"Desire to know" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... delights have blankly vanished—"gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were"—he is scarcely fitted to trust the worth of his own impressions. Reading from mere idle curiosity or with critical intentions, and reading with delight, with eager absorption in the story and an eager desire to know how it turns out, are two different matters. The loss of this capacity for enjoyment of the every-day novel is not a subject for self-gratulation, coming as it does from our own absence of imagination and from narrowing instead of increasing powers. That period of our existence ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XXVI., December, 1880. • Various
... possible, in your studying or reading, group those subjects together which belong together. If you are inclined to the physical sciences, bring into your work natural philosophy, general chemistry, general physiology, biology, geology, and mineralogy. If you desire to know more of one branch of natural science, as, for example, biology, why not group zoology, conchology, anatomy, physiology, botany, microscopy? I would always be careful not to make the group too large, though learning from one science ...
— Hold Up Your Heads, Girls! • Annie H. Ryder
... mind. The ultimate standard of all truth and all right, was now the grand object of pursuit. These inquiries were not, however, conducted by the Sophists with the best motives. They were not always prompted by an earnest desire to know the truth, and an earnest purpose to embrace and do the right. They talked and argued for mere effect—to display their dialectic subtilty, or their rhetorical power. They taught virtue for mere emolument ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... seemed to have come merely to appraise the house and its contents, what would he think? Would not he, too, fear that his mother must have had grave reasons for acting as she had? What were these reasons? What could there be in common between her and Sandgoist? Joel would certainly desire to know, and would be sure to question his mother, and as Dame Hansen, who was always so uncommunicative, would doubtless persist in the silence she had maintained hitherto, the relations between her and her children, which were so ...
— Ticket No. "9672" • Jules Verne
... sisters went back, but not so promptly that they should have not seen the bonds which Dionysia had thrown upon the table, and which were quite familiar in their appearance to them, as they had once owned some of them themselves. Their burning desire to know was thus combined with vague terror; and, when they got back to their ...
— Within an Inch of His Life • Emile Gaboriau
... to interfere with Herr Grosse's enjoyment of his pipe, I made my way through the garden as quickly as possible, and found myself in the village again. My uneasiness on the subject of Oscar, was matched by my angry desire to know what Nugent would do. Now that he had worked the very mischief which his brother had foreseen to be possible—the very mischief which it had been Oscar's one object to prevent in asking him to leave Dimchurch—would he take ...
— Poor Miss Finch • Wilkie Collins
... different sub-stations usually carry different loads and, generally speaking, a glance along a horizontal row will convey no information of especial importance. If, however, for any reason the operator should desire to know the approximate aggregate load upon a group of feeders this systematic arrangement of the instruments ...
— The New York Subway - Its Construction and Equipment • Anonymous
... 'We have a desire to know, O son of Suta, what is implied by the term Akshauhini that hath been used by thee. Tell us in full what is the number of horse and foot, chariots and elephants, which compose an Akshauhini ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Translated into English Prose - Adi Parva (First Parva, or First Book) • Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator)
... differ very largely. Students of this course who desire to know the law in any particular State can easily secure the information by writing to ...
— Up To Date Business - Home Study Circle Library Series (Volume II.) • Various
... would want oysters, that he would have heard of Harvey's apropos of Grant and Blaine, and she took him there. At dinner his hearty voice, his holiday enjoyment of everything, turned into nervousness in his desire to know a number of interesting matters, such as whether they still were married. But he did not ask questions, and he said nothing about her returning. He cleared his throat and observed, "Oh say, been trying out the old camera. Don't you think these are ...
— Main Street • Sinclair Lewis
... there is nothing that we can add. So should you, reader, desire to know any subsequent details, peruse what is written in the ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin
... guest of yours, sir,' she said, perhaps alarmed at her own boldness, but drawing herself up with great dignity. 'I desire to know by what right my sister and I, king's daughters, on our way to King Charles's Court, have thus ...
— Two Penniless Princesses • Charlotte M. Yonge
... the Amazonian, &c.] Penthesile, Queen of the Amazons, succeeded Orythia. She carried succours to the Trojans, and after having given noble proofs of her bravery, was killed by Achilles. Pliny saith, it was she that invented the battle-ax. If any one desire to know more of the Amazons, let him ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler
... first looked at a large map of Holland these thoughts crowded into my mind, and I felt a great desire to know something about the formation of this singular country; and as what I learned impelled me to make a book, I write it now in the hope that I may lead others ...
— Holland, v. 1 (of 2) • Edmondo de Amicis
... character, and for tracing his progress, step by step, from the obscurity of a private station, to the most honorable post in the nation over which he now presides, are neither full nor satisfactory. Barely enough is known of him, throughout the United States, to create the desire to know more; and it is to be regretted that the means of gratifying this laudable curiosity, are ...
