and therefore the chiefest pillar of my house, wherein should be engraven as well the excellence ...
— Rosalynde - or, Euphues' Golden Legacy • Thomas Lodge
... proof that "Seneca" is an Iroquois Indian word. The Indians, however, whom we call the Senecas never called themselves thus until they took to strong water and became civilized. Before that they were the Tsonnundawaonas. The Dutch traders, intent on pelts and pelf, called them the Sinnekaas, meaning the valiant or the beautiful. Then came that fateful day when the Reverend Peleg Spooner, the discoverer of the Erie Canal, journeyed to Niagara Falls, and having influence with the authorities at Washington, gave to towns ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard
... men after gold aspire; Few study to be wise, more to acquire: Thus, Science! all thy virgin charms are sold, Whose chaste embraces should disdain their gold, Who seek not thee thyself, but pelf through thee, Longing ...
— The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury • Richard de Bury
... minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, Despite these titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentered ...
— Initial Studies in American Letters • Henry A. Beers
... think we grow more wise When Radcliffe's page we cease to prize, And turn to Malthus, and to Hervey, For tombs, or cradles topsy-turvy; 'Tis sweet to flatter one's dear self, And altered feelings vaunt, when pelf Is passion, poetry, romance; — And all our faith's in three per ...
— The Bushman - Life in a New Country • Edward Wilson Landor
... Are in danger alone From such as himself, who would render The Altar itself But a step up to Pelf, And pray ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron
... sing If I no longer hail thee { King and Lord { Lord and King I have redeemed myself with all I had, And now possess my fortunes poor but glad. With all I had I have redeemed myself, And escaped at once from slavery and pelf. The unruly wishes must a ruler take, Our high desires do our low fortunes make: Those only who desire palatial things Do bear the fetters and the frowns of Kings; Set free thy ...
— New Poems • Robert Louis Stevenson
... man is strange and deep, Deceiving others and himself; Its wiles would make an angel weep, In strife for praise, for power and pelf. ...
— Canada and Other Poems • T.F. Young
... is good for you; you love your country as you love your pelf. You feel for the common people,—as the wolf ...
— The Poems of Henry Van Dyke • Henry Van Dyke
... better far than worldly fame. I called thee hither. Now, behold, Here are the silver, gems, and gold I took from thee in other days; Receive them back, and go thy ways, For thou hast learned this truth at last— Would that it might be sown broadcast!— That riches are but worthless pelf When hoarded only for ...
— Harper's Young People, December 9, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... mouse," Though one before the end of the third bout Is clean "knocked out,"— Such burly, brawny buffetters for hire, Who in ten minutes tire, And clutch the ropes, and turn a Titan back To shun the impending thwack,— Such "Champions" smack as much of trick and pelf As venal JULIA's self. GRAHAM may be a "specialist," no doubt, And "What is a knock-out?" May mystify ingenuous MATTHEWS much; But Truth's Ithuriel touch Applied to pulpy "JEM" and steely "TED," (Of "slightly swollen" head) ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, August 8, 1891 • Various
... and the third Henry the Templars increased in pelf, power, and pride. After a career commenced in zeal and purity, culminating in valor and fanaticism, and closing in corruption and indolence, in the year 1312, when the second Edward sat on the throne of England, the now useless order was formally abolished by Clement ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36—New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885 • Various
... Jack was poor, the lad was frank and free; Of late he's grown brimful of pride and pelf; You wonder that he don't remember me? Why, don't you see, Jack has ...
— Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers • W. A. Clouston
... commanders—of Upper caste, of course—had hauled out, leaving him to fight a delaying action while they mended their fences with the enemy, coming to the best terms possible. Yes, that had been the United Oil versus Allied Petroleum fracas, and Joe had emerged with little either in glory or pelf. ...
— Mercenary • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... Jove's Court, and the Presence angelical, cut— To eke out the work of a lazy young slut. Angel-duck, Angel-duck, winged and silly, Pouring a watering-pot over a lily, Gardener gratuitous, careless of pelf, Leave her to water her lily herself, Or to neglect it to death if she chuse it: Remember the loss is her own if ...
— A Nonsense Anthology • Collected by Carolyn Wells
... fall but he falls by himself— Falls by himself with himself to blame; One may attain and to him is the pelf, Loot of the city in Gold of Fame; Plunder of earth shall be all his own Who travels the fastest and ...
— Soldiers Three • Rudyard Kipling
... Gosh, where the Lord Swank lives, He holds high rank, and he has much pelf; And all the well-paid posts he gives Unto his fawning relatives, As foolish as himself. In offices and courts and boards Are Swanks, and Swanks, ten dozen Swanks, And cousin Swanks in hordes— Inept and musty, dry and dusty, Rusty ...
