"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... good fer evil Much ez we frail mortals can, But I won't go help the Devil Makin' man the cus o' man; Call me coward, call me traitor, Jest ez suits your mean idees, Here I stand a tyrant-hater, An' the friend o' God ...
— The Negro and the Nation - A History of American Slavery and Enfranchisement • George S. Merriam
... Jove did not hesitate to conceal his thunderbolts when he deigned to love; and Cupid but too often has recourse to the aid of Proteus to secure success. We have, therefore, no mean warranty." ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat
... I mean to assert myself. I am a Roman lady and I will have my seat, and you must ...
— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford
... 'I mean to try and like her,' said Molly, in a low voice, trying hard to keep down the tears that would keep rising to her eyes this morning. 'I've seen very little of ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... then, Aristodemus! Supposest thou, that when the gods give out some oracle to all the Athenians, they mean it not for thee? If, by their prodigies, they declare aloud to all Greece—to all mankind—the things which shall befall them, are they dumb to thee alone? And art thou the only person whom they have placed beyond their care? Believest thou they ...
— Museum of Antiquity - A Description of Ancient Life • L. W. Yaggy
... Kiddo—don't—don't do that! I didn't mean to hurt you—honest, I didn't. Don't cry any more and I'll take you right down to the black hole, and let you sleep on the floor if you want to. Gee! I'll give you the whole place, tools, junk ...
— The Foolish Virgin • Thomas Dixon
... shrill and happy, and the cawing of the rooks, who are wheeling in large circles overhead, and wondering what is going forward in their territory—seeming in their loud clamour to ask what that light smoke may mean that curls so prettily amongst their old oaks, towering as if to meet the clouds. There is something very intelligent in the ways of that black people the rooks, particularly in their wonder. I suppose it ...
— Our Village • Mary Russell Mitford
... "What do you mean, sir? My brave brother Walter dead! murdered by rascally pirates!" he exclaimed. "Oh, impossible!—it's too horrid! What will ...
— Old Jack • W.H.G. Kingston
... "How d'you mean—escape the Law? Didn't you know that all magic lives and thrives on the wrath of the Law? Have you forgotten our heroic tradition of martyrdom and the stake? Isn't the world tame enough already? What do you want Magic to become? A ...
— Living Alone • Stella Benson
... standing by himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very moment, this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty, and unbound, Nature inspired him with hopes of life and he started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands, directly toward me; I mean toward that part of the coast where my habitation was. I was dreadfully frightened, that I must acknowledge, when I perceived him run my way; and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by the whole body; and now I expected that part of my dream was coming to pass, ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I • Francis W. Halsey
... when I look at you, Ruth. And when you talk as you have, I become impatient because I know you don't mean it. But nonetheless, you deserve the best that any man can give, and you ought to have all the comforts and pretty things any woman has, for you're too sweet and good for a bare, commonplace life." He pressed gently the fingers he yet retained. "I told you once ...
— The Iron Furrow • George C. Shedd
... language. Trenby took everything quite literally—the obvious surface meaning of the words, and the delicate nuances of speech, the significant inflections interwoven with it, meant about as much to him as the frail Venetian glass, the dainty porcelain figures of old Bristol or Chelsea ware, would mean to the proverbial ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler
... not grasped All that I meant. I know the calfish joys Of the young freshman, suddenly let loose With chorus-girls for nursemaids, are not yours. I mean far subtler things: I mean the play Of the wise soul that sees the abyss of life— Sees the grim measure of the mortal doom— And over that dark gulf in reckless mirth Dances on rainbows, with delightful ...
— Mr. Faust • Arthur Davison Ficke
... after; he thought no lady in the world so worthy to be beloved, as she. And so likewise thought Paul Flemming, when he beheld the English lady in the fair light of a summer morning. I will not disguise the truth. She is my heroine; and I mean to describe her with great truth and beauty, so that all shall be in love with her, and ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... I suppose you mean?' I said with some inward bitterness. 'But to tell the truth, I don't think the inheritance worth it ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald
... gold is a mere medium of exchange,—its chief use,—then it has only a conventional value; I mean, it does not make a nation rich or poor, since the rarer it is the more it will purchase of the necessaries of life. A pound's weight of gold, in ancient Greece, or in Mediaeval Europe, would purchase as much ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VI • John Lord
... This adverbial phrase is often misplaced. "'The Romans understood liberty at least as well as we.' This must be interpreted to mean, 'The Romans understood liberty as well as we understand liberty.' The intended meaning is, 'that whatever things the Romans failed to understand, they understood liberty.' To express this meaning we might put it thus: 'The Romans understood at least liberty ...
