"Bete" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... infamous deeds within the lines of strict legality. Becoming the head of a printing-office by betraying his master [see "Lost Illusions"], he had afterwards been condemned to imprisonment as editor of a liberal newspaper. In the provinces, under the Restoration, he became the bete noire of the government, and was called "that unfortunate Cerizet" by some, as people spoke of "the unfortunate Chauvet" and "the heroic Mercier." He owed to this reputation of persecuted patriotism a place as sub-prefect in 1830. Six months later he was dismissed; but ...
— The Lesser Bourgeoisie • Honore de Balzac
... Good, And I cant say I'm Sorry afore God if you shoud, For men mought Get their Bread a great many ways Without taking ourn,—aye, and Moor to your Prays You might go and skim the creme off Mr. Muck-Adam's milky ways—that's what you might, Or bete Carpets—or get into Parleamint,—or drive Crabrolays from morning to night, Or, if you must be of our sects, be Watchmen, and slepe upon a poste! (Which is an od way of sleping, I must say,—and a very ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... people fight there. When the present writer went to survey with eagle glance the field of Waterloo, we asked the conductor of the diligence, a portly warlike-looking veteran, whether he had been at the battle. "Pas si bete"—such an answer and sentiment as no Frenchman would own to—was his reply. But, on the other hand, the postilion who drove us was a Viscount, a son of some bankrupt Imperial General, who accepted a pennyworth ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... girl was more than the amorously-disposed stranger could resist, and suddenly throwing his arms around her he sought to kiss her. But the soft-eyed fawn of the desert soon showed herself in the guise of a petit bete sauvage. With a startling scream she ...
— The Story of Louis Riel: The Rebel Chief • Joseph Edmund Collins
... overpass humanity's normal limits begun to be realized after the Middle Ages were over by clear-sighted thinkers. "Qui veut faire l'ange," said Pascal, pungently summing up this view of the matter, "fait la bete." That had often been illustrated in the ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... l'on ne fait jamais fete: J'embellis quelquefois, quelquefois, j'enlaidis. Je dedaigne tantot, tantot j'applaudis; Pour m'avoir en partage, il faut n'etre pas bete. ...
— Women of Modern France - Woman In All Ages And In All Countries • Hugo P. Thieme
... his hero odd. The most typical modern books are those in which the central figure is himself or herself an exception, a cripple, a courtesan, a lunatic, a swindler, or a person of the most perverse temperament. Such stories, for instance, are Sir Richard Calmady, Dodo, Quisante, La Bete Humaine, even the Egoist. But in a fairy tale the boy sees all the wonders of fairyland because he is an ordinary boy. In the same way Mr. Samuel Pickwick sees an extraordinary England because he is an ordinary old gentleman. He does not see things through the rosy spectacles ...
— Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens • G. K. Chesterton
... had brought in from the down-river country were likable-looking men. There was Horrigan, for instance, who for seven long weeks kept him in good humor with his drollery, though he was bringing him in to be hanged. And there were McTab, and le Bete Noir—the Black Beast—a lovable vagabond in spite of his record, and Le Beau, the gentlemanly robber of the wilderness mail, and half a dozen others he could recall without any effort at all. No one called them liars when, like real men, they confessed their crimes when ...
— The Valley of Silent Men • James Oliver Curwood
... "what is it that I bring home this time? How much is paste? My God, how droll that smile of Clinch.... Which is the false—his jewels or mine? Dieu que j'etais bete!—— Me who have not suspec' that there are two trays within my jewel-box!... I unnerstan'. It is ver' simple. In the top tray the false gems. Ah! Paste on top to deceive a thief!... Alors.... Then what I have recover of Clinch is the real!... Nom ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert W. Chambers
... had been close, and questions such as that he had asked were common between them. And her answer was of the same nature. "Oh, such an odious woman!" she said. "Her name is Mrs Marsham; she is my bete noire." And then they were actually dancing, whirling round the room together, before a word had been said of that which was Burgo's settled purpose, and which at some moments ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... [th]is lettre was open & rad; purpose to kill [Th]e bretouns & alle men were mad, the messengers, And wolde [th]e messager scle:— but Arthur "Nay," seyd Arthour, "per de, 236 forbids it, That were a[gh]enst alle kynde, A messager to bete or bynde; y charge alle men here for to make ham good chere." 240 And after Mete sanz fayl Wy[th] hys lordes he hadde counsayl; And alle asented [th]er to, and resolves to Arthour to Rome scholde go; 244 invade Rome. And [th]ey ne wolde in hys trauayle Wy[th] strenk[th] & good neuer fayle. ...
— Arthur, Copied And Edited From The Marquis of Bath's MS • Frederick J. Furnivall
... Massin had predicted, was the bete noire of the relations, their sword of Damocles; and Madame Cremiere's favorite saying, "Well, whoever lives will know," shows that they wished at any rate more harm to ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac
... and it was decided that unless some practical work was done in this country all English subscriptions should cease. We had no alternative but to come over and attempt something. Brott is of course the bete noire of our friends here. He is distinctly the man to ...
— The Yellow Crayon • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... away with you!" She gave a shrill, agonized laugh. "So that is the end of it all! What did you think of my child when you forced your way into my life, when you made me think of you—ah, quel bete—what a coward ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... truism that the man in the street seems always to forget, when he is abusing the Anarchists, or whatever party happens to be his BETE NOIRE for the moment, as the cause of some outrage just perpetrated. This indisputable fact is that homicidal outrages have, from time immemorial, been the reply of goaded and desperate classes, and goaded and desperate individuals, to wrongs from their fellowmen, ...