— The Glugs of Gosh • C. J. Dennis
... position of matters with his customary keenness, and wondered at the blindness of Hopper and Philip. At the last gasp of a life, which neither learning nor the accumulation of worldly prizes and worldly pelf could redeem from intrinsic baseness, the sagacious but not venerable old man saw that a chasm was daily widening; in which the religion and the despotism which he loved might soon be hopelessly swallowed. ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... for some time now, and to tell the truth I may say always. But I am the last man in the world to grumble—as you, my dear Lingo, can testify. I always do the utmost, with a single mind, and leave the thought of miserable pelf to others, men perhaps who never saw a shotted cannon fired. You know who made eighty thousand pounds, without having to wipe his pigtail—dirty things, I am glad they are gone out—but my business is to pay other people's debts, and receive all my credits in the shape of cannon-balls. ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... anew, With servants, clothes, and money too, The rest benevolence implored, With case depicted on a board: Which when Simonides espied, "I plainly told you all," he cried, "That all my wealth was in myself; As for your chattels and your pelf, On which ye did so much depend, They're come to nothing ...
— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus
... were so calm and resolute as they sternly struggled to stay the slow retreat are not silent yet. To us and to those who will come after us, they will speak of comfort and home relinquished, of toil nobly borne, of danger manfully encountered, of life generously surrendered and this not for pelf or ambition, but in the spirit of the noblest self-devotion and the most exalted patriotism. Proud as we who are here to-day have a right to be that we are the sons of this university, and not deemed unworthy of her when ...
— Model Speeches for Practise • Grenville Kleiser
... and of no sect; [5] some, so-called Christian Scientists in sheep's clothing; and all "drunken without wine." They have small con- ceptions of spiritual riches, few cravings for the immortal, but are puffed up with the applause of the world: they have plenty of pelf, and fear not to fall upon the Stranger, [10] seize his pearls, throw them away, and afterwards ...
— Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 • Mary Baker Eddy
... Sir John Clavering, why for the sake of pelf and of honours that you will never harvest do you seek to part those who love each other and whom God has willed to bring together? Why would you sell your child to a gilded knave whom she hates? Nay, stop me not. I'd call him that and more to his face and none have ever known ...
— Red Eve • H. Rider Haggard
... from the outmost twig Was somewhat withered, 'tis true, Long years had flown since it lightly danced To the summer air and the dew; Not much of a dowry brought she, In beauty or vulgar pelf, But she had two or three ancestors ...
— Poems • Marietta Holley
... have found; and our country has got along, perhaps, as well as one could have expected, considering what it has had to contend with: pressure of debt; primrose paths; pelf; party; patrio-Prussianism; the people; pundits; Puritans; proctors; property; philosophers; the Pontifical; and progress. I will not disguise from you, however, that we are far from perfection; and it may be that on your next visit, thirty-seven years hence, we shall be further. ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy
... the verge of a single breath; and this world is an existence between two nonentities. Such as truck their deen, or religious practice, for worldly pelf are asses. They sold Joseph, and what got they by their bargain?—"Did I not covenant with you, O ye sons of Adam, that you should not serve Satan; for verily he is your avowed enemy":—By the advice of a foe you broke your ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous
... a dreffle smart man: He's ben on all sides that give place or pelf; But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,— He's ben true to one party,—an' thet is himself:— So John P. Robinson, he Sez he shall vote ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 23, October, 1891 • Various
... C. is a dreffle smart man: He's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf; But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,— He's been true to one party—an' thet is himself;— So John P. Robinson he Sez he shall vote fer ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... and fields stretched down almost in reach of the sullen sea. Here dwelt his wife, quiet Mistress Thatch, and here his brawny daughter. Seldom a word came to this rural home from the father, burning and robbing, sinking and slaying out upon the western seas. But from the stores of pelf which so often slipped so easily into his great arms, and which so often slipped just as easily out of them, came now and then something to help the brawn grow upon his daughter's bones and to ease the labours of ...
— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton
... has wooed for himself: Her father has sold her for land and for pelf: My steed, for whose equal the world they might search, In mockery they borrow to bear her ...
— Gryll Grange • Thomas Love Peacock
... friend too, in his native Ialysus, but who took Three silver talents with him, and his friend forsook. Bad luck go with the fellow, who unjustly some restores From exile, while some others he had banished from our shores, And some he puts to death; and sits among us gorged with pelf. He kept an ample table at the Isthmian games himself, And gave to every guest that came full plenty of cold meat, The which they with a prayer did each and every of them eat, But their prayer was 'Next year be there ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume I (of 4) • Plutarch
... deathless lyres the strains prolong, That gush from living founts of song, Without a cross; Here spirits never feel the weight Of Wrong, or Envy, or of Hate, Or earthly loss; The pomp of Pelf—the pride of Birth— The gilded trappings of this earth ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 4 October 1848 • Various
... see them at the end of January, and that is really one of the main purposes of my journey. If from time to time in my passage I do deliver a few incoherent utterances, these utterances will not be prompted by any desire for pelf. That is far from my thoughts, but still if anyone wants to pay two dollars, or seventy-five cents, to hear those incoherent utterances you may be assured that my managers and myself will do our utmost to devote the funds accruing ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various |