— The Verbalist • Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)
... usual, until the judge had threatened to commit the first person who should again disturb the court, that it subsided. There were two persons present, however, to whom we must direct the special attention of our readers—we mean Condy Dalton and the Prophet, on both of whom Sullivan's unexpected appearance produced very opposite effects. When old Dalton first noticed the strange man getting upon the table, the appearance of Sullivan, associated, as it had been, by the language of his counsel, with ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton
... By "opinion" I mean the knowledge that he is so empowered by the laws of the country to which they all belong, and by which laws they will be punished, if they act in opposition to his authority. The fiat of the individual commanding ...
— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat
... I mean that he possesses a quick sympathy and a sort of intuition that are oftener found in ...
— The Red Redmaynes • Eden Phillpotts
... disabuse Mr. Mill, in these matters, than years of mere reading; and it is a positive injury to his large ideas that he should not take the opportunity of testing them on the only soil where they are being put in practice. Whenever he shall come, his welcome is secure. In the mean time, all that we Americans can do to testify to his deserts is to reprint his writings beautifully, as these are printed,—and to read them universally, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864 • Various
... thine appeal to me; I bring to life, I bring to death: The spirit does but mean thy breath: I know no more.' And he, ...
— Natural Law in the Spiritual World • Henry Drummond
... "There is no difference," Rom. 3:22, has often been pressed to mean that all sinners are alike before God, or will suffer alike in Hell. By close attention to the passage the reader will see that the expression "there is no difference" has reference to what goes before, for it is connected by the word ...
— God's Plan with Men • T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin
... Sergeant Clancy, sir," answered the man. "He said I could hear better—I mean, see better," he corrected himself, ...
— Action Front • Boyd Cable (Ernest Andrew Ewart)
... never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English bourgeoisie; and I mean by this, especially the bourgeoisie proper, particularly the Liberal, Corn Law repealing bourgeoisie. For it nothing exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself not excluded. It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, ...
— The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 - with a Preface written in 1892 • Frederick Engels
... of his designating himself some day by the sobriquet of 'the Austrian,' unless we oppose him energetically and set bounds to his thirst after conquest. They want to get rid of me in the same manner as their predecessors got rid of Cardinal Clesel. But I hold the helm as yet, and do not mean to relinquish it." ...
— LOUISA OF PRUSSIA AND HER TIMES • Louise Muhlbach
... river. A large boat was riding there at anchor. None of the boatmen were in it. The prince went into the boat, and told his mother to come into it. His mother besought him to get down from the boat, as it did not belong to him. But the prince said, "No, mother I am not coming down; I mean to go on a voyage, and if you wish to come with me, then delay not but come up at once, or I shall be off in a trice." The queen besought the prince to do no such thing, but to come down instantly. But ...
— Folk Tales Every Child Should Know • Various
... cried Lura in ringing tones. "Think you that the daughter of a king of men is to be a toy for your base Jovian passions? The point of this dagger is poisoned so that one touch through your skin will mean death. One step nearer and I ...
— Giants on the Earth • Sterner St. Paul Meek
... English king. Henry seems to have conciliated the English barons for a time, for most of them were present at the marriage festivities, and he counted a thousand knights in his train; while Alexander brought sixty splendidly-attired Scottish knights with him. That the banqueting was on no mean scale is evident from the fact that six hundred fat oxen were slaughtered for the occasion, the gift of the Archbishop of York, who also subscribed four thousand marks (L2,700) towards the expenses. The consumption of meats and ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson
... 1755. Reprinted in Cork with the author's name, Richard Bocklesly, Esq., M.D. It is hardly necessary to say that the "people" referred to in the above extract mean merely the ...
— The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) - With Notices Of Earlier Irish Famines • John O'Rourke
... contradict," replied the boatswain, "but you say we should have attained our object, Do you mean by that, that we should have ...
— An Antarctic Mystery • Jules Verne
... merry face in at the open window, and greeted Mrs. Ward with a shout of joyous laughter. "Dear Granny, you didn't know you were talking aloud; and how indeed were you to guess that I was so close at hand to overhear you? Ah! how glad I am that you mean really to let me have the beautiful pup. I have chosen a name for it already: it shall be called Newfy, because its mother came ...