— Anarchism and Other Essays • Emma Goldman
... wicked Venus, as we shall see in the next chapter. The little spotted beetle which English and American children call ladybug or lady-bird (that is, the bug or bird of our Lady), the Germans Marienkaferchen, and the French La bete du bon Dieu, was sacred to Holda; and though the name of the Virgin Mary was bestowed upon it in the long ago, it still remains a love oracle, as the little ones ...
— A Book of Operas - Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... in grece oer in oyle, take it and lay it in rede wyne. grynde it with raisouns take hony and do it in a pot and cast erinne gleyres [2] of ayrenn wi a litel water and bete it wele togider with a sklyse [3]. set it ouer the fires and boile it. and whan the hatte [4] arisith to goon [5] ouer, take it adoun and kele it, and whan it is er clarified; do it to the oere with sugur and spices. salt it and loke it be stondyng, florish it ...
— The Forme of Cury • Samuel Pegge
... bete, forban, meurtrier! Skin out f'om here! beast, robber, murderer!" he cried, in his keen screech-owl voice. "I'll git thet scelp o' your'n afore sundown, see 'f I don't! Ye onery ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson
... that all the towne spake therof. A certaine yonge man of the towne well acquoyntyd with thys yeman told him that suche a carter hadde layne by his wyfe. To whome this yeman of the garde sware by Goddes body, if he mette with hym it should go harde but he wolde bete him well. Hey, quod the yonge man, if ye go streyght euen nowe the right way, ye shall ouertake him dryuyng a carte laden with haye towarde London; wherfore the yeman of the garde incontynent rode after this ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown
... several other works, from which succeeding political writers have drawn, and still draw ideas, which they give to the world as new. This man, remarkable not only for profound and original thinking, but for clear and forcible expression, was, nevertheless, D'Argenson la bete. It is said, however, that he affected the simplicity, and even silliness of manner, which procured him that appellation. If, as we hope, the unedited memoirs left by Rene d'Argenson will be given to the world, they will be found fully to justify the ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 2 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
... astute; clear-headed; farsighted &c 510; discerning, perspicacious, penetrating, piercing; argute^; quick-witted, nimble-witted, needle-witted; sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack; alive to &c (cognizant) 490; clever &c (apt) 698; arch &c (cunning) 702; pas si bete [Fr.]; acute &c 682. wise, sage, sapient, sagacious, reasonable, rational, sound, in one's right mind, sensible, abnormis sapiens [Lat.], judicious, strong- minded. unprejudiced, unbiased, unbigoted^, unprepossessed^; undazzled^, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... father! In spite of this precaution the Vicomte found great difficulty in getting a third wife—especially as he had no actual land and visible income; was, not seamed, but ploughed up, with the small-pox; small of stature, and was considered more than un peu bete. He was, however, a prodigious dandy, and wore a lace frill and embroidered waistcoat. Mr. Love's vis-a-vis was Mr. Birnie, an Englishman, a sort of assistant in the establishment, with a hard, dry, ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... 23 Darmanson, La bete transformee en machine. Ditton, Appendix to Discourse on Resurrection of Christ, showing that brutes are not mere machines, but have immortal souls. Orphal, Sind die Thiere blos sinnliche Geschopfe? ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger
... Oh! how bete you English are to applaud such a man! You have only one poet, haven't you—one living poet? Ah! I shouldn't have laughed if it ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... to hear the French of the country. You can't understand why all the people insist upon speaking it so badly. I asked the conductor if he had been at the battle; he burst out laughing like a philosopher, as he was, and said "Pas si bete." I asked the farmer whether his contributions were lighter now than in King William's time, and lighter than those in the time of the Emperor? He vowed that in war-time he had not more to pay than in time of peace (and this strange fact ...
— Little Travels and Roadside Sketches • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the basket in which, divided only by the handle, sat two fat turkey poults and two chickens. One of the turkeys stirred and got a wing free, but it was remorselessly tucked in again and reduced to passive endurance, with "Keep quiet then, ne soyez pas bete." ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 • Various
... thinking of what we felt that day we first saw her in London. Many a poor devil has sold his soul as the result of such a first sight! Well, I sold her instead. Do you want the truth about her? Elle etait bete ...
— Tales Of Men And Ghosts • Edith Wharton
... of time most of their heavy stone buildings have sunk into the soft ground and become completely covered by deposits of mud. So, as at Memphis, all that now remains of ancient Heliopolis, or On, is one granite obelisk, standing alone in the fields; while at other places, such as Tamai or Bete-el-Haga near Mansurah, practically ...
— Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt • R. Talbot Kelly
... choose starve, how you prevent him, hey? How make you me eat? Voila, bete!" Tulitz drew himself to his full height, turned up his shirt-sleeves and bared his great, ...
— Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York • Lemuel Ely Quigg
... Mademoiselle de Coulanges, a young lady who, from the account given of her, might justify the description, assigned earlier to one of her official predecessors in a former reign, of being "belle comme un ange, et bete comme un panier."[255] At first the lovers (if we are to call them so) are lying, most beautifully dressed and quite decorously, on different sofas, both of them with books in their hands, but one asleep and the other yawning. Suddenly the lady ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury |
