"Able" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... restrictions which hedge round a Foreign Minister, and in their anxiety to get speakers they will look anywhere. On one occasion I received an invitation to go to Canada to attend a banquet at a Commercial Club in one of the principal Canadian cities. It would have given me great pleasure to be able to comply with this request, as I had not then visited that country, but, contrary to inclination, I had to decline. I was accredited as Minister to Washington, and did not feel at liberty to visit another country without the special permission ...
— America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat • Wu Tingfang
... and he fell silent. I knew that, besides his thoughts of his lady, came other thoughts of his father. He sat gravely silent. But of last night's bitter distress he showed no trace. Last night he had not been able to take his eyes from the miserable past; but to-day he saw the future. A future not altogether flowery, perhaps, but one which, however it turned out, should not repeat the old mistakes ...
— Helmet of Navarre • Bertha Runkle
... with the Hunts and Horace Smith, going to the opera of Figaro, music, &c. But now they had found their Marlow retreat—a house with a garden as Mary desired, not with a river view, but a shady little orchard, a kitchen garden, yews, cypresses, and a cedar tree. Here Mary was able to live unsaddened for a time; the Swiss nurse for the children, a cook and man-servant, sufficed for in-door and out-door work, and Mary, true to her name, was able to occupy herself with spiritual ...
— Mrs. Shelley • Lucy M. Rossetti
... anyone who gains wealth without effort is no better than a parasite, I was contracting for new plants in Bohemia, Poland, Northern Italy and France. I did not neglect buying heavily into the Briey Basin and into the Swedish oremines to ensure the future supply of these mills. In spite of the able assistance of Stuart Thario and the excellent spadework of Preblesham, I was so busy at this time—for in addition to everything else the sale of concentrates diagrammed an everascending spiral—that food and sleep seemed to be only irritating curtailments ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore
... to heed her words, "men are really elected before the convention. The work must be done now. You two can, of course, do a lot of things that it wouldn't be good form for a regular clergyman to do. Of course you wouldn't be able to manage the directing, but there is a good deal of work that ...
— The Puritans • Arlo Bates
... was at an end. Order was rather created than restored, since none had existed in any direction. The Fifth Corps was sent to join the army in the field; within a fortnight, a full army corps of able-bodied stragglers followed; the fortifications were completed; ample garrisons of instructed artillerists were provided. These became "the Heavies" of Grant's campaigns. Almost another full army corps was organized from the new regiments. Finally ...
— History of the Nineteenth Army Corps • Richard Biddle Irwin
... be admitted to enter a Student of the Greek tongue in any Colledge, unlesse after triall he be found able to make a congruous Theame in Latine, or at least, being admonished of his errour, can readily shew how to ...
— The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland
... fingers; the length of the foot; the width of two, three, or four fingers; and the distance between his eyes. In all probability, some one of these is an even and a useful number of feet or inches, which he will always be able to recollect, and refer to as a unit of measurement. The distance between the eyes is instantly determined, and, I believe, never varies, while measurements of stature, and certainly those of girth of limb, become very different ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton
... here any longer," said he; "the troops are gathering all round us. The country's alive with them, and in a few days we shouldn't be able to stir from the hollow of a tree without popping into the gripe of some of our hunters. In the Wolf's Neck they will surely seek us; for, though a very fine place for us while the country's thin, yet even its old owners, the ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... business—business had been just as brisk, or very nearly as brisk, during the last few days as ever before, and that though they had only been able to keep the shop, so to speak, half open. It was clear this silly war wasn't going to make ...
— Good Old Anna • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... yesterday to the Pardo, which prevented me from paying you my respects as I had intended. Not knowing whether I shall be able to do it before Tuesday, I write to inform you, that it will be necessary for me to know on what I am to depend in regard to the reimbursement you were to make me by drafts on Paris. You are aware, that I have actually advanced seven ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various
... think me presumptuous if I say I do," says Molly. "I have a plan already formed, and, if it succeeds, I shall at least be able to earn ...
— Molly Bawn • Margaret Wolfe Hamilton
... Democratic Party of Turkmenistan and are preapproved by President NIYAZOV note: in late 2003, a new law was adopted, reducing the powers of the Mejlis and making the Halk Maslahaty the supreme legislative organ; the Halk Maslahaty can now legally dissolve the Mejlis, and the president is now able to participate in the Mejlis as its supreme leader; the Mejlis can no longer adopt or amend the constitution, or announce referendums or its elections; since the president is both the "Chairman for Life" of the ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... hopeful cause, but 'Pharaoh versus Moses and Another'—that other being God—was a very different matter. God and I are always stronger than any antagonists. It was needless to discuss whether Moses was able to cope with the king. That was not the right way of putting the problem. The right way was, Is God able ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren
... throw up there and then, I can't understand. However there he is still, immersed they tell me in the business of the estate, but incessantly watched and hampered by Melrose himself, an extraordinary development in so short a time; and able, apparently, even if he is willing, which I assume—to do little or nothing to meet the worst complaints of the tenants. They are beginning to turn against ...