— Georgie's Present • Miss Brightwell
... certain eggs at an early stage, may, from that time on, determine the kind of development. As to the second alternative, I see no reason for supposing that the small heterochromosome of a pair is in any different condition, as to activity, from the large one. The condensed condition may not mean inactivity, but some special form of activity. And, moreover, it has been shown that in certain stages of the development of the oocyte of one form, Aphrophora quadrangularis, there are pairs of condensed chromosomes corresponding to those of the ...
— Studies in Spermatogenesis - Part II • Nettie Maria Stevens
... him a long look. "It was through you he ever had the chance of seeing me. I mean the blue-eyed Chinaman. He has followed me all the evening. He followed me here to the very door." Flora's array of facts fell so fast, so hard, so pointed, that for a moment they held him speechless in the middle ...
— The Coast of Chance • Esther Chamberlain
... 6th, the Emperor announced in an order of the day that there would be a battle on the day following. The army welcomed this announcement with pleasure, in the hope that it would mean an end to their privations, for there had been no supply of rations for a month, and everyone had lived from hand to mouth. On both sides the evening was employed in taking up positions ...
— The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot, Translated by - Oliver C. Colt • Baron de Marbot
... trying to convince Manmat'ha of the importance of the marriage ceremony. "What," I asked with some trouble in my heart, "what will they do to you in case members of your nation discover your position? I do not mean to ask you what you would not tell me before, but what would be their ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 • Various
... has dwelt at great length on what passed the other day, and more than once he has pointedly referred to me, in a tone and manner not to be mistaken. I have endeavored to conduct this trial according to the principles of law, and to that standard I mean to come up. My client, though a prisoner at this bar, has rights, legal, social, human; and upon those rights I mean to insist. This is the first time in my life that I ever heard a prisoner on trial, and before conviction, denounced as a liar, a thief, a felon, a wretch, a rogue. It is unjust to ...
— Personal Memoir Of Daniel Drayton - For Four Years And Four Months A Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) In Washington Jail • Daniel Drayton
... about them. However elevated their minds may be, their bodies at least (which is much the major part of most) are liable to the worst infirmities, and subject to the vilest offices of human nature. Among these latter, the act of eating, which hath by several wise men been considered as extremely mean and derogatory from the philosophic dignity, must be in some measure performed by the greatest prince, heroe, or philosopher upon earth; nay, sometimes Nature hath been so frolicsome as to exact of these dignified characters a much more exorbitant share of this office than she hath obliged those ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding
... beg you, I implore you, to reconsider," she feverishly pursued. "Do you not see what it will mean to my father? If you take the case, he is as ...
— Counsel for the Defense • Leroy Scott
... sharply. "What's all this? You," addressing Hapgood, "what, do you mean by shakin' your fist at ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... plaything, like everybody, always and everywhere. No, two sensuous lovers are not two friends. Much rather are they two enemies, closely attached to each other. I know it, I know it! There are perfect couples, no doubt—perfection always exists somewhere—but I mean us others, all of us, the ordinary people! I know!—the human being's real quality, the delicate lights and shadows of human dreams, the sweet and complicated mystery of personalities, sensuous lovers deride them, both of them! They are two egoists, falling ...
— Light • Henri Barbusse
... in the lion countries—I mean Africa, where it's very hot; the lions eat people there. I can show it you in the book ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester
... the Juvenile Miscellany. But, truth to tell, she is apt to turn away from the printed page and keep gazing at the pretty pictures, such as the gay-colored ones which make this shop-window the continual loitering-place of children. What would Annie think if, in the book which I mean to send her on New Year's day, she should find her sweet little self bound up in silk or morocco with gilt edges, there to remain till she become a woman grown with children of her own to read about their mother's childhood? That ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... loved David almost from the first—I mean from the beginning of my University work. The first time I saw him crossing the campus he held my attention. There was no one else in the least like him, so vivid, so exotic, so almost fierce. When I found out who he was, I confess that I directed my studies ...
— The Precipice • Elia Wilkinson Peattie
... "I mean that this Rembrandt, which you purchased in Munich, is the identical one that was stolen some months ago from Lamb and Drummond, the Pall Mall dealers. The affair made a ...
— In Friendship's Guise • Wm. Murray Graydon
... being convinced by much experiment How little inventiveness there is in man, Grave copier of copies, I give thanks For a new relish, careless to inquire My pleasure's pedigree, if so it please, Nobly, I mean, nor renegade to art. The Grecian gluts me with its perfectness, Unanswerable as Euclid, self-contained, 250 The one thing finished in this hasty world, Forever finished, though the barbarous pit, Fanatical on hearsay, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... already extremely varied and quite well developed in some of its groups. The early animals were as well adapted to the times in which they lived as are the great majority of the animals of to-day. The reader must not infer this to mean that the animals of those days were like our present animals. They were not. No one traveling in a far country could find there animals as strange to him as would be those of the earlier stratified rocks. In these there were no fishes as ...
— The Meaning of Evolution • Samuel Christian Schmucker
... alas only from their point of view, not from mine. I mean such as are always talking and arguing from the Bible, and never giving themselves any trouble to do what it tells them. They insist on the anise and cummin, and forget the judgment, mercy, and faith. These worship the body of the truth, and forget the soul of it. ...
— The Seaboard Parish Vol. 2 • George MacDonald
... object of desire, and is infinitely preferred to active exertion. At any rate, it is clear that he made no effort. The reign of Gommodus was from first to last untroubled by Oriental disturbance. Volgases III. was for ten years contemporary with this mean and unwarlike prince; but Rome was allowed to retain her Parthian conquests unmolested. At length, in A.D. 190 or 191, Volagases died,56 and the destinies of Parthia passed into the hands of a ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6. (of 7): Parthia • George Rawlinson
... "They have been at the bottom of every annoyance I have had since I came to Overton. It may not be charitable to say so, but I shall certainly not regret seeing them graduated and gone from Overton. I know it sounds selfish, but I can't help it. I mean it. And now we are going to talk only of delightful things. I think we ought to give a spread to-night in honor of you. It isn't every day one finds a long-lost father. Arline is going to stay to dinner, and, ...
— Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... the makings for supper, if you mean that you're hungry," Tom rejoined. "But you've just ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock
... mean time another sect of philosophers arose, who like the Ionians, sought to explain nature, but by a different method. Anaximander, born B.C. 610, was one of the original mathematicians of Greece, yet, like Pythagoras and Thales, ...
— The Old Roman World • John Lord
... elections at the North pronounced against the administration, and when timid and disloyal people were clamoring for "peace at any price," this great man, discerning clearly that only by arms could the rebellion be crushed, acted upon this motto. He did not mean by this that a mere idle pretense of doing something should be kept up; he meant a steady pressure growing constantly more intense and effective; when volunteering flagged, he offered bounties; when bounties failed, he resorted to drafting. The army must ...
— The American Missionary - Vol. 44, No. 3, March, 1890 • Various
... child-heart beats beneath a despised skin, though it has its resting-place in a hovel, the angels may be there. Their loving, pitying natures shrink not from poverty, but stoop with heavenly sympathy to the mean ...
— Step by Step - or, Tidy's Way to Freedom • The American Tract Society
... out in that border province. For two centuries those Krovitzers have been a defiant and stiff-necked race in spite of every corrective measure adopted to suppress them. Unless immediate action is taken to anticipate and abort any movement of theirs, it may mean the utter destruction of your present southern frontiers. I am convinced that they will take advantage of the present disturbances ...
— Trusia - A Princess of Krovitch • Davis Brinton
... the Sabrina he was soon to celebrate. There is pleasure in the sight of a glebe which never has been broken; but it delights me particularly in those places where great men have been before. I do not mean warriors: for extremely few among the most remarkable of them will a considerate man call great: but poets and philosophers and philanthropists, the ornaments of society, the charmers of solitude, the warders of civilization, ...
— Imaginary Conversations and Poems - A Selection • Walter Savage Landor
... suggested does not mean non-use of ripe timber, but does mean protecting it from useless waste and destruction, and replacing it by ...
— Practical Forestry in the Pacific Northwest • Edward Tyson Allen
... I am what I am.' Now that word 'grace' has got to be worn threadbare, and to mean next door to nothing, in the ears and minds of a great many continual hearers of the Gospel. But Paul had a very definite idea of what he meant by it; and what he meant by it was a very large thing, which we may well ponder ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) • Alexander Maclaren
... gesture of weary disgust, throws down his pen and breaks off in the middle of his sentence to ask the High Bailiff if there are any other judgments out against the Defendant. So many years' experience of the drifts, subterfuges, paltry misrepresentations and suppressions—all the mean and despicable side of poor humanity—have indeed wearied him, but, at the same time, taught forbearance. He hesitates to be angry, and delays to punish. The people are poor, exceedingly poor. The Defendant's wife says she has eight ...
— Hodge and His Masters • Richard Jefferies
... before, and little hope of its healing, for they are one at heart, and time makes each more obstinate and imperious. Neither is this of any interest to you; but it introduces what I wish to say. This devil whom you make an angel of. I mean this low girl whom he picked out of the tide-mud,' with her black eyes full upon me, and her passionate finger up, 'may be alive,—for I believe some common things are hard to die. If she is, you will desire to have a pearl of such price found and taken care of. We desire that, too; ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens
... a horse just come up from grass. I advise you to look into your stable a little more. I hate to be suspicious, and, thank heaven, I have no cause to be, for I can trust my men, present or absent; but there are mean scoundrels, wicked enough to rob a dumb beast of his food. You must look into it." And turning to his man, who had come to take me, "Give this horse a right good feed of bruised oats, and ...
— Black Beauty • Anna Sewell
... "Mean! Why, what have I been doing? Doesn't he want you to grow up as one who hates fighting, and a lover of peace? And here have I been teaching you how to use the sword and spear and shield, making of you one who knows how to lead ...
— Marcus: the Young Centurion • George Manville Fenn
... but cut and thrust of poignant epigram and repartee; warm-hearted, perhaps too warm-hearted, and ready to lend a helping hand even to the most undeserving, a quality which gathered all Grub Street round her door. At a period when any and every writer, mean or great, of whatsoever merit or party, was continually assailed with vehement satire and acrid lampoons, lacking both truth and decency, Aphra Behn does not come off scot-free, nobody did; and upon occasion her name is amply vilified by her foes. There are some eight ungenerous ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn
... don't think, shut your ears tight; and shut your eyes too. Hesione knows nothing about me: she hasn't the least notion of the sort of person I am, and never will. I promise you I won't do anything I don't want to do and mean to do for my ...
— Heartbreak House • George Bernard Shaw
... tendencies as they are, and realises the given conditions of its life, not disquieted by the desire for change, or the preference of one part in life rather than another, or passion, or opinion. The character we mean to indicate achieves this [249] perfect life by a happy gift of nature, without any struggle at all. Not the saint only, the artist also, and the speculative thinker, confused, jarred, disintegrated in the world, as sometimes they inevitably are, aspire for this ...
— Miscellaneous Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater
... 'Mean? Why I mean as the missis is a slavin' her life out an' a-sittin' up o'nights, for folks as are better able to wait of her, i'stid o' lyin' a-bed an' doin' nothin' all the ...
— Scenes of Clerical Life • George Eliot
... over which the mother bends and watches with such passionate fondness, is "an heritage of the Lord," given to her only in trust, and will again be required from her. As soon as children are given they should be devoted to Him; for "the flower, when offered in the bud, is no mean sacrifice." Then and then only will parents properly respect and value their offspring, and deal with them as becometh the property of God. By withholding them, the parents become guilty of the deed of Ananias and Sapphira. Like the Hebrew mother, every Christian parent will gratefully devote ...
— The Christian Home • Samuel Philips
... good is a precedent difficulty. A nation in which the mass of the people are intelligent, educated, and comfortable can elect a good parliament. Or what I will call a deferential nation may do so—I mean one in which the numerical majority wishes to be ruled by ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XII. - Modern History • Arthur Mee
... that," he laughed. "She must get over it. If she wants fine dresses and a good time she must help us. And I mean that she shall before long. Look ...
— The White Lie • William Le Queux
... from each his sheaf: Likewise the Bishops here and Abbots there Still send me deed of gift, or chronicle Or missive from the Apostolic See: Praise be to God Who fitteth for his place Not only high but mean! With wisdom's strength He filled our mitred Wilfred, born to rule; To saintly Cuthbert gave the spirit of prayer; On me, as one late born, He lays a charge Slender, yet helpful still.' Then spake a ...
— Legends of the Saxon Saints • Aubrey de Vere
... we lived in a one-room log hut, and slept on homemade rail bed steads with cotton, and sometimes straw, mostly straw summers and cotton winners. I worked round the house and looked after de smaller chillun—I mean my mother's chillun. Mostly we ate yeller meal corn bread and sorghum malasses. I ate possums when we could get 'em, but jest couldn't stand rabbit meat. Didn't know there was any Christmas ...
— Slave Narratives, Oklahoma - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From - Interviews with Former Slaves • Various
... fisher. We do not mean to say that he was a fisher by profession; nor do we merely affirm that he was rather fond of the gentle art of angling, or generally inclined to take a cast when he happened to be near a good stream. By no means. Frank was more than that implies. He was a ...