— Great Indian Chief of the West - Or, Life and Adventures of Black Hawk • Benjamin Drake
... might be read through its monuments, and in the second, to awaken a greater interest for their preservation. It has been translated and applied to the History of similar Remains in England, in the hope that it will be found a useful Handbook for the use of those who desire to know something of the nature of the numerous Primeval Monuments scattered over these Islands, and the light which their investigation is calculated to throw over the earliest and most obscured periods ...
— Notes and Queries, No. 2, November 10 1849 • Various
... no use—I can't wait any longer. At any risk I must gratify my urgent desire to know what is going on. (Looking off.) Why, what's that? Surely I see a wedding procession winding down the hill, dressed in my Troilus and Cressida costumes! That's Ludwig's doing! I see how it is—he found the time ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... he added Arabic to his other acquirements. It is not quite clear whether he had in view any purpose in connection with his professional work beyond the desire to know the originals of all the authorities quoted in his lectures. But, when he had sufficiently mastered the language to be able to read the Koran, he knew that he had two grounds for self-congratulation, and these were sufficiently ...
— Principal Cairns • John Cairns
... of a sentence in the midst of a charred page before the flames crept over it. Always loathed you, but, I remember; and think Tolstoi was right. Who had always loathed whom? And what, what, had Tolstoi been right about? I had an absurd but genuine desire to know. Too late! Confound the woman!—she was scoring again. I furiously drove her pages into the yawning crimson jaws of the coals. Those jaws had lately been golden. Soon, to my horror, they seemed to be growing grey. They seemed to be closing—on nothing. Flakes of black paper, full-sized layers ...
— And Even Now - Essays • Max Beerbohm
... catalogue of the Palstrey pictures, and Emily found and studied it with deep interest. She cherished a touching secret desire to know what might be discoverable concerning the women who had been Marchionesses of Walderhurst before. None of them but herself, she gathered, had come to their husbands from bed-sitting rooms in obscure streets. There had been noble Hyrsts in the reign ...
— Emily Fox-Seton - Being The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... are considering how history should be read, the main thing perhaps is, that the person reading should desire to know what he is reading about, not merely to have read the books that tell of it. The most elaborate and careful historian must omit, or pass lightly over, many points of his subject. He writes for all readers, and cannot indulge private fancies. But ...
— Friends in Council (First Series) • Sir Arthur Helps
... frankly skeptical, but by no means controversial. He asked his question in an honest desire to know of ...
— The Come Back • Carolyn Wells
... recollection of what you had told me of Grey's death and his reference to the notice in the paper. Instantly the interpretation of that line came to me. It related to the yellow traffic. And I shuddered as I reviewed the possibilities which my discovery opened up. I couldn't rest. A feverish desire to know the worst assailed me. I questioned you as you may remember, and, with every reply you gave me, my fears received confirmation. In the end I could no longer keep silence, and my anger drove me to a course which ...
— The Hound From The North • Ridgwell Cullum
... separately. Without this it would be difficult to tell which Joshua Stephens is meant, for there are many of that name, as also others. The numbers are also valuable for tracing out any particular pedigree; for instance, suppose that William Stephens, of Camp Verde, should desire to know the full line of his paternal ancestry, he would find his name on page (41) 56, where his number is given as 275: then looking up the left-hand column of figures he will find No. 275 on page (21) 27, where ...
— The Stephens Family - A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joshua Stevens • Bascom Asbury Cecil Stephens
... the duke to finish his remarks. What interest had he in all those travels, those Arabic translations, that Oriental poetry, or that poison from America? He was seized with the desire to know what such a charming creature as Marianne thought. Ah! what a pretty girl! He had already inquired her name; he happened to know Uncle Kayser; the painter had formerly sent him a printed memoir On the Method of Moralizing ...
— His Excellency the Minister • Jules Claretie
... what was the cause of her misery, while I gazed at the inscription upon the cover, in my aunt's hand: "Justin's Letters, 1864." The very room which I occupied was an evil counsellor to me in this strife between an indisputable duty and my ardent desire to know; for it had formerly been my father's room, and the furniture had not been changed since his time. The color of the hangings was faded, that was all. He had warmed himself by a fire which burned ...
— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne
... nature; but he was quite as likely to take an interest in a store clerk as in a famous writer. It is not necessary to suppose that a man is a parasite of fame because he goes to a President's reception, or wishes to meet a celebrated English lecturer. It is natural that we should desire to know how such people appear—their expression, their tone of voice, their general behavior; but Hawthorne did not care for this. At the time of which we write, Doctor Samuel G. Howe, the hero of Greek independence ...
— The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne • Frank Preston Stearns
... on, back and back, till both difficulty and consciousness become little more than a sound of going in the brain, a flitting to and fro of something barely recognisable as the desire to will or know at all—much less as the desire to know or will definitely this or that. Finally, they retreat beyond our ken into the repose—the inorganic kingdom—of ...