— The Mating of Lydia • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... Rachael knew it to be rather from loneliness than any other motive, as his silence was from shyness rather than reserve. His dying was as quiet as his living, between a silent luncheon in the gloomy old dining-room when nobody seemed able either to eat or speak, and a dreadful dinner hour when Miss Cannon sobbed unobtrusively, Warren and Rachael talked in low tones, and the chairs at the head and foot ...
— The Heart of Rachael • Kathleen Norris
... Things had, he recalled with faint pleasure, been pretty quiet lately. Ever since the counterfeiting gang he'd caught had been put away, crime seemed to have dropped to the nice, simple levels of the 1950's and '60's. Maybe, he hoped suddenly, he'd be able to spend some time catching up on his scientific techniques, or ...
— Brain Twister • Gordon Randall Garrett
... heart. And in the sphere of thought, no less than in the sphere of time, motion is no more. The thing that you personally have long ago forgotten, or can easily forget, is happening to me now, and will happen to me again to- morrow. Remember this, and you will be able to understand a little of why I am writing, and in this ...
— De Profundis • Oscar Wilde
... to do, far away from home. She was quite prepared for the advice which her friend Dorothy Fraser, who lived all the year round in London, and only came home for the holidays to Whittingham, was able to give her. Effie's conscience was not in the least pricked at the thought of leaving her mother—it seemed to her quite right. "Had she not to make the most of her youth? Why should she spend all her young ...
— A Girl in Ten Thousand • L. T. Meade
... drink, and clustered on our faces, waiting in queues to sip moisture from our eyes or lips; to live with relish on bully-beef, Maconochie, tea, hard biscuits and jam; in short, we were becoming able ...
— The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918 • F.L. Morrison
... well," said Albert. The street in which they were standing was desolate, and the young man was able to assume a look of decided hostility without encountering any other eyes than those of his rival. "If you have anything to say to me, sir, I am quite prepared to listen to you—to listen to you, and to answer you. I have heard your name mentioned by ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... She was scarcely able to familiarize herself with this strange reality. She had been told that Clym was in the habit of cutting furze, but she had supposed that he occupied himself with the labour only at odd times, by way of useful pastime; yet she now beheld him as a furze-cutter ...
— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy
... "How could I know what I was wishing? We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what we imagine might have been. If I took to foolish wishing of that sort, I should wish—not that I had never seen you, but that I had been able to save you ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot
... question than you think, James," Pamela replied. "All the same, I think I shall be able to answer ...
— The Pawns Count • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... The temperature sensibly and even rapidly increases as we approach the Line. We see no land, though we have passed through amongst the Friendly Islands, with the Samoa or Navigator's Islands lying to the west. It is now a clear course to Honolulu. Not being able to go on deck in the heat of the day, at risk of sun-stroke, I wait until the sun has gone down, and then slip on deck with my rug and pillow, and enjoy a siesta under the stars. But sometimes I am disturbed by a squall, and have ...
— A Boy's Voyage Round the World • The Son of Samuel Smiles
... distance and crawls in the snow towards the herd, pushing his gun before him. If the buffaloes happen to look towards him he stops and keeps quite motionless until their eyes are turned in another direction; by this cautious proceeding a skilful person will get so near as to be able to kill two or three out of the herd. It will easily be imagined this service cannot be very agreeable when the thermometer stands 30 or 40 degrees below zero as sometimes happens in ...
— The Journey to the Polar Sea • John Franklin
... in the kitchen. We were unusually quiet, I reckon, for I was able to count ten strokes. We must fly into bed as fast as we can get there. I had no idea it was so late, although Janie and Rosslyn have been snoozing for ages. Come on, let's march. See who can get ...
— Tabitha's Vacation • Ruth Alberta Brown
... with my uncle, who was slain: he was my only companion thither," said the trembling maiden, thankful to be able with truth to say what would ...
— Hebrew Heroes - A Tale Founded on Jewish History • AKA A.L.O.E. A.L.O.E., Charlotte Maria Tucker
... since that day, in law—still more, as it supposes, in sentiment. But are we yet able to bear such ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... feeding on his father's wheat-bread. The poet, on observing the hare come bleeding past him, "was in great wrath," said Thomson, "and cursed me, and said little hindered him from throwing me into the Nith; and he was able enough to do it, though I was both young and strong." The boor of Nithside did not use the hare worse than the critical Dr. Gregory, of Edinburgh, used the Poem: when Burns read his remarks he said, "Gregory is a good ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham
... heaven and earth were interested in it." So effective an exposition of the colony's value and of its misgovernment could not fail to awaken consideration and sympathy. Nevertheless, the company, aided by the Answer which Van Tienhoven submitted in November, 1650, were able to ride out the storm, and to temporize until the outbreak of the war of 1652-1654 with England put a new face on colonial affairs. A few concessions were made—the export duty on tobacco was taken off, and a municipal government allowed to New Amsterdam, now a town of 700 or 800 ...
— Narrative of New Netherland • J. F. Jameson, Editor
... at nine o'clock, a lieutenant arrived, who had been landed to the westward of Palermo by a sloop-of-war, the "Peterel," she not being able to beat up to the city against the east wind prevailing. From him Nelson learned that the French fleet had passed the Straits, and had been seen off Minorca. The next day, the "Peterel" having come off the port, he went alongside, and sent her on at ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
... explained this to the abbot Kou-en, offering to remove to one of the empty rooms in the ruined part of the building, supporting ourselves with fish that we could catch by cutting a hole in the ice of the lake above the monastery, and if we were able to find any, on game, which we might trap or shoot in the scrub-like forest of stunted pines and junipers that grew around its border. But he would listen to no such thing. We had been sent to be their guests, he said, and their guests we should ...
— Ayesha - The Further History of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed • H. Rider Haggard
... and had so little regard for the rights of others. I am now convinced that even had I succeeded in making myself ruler of all Oz I should not have been happy, for many days of quiet thought have shown me that only those things one acquires honestly are able ...
— The Lost Princess of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... and the elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put him to death; (60)and found none, though many false witnesses came. But at last came two, (61)and said: This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. (62)And the high priest arose, and said to him: Answerest thou nothing? What do these witness against thee? (63)But Jesus was silent. And the high priest answering said to him: I adjure thee by the living ...
— The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. • Various
... to this difficulty when I planned the present work, and entered upon it with no expectation that I should be able to embellish it with, almost, more than a very small number of hitherto unutilized notions. Moreover, I faced the additional handicap of having an audience of extraordinary antipathy to ideas before me, for ...
— In Defense of Women • H. L. Mencken
... of us was able to make out what Stickeen was really good for. He seemed to meet danger and hardships without anything like reason, insisted on having his own way, never obeyed an order, and the hunter could never set him on anything, or make him fetch the birds he shot. His equanimity ...
— Stickeen • John Muir
... to do this, but in a large majority of cases, where they have admitted the connection between the two habits, in their own person, or volunteered to tell how much tobacco had acted in forming and keeping up their appetite for whisky, they have failed in being able to sum up sufficient resolution to abandon the use of the drug, saying that they felt the importance of the step, and would be glad to be able to give it up, but ...
— Grappling with the Monster • T. S. Arthur
... and, with a rider's eye, studied this wild cross-cut of huge stone gullies. Then he went on, guided by the course of running water. If it had not been for the main stream of water flowing north he would never have been able to tell which of those many openings was a continuation of the pass. In crossing this amphitheater he went by the mouths of five canyons, fording little streams that flowed into the larger one. Gaining the outlet which he took ...
— Riders of the Purple Sage • Zane Grey
... is a pleasure to visit it to-day because of the spirit of cooeperation which animates it. They have done away with the elaborate spy systems in use in so many banks, although they keep the management well enough in hand to be able to fasten the blame for mistakes upon the right person. The employees work with one another and with the president, whom they adore. It is, as a matter of fact, largely the influence of the personality of the ...
— The Book of Business Etiquette • Nella Henney
... throne, beseeching his majesty forthwith to take proper steps for such an increase of seamen in the royal navy as should effectually preserve the honour and security of his; majesty's kingdom and colonies. This was made the medium of severe censures on the dismissal of able officers for their votes in parliament, and also on the entire management of the navy. Earl Chatham supported the motion, and condemned the conduct of ministers in this particular branch of the national service, as base and unworthy. In his speech he again adverted to ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... and when she saw that they were sitting in the tree, she called out angrily: "Why, I'm not able to climb!" ...
— The Chinese Fairy Book • Various
... former causes are known not to exist, the presence of poison should always be suspected. As the cause sometimes becomes a matter of legal investigation, it is very important that the practitioner should be able to determine the real origin. If caused by poison, the disease is very suddenly developed, the patient complaining of a very intense burning sensation in the throat and the lining membrane of the mouth, which will generally show the action of the poison. A diarrhea is also more ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce
... triumph; of which final triumph other men reaped the substantial reward, leaving to the discoverer the barren glory of his achievement,—and that glory obscured by detraction. Columbus is the representative man of that illustrious order. We trust to be able to show that Charles Goodyear is entitled to a place in it. Whether we consider the prodigious and unforeseen importance of his discovery, or his scarcely paralleled devotion to his object, in the face of the most ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton
... and his staff fell the duty of sending up cooked food. It is impossible for me here to explain the system practised; but by means of food-containers, specially improvised from petrol tins and rammed into packs stuffed with hay, we were able to supply the men with hot food in the front line. Murray's organisation was excellent, and the four Company Quartermaster-Sergeants—Holder, Freudemacher, Taylor, and Beechey—and the Company Cooks earned equal credit in ...
— The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry • G. K. Rose
... chatter, and a constable springs to read the message of the unreeling coil of paper. It is a message from the East End. A riot has occurred which the local superintendent fears may become greater than the force at his disposal will be able ...
— Scotland Yard - The methods and organisation of the Metropolitan Police • George Dilnot
... characteristic of that Genoese sailor who, like me, has come casually here to be drawn into the events for which his scepticism as well as mine seems to entertain a sort of passive contempt. The only thing he seems to care for, as far as I have been able to discover, is to be well spoken of. An ambition fit for noble souls, but also a profitable one for an exceptionally intelligent scoundrel. Yes. His very words, 'To be well spoken of. Si, senor.' He does not seem to make any difference between ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad
... Captain," said the able seaman, "you surely ain't going to face deep-sea weather with nothing more than this bit of a lad to help you—and with a cutter ...
— The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle • Hugh Lofting
... I arrived only last night," he said, "and was not able to hunt you up till now. Ah, father, Cousin Elsie, captain,"—shaking hands with each in turn—"it does one good to see all your ...
— Elsie at the World's Fair • Martha Finley
... again looked around him to discover if his legend had touched the sympathies of his listeners. He met everywhere, with eyes riveted on his own, heads erect and nostrils expanded, as if each individual present felt himself able and willing, singly, to redress ...
— The Last of the Mohicans • James Fenimore Cooper
... sides of the shaft had been plastered with mud. The stone door of the burial chamber was still standing, the robbers having apparently found it easier to force their way through the comparatively soft earth above the great slab. We were frequently able to trace their mode of entrance, and found that they sank their shafts at the deep end of the stairway, never clearing the long flight of steps. This would seem to show that the robberies took place while this method of burial was remembered. This tomb contained fragments of ...
— El Kab • J.E. Quibell
... while Bickley contemplated her with a cold and unbelieving eye. She even went further and alleged that in certain instances, individuals of her extinct race had been able to pass through the ether and to visit other worlds ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard
... the brigade of British-Indian cavalry that went to Khinjan on the strength of his report and leveled its defenses with the ground, had not been able to find the famous Caves. Yet the Caves themselves ...
— King—of the Khyber Rifles • Talbot Mundy
... appreciate the discreet ambiguity of style with which I have chosen to address you. I may assure you at once that I have done this not without considerable thought. For, though I have often watched you in the exercise of your energies, I have never yet been able to satisfy myself as to whether I ought to class you amongst our rougher sex, or include you in the ranks of those who wear high heels, and very low dresses. Sometimes you fix your place of business in a breast adequately covered by a stiff and shining shirt-front and a well-cut ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, July 11, 1891 • Various
... Gallas, who, after Piccolomini's retirement, had resumed the supreme command of the troops. Gallas accordingly appeared in the duchy, took Keil, and hoped, by forming a junction with the Danes, to be able to shut up the Swedish army in Jutland. Meantime, the Hessians, and the Swedish General Koenigsmark, were kept in check by Hatzfeldt, and the Archbishop of Bremen, the son of Christian IV.; and afterwards the Swedes drawn into Saxony by an attack upon Meissen. But ...
— The History of the Thirty Years' War • Friedrich Schiller, Translated by Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, M.A.
... he can be so sure," said Dorothy, swaying gloomily to and fro against the wheel. "I don't care for myself, I'm not afraid of work, but thee's not able to do what thee does now, mother. If I have outside things to look after, how can I help thee as I should? And the boys are about as much dependence as ...
— In Exile and Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote
... each other nearly so much as do our existing English Carriers, Barbs, and Runts. All this is exactly what might have been anticipated. If we could collect all the pigeons which have ever lived, from before the time of the Romans to the present day, we should be able to group them in several lines, diverging from the parent rock-pigeon. Each line would consist of almost insensible steps, occasionally broken by some slightly greater variation or sport, and each would culminate in one of our present highly ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin
... Petrarch, "Let the man who shall approve of it, abide, and let him to whom it shall appear not reasonable, reject it. 'Tis my earnest wish, I confess, to employ my understanding and acquirements in that mode and direction in which I may be able to benefit the largest number possible of ...
— The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1838 • James Gillman
... for this kind and friendly wish," said Count Adam, giving his hand to his son. "It proves to me that you love your old father, and that delights me. Truly, man is a wonderful creature, not being able to live for himself alone, but always longing for some sympathetic heart on which to lean. I have at last made the discovery that I have ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach
... said, as Chester and McKenzie manifested some anxiety at Hal's words. "I shall not betray you. Only yesterday I was able to get a passport for ...
— The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders • Clair W. Hayes
... Jeanne was somewhat better. She was able to get up, and, in order to remove her mother's fears, persisted in dragging herself into the dining-room, where she took her seat ...
— A Love Episode • Emile Zola
... beyond the limits of Billings County, for the Bismarck Tribune printed Morrill's version of the case, and a day or so later published a stinging letter from Packard, who was nothing if not belligerent. It did not hurt his cause that he was able to quote a statement, made by Morrill, that "there's plenty in it if the justice of the peace ...
— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn
... are of one age, and in spirit these men were contemporaries and brothers. Claude, Corot and Turner never married—they were wedded to art. Constable ripened fast; he got his reward of golden guineas, and society caught him in its silken mesh. Success came faster than he was able to endure it, and he fell a victim to fatty degeneration of the cerebrum, and died of an acute attack ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 6 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Artists • Elbert Hubbard
... men who are well equipped to dehorn cattle, and able to perform this operation for a very moderate fee. It is not advisable to attempt to dehorn a number of adult cattle if the operator is not well equipped for the work. Unless a well-constructed dehorning ...
— Common Diseases of Farm Animals • R. A. Craig, D. V. M.
... where marrying Argia, the daughter of Adrastus, king of that country, he procured the assistance of his father-in-law, to enforce the engagement stipulated with his brother Eteocles. The Argives marched under the command of seven able generals, who were to attack separately the seven gates of Thebes. After much blood had been spilt without any effect, it was at last agreed between the two parties, that the brothers should determine the dispute by single combat. In ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus
... laying up provision for the building of the temple, was that all was the Lord's. "Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee... O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thy holy name cometh of ...
— The Old Helmet, Volume I • Susan Warner
... able to can windfall and cull apples and thus have them for home use through the entire year is a great advantage to all farmers who grow them. They can be sold on the market canned when they would not bring a cent in the ...
— Every Step in Canning • Grace Viall Gray
... future. The sooner the process of dilapidation was arrested, the better and with the less difficulty. The present time was without doubt better than an indefinite future. Miss Vanderpoel, having fortunately been able to come to Stornham, was greatly interested, and naturally desirous of seeing the work begun. Her father also would be interested. Since it was not possible to consult Sir Nigel, it had seemed proper to consult his solicitors in whose hands the estate had been for so long a time. ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... able to inform us, however, of the low state of religious training than he who labored most for its improvement. Spener's language, though written in reference to the melancholy prostration which his own eyes beheld, applies equally ...
— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst
... Lord, I will promise to serve you not servilely, but faithfully in any manner you shall point out. Do not, I beg of you, my Lord, refuse my application the moment you peruse it. The mouse, you know, once was able to show its gratitude to the lion; and it may be in my power, if your Lordship will but give me the opportunity, to evince my deep gratitude for any kindness you may show me, not by words, but deeds. Be assur'd you will not have cause to repent any interest you have ...
— The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. • Lord Byron
... my constant practice, sire, to refer to you all subjects on which I entertain doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation, or to instruct my ignorance? I have never been present at the trials of Christians, and, therefore, I do not know in what way, or to what extent it is usual to question or to punish ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta
... to what you suppose,—imperfection of expression,—but rather to the fact that some latent thought or emotion has not yet defined itself in your mind with sufficient sharpness. You feel something and have not been able to express the feeling—only because you do not yet quite know what it is. We feel without understanding feeling; and our most powerful emotions are the most undefinable. This must be so, because they are inherited accumulations of feeling, and the multiplicity ...