— Ungava • R.M. Ballantyne
... (79). Although the idyllic predominates, deeper tragic notes are not wanting (84, 85) nor is the full note of exuberant joy (86). But early in life Moerike realized that any overflowing measure of joy or grief would prove destructive to his oversensitive nature, and the golden mean became inevitably his ideal (88). Never has he expressed that sweet serenity of soul, which he gained not without a bitter struggle, more beautifully than in the melodious lines: "Auf eine ...
— A Book Of German Lyrics • Various
... in this question can only be attained by the essential progress of socialism. By socialism, I do not mean certain vague communistic doctrines, nor the Utopias of anarchists who imagine that "man was born good," but simply an essential social progress in the struggle against the domination of individual capital, that is to say, usury applied to the labor of others owing to the possession ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... frankly owned he had a motive. His grandmother's cottage, which she had left him, the youngest and her pet always, was now unlet. He meant, perhaps, to go and live at it himself when—he was of age and could afford it; but in the mean time he was a poor solitary ...
— The Laurel Bush • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
... to see in the little things something that is interesting. I don't believe that any life need be common-place. It is just the way we look at it. I'm copying these words which I read in one of your books; perhaps you've seen them, but anyhow it will tell you better than I what I mean. ...
— Contrary Mary • Temple Bailey
... "Litany" is of Greek origin, from litancia, derived from lite, meaning a {171} "prayer." In the early Church Litany included all supplications and prayers whether public or private. Afterwards it came to mean a special supplication, offered with intense earnestness, and this will explain the title of the Litany in the Prayer Book, viz.: "The Litany, or General Supplication." The Litany as now used is substantially the same as that compiled by Gregory the ...
— The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia • William James Miller
... one comes not to hear what they hear and see what they see and feel what they feel and mean what they mean, when every one is changing and eating and drinking and dying and when every one is using what they are using and are having what they are having then every one being one every one is being the one every one is being and that being anything and anything being something then something ...
— Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein - With Two Shorter Stories • Gertrude Stein
... do you mean? You don't mean to say that you got any foolish ideas about it making any difference whether a preacher says a few words over us or not? Why, you can't feel that way. You've seen too much of life, and your folks have always been show people. They didn't hold any such ideas. Anyway, you got brains ...
— The Black Pearl • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
... Africa, which was the first section of the vanished Teutonic Empire in Africa. It occupies more than a quarter of the whole area of the continent south of the Zambesi River. While the word "mandate" as construed by the peace sharks at Paris is supposed to mean the amiable stewardship of a country, it really amounts to nothing more or less than an actual and benevolent assimilation. This assimilation is very much like the paternal interest that holding companies in the good old Wall Street days felt for small and competitive ...
— An African Adventure • Isaac F. Marcosson
... into a familiar smile at the duke's greeting, and suffered the young prince to draw him aside from the groups of courtiers with whom the chamber was filled, to the leaning-places (as they were called) of a large mullion window. In the mean while, as they thus conferred, the courtiers interchanged looks, and many an eye of fear and hate was directed towards the stately form of the earl. For these courtiers were composed principally of the kindred or friends ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... cannot speak too highly. Brave and efficient, they were always working and co-operating enthusiastically with the infantry. Every week now that passed was deepening that sense of comradeship which bound our force together. The mean people, the men who thought only of themselves, were either being weeded out or taught that there was no place for selfishness in the army. One great lesson was impressed upon me in the war, and that is, how wonderfully the official repression of wrong thoughts ...
— The Great War As I Saw It • Frederick George Scott
... I didn't mean it," she smiled. "It would be very poor sport to spoil both the comedy and the tragedy before the curtain goes up. I wonder if the drama will begin to-night? I shouldn't ...
— The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension • George Griffith
... same stand as Helen, who has been a lady now more than a year; though she's a good, grateful girl, and Edward very attentive—very attentive indeed—and I must say more so than I expected. Helen, I mean my lady, you know, has, as she says in her last letter, a great deal to do with her money—of course she must have; and so, sir, pray do not let any one in Abbeyweld know that the little annuity is not continued—regularly, I mean," she added, ...
— Turns of Fortune - And Other Tales • Mrs. S. C. Hall
... many fold, And decked with gems and cloth of gold, 'T were far too mean and narrow all To be for thee a ...
— Rampolli • George MacDonald
... number laden with barley, together with ten male and ten female slaves. The dowry he imposed upon me was beyond my competence; for he exacted more than the due marriage portion. So now I am travelling from Syria to Irak, having passed twenty days without seeing other than thyself, and I mean to go to Baghdad, that I may note what rich and considerable merchants start thence. Then I will go out in their track and seize their goods, for I will kill their men and drive off their camels with their loads. But what ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume II • Anonymous
... away. I esteem you, I honour you, but I do not mean to incur blame or get into trouble because of you. I intend to remain a good citizen and to be treated as such. Good evening, citoyen Brotteaux; take your ...