— Life and Habit • Samuel Butler
... the aptest teachers, as the previous chapter assumes, it is fitting to bestow on them the honour and the affection that we owe to our teachers. In fine, since all men naturally desire to know, and since by means of books we can attain the knowledge of the ancients, which is to be desired beyond all riches, what man living according to nature would not feel the desire of books? And although we know that swine trample pearls under foot, the wise man will not therefore be deterred ...
— The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury • Richard de Bury
... humanity, and decorum I had from the first of our acquaintance stood in admiration of, that I was for some time unable to make any coherent answer to questions so abrupt, and in a great measure to me unintelligible. The terms, I think, were these: 'I desire to know, sir, what is the reason, whence arises this disorder and confusion?' The manner in which he expressed them was much stronger and more severe than the expressions themselves. When I recovered myself sufficiently, I answered that I saw ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing
... interested in the mechanism of his own brain, and followed its workings with a lively curiosity. Nothing could be more remarkable, he thought, than to thus discover that, on the instant of his formulating a desire to know what he should write upon, lo, and behold! there his mind, quite on its own initiative, had the answer waiting for him! When he had gone a little further, and the powerful range of possibilities in the son's revolt against the idolatry of his father, the image-maker, ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic
... Lorna Doone, the little maid of six years back, and how my fancy went with her. Could Lorna ever think of me? Was I not a lout gone by, only fit for loach-sticking? Had I ever seen a face fit to think of near her? The sudden flash, the quickness, the bright desire to know one's heart, and not withhold her own from it, the soft withdrawal of rich eyes, the longing to love somebody, anybody, ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore
... amusing manner. At one of the last representations of Robert Macaire he expected to be called before the curtain at the end of the play. He was not, however; whereupon he ordered the curtain to be raised and came forward with his gravest air. "Gentlemen," said he, addressing the audience, "I desire to know if M. Auguste is not here." M. Auguste does not answer, and the spectators look at each other in surprise. "M. Antoine!" Silence again. "Well, gentlemen, I am the victim of the dishonesty of the chef ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 89, May, 1875 • Various
... I am in the king's service, and that knowing he wanted to send some one to England, I solicited the appointment, so great was my desire to know the man of genius who now governs the three kingdoms. So that when he proposed to us to draw our swords in honor of old England you see how we snapped up ...
— Twenty Years After • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... exposition and refutation of the hallucination and mythical theories of Strauss and his followers is most admirable, and all should read it who desire to know exactly what excuses men make for their incredulity. The work also contains many beautiful passages on the discomfort of unbelief, and the holy pleasure of a settled faith, which cannot fail to benefit ...
— The Fair Haven • Samuel Butler
... a few days ago, we were speaking of the great interest people are everywhere taking in the more vital things of life, the eagerness with which they are reaching out for a knowledge of the interior forces, their ever increasing desire to know themselves and to know their true relations with the Infinite. And in speaking of the great spiritual awakening that is so rapidly coming all over the world, the beginnings of which we are so clearly seeing during the closing years of this, ...
— In Tune with the Infinite - or, Fullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty • Ralph Waldo Trine
... are they who desire to know and to do good works? Let them undertake prayer alone, and lightly exercise themselves in faith, and they will find that it is true, as the holy Fathers have said, that there is no work like prayer. Mumbling with the mouth is ...
— Works of Martin Luther - With Introductions and Notes (Volume I) • Martin Luther
... whether the Captain would be able to sail with Admiral Penrose if he should have the offer; and as soon as she saw that they and their governess were in ignorance, she turned it off; but she had said enough to fill Christabel with anxiety and desire to know more; and as soon as the dinner was over, and the little girls had run off together to visit Ida's beautiful cockatoo in the conservatory, she turned to Fraulein Munsterthal, and begged to hear whether she knew more than ...
— The Stokesley Secret • Charlotte M. Yonge
... little book we have the choicest counsels of men who are themselves successful students of the Word. We very earnestly commend this volume. All those who desire to know how to study the Scriptures with the utmost profit should secure ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... but there is, Horatio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here,— It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you: For your desire to know what is between us, O'ermaster't as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, Give ...
— Hamlet, Prince of Denmark • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]
... did not care for novels as a rule, but he read "Laurels and Thorns," and was desperately interested in it. Perhaps the phenomenal success which had crowned it had some effect upon him; and Lady Pynsent wrote him a nice letter of congratulation, expressing a great desire to know his "distinguished sister." At all events, the thing was done, and Lettice must now be definitely accepted as a writer of books. What chiefly puzzled him was to think where she had learned her wisdom, how she came to be witty without his knowing it, and whence proceeded that intimate acquaintance ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... the wad. Right or wrong, I was bound to see what it contained. Perhaps it might be of no earthly interest to me; on the other hand, it might contain much I would desire to know. Strange things had happened lately, and I was prepared ...
— True to Himself • Edward Stratemeyer
... you, Mr. Johnson, should be the last to forget it, and I desire to know at once the meaning of this outrageous descent ...
— For Love of Country - A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... I thought my head would have burst with its aching agony of suspense,—my eyes were burning like hot coals with a weight of unshed tears. I felt that I could have battered down the wall between me and those torturing voices in my feverish desire to know the worst—the worst at all costs! If Rafel were dead—but no!- -he could not die! He could not actually perish—but he could be parted from me as he had been parted before—and I—I should be alone again—alone as I had been all my life! And in my foolish pride I had voluntarily severed myself ...
— The Life Everlasting: A Reality of Romance • Marie Corelli
... you desire to know my present situation. As there is nothing in it at which I should blush, or which mankind could censure, I see no reason for making it a secret. In short, by a very little practice as a physician, and a very little reputation ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving
... of the Ledger office, instead of the U.S. box (one of which, was also in the Ledger office), through a mistake, and seeing that it bore the name of a well-known slave-catcher, Alberti, the clerk had a great desire to know its import. Whether it was or was not sealed, the writer cannot say, it certainly was not sealed when it reached the Anti-Slavery office. It stated that a lady from Maryland was then in Philadelphia, stopping ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still
... embassies. 'No!' I said. 'Oh, quite likely,' says the Old Man, though I doubt if he knew any more of embassies than of metaphysics. The story gave an aristocratic sort of tinge to the ship, I suppose. As I say, I didn't know what had been happening in my brother's life of late and I had no great desire to know. Whatever he had done did not prevent him looking after his work. The Second was quite disturbed over the indefatigable way 'that new mess-man' tidied up his room. It was what the newspapers call 'an Augean task,' for the Second was not very neat in his habits. Boots, matches, cigarette-ends, ...
— Aliens • William McFee
... So feigning this to be their errand they set forth, and came to the King in the town of Carrion, and spake unto him in council, saying, Sir King, we come to you through waters and over mountains and by bad ways, to tell you concerning Coimbra in what plight it is, if you desire to know, and in what guise the Moors dwell therein, what they are and how many, and with how little heed they keep the city. And he said unto them. I beseech ye, for the love of God, say on. Then told they him what they ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various
... come to my house," said Mrs Keswick, "and it is very natural that one should desire to know the husband of her only niece who is, or should be, the same as ...
— The Late Mrs. Null • Frank Richard Stockton
... to be enlightened on a subject; then, when I shall have learned what I desire to know, I ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... that. A chum as gu; in order that. A chum as nach; that not. Air chor as gu; so that. Air eagal gu, } D' eagal gu; } for fear that, lest. Air son gu, } Du bhrigh gu; } by reason that Bheil fhios, 'l fhios? is there knowledge? is it known? an expression of curiosity, or desire to know. Co; as. Ged, giodh; although[93]. {135} Ged tha, ge ta; though it be, notwithstanding. Gidheadh; yet, nevertheless. Gu, gur; that. Gun fhios; without knowledge, it being uncertain whether or not, in case not. Ionnas gu; insomuch that, so that. {136} Ma; if. Mar; as, like as. Mar sud agus; ...
— Elements of Gaelic Grammar • Alexander Stewart
... I would grow, What heaven contains would comprehend, O'er earth's wide realm my gaze extend, Nature and science I desire to know. ...
— Faust Part 1 • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
... Theron the executioner, looked with calm eyes upon Syracuse, upon the distant city of which she knew no more in all her eighteen years of life than that same distant vision, a jewel city lying in orchards at her feet. She had no desire to know more of it; her father wished that she should know no more of it, and she was content, for Theron the executioner was the wisest man in the world, wiser than the few priests who tended the chapel on the hill, wiser than the few country ...
— The Proud Prince • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... we have some occasion to regret the absence of similar craving in the spacious times of Queen Elizabeth. If there had been a daily, weekly, or monthly publication that submitted famous men to the ordeal of the interview, we might pardon the glut of our latter day. Unhappily for our desire to know what manner of man Shakespeare was, the available records are exceedingly scanty, or are at least insufficient for our legitimate needs, and we are face to face with the initial difficulty that in the sixteenth century Shakespeare's name was quite ...