— The Romance of the Milky Way - And Other Studies & Stories • Lafcadio Hearn
... culture for his class. As he knew Spanish fluently, he obtained work at a school, as teacher, of Spanish, and afterward he further added to his little income by giving lessons on the guitar. The money too came in regularly from the French chateau, and D'Albert was able to put by, and keep his children ...
— The Children's Pilgrimage • L. T. Meade
... down on the grass and put my face deep down in it, and there wasn't anything abominable that anybody could have said about me that I would not have agreed to. All the time I had been furious with him for not writing as usual, he had been shut up in a dark room, not able to see the food he was eating, much less able to write letters, and then when they took the bandages off he wrote so much they had to be put back again, and he was forbidden to write more than a few lines, which accounted ...
— Kitty Canary • Kate Langley Bosher
... Sladden is older now and knows more of the world, and even has a Business of his own, he has never been able to buy such another window, and has not ever since, either from books or men, heard any rumour at all of ...
— The Book of Wonder • Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, Lord Dunsany
... distribution of salt in continental deposits and because of the availability of ocean and salt-lake brines as other sources, most countries of the world either possess domestic supplies of salt adequate for the bulk of their needs, or are able to obtain supplies from nearby foreign countries. Certain sea salts preferred by fish packers and other users are, however, shipped to distant points. About a fifth of all the salt consumed in the world ...
— The Economic Aspect of Geology • C. K. Leith
... think, be answered, by repeating, that the cruelty of the daughters is an historical fact, to which the poet has added little, having only drawn it into a series by dialogue and action. But I am not able to apologise with equal plausibility for the extrusion of Gloucester's eyes, which seems an act too horrid to be endured in dramatick exhibition, and such as must always compel the mind to relieve its distress by incredulity. Yet let it be remembered that our authour well knew what would ...
— Preface to Shakespeare • Samuel Johnson
... complained loudly of certain evasions, by which many palliated real infractions of their vow of poverty. He justly observed: "We can never restore what is decayed of primitive discipline; and if we, by negligence, suffer any diminution in what remains established, future ages will never be able to repair such breaches. Let us not draw upon ourselves so base a reproach; but let us faithfully transmit to posterity the examples of virtue which we have received from our forefathers."[5] The holy man was obliged to interrupt his solitude ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... and pencil.)—"Let me see how thee makes letters; try such as thou hast been able ...
— The Fugitive Blacksmith - or, Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington • James W. C. Pennington
... failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in over an {ill-behaved} application which bypasses the very interrupts the screen saver watches for activity. Your choices are to try to get from the program's current state through a successful save-and-exit without being able to see what you're doing, or to re-boot the machine. This isn't ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0
... have to go on like this, Aldith?" she asked once faintly, after a French lesson that she had scarcely been able ...
— Seven Little Australians • Ethel Sybil Turner
... the most entire sincerity to be able to foreknow. When a State or a family is about to flourish, there are sure to be happy omens; and when it is about to perish, there are sure to be unpropitious omens. The events portended are set forth by the divining-grass and the tortoise. When calamity or good ...
— Religions of Ancient China • Herbert A. Giles
... Before I was clothyd with precyous stones and gold, and had my chaunges, and dayly ther was offeryd gold and precyous stones, now I am skarsly coueryd with halffe a gowne and that is all beeyten with mysse. My yerly rentes be now so smalle that I am skarsly able to fynde my pore quere kepar to light a wax cadle before me. Yet all this myght be sufferyd, but you be abowt to pluke away greater thynges, you be abowt (as they say) that what so euer any saynte ...
— The Pilgrimage of Pure Devotion • Desiderius Erasmus
... more than Mrs. Robertson was able to perform perhaps, for she was a chronic and inveterate grumbler. But she had some excuse in the present circumstances, for Katie was, as she said, her baby, and the "apple of her eye." Married when quite young to the handsome and intelligent young village doctor, she certainly had not expected ...
— Katie Robertson - A Girls Story of Factory Life • Margaret E. Winslow
... Mars have discovered unmistakable signs of human life on the farthest of these two moons. They are hoping to be able some day to cover the intervening distance and for the first time see their ...
— Life in a Thousand Worlds • William Shuler Harris
... jeweller. 'Your amethysts are very fine, but they are dark and heavy in tone, and want a good deal of lighting-up, especially for the present fashion of half-lighted rooms. If you will allow me to use my own discretion, and mix in a few brilliants, I shall be able to produce a really artistic parure; otherwise I would not recommend you to touch them. The present setting is clumsy and inelegant; but I really do not know that I could improve upon it, ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... manufacture of rollers having been devised which were no infringement on Applegath & Cowper's moulds, the compound came into open use, and Koenig, who had so improved and perfected Nicholson's ideas and plans for a power cylinder press, was able, in 1814, by the adaptation of the glue and molasses roller, to print the first edition of a newspaper that was ever run from a cylinder press—the historic edition of The London Times. The problem of the inking apparatus solved, there was ...
— The Building of a Book • Various
... trouble," replied Mrs. Floyd, in a tone that was almost tender. "We are only glad to be able to help. When I saw that cowardly scamp draw his pistol and knife on you, I could 'a' killed him. ...
— Westerfelt • Will N. Harben
... be very good friends. At present, it was his wish that she should remain where she was; and he asked whether she did not find every one very kind to her. Euphrosyne could just say, "Yes;" but she was crying too much to be able to add, that she hoped she should not have to remain in the convent very long. Monsieur Critois saw that she was struggling to say something: but, after waiting a minute, he stroked her hair, promised to come again some day soon, hoped she would cheer up, had no doubt she would ...
— The Hour and the Man - An Historical Romance • Harriet Martineau
... offered to Senor Don Quixote," said Don Juan, "that he himself will not be able to avenge, if he does not ward it off with the shield of his patience, which, I take ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... results of which were that they involved themselves in debt, and that they raised their rents for the purpose of relieving themselves. Discontent everywhere prevailed, and especially in Scotland and Ireland, and many thousands emigrated to the North American provinces, that they might be able to obtain a subsistence for their families, and at the same time preserve their religion and ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... point, an earlier one, which for the moment we have disregarded. We have—you have disproved the love I was so presumptuous as to believe you fostered for me. We have yet to reckon with the love I bear you, mademoiselle, and of that we shall not be able to ...
— Bardelys the Magnificent • Rafael Sabatini
... he found his Masaccios, Robert Browning told me that he knew; but where did he find that incomparable bust in wax which charms with all the mystic feminine grace and more than all the feminine beauty of the Mona Lisa? Possibly M. Carolus Duran may be able to throw light upon this; for he was one of the earliest beneficiaries who profited by the fund which the Chevalier Wicar founded for the purpose, as he says in his will, of 'giving to young men, natives of Lille, who devote themselves to the fine arts, the means ...
— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert
... bestow none of my Bounties upon an Alms-house of idle People; and for the same Reason I should not think it a Reproach to me if I had withheld my Charity from those common Beggars. But we prescribe better Rules than we are able to practise; we are ashamed not to give into the mistaken Customs of our Country: But at the same time, I cannot but think it a Reproach worse than that of common Swearing, that the Idle and the Abandoned are suffered in the Name of Heaven and ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... the captain of the robbers, thought he had now a favourable opportunity of being revenged on Ali Baba. "I will," said he to himself, "make the father and son both drunk: the son, whose life I intend to spare, will not be able to prevent my stabbing his father to the heart; and while the slaves are at supper, or asleep in the kitchen, I can make my escape ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 3 • Anon.
... rights two hundred years ago was resented very bitterly, and two enthusiastic witch-hunters were sent to her house to entrap her into a confession. On the way they made inquiries, which resulted in their being able to patch up a charge against the woman for walking in ghostly attire during the night. When the detectives called at the house she told them she knew the object of their visit, but that she was no witch, and did not believe there was such a thing. The mere fact of her knowing ...
— My Native Land • James Cox
... 1637-8. A retainer of Matsudaira Nobutsuna he had not been the last man to force his way into the blazing ruins of Arima castle. He did his very best amid the struggling mass of halt, maimed, and blind, after the real defenders of the castle had died weapons in hand. He was able to present himself before his lord with a reasonable number of his own company with heads on their shoulders; and a phenomenal number of heads minus shoulders, of all ages and sexes—men, women, and children—of the castle inmates. ...
— Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House) - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville
... strange talk with consternation. An irresistible magnet drew her toward those curtains, which she grasped with trembling hands, ready, but not able, to part them and enter the room. It seemed that in there was a friend of Neale's whom she was going to love, and an enemy whom she was going to hate. As for Neale seeing her—at once—only death ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey
... hidden at the end of the rainbow? Some people think it is there now, but they are mistaken, for a long time ago somebody found it. How he happened to find it, nobody knows, for a great many people have searched in vain, and have never even been able to discover that the rainbow has any ends at all. The man who found it was very selfish and did not want anybody to know, for fear they might want some of his money. So one night he put it in a bag, which he slung over his shoulder, and walked across the fields ...