— The Gods are Athirst • Anatole France
... rebels, as unquestionably you may, with an acquitted conscience, become free. The best of us are imperfect judges of the happiness of others. In the woe or weal of a whole life, we must decide for ourselves. Your benefactor could not mean you to be wretched; and if he now, with eyes purified from all worldly mists, look down upon you, his spirit will approve your choice; for when we quit the world, all worldly ambition dies with us. What now to the immortal soul can be the ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... exclaimed the negro. "And den to talk about my short day! Dat is bery onpleasaut. Short day, Missa Holden, eh? Not as you knows on. I can tell you dis child born somewhere about de twenty ob June (at any rate de wedder was warm), and mean to lib accordingly. Oh, you git out, Missa Holden! Poor parwarse pusson! What a pity he hab no suspect for de voice ob de charmer! I always hear," he added, chuckling, in that curious, mirth-inspiring way so peculiar to the blacks, "dat de black snake know how to charm best, but all sign fail in ...
— The Lost Hunter - A Tale of Early Times • John Turvill Adams
... office and compelling another to pay up, looking all the time after his own special interests. At this moment, especially, towards the close of the Convention, there are no public interests, all interests being private and personal.—In the mean time, the deputy in charge of provisions, Roux de la Haute Marne, an unfrocked Benedictine, formerly a terrorist in the provinces, subsequently the protege and employee of Fouche, with whom he is ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... own desire the President was unanimously requested to make reply on the behalf of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Mr. Beecher remarked, "If there are two general associations for the same purpose, it is because we mean, in this great work, to do twice as much labor as one ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... sat pondering, in troubled silence. What could it mean? Caterina had taken up her residence in the fortress before her illness; it had been thought wise, although it had not been publicly declared. A few of her maids of honor and Lady Beata, Chief Lady ...
— The Royal Pawn of Venice - A Romance of Cyprus • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull
... "I—I mean it is wrong to bind oneself by a promise one may not be able to keep," Miss Bibby added hastily. "And you are not to talk to the butcher, Max. Shut the piano now, Pauline, and another time when you are ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner
... were synonymous terms, and the little, mean, pismire ambitions of Roman politicians he despised, striding over their corrupt schemes for pelf and office like ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... occur," replied the pirate. "But, in the mean time, I have to assure you that I have taken measures to let your friends know of your safety—though, for reasons which I may hereafter explain to you, not the place of ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... which I mean the Brussels public—is the one most like our own. In Belgium I never feel that I am in a strange country. Our language is the language of the country; the horses and carriages are always in perfect taste; the fashionable women resemble our own ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt
... love with Emily! and if not he, at any rate Charles! What the devil, madam, can you mean by this dreadful piece of intelligence?—It's impossible, ma'am; nonsense! it can't ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... information in this work, communicated to the public, will soon be circulated, and you will be called upon to supply a second edition. In the mean time, I take the liberty of submitting to your perusal a few cursory observations which I have 509 made during the perusal of it, on the accuracy of which you may assuredly rely. These apply for the most part to Arabian words, which ...
— An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa • Abd Salam Shabeeny
... came here," repeated Jeanne, hardly understanding what the words meant. "Do you mean since—since ...
— The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5 (of 8) - Une Vie and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893
... didn't mean just that," replied Dick, quickly. "I meant that I might lose my nerve after the first flight, ...
— Dick Hamilton's Airship - or, A Young Millionaire in the Clouds • Howard R. Garis
... on his thumb and a movement of the liveliest deprecation. "That 's because I keep you standing there while I splash my red paint! I beg a thousand pardons! You see what bad manners Art gives a man; and how right you are to let it alone. I did n't mean you should stand, either. The piazza, as you see, is ornamented with rustic chairs; though indeed I ought to warn you that they have nails in the wrong places. I was just making a note of that sunset. I never saw such a blaze of different reds. It looks as if the Celestial ...
— The Europeans • Henry James
... not mean that we are to judge result wholly without regard to aim. Admirable intention is still admirable as intention, even when untoward circumstance defeats it and brings deplorable results. Bolshevism is ...