— William Shakespeare - His Homes and Haunts • Samuel Levy Bensusan
... concise summary—a kind of index—of universal history (Liber Memorialis) from the earliest times to the reign of Trajan. Its object and scope are sufficiently indicated in the dedication to a certain Macrinus: "Since you desire to know everything, I have written this 'book of notes,' that you may learn of what the universe and its elements consist, what the world contains, and what the human race has done.'' It seems to have been intended as a text-book to be learnt by heart. The little work, in fifty chapters, ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... need to see her face, nor to touch her hand. She was more near to me, more near, than when I held her in my arms. How long it was so, I cannot tell; it was long as love, yet short as the drawing of a breath. I knew nothing, felt nothing but Her, alone; all my wonder and desire to know departed from me. We said to each other everything without words—heart overflowing into heart. It was ...
— A Beleaguered City • Mrs. Oliphant
... only of the outward mould, Sparkling in those dear eyes, and on the wind Tossing those locks of gold, but beauty born, In revelations flitting o'er the face, From the soul's inner symmetry; from love Too deep and pure to utter, had she words; From the divine desire to know; to prove All objects brought within her dawning ken; From frolic mirth, not heedless but most apt; From sense of conscience, shown in little things So early; and from ...
— The Woman Who Dared • Epes Sargent
... such as we may arouse by rubbing a stick of sealing-wax or a piece of amber with a cloth. All discoveries, in a word, have had their necessary beginnings in an interest in the facts which daily experience discloses. This desire to know something more than the first sight exhibits concerning the actions in the world about us is native in every human soul—at least, in all those who are born with the heritage of our race. It is commonly ...
— Outlines of the Earth's History - A Popular Study in Physiography • Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
... kicked the hickory log that lay nearest to it with his mocassined foot, and produced a bright crackling flame, the reflection of which was thrown entirely upon the object of his gaze; it was a large metal button, on which the number of his regiment was distinctly visible. Unable to check his desire to know further, he left his seat, to examine the contents of the chair. As he moved across the room, he fancied he heard a light sound from without; his companion, also, seemed to manifest a similar impression ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson
... enfranchised from the thralls of the earth. Of young women there was but one with whom she could herself deal; but in regard to that one Madame Staubach was resolved that no softness of heart should deter her from her duty. "Linda," she said, after pausing for a while, "I desire to know from you what Herr Molk has said to you!" Then there was a short period of silence. "Linda, did he sanction your love for ...
— Linda Tressel • Anthony Trollope
... my authority as a leech," answered Rebecca, "and enjoin you to keep silence, and avoid agitating reflections, whilst I apprize you of what you desire to know. Prince John hath broken off the tournament, and set forward in all haste towards York, with the nobles, knights, and churchmen of his party, after collecting such sums as they could wring, by fair means or foul, from those who are esteemed the wealthy of the land. ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott
... in the eaves. A silence had fallen between them, and Constans, leaning against the window-casement, seemed to have forgotten of Esmay's very existence. Quietly she drew aside and left him, impelled by an irresistible desire to know if he would notice her absence and would follow her. Hardly had she stolen five steps away than she heard him start, and then turn to seek her. A sheer delight coursed through her veins, and ...
— The Doomsman • Van Tassel Sutphen
... As-Simsar. "I was," said he, "at Abu Jaafar At-Tirmidi's when a person consulted him about the saying of the Prophet, that God descended to the heaven of the world (i.e. the lowest of the seven heavens). This person expressed his desire to know how there could, in that case, be anything more exalted than the ...
— A Boswell of Baghdad - With Diversions • E. V. Lucas
... looking with an arch glance at his destined travelling companion, "does not understand the words of action.Woman," again turning to the vault, "I arraign not thy character, but I desire to know what is ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... undeniably, hopeless. I do not object to your failing to see the humor in the situation, for you are a woman; but that you should not be curious as to the motives which actuate Uncle Simon, that you should be unmoved by a burning desire to know why this staunch old servant who has for so many years pictured hell each Sunday to his fellow-servants should wish a vacation—that I can neither understand ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar
... knowledge it is not enough to travel hastily through a country. Observation demands eyes, and the power of directing them towards the object we desire to know. There are plenty of people who learn no more from their travels than from their books, because they do not know how to think; because in reading their mind is at least under the guidance of the author, and in their ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... enough to sustain anxiety with beauty, for the lovely is itself healing and hope-giving, because it is the form and presence of the true. To have such a presence is to be; and while a mind exists in any high consciousness, the intellectual trouble that springs from the desire to know its own life, to be assured of its rounded law and security, ceases, for the desire itself ...
— Robert Falconer • George MacDonald
... guilty holder of at least three of my own dear sisters, and my only brother, in bondage. These you regard as your property. They are recorded on your ledger, or perhaps have been sold to human flesh-mongers, with a view to filling our own ever-hungry purse. Sir, I desire to know how and where these dear sisters are. Have you sold them? or are they still in your possession? What has become of them? are they living or dead? And my dear old grandmother, whom you turned out like an old horse to die in the woods—is she still ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass
... biographer to tell us what were his habits of composition, how he talked, how he bore himself in the discharge of his duties to his family, his neighbors, and himself; what were his beliefs on the great questions that concern humanity. We desire to know what he said and wrote, not what he did beyond the study and the domestic or the social circle. The chief external facts in his career are the dates of the ...