— Buttercup Gold and Other Stories • Ellen Robena Field
... as you did. Now, laddie, what I want you to understand is, that you are weak and helpless in yourself, that you can neither walk aright nor do any good thing by yourself; but that if you seek the aid of the Holy Spirit you will walk aright, you will be able to withstand temptation, and to do God's will. If you do not pray and seek His aid, you cannot expect to find it; yet if you do seek it, you will assuredly find it, for He hath said, 'Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock ...
— Archibald Hughson - An Arctic Story • W.H.G. Kingston
... exclaimed Joe, who, up to this moment, had not been able to do anything but stand still ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume VIII, No 25: May 21, 1887 • Various
... the west, the north, and the east, in which are carried on the wars of the period, present indications of great political weakness. They are divided up among a vast number of peoples, nations, and tribes, whereof the most powerful is only able to bring into the field a force of 20,000 men. The peoples and nations possess but little unity. Each consists of various separate communities, ruled by their own kings, who in war unite their troops against the common enemy; but are so jealous of each other, ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria • George Rawlinson
... frantically loyal, rejoicing people,—past countless festive decorations, and a world of "V"s and "A"s—under arches so gay that one wondered where and how at that season all the flowers and foliage were produced,—if nature had not hurried up her spring work, so as to be able to come to the wedding. The Queen turned now and then her happy face on her shouting subjects, in graceful acknowledgment of their sympathy with her happiness; but much of the time she was observed to ...
— Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood • Grace Greenwood
... Fourth. No printed page, alas, can thrill us to extremities of laughter. These are ours only if the mirthmaker be a living man whose jests we hear as they come fresh from his own lips. All I claim for Falstaff is that he would be able to convulse us if he were alive and accessible. Few, as I have said, are the humorists who can induce this state. To master and dissolve us, to give us the joy of being worn down and tired out with laughter, is a success to be won by no man save in virtue ...
— And Even Now - Essays • Max Beerbohm
... Is sought in vain. Decrees of Fate Forbid to check, at first, the course Which sweeps at last the torrent force. One Jove, as ancient fables state, Exceeds a hundred gods in weight. So Fate and Louis would seem able The universe to draw, Bound captive to their law.— But come we to our fable. A mother lobster did her daughter chide: "For shame, my daughter! can't you go ahead?" "And how go you yourself?" the child replied; "Can I be but by your example led? Head ...
— A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine
... ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken A load would sink a navy!—too much honor: Oh, 't is a burthen, Cromwell, 'tis a burthen, Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven! Crom. I am glad your grace has made that right use of it. Wol. I hope I have: I am able now, methinks, Out of a fortitude of soul I feel, To endure more miseries, and greater far, Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer. What news abroad? Crom. The heaviest, and the worst, Is your displeasure with the king. Wol. God bless him! ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... which constitute the groundwork I am chiefly indebted to Dr. Oswald W. Seidensticker's very valuable monograph entitled "Ephrata, eine amerikanische Klostergeschichte." The reader will find a briefer account of the monastery from the same learned and able writer in The ...
— Duffels • Edward Eggleston
... which served to heighten the reputation of Magellan, who deserves the sole honour of this voyage, was the difficulty experienced by other able commanders, who endeavoured to fellow the course he had pointed out. The first who made the attempt were two Genoese ships in 1526, but unsuccessfully. In 1528, Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, sent two ships with 400 men, to endeavour to find their way through ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr
... from the Russian parapet, and the men crouching behind their shelter can hear the voices of their enemies. None dare lift head or hand to even the loopholes on the breastworks, since the worst shot in the world can send bullet after bullet through any loophole at that distance. The Russians are able to throw hand grenades, with which their trenches are supplied, clear into the German trenches, while the German shelling has had to cease since their own men are in equal danger from any shell ...
— Current History, A Monthly Magazine - The European War, March 1915 • New York Times
... Frenchwoman, Lizette Charpentier, who also acted as Mrs Vansittart's maid—had just made her appearance with the information that the meal was ready. I therefore decided to postpone what I had to say until after breakfast, believing that everybody would be the better able to listen to bad news if they were first fortified ...
— The First Mate - The Story of a Strange Cruise • Harry Collingwood |