— Bolshevism - The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy • John Spargo
... afraid for thee, my poor lad, as knows naught,' says he. I set him down on th' edge, an' th' beck run stiller, an' there was no more buzzin' in my head like when th' bee come through th' window o' Jesse's house. 'What dost tha mean?' says I. ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling
... and his people," he said. "I have a notion this is their doing. For all they appear so active, they mean mischief, depend ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston
... to my person! nowhere else but by your backside? Gate! Oh how I am vexed in my collar! Gate! I cry God mercy! Do you hear, master king? If you mean to gratify such poor men as we be, you must build our houses by ...
— 2. Mucedorus • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]
... Ansell, "instead of 'I see,' and she made him believe that it was the truth. She caught him and makes him believe that he caught her. She came to see me and makes him think that it is his idea. That is what I mean when I say that she ...
— The Longest Journey • E. M. Forster
... orders to each other as "high-born officer." But the real reason which prevented Luna from returning to Toledo was that he wished to follow the course of events, to see new countries and different customs. To return to the Cathedral would mean to remain there for ever, to renounce everything in life, and he, who during the war had tasted of worldly delights, had no desire to turn his back on them quite so soon; also he was not yet of age, so he had plenty of time before him in which to finish his studies; ...
— The Shadow of the Cathedral • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... ask you to stand in the ways and see. I do not mean to say that you have not already been doing this to a certain extent. The great world is crossed by human footsteps which make paths leading in all directions. Men travel through on different ways; and I suppose ...
— Joy & Power • Henry van Dyke
... hundred and fifty thousand dollars eating their paper heads off in idleness in the bank. I have,—well—as much as I require at any time. I have come out West to settle, and I mean to do so. If we don't come to an arrangement with you, we intend ...
— The Spoilers of the Valley • Robert Watson
... placing one's deeper self (shall we say "subconscious self") in closer communion with the great throbbing problems of the invisible though perpetually evident forces of nature which surround us we may become more alive, more sensitively vivified. What would it mean to the young virtuoso if he could go to some occult master, some seer of a higher thought, and acquire that lode-stone* which has drawn fame and fortune to the blessed few? Hundreds have spent fortunes upon charlatans in ...
— Great Pianists on Piano Playing • James Francis Cooke
... little regard of writing for a few pence, which I neither value nor want. Therefore, let not any wise man too hastily condemn this Essay, intended for a good design, to cultivate and improve an ancient Art, long in disgrace by having fallen into mean unskilful hands. A little time will determine whether I have deceived others, or myself: and I think it is no very unreasonable request, that men would please to suspend ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe
... support the purity and dignity of Christian morals without opposing the world on various occasions, even though we should stand alone. That gentleness, therefore, which belongs to virtue, is to be carefully distinguished from the mean spirit of cowards, and the fawning assent of sycophants. It renounces no just right from fear. It gives up no important truth from flattery. It is indeed not only consistent with a firm mind, but it necessarily requires a manly spirit, and a fixed principle, in order to give ...
— The Illustrated London Reading Book • Various
... the occasional inconsistency of rural ethics. Judging the standing of married life by infrequent divorces and rather early marriage, he is painfully disconcerted to discover that the marriage ideal is nevertheless mean ...
— Rural Problems of Today • Ernest R. Groves
... call the cledgy mould, we seldom hear of any, because the moisture and the toughness of the soil is such as will not suffer them to draw and make their burrows deep. Certes, if I may freely say what I think, I suppose that these two kinds (I mean foxes and badgers) are rather preserved by gentlemen to hunt and have pastime withal at their own pleasures than otherwise suffered to live as not able to be destroyed because of their great numbers. For such is the scarcity of them here in England, in comparison ...
— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed
... "If you mean smoke, of course you may," she answered. "But you may not say or think horrid things about my best friend. She's a dear, wonderful woman, and I'm sure uncle has not been like the ...
— A Lost Leader • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... not do so, He withdrew himself from me as from one of mean birth and behaviour, Reviling me with the name of "No-Sport," And other ...
— Song Book of Quong Lee of Limehouse • Thomas Burke
... thunderations!" he cried out, ecstatically, seizing both her hands in his. "Yer mean two or three weeks! Mandy Calline, do ye mean ya'as, ye'll marry me? I want ter hear ye ...
— Southern Lights and Shadows • Edited by William Dean Howells & Henry Mills Alden
... knows how to deal with him, though I do not," she said to herself. Aloud, she said, "You must not suppose that I mean that religion is for a time of trouble, more than for a time of prosperity. It is the chief thing always—the only thing. But, in a time of trouble, our need of something beyond what is in ourselves, or in the world, is brought home to us. Philip, dear lad, it is a wonderful ...
— The Inglises - How the Way Opened • Margaret Murray Robertson |