— Daniel Defoe • William Minto
... tales are always interesting to the ladies who look over the collection. Some have been worn by great men or great ladies, and some have encircled the fingers of great villains or great criminals. You should understand why I desire to know the history of every ring that comes into ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish
... a merchant, and you shall live as strangers, who have no other end of travel than curiosity; it will soon be observed that we are rich; our reputation will procure us access to all whom we shall desire to know; you will see all the conditions of humanity, and enable yourself, at leisure, to make your CHOICE ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... to suggest to your sister that she call on me. Try to be reasonable, dear. Mrs. Collis does not desire to know me. Why should she? Why should you wish to have me meet her? If you have any vague ideas that my meeting her might in any possible way alter a situation which must always exist between your family and myself, you are utterly ...
— The Common Law • Robert W. Chambers
... that by hearing this man to-night, and I think Captain Cooke to-morrow, and the quire of Italians on Saturday, I shall be truly able to distinguish which of them pleases me truly best, which I do much desire to know and have good reason ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... for the same reason that we believe God the creator did implant in us all, of all tribes and tongues, this deep desire to know, worship, and enjoy him, so that no people have ever been wholly ignorant of him, do we believe that he has, in these latter years, declared himself to mankind more plainly than he did in the origin of things, or than he does through ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware
... their teeth in a certain regular order and time, yet it is certain that those children who follow the general rule which prevails in this respect, suffer least from the difficulties and effects of dentition. As all mothers desire to know at what time they may expect the teeth, we will state the rule of their development in the ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys
... create an interest by looking for all the contributory aids that can be found. Sometimes a knowledge of the life of the author or of the circumstances under which the selection was written will stimulate a desire to know what has been said and will moreover assist to make the meaning clear and to create the same sentiment that inspired the writer. To know that Snow-Bound is a description of Whittier's own home, that the people about the fireside are his own parents, brothers, sisters, ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10 - The Guide • Charles Herbert Sylvester
... I found that Mr. Clifford had been entertaining several respectable looking natives who had paid him a visit. As they readily comprehended his desire to know their words for various things, he has succeeded in collecting a considerable number, among which we are surprised to find their name for tobacco the same as ours; all the others are quite new ...
— Account of a Voyage of Discovery - to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island • Captain Basil Hall
... subject,—as what that you ever uttered have I forgotten? I remembered, too, how nearly out of patience I often felt with you for claiming your god to be the only God; and, so as I drew near, I felt a desire to know him better. It being a time of worship in the temple, I went with a Jewish friend of mine up the hill, and entered the outer court, called, I believe, the Court of the Gentiles. And, verily, I saw no god there. Perchance he was ...
— Gems Gathered in Haste - A New Year's Gift for Sunday Schools • Anonymous
... 206.] The next is such senseless malice, or ignorance, that it deserves a hoot; he finds Manuel in Don Quixot (playing in his Farce for the Dukes diversion) addressing to the Dutchess in this manner, in a Jargon of Phrase made ridiculous on purpose: Illustrious beauty, I must desire to know whether the most purifidiferous Don Quixot of the Manchissima, and the Squireiferous Pancha, be in this Company or no. To whom Sancho replies, imitating, as he thinks this fine stile, Why lookee, forsooth, without any more flourishes, the Governor ...
— Essays on the Stage • Thomas D'Urfey and Bossuet
... deference to his own personal interests, and with a view to his own future standing with his constituents. Pledges before election may be fair, because a pledge given is after all but the answer to a question asked. A voter may reasonably desire to know a candidate's opinion on any matter of political interest before he votes for or against him. The representative when returned should be free from the necessity of further pledges. But if this be true with a House ...
— Volume 2 • Anthony Trollope
... saw of it. A quite young, almost boyish face, with an inexpressibly pure, true, and good expression upon the mouth and in the dark-brown eyes. Reticent, as most good faces are, but a face which made you desire to know the owner of it, made you feel that you could trust him in any trial. His face reminded me in a distant manner of two others, also faces of musicians, but greater in their craft than he, they being creators and pioneers, while he was only a disciple, ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill
... wise Mira Khabur had stated, the purely natural effect of purely natural causes, still those natural causes were not as yet explained satisfactorily. An earthquake or land-slip would perhaps account sufficiently for everything,—but then an inquiring mind would desire to know WHERE the earthquake or land-slip occurred,— and also WHY these supposed far-off disturbances should thus curiously affect the river surrounding Al-Kyris? Answers to such questions as these were not forthcoming either from Professor Mira-Khabur or any other sagacious ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli
... help to those who desire to know the Why and the How this little compendium is made; in the interest of time-and-labor-saving uniformity, and in the belief that what cannot be fully known or perfectly acquired does still not prevent our ...
— The Roman Pronunciation of Latin • Frances E. Lord
... one," he said as he captured her hand again. "Will you acknowledge that I played my part well? I thought to myself, in the worst of tempers, as I drove away, that I could hardly have been more official. But all this is evasion. What I desire to know, categorically, is, what made you write that letter to me last night, ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... desire to know what the bishop's sensations were in reading this letter—to know whether it occurred to him that in this naive acknowledgment, the Oxford heresy hunters were themselves confessing to an act of heresy; ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude
... Most Illustrious Prince, your desire to know all that treats of the Spanish discoveries in the New World. You have let me know that the details I have given you concerning the first voyage pleased you; listen now ...
— De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) - The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera • Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt
... selected the profound dissertations of our most learned theologians, and read with much interest, as we are informed by her biographer, "the works of Edwards, Hopkins, Bellamy, and Doddridge." In the investigation of the deep and awful things of God she spent much of her time, and, with a humble desire to know the truth and obey it, sought ...
— Daughters of the Cross: or Woman's Mission • Daniel C. Eddy
... several persons whom he had known. There were then living three men who, as his aides, had accompanied him upon his expedition. I knew the fact, and expected he would allude to them, but he did not. He seemed to desire to know more of those who had been active in ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks
... mildly insinuated her desire to know him. "He has such a nice face," she said plaintively, "and such lovely little curly brown whiskers! He is the only man in the house worth looking at, but if I happen to come up when he is talking to you, he instantly disappears. He ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various
... say, you desire to know, I suppose that you will be willing to hear, and I may consider myself to be speaking to an auditor who will remain, and ...
— Alcibiades I • (may be spurious) Plato
... himself be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus."—Rom. 3:26. And it was God's love that let Him die for our sins, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son."—John 3:16. What you, reader, ought to desire to know, is simply God's way. The Scriptures at the beginning of the chapter, if language can make anything plain, show clearly that the sinner's only escape from the just punishment of his sins lies in Jesus dying in his ...
— God's Plan with Men • T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin
... he had attain'd thus far, so as to have a general and indistinct Motion of this Agent, he had a most earnest Desire to know him distinctly. And because he had not as yet withdrawn himself from the sensible World, he began to look for this voluntary Agent among sensible Things; nor did he as yet know, whether it was one Agent or many. Therefore he enquir'd strictly into ...
— The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan • Ibn Tufail
... conscious of many shortcomings in the book, but it may prove of interest to those who desire to know something of the measures which gradually wore down the German submarine effort, and, at any rate, it is the only record likely to be available in the near future of the work of ...
— The Crisis of the Naval War • John Rushworth Jellicoe
... a limp gesture as if waving away all desire to know; but Father Brown, dusting off his sleeve some ashes blown from the furnace, spoke in ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton
... themselves shatter the charge we are discussing. There is, however, an immense mass of direct and positive evidence available to all who desire to know the truth, but which is carefully and studiously ignored by the preachers of anti-Semitism. If such men as Mr. Ford are ignorant of the existence of this evidence, as we must suppose them to be, their offense ...
— The Jew and American Ideals • John Spargo
... many other things on hand which required my time and attention; yet I could not make up my mind to return the book until I had finished it, though my intention had been merely to satisfy my curiosity by a dip into it. I went on, without that eager desire to know what follows which one has in a novel; drowsily with absolute reluctance to leave off, like the reluctance to rise from the grass beneath the trees with only butterflies and shadows to watch, or the reluctance to put aside some fairy book of Walter Crane's. It was like strolling in some ...
— Euphorion - Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediaeval in the - Renaissance - Vol. II • Vernon Lee
... letter, which you did me the honor to write on the 17th of this month. You desire to know what is meant by ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. XI • Various
... territory covered in that region by his company; a plan that must have engrossed his thoughts and fired his enthusiasm during months of apparently common life with his wife. And Paul had been genuinely surprised, and a little put out at her desire to know of it. ...
— The Squirrel-Cage • Dorothy Canfield
... moral courage against the blustering son of Anak? Time only would tell. The formative period of his character was not yet ended, and the data for prognostication were too complex and conflicting. We can only be sure that his consuming desire to know had been carefully fostered in the seminary, but in such a manner as unwittingly to add to his confusion of thought and to increase his fear of throwing himself unreservedly upon his own convictions. That he grew to perceive the childishness of churchly dogma, we know. That he appreciated ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking
... what I saw this evening. I had walked out with Henry Wilding, who called, and who was going, he said, to his cousin's. Now, I will not conceal from my faithful journal that I was moved by a desire to know just who his cousin was and where he or she lived; for by a most fortunate chance I have found out that my maiden without a name lives, or probably lives, at a Mr. Martindale's, on this street. I tried to draw Wilding out without betraying my own interest, but ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various
... she would tell Mrs. Finnegan so decidedly. This always had the effect of switching the subject again and Mrs. Robson found her desire to know the real details of Mrs. Condor's questionable gaieties offered up on the altar of class loyalty. For it never occurred to Mrs. Robson to doubt that her social exile had nothing to do with the inherent ...
— The Blood Red Dawn • Charles Caldwell Dobie
... with no little asperity. "You will hardly doubt the evidence of my own eyesight, will you Miss Stetson? I saw that person cross the gallery and enter the south wing. Be good enough to go down to the gymnasium and call the roll. I desire to know if all the girls ...
— A Dixie School Girl • Gabrielle E. Jackson
... that painful event, it was plain how much his point of view of the whole course and relation of things had changed. His mind was the last to dogmatize on any subject. There was a candid and childlike desire to know, with an equal confession of the incapacity of the human intellect. I wish I could recall the actual expressions he used, but the sense was that which has been so well stated by Hooker in concluding an exhortation ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... retain facts in his memory, to obtain information from as many sources as possible, to understand and piece them together, and finally to reach fresh conclusions from previously acquired data. So far as is possible the teacher must satisfy the natural desire to know the reason of things. It must be his endeavour to prevent the child from accepting any argument which he has not fully understood, and which, as a result, he is able not to reconstruct but only to repeat. ...
— The Nervous Child • Hector Charles Cameron
... the queen their confidant Arcadius (one of the Arvernian senators), with a pair of shears and a naked sword. When he came to Clotilde, he showed her what he bare with him, and said to her, 'Most glorious queen, thy sons, our masters, desire to know thy will touching these children: wilt thou that they live with shorn hair or that they be put to death?' Clotilde, astounded at this address, and overcome with indignation, answered at hazard, amidst the grief that overwhelmed ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume I. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... worthy persons, who are as much concerned for your safety as I am, have employed me as their orator, I desire to know whether you will have it by way of syllogism, enthymem, ...
— The History of John Bull • John Arbuthnot
... vicissitudes, but, vanquished or victorious, triumphant or abased, never has she lost her peculiar gift of attracting the curiosity of the world. She interests every living being, and even those who do not love her desire to know her. To this peculiar attraction which radiates from her, artists and men of letters can well bear witness, since it is to literature and to the arts, before all, that France owes such living and lasting power. In every quarter of the civilized world there ...
— Serge Panine, Complete • Georges Ohnet
... were all out-gushing for her, and when the full tones of the organ peeled forth their parting strain and we went forth from the sanctuary, my busy dreamings of the present and the past all were merged in one honest desire to know the poor girl's history. I learned it afterward from the lips of ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 3 September 1848 • Various
... a vague shadowy fear, which will come,—that your own name may soon be there. You try to drop the notion, as if it were not fairly your own; you affect to slight it, as you would slight a boy who presumed on your acquaintance, but whom you have no desire to know. It is a common thing, you will find, with our world to decline familiarity with those ideas that ...
— Dream Life - A Fable Of The Seasons • Donald G. Mitchell
... ask me not, for I cannot answer thee. Ask rather the man Inaguy, whom it has pleased our Lord Anamac so signally to honour this day before thee and all the people. Doubtless he will be able to tell thee all that thou may'st desire to know." ...
— In Search of El Dorado • Harry Collingwood
... by this time come to the conclusion that Bobby Bright was a very clever fellow—one whose acquaintance they would be happy to cultivate. Perhaps by this time they have become so far interested in him as to desire to know who his parents were, what they did, and in what kind of ...
— Now or Never - The Adventures of Bobby Bright • Oliver Optic
... instruction. In parting from you, I beg to express the gratitude I have felt all my life for the affectionate fidelity which characterised your teaching and conduct toward me. Should any of my friends, wherever your lot may be cast, desire to know your qualifications as a teacher, I hope you will refer them to me; for that is a subject on which I can speak knowingly and from experience. Wishing you health, happiness, ...
— Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee • Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son
... miles unrolled behind them. Always Roaring Bill faced straight north. For a week he kept on tirelessly, and a consuming desire to know how far he intended to go began to take hold of her. But she would not ask, even when daily association dulled the edge of her resentment, and she found it hard to keep up her hostile attitude, to nurse bitterness against a man who remained serenely ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... wonder," said Marya, "that women should desire to know him? Alas!—" She laughed and turned to Ilse, who seated herself ...
— The Crimson Tide • Robert W. Chambers
... of friends opposed the idea of journalism, the more Lucien's desire to know its perils grew and tempted him. He began to debate within his own mind; was it not ridiculous to allow want to find him a second time defenceless? He bethought him of the failure of his attempts to dispose of his first novel, and felt ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac |
