"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... has fallen," he gasped, with white lips and a face wherefrom the colour faded in blotches. He seemed to forget the ladies, and looked only at his son. "It may mean—much. I must go to Paris at once. The place is in an uproar. Mon ...
— Dross • Henry Seton Merriman
... the frightful agony caused by my sprain, I rose again, and with a backhander I sent Don Marcasse, who was endeavouring the play the cure's part of peacemaker, head over heels into the middle of the ashes. I did not mean him any harm, but my movements were somewhat rough, and the poor man was so frail that to my hand he was but as a weasel would have been to his own. Patience was standing before me with his arms crossed, in ...
— Mauprat • George Sand
... student and capable as a man he may be. If he will but bear this last in mind—this and the other even more important truth, that as a man gives so shall he receive—that a dollar spent in charity means two dollars in the bank—I mean that exactly—then the heights themselves will beckon to him at an ...
— Opportunities in Engineering • Charles M. Horton
... my conduct and honour, I was careful not to trespass on her gratitude; and while forward in such courtesies as could not weary her, I avoided with equal care every appearance of pursuing her, or inflicting my company upon her. I addressed her formally and upon formal topics only, such, I mean, as we shared with the rest of our company; and I reminded myself often that though we now met in the same house and at the same table, she was still the Mademoiselle de la Vire who had borne herself so loftily ...
— A Gentleman of France • Stanley Weyman
... in the same category with the lawn; they too, at their best, are imitations of the pasture. Such a park is of course best kept by grazing, and the cattle on the grass are themselves no mean addition to the beauty of the thing, as need scarcely be insisted on with anyone who has once seen a well-kept pasture. But it is worth noting, as an expression of the pecuniary element in popular taste, that such a method of keeping public ...
— The Theory of the Leisure Class • Thorstein Veblen
... Boer, and a mere fortnight won't do it. Of course, there are Boers and Boers, as there are Englishmen and Englishmen. There are Boers who are competent to rank with any English gentleman, and whose education and abilities are of no mean order. Unfortunately, however, these are altogether ...
— The Boer in Peace and War • Arthur M. Mann
... is the nature of the project [you have formed]? impart it to me." He replied, "I mean to have thee married; and to get thee the wazir's daughter for thy wife." I gave for answer, "How can the wazir give his daughter to a wretch so poor and destitute as myself? Will it be when ...
— Bagh O Bahar, Or Tales of the Four Darweshes • Mir Amman of Dihli
... subject. The Zauberfloete will ever remain his greatest work, for in this he showed himself the true German composer." Of Cherubini's Requiem he said, "as regards his conception of it, my ideas are in perfect accord with his and sometime I mean to compose a Requiem in that style." (Later in life his opinion of Cherubini was greatly modified). He seldom spoke of Haydn, and had nothing of that master's compositions in ...
— Beethoven • George Alexander Fischer
... scornfully, and lugging a packet of papers out of his pocket flung it on the table. 'That's what I mean,' said he; 'certif'cate! letters! story! Yer wife ain't yer wife; Gabriel's only Gabriel an' ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... hear particulars; in the mean time I can only add I have none of the apprehensions contained in Lord L.'s letter. I have had correspondence enough myself on this subject to convince me of the impossibility of the Ministry managing the present Parliament by any contrivance ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2 • Thomas Moore
... not good to you, if you mean by it weakness and softness of heart. Never spoil the young. Speak sternly to them all the time. Use the strap and the rod freely upon them and you ...
— The Shadow of the North - A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign • Joseph A. Altsheler
... obliged to you, count, for this pleasing intelligence! You make me young and happy again by it. Ah! so you are not a Mazarinist? Delightful! Indeed, you could not belong to him. But pardon me, are you free? I mean to ...
— Twenty Years After • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... Atheism; for his own rule of philosophising is inconsistent with belief in any thing supernatural. While living he was often charged with Atheism, by opponents who understood the tendencies of his philosophy better than he appeared to do himself. But the Author of this Apology has no such mean opinion of John Locke, as to suppose him ignorant that Materialism, as he taught it, is totally irreconcileable with that God, and that Religion in which he professed to believe. Belief in inconceivable entities cannot be reconciled with disbelief ...
— An Apology for Atheism - Addressed to Religious Investigators of Every Denomination - by One of Its Apostles • Charles Southwell
... her brows. "I don't know what you mean," she said, impatiently, "but you are not Mr. Brand of the ...
— A True Friend - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... alike. When our fathers were driving the great ship of State we were willing to sail as deck or cabin passengers, just as we felt disposed; we had nothing to say; but to-day the boys are about to run the ship aground, and it is high time that the mothers should be asking, "What do you mean to do?" In our own little State the laws have been very much modified in regard to women. My father was the first man to blot out the old English law allowing the eldest son the right of inheritance to the real-estate. He took the first step, and like all those who take first steps in reform he ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various
... can, the basis is but frail. I mean such traitors as the vacant world Echoes most stunningly: not fur-robed knaves Whose whispers raise the dreaming bloodhound's ear Against benighted famished wanderers; While with remorseless guilt they undermine Palace and shed, their very father's house, O blind! their own, their children's ...
— Count Julian • Walter Savage Landor
... portraits is unfortunately lost. He sat for it while in Italy, at the request of his friend, and chose no mean artist to paint it: "As soon as ever I return to Venice, I will have it done, either by Paul Veronese or by Tintoretto, who hold by far the highest place in the art." He decided for Veronese, and sent the picture ...
— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand
... the boat and even to help my father a little. I knew just enough about his work to go places for him and save his time. I'd forgotten I ever had any nerves, for I felt I belonged to something now that got way down to the roots of things. Do you see what I mean? This harbor isn't like a hotel, or an evening gown or Weber and Fields. I love pretty gowns, and my father and I wouldn't miss Weber and Fields for worlds. But they're all on top, this is down at the bottom, it's one of those deep ...
— The Harbor • Ernest Poole
... I mean," said Perry impatiently. "You and Steve will be gone, and I don't give a hang for any ...
— The Adventure Club Afloat • Ralph Henry Barbour
... English worthy, doing his duty for fifty noble years of labour, day by day storing up learning, day by day working for scant wages, most charitable out of his small means, bravely faithful to the calling which he had chosen, refusing to turn from his path for popular praise or princes' favour;—I mean Robert Southey. We have left his old political landmarks miles and miles behind; we protest against his dogmatism; nay, we begin to forget it and his politics: but I hope his life will not be forgotten, for it is sublime in its simplicity, its energy, its honour, ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray
... not mistake each other,' said Isabel, recovering her self-possession. 'Nothing amounting to what you mean ever passed, except a few words the last evening, and I may have dwelt on them more than I ought,' faltered she, with ...
— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. I) - or, The Clue of Life • Charlotte M. Yonge
... man in return, and what attached him more to him still, was the similitude of their knowledge; for Corporal Trim by four years occasional attention to his master's discourse upon fortified towns had become no mean proficient in the science, and was thought by the cook and chambermaid to know as much of the nature of strongholds as ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... talk nonsense. It's not right to speak as you're doing. You'll be sorry for it, I'm sure. Tell me, rather: you were saying you wanted a step here, another there; do you mean like this?" ...
— The Bill-Toppers • Andre Castaigne
... mean?" cried Horace. His head shot forward, his nose twitched. He scented a fresh piece of news as a dog scents truffles. "Have you found a fortune?" His curiosity was as ...
— The Silver Butterfly • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
... conference, and the incredible evidence of a vociferous eye-witness. "O Bogey!" "What's he been doin', then?" "Ain't hurt the girl, 'as 'e?" "Run at en with a knife, I believe." "No 'ed, I tell ye. I don't mean no manner of speaking. I mean marn 'ithout a 'ed!" "Narnsense! 'tis some conjuring trick." "Fetched off 'is wrapping, ...
— The Invisible Man • H. G. Wells
... "Do you mean to pretend that a little donkey like you must be kept on breasts of chickens, and capons in jelly?" asked his master, getting more and more ...
— Pinocchio - The Tale of a Puppet • C. Collodi
... at the intersection of the range line between ranges six (6) and seven (7) east, township two (2) north, Willamette meridian, Oregon, with the mean high-water mark on the south bank of the Columbia River in said State; thence northeasterly along said mean high-water mark to its intersection with the township line between townships two (2) and three (3) north; thence easterly along said township line to ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Volume 8, Section 2 (of 2): Grover Cleveland • Grover Cleveland
... going to preach, so I had my treat most unexpectedly, mercifully I could call it, for the sermon, expressed in his usual golden sweetness of language, was peculiarly practical and useful to myself—I mean, ought to be. 'Hold thee still in the Lord and abide patiently upon him,' was the text, and the peace, trust and rest which breathed in every sentence, ought to do something to assuage any and every worret, temporal and spiritual. There ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1. • Sarah Tytler
... repeated Logan, bottle in hand. "Oh, I see what you're at!" and he began filling his own glass, already emptied half a dozen times during the visit of the detectives. "You mean you want an explanation of this hanky panky. Well, I promised it to you, didn't I? I said you must give me the benefit of the doubt till those chaps were out of the house. I hope you have. But I thought once or twice you looked a bit thick, as if you weren't sure what I'd let you ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson
... mean trick to play on them," gasped Miss Elting. "But I think we have more than won our wager. It is a wonder that they ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat • Janet Aldridge
... irregular air movements which lead to the development of much electrical energy. There are, however, certain parts of the earth which are particularly subjected to lightning flashes. They are common in the region near the equator, where the ascending currents bring about heavy rains, which mean a rapid condensation and consequent liberation of electrical energy. They diminish in frequency toward the arctic regions. An observer at the pole would probably fail ever to perceive strong flashes. For the same reason thunderstorms ...
— Outlines of the Earth's History - A Popular Study in Physiography • Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
... not been wisely sought after. The field of search has been almost exclusively the moral, or the theological field; whereas the correct rule is, for physical effects, look for physical causes; for moral effects, moral causes. This rule has not been followed. A few cases illustrative of what I mean will clearly demonstrate the superstitious nature of what is a widely diffused opinion among the religious societies of this ...
— Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century • James Napier
... appears, so suitably explained Sallust's meaning, and you on your so careful perusal of that most wise author with so much benefit from the same. Respecting him I would venture to make the same assertion to you as Quintilian made respecting Cicero,—that a man may know himself no mean proficient in the business of History who enjoys his Sallust. As for that precept of Aristotle's in the Third Book of his Rhetoric [Chap. XVII] which you would like explained—'Use is to be made of maxims both in the ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson
... better understand what I mean by the assertion that political science is the most important study that can occupy ...
— The Boy Tar • Mayne Reid
... sold in a festival, while the members of the church were contributing articles of wearing apparel, or offering their services at the sale tables. The proceeds were given to the society to pay its debts; and it was no mean gift. ...
— History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 (of 2) - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George Washington Williams
... lash is necessarily a cruel and vulgar man, and the oftener he applies it the more and more debased he will become. The whole thing can be stated in the one sentence: I am opposed to any punishment that cannot be inflicted by a gentleman, and by "gentleman" I mean a self-respecting, ...
— The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. - Interviews • Robert Green Ingersoll
... at Ana. Surely she could not mean to be ill-tempered—Ana, with a face as broad and placid as a standing pool? No, no, Ana was too simple to wish to pain any one! Yet as Jane dwelt upon Ana's queries, it came slowly to Jane that certain changes ...
— A Prairie Infanta • Eva Wilder Brodhead
... mean time, Sir, this gloomy Writer, who is so mightily scandaliz'd at a gay Epilogue after a serious Play, speaking of the Fate of those unhappy Wretches who are condemned to suffer an ignominious Death by the Justice of our Laws, endeavours ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele
... are intricate, get one of your treasury clerks to solve them. If there's trouble in arranging your excise on your customs, settle it in any way you please. But it is too late now to separate England and Ireland. We've held the flag of the Empire in our hand. We mean to hold it in our grasp forever. We have seen its colours tinged a brighter red with the best of Ireland's blood, and that proud stain shall stay forever as the symbol of the unity of ...
— Moonbeams From the Larger Lunacy • Stephen Leacock
... Trolls are very stupid, and there are many stories as to how they have been outwitted. One of them is very droll. A farmer ploughed a hill-side field. Out came a Troll and said, "What do you mean by ploughing up the roof of my house?" Then the farmer, being frightened, begged his pardon, but said it was a pity such a fine piece of land should lie idle. The Troll agreed to this, and then they struck ...
— Fairy Tales; Their Origin and Meaning • John Thackray Bunce
... one in a large, scrambling, illiterate hand with a signature that might mean anything. That tall capital, shaped like a ham, ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley
... once Father worse Doctor orders to Egypt Jennie.' Why sure, my boy. Here's what cash I got, and I'll give you a check. Too bad, too bad! By George, I hope your dad pulls through. What! Blame it, I mean dammit, I've come off without my checkbook. Got ...
— The Desire of the Moth; and The Come On • Eugene Manlove Rhodes
... was the devil; and others again, in idleness or charity, or the calm neutrality of indifference, set it all down to the Inevitable, a fashionable first cause at this time, which is both comprehensive, convenient, and inoffensive, since it may mean anything, and so ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand
... fat brewer (who, however, was no longer fat) joined them, and said: "Well, mate, aren't you a bit dense to-day? The 'old gang,' especially the drivers, mean to be at him, to do for him, all because of that ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein
... PERIOD: This is the period between the time of birth and the age of 2, and takes the child up to the time of the first spoken word. This does not mean, of course, that no child speaks before the age of 2, for many children have made their first trials at speaking at as early an age as 15 months, and many begin to talk by the time they are a year and a half old. At the age of two, however, not only the precocious child but the child ...
— Stammering, Its Cause and Cure • Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue
... this talk mean? I don't understand anything. You come in here unannounced; I don't know how nor from where. You make us feel quite uncomfortable, just as if you had trapped ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien
... peace. This fortress was of no use to the defence of England, and only gave that kingdom an inlet to annoy France. Ireland cost two thousand pounds a year, over and above its own revenue; which was certainly very low. Every thing conspires to give us a very mean idea of the state ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B. - From Henry III. to Richard III. • David Hume
... tinged its high cataract with gold after the rest of the world was dark, it was called the Golden River. The lovely valley belonged to three brothers. The youngest, little Gluck, was happy-hearted and kind, but he had a hard life with his brothers, for Hans and Schwartz were so cruel and so mean that they were known everywhere around as the "Black Brothers." They were hard to their farm hands, hard to their customers, hard to the poor, and hardest of all ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant
... McGuffey. They each knew Scraggs little relished the prospect before him, though to do him justice he was mean enough to fight and fight well, if he thought he had half a chance to get the decision. But he knew the king was as hard as tacks, and was more than his match in a rough and tumble, and while he spoke bravely enough, his words ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne
... asked him what it was before the tree quite shut him in, while there was just a little chink you could talk through; but he always told me to stop in my hole and mind my own business, else perhaps I should get punished, as he had been. But he did tell me that he could not help it, that he did not mean to see it, only just at the moment it happened he turned round in his bed, and he opened his eyes for a second, and you know the consequences, Bevis dear. So I advise you always to look the other ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies
... called Tumbella meaning the little tomb, to distinguish it from the larger rock. It is not known why the two rocks should have been associated with the word tomb, and it is quite possible that the Tumba may simply mean ...
— Normandy, Complete - The Scenery & Romance Of Its Ancient Towns • Gordon Home
... young? A. A foal, or a young colt. Q. Will he carry or draw while he is young? A. Not until he is taught, which is called breaking of him in. Q. And when he is broke in, is he very, useful? A. Yes; and please, sir, we hope to be more useful when we are properly taught. Q. What do you mean by being properly taught? A. When we have as much trouble taken with us as the horses and dogs have taken with them. Q. Why, you give me a great deal of trouble, and yet I endeavour to teach you. A. Yes, sir, but before Infant Schools were established, little ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin
... delusion of the public, to occupy the time, and monopolize the nobler functions of the legislature, in the consideration of some miserable scheme, which never can be carried into effect, and which is protracted beyond endurance simply for the benefit of its promoters. We do not mean that Parliament should abandon its controlling power, or even delegate it altogether. We only wish that the initiative—the question whether any particular project is likely to tend to the public benefit, and, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. • Various
... tin-adorned one, Cried aloud in indignation: "May the wind assail thy vessel, And the east wind fall upon it, May thy boat capsize beneath thee, And the prow sink down beneath thee, If you will not tell me truly Where you mean to take your journey, If the truth you will not tell me, And at last will end your ...
— Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) - The Land of the Heroes • Anonymous
... flowing stream of my income and making a little lake of it, this appeared to her as frivolity, indeed as unrighteous, and she endeavored to reform me, to make me more aware of the value of money, of the money that I had earned, and in some measure to guide my expenditures. I do not mean to say that she ever made tiresome reprimands or admonitions. Simple and innocent as her mind was,—whenever she had resolved to bring pressure to bear upon my indifference or my wilfulness, she pondered the possible method with such affectionate patience that she did not fail to find a delicate ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Masterpieces of German Literature Vol. 19 • Various
... 'and with English officers to lead them, why should they not face the Russians?... I believe the natives will be true to us if we are true to ourselves; some few are actively disloyal, but not the mass of them. If we begin to falter they will go, of course; but if we show them we mean fighting they will fight too.' This is the true political creed for Englishmen in India, outside of which there is no salvation, ...
— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall
... a moment," interrupted Maurice, taking out the revolver and fondling it. "Any interference will mean one or more cases for the hospital. Come, I'm not the police," to Kopf. "I am not going to hurt you. I wish only to ask you a few questions, which is my right after what has passed between us. We'll go to my hotel, where we ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath
... seemed to her that Herse might be right, but by degrees she fell back into her old conviction that the young Christian could mean no harm by her; and she felt as sure that he would find her out wherever she might hide herself, as that it was her pretty and much-admired little person that he sought to win, and not her soul—for what could such an airy nothing ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... state of the Irish Church, and addresses himself, with almost blasphemous flattery to the head of that body, "as to the only sovereign salve-giver to this your sore and sick realm, the lamentable state of the most noble and principal limb thereof—the Church I mean—as foul, deformed, and as cruelly crushed as any other part thereof, only by your gracious order to be cured, or at least amended. I would not have believed, had I not, for a greater part, viewed the same throughout the whole realm." He then gives a detailed account of the state of the diocese ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack
... "What do they mean?" inquired Mrs. Harris of a sailor passing. "The officer has sighted land, madam. Don't you see the specks of blue low down on the horizon to the northeast? That's the Skelligs, three rocky islets off the southwest coast of Ireland, near where I was born, and where my wife Katy, and the babies ...
— The Harris-Ingram Experiment • Charles E. Bolton
... concur with the Judges that the articles are not Treason, nor regularly brought into the House, and so voted that a Committee should be chosen to examine them; but nothing to be done therein till the next sitting of this Parliament, (which is likely to be adjourned in a day or two,) and in the mean time the two Lords to remain without prejudice ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys
... what you mean, Admiral. You have a free hand, sir; let me repeat that. I will not interfere in any way and I have the utmost confidence in you." The President mopped his brow with an already damp handkerchief. It was growing warm, come to think of ...
— A Place in the Sun • C.H. Thames
... me!' she said sweetly. 'I see now, though I did not at first, that what I have done seems like contempt for your skill. But, indeed, I did not mean it in that sense. I could not, upon my conscience, win a victory in those first and second games over one who fought at such ...
— A Pair of Blue Eyes • Thomas Hardy
... said Babbalanja, now brightening with wine; "if, of all suppers those given by bachelors be the best:—of all bachelors, are not your priests and monks the jolliest? I mean, behind the scenes? Their prayers all said, and their futurities securely invested,—who so carefree and cozy as they? Yea, a supper for two in a friar's cell in Maramma, is merrier far, than a dinner for five-and- twenty, in the ...
— Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II (of 2) • Herman Melville
... sure that as to many things, such as valuable books, pictures, and splendor of surroundings, we shall find it better to club our means together; and I must say that often when I have been sickened by the stupidity of the mean, idiotic rabbit warrens that rich men build for themselves in Bayswater and elsewhere, I console myself with visions of the noble communal hall of the future, unsparing of materials, generous in worthy ornament, alive with the noblest thoughts of our time, and the past, embodied in the ...
— Socialism: Positive and Negative • Robert Rives La Monte
... he would act as the instrument of this party. He was an adventurer, but an adventurer with so little that was imposing about him, that it scarcely occurred to men of influence in Paris to credit him with the capacity for mischief. His mean look and spiritless address, the absurdities of his past, the insignificance of his political friends, caused him to be regarded during his first months of public life with derision rather than with fear. The French, said M. Thiers long afterwards, ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe
... felt again the light touch of his hand on hers. As moonlight that softens into beauty every angle on which it falls, seemed his presence,—as moonlight vanishes, and things assume their common aspect of the rugged and the mean, he receded from her eyes, and the outward ...
— Zanoni • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... us of pride and power, Of Empire vast beyond the sea; As here beside my hearth I cower, What mean such words as these to me? Oh, will they lift the clouds that low'r, Or light my ...
— Ballads of a Bohemian • Robert W. Service
... was formerly found an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the name of his father Laertes added to his own, and that upon the confines of Germany and Rhoetia are still extant certain monuments and tombs inscribed with Greek characters. Traditions these which I mean not either to confirm with arguments of my own or to refute. Let every one believe or deny the same according to his ...
— Tacitus on Germany • Tacitus
... authority between the indignation of the country and the guilt of Anjou; saving the former from excess, and the latter from execration. The disgraced and discomfited duke proffered to the states excuses as mean as they were hypocritical; and his brother, the king of France, sent a special envoy to intercede for him. But it was the influence of William that screened the culprit from public reprobation and ...
— Holland - The History of the Netherlands • Thomas Colley Grattan
... and gained thereby great wealth, he went home to his father, where it was impossible to express the joy they were all in at his return. He made the whole family very well-to-do, bought places for his father and brothers; and by that means settled them very handsomely in the world, and, in the mean time, rose high ...
— The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault • Charles Perrault
... mean actions, it throws him upon meaner; it whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable acts of humanity; it is the universal hinge on which we move; it glides the gentle stream of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, ...
— An History of Birmingham (1783) • William Hutton
... it o'er and when 'twas done, I wish you could have seen it, It was a most tremendous thing—I really didn't mean it; Why, it was big enough to hold the people of the town And not one half as cosy as the old one ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two • Various
... the Boy Scouts at Hunter's Island, and in the excitement of that adventure even the movies ceased to thrill. But Sadie also could be unselfish. With a heroism of a camp-fire maiden she made a gesture which might have been interpreted to mean she was ...
— The Boy Scout and Other Stories for Boys • Richard Harding Davis
... is generally the case in this country, consists, like the Hotel du Louvre in Paris, of good shops, which gives a gayer appearance to the whole than if it were one mass of dwelling rooms. We find it so comfortable that, instead of going on this afternoon to Philadelphia, we mean to remain here to-night, and to go on ...
— First Impressions of the New World - On Two Travellers from the Old in the Autumn of 1858 • Isabella Strange Trotter
... other groaned again. "I know—son of millionaire rides unbroken horse in Wild West show—and all that sort of thing. But, good Lord, man, think what it will mean to me?" ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand
... which men fust learned ter be sailors, arn't it, Jim?" he asked. "I mean whar they fust got inter ther notion of venturin' out whar ther old shore-shaker could git ...
— The Wedge of Gold • C. C. Goodwin
... dogs. A Pekinese is not a pet dog; he is an undersized lion. Our puppy may grow into a small lion, or a mastiff, or anything like that; but I will not have him a poodle. If we call him Bingo, will you promise never to mention in his presence that you once had a—a—you know what I mean—called Bingo?" ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, October 14, 1914 • Various
... What could her father mean? He had not told her a word about her cousin's visit, and yet, it was evident ...
— The Silver Lining - A Guernsey Story • John Roussel
... his records of these were too imperfect to admit of their being taken up and continued after his death. In temper Scott was most gentle and loveable, and to his friends he was loyal almost to a fault. He was quite without ambition to 'get on' in the world; he had no low or mean motives; and than John Scott, Natural Science probably had no more earnest and single-minded devotee." -correspondence with. -criticism on the "Origin" by. -letters to. -on Natural Selection. -on a red cowslip. -confirms Darwin's work, also points ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin
... mean? Is there a foreign war? Is not all war between men, war between brothers? War is qualified only by its object. There is no such thing as foreign or civil war; there is only just and unjust war. Until that day when the grand human agreement is concluded, war, that at least which is the effort ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... "I mean what I say, girls. Tom and I have made our fortunes, and there is no occasion for you to go on teaching any longer. We have not yet made any plans for the future, but at any rate the first step is, that there is ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty
... his influence abroad, and the foreign Governments shewed more insistence when they found out that the Prussian Parliament supported their demands. It was noticed with satisfaction in the English Parliament that the nation had dissociated itself from the mean and disgraceful ...
— Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire • James Wycliffe Headlam
... the storekeeper, drove up with a telegram from Manning and Isaacson, telling them that they must put up more "margin"—"Glass Bottle Securities" was at fifty-six and five eighths. They sat up all night debating what this could mean and trying to lay the specters of horror. The next day Adam set out to go to the city and see about it; but he met the mail on the way and came home again with a letter from the brokers, regretfully ...
— Samuel the Seeker • Upton Sinclair
... technically called dualisms. The origin of these divisions we have found in the hard and fast walls which mark off social groups and classes within a group: like those between rich and poor, men and women, noble and baseborn, ruler and ruled. These barriers mean absence of fluent and free intercourse. This absence is equivalent to the setting up of different types of life-experience, each with isolated subject matter, aim, and standard of values. Every such social condition must be ...
— Democracy and Education • John Dewey
... not very far from the Big House station. We can't miss it, because we can't cross the railroad without knowing it, and you know the railroad would lead us directly to the place. At the same time, for us to attempt traveling in the night might mean that we should get hopelessly lost. I assure you, you have no need to be alarmed. There is plenty in the boat to keep you comfortable, and, as madame says, we will just make a picnic of it. I am sure none of us will be the worse for a night ...
— The Law of the Land • Emerson Hough
... mean that they were not much out in the canoes and among the wigwams of the Indians, who were camped about on the various points within easy reaching distances. The natives were always delighted to see the boys, ...
— Three Boys in the Wild North Land • Egerton Ryerson Young
... half-cents and present them with a touch of your hat, he receives them with the same, and you go home with a feeling that a distinguished honor has been done you. The Spaniards say that the Portuguese are "mean even in their begging": they certainly make their benefactors mean; and I can remember returning home, after a donation of a whole pataco, (five cents,) with a debilitating ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various
... "Do it all mean, den, dat after all dese yeahs you's tryin' to git shet of me—tryin' to t'row me aside lak an' ole worn-out broom? Well, I ain't gwine go!" Her voice soared shrilly to match the heights ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb
... Jane is a mean, selfish, despicable old female," he muttered. "You've said so a thousand ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces • Edith Van Dyne
... "You don't mean to tell us," he said, "that you really come from the one and only chicken farm? Why, you're the man we've all been praying to meet for days past. You're the talk of the town. If you can call Combe Regis a ...
— Love Among the Chickens • P. G. Wodehouse
... to remember myself in the train to Paddington, sitting with a handful of papers—galley proofs for the BLUE WEEKLY, I suppose—on my lap, and thinking about her and that last sentence of hers, and all that it might mean to me. ...
— The New Machiavelli • Herbert George Wells
... Trim. Why, there's a box of it, isn't there, in the little cupboard on the stair? I quite forgot it. Fetch it, please, and we'll have real pemmican curry; and rouse up my lazy girls as you pass. Don't disturb Mrs R, though. The proverb says, 'Let sleeping'—no, I don't mean that exactly. By the way, don't slip on the stair. The water's about up to that cupboard. Mind, there are six feet water or more in ...
— The Red Man's Revenge - A Tale of The Red River Flood • R.M. Ballantyne
... need 'em both, the forest and the dark. The Union cavalry is going to pursue us, and I don't mean to turn back. General Jackson sent us to find about McClellan's crossing, and we've got ...
— The Star of Gettysburg - A Story of Southern High Tide • Joseph A. Altsheler
... miserable cotemporary of his, named Philemon, a coarse writer of broad farce, who afterwards died of a fit of laughter at seeing a jackass eat figs, continued by intrigues and his natural influence with the mob, to carry away some prizes from him; though he was so mean and contemptible a poet that his very name would have been forgotten, and long since sunk in eternal oblivion, if it had not been buoyed up by the simple fact of his entering the lists ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810 • Various
... plain idiot, Miss Edith," he said. "I was only fooling. It will mean a lot to me to have a nice girl go with me to the movies, or anywhere else. We'll make it to-night, if that suits you, and I'll take a look through the neighborhood at noon and see ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... Guardian: What do you mean, prisoners, going up there, that is the place for honourable men! For a jury! It is here in the ...
— Three Wonder Plays • Lady I. A. Gregory
... splintered bone that protruded from his neighbor's thigh, and he felt the warm gushing of the blood that welled with each throb of the hastily bound artery, he puzzled his dreamy thoughts to know what it might mean. At last all became a blank upon his brain, and he relapsed ...
— Fort Lafayette or, Love and Secession • Benjamin Wood
... where Butler had a pontoon bridge laid. The plan, in the main, was to let the cavalry cut loose and, joining with Kautz's cavalry of the Army of the James, get by Lee's lines and destroy as much as they could of the Virginia Central Railroad, while, in the mean time, the infantry was to move out so as to protect their rear and cover their retreat back when they should have got through with their work. We were successful in drawing the enemy's troops to the north ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... with the horde of his enemies, and dwelt for a second upon their skill as marksmen; so that his auditors, following him as he hewed his path through the tangle of an untrodden forest, felt that each obstacle he stopped at might mean not merely failure to the expedition, but death to all who shared in it. Success and life were one and the same thing, and the condition of that thing was speed. He must fall upon the Arabs unawares, like a bolt from the blue. They forgot that he who led that expedition ...
— The Philanderers • A.E.W. Mason
... not know what you mean," said George; "if you wish to see Mr. Charles Holland walk in and see him. He is in this house; but, for myself, as you are strangers to me, I decline answering any questions, let their ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest
... asked the Indian, nodding toward the giant. He and Koku were not on good terms, for once, when Koku was a hurry, he had picked up the Indian (no mean sized man himself) and had calmly set him to one ...
— Tom Swift and his Big Tunnel - or, The Hidden City of the Andes • Victor Appleton
... always mean employer. When I was a boy in Sharon, Pennsylvania, I looked in a pool in the brook and discovered a lot of fish. I broke some branches off a tree, and with this I brushed the fish out of the pool. I sold them to a teamster for ten cents. With ...
— The Iron Puddler • James J. Davis
... am twenty-seven; and precisely because I am twenty-seven I mean to live the life of a country gentleman at Lanstrac. I'll transport my belongings to Bordeaux into my father's old mansion, and I'll spend three months of the year in Paris in this house, ...
— The Marriage Contract • Honore de Balzac
... the subject (in the use of lawful endeavors for his own vindication) must continue in subjection and obedience to the ruler, in lawful commands, while the civil state continues to acknowledge him; and this, as the only habile mean of convincing the ruler of his error, ...
— Act, Declaration, & Testimony for the Whole of our Covenanted Reformation, as Attained to, and Established in Britain and Ireland; Particularly Betwixt the Years 1638 and 1649, Inclusive • The Reformed Presbytery
... The Cardinal was too astute not to perceive that the time had arrived when a continued severity could only defeat its own work. He felt that the country could not be rendered more abject, the spirit of patriotism more apparently extinct. A show of clemency, which would now cost nothing, and would mean nothing, might be more effective than this profuse and ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... have no objection—I mean, my friend and I—to be communicative on proper occasions; but you, sir, who are so old a sufferer, must needs know, that at such casual meetings as this, men do not mention their names unless they are specially wanted. It is a point of conscience, sir, to be able to say, if your principal, Captain ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott
... avoid a complex abstract subject, with pitfalls galore. "Which may very well endanger her future.... Well!—may endanger the happiness of both.... I don't mean that she isn't in love with him—whatever the word means, and sometimes one hardly knows. I mean now that she is under an influence which may last, or may not, but which might never have existed but for ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... delicacy of this appeal at another time," said Sir William Ashton, "but now I must proceed with what I mean to say. I have suffered too much in my own mind, from the false delicacy which prevented my soliciting with earnestness, what indeed I frequently requested, a personal communing with your father: much distress of mind to him and to me might ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott
... asparagus omelet in October, cauliflower in August, and blueberries in December. Without a hint concerning the proper method of combining the ingredients, a string of recipes are worthless, and mean as little as ...
— The Writer, Volume VI, April 1892. - A Monthly Magazine to Interest and Help All Literary Workers • Various
... Ward's conversation is exactly what Mr. Luttrell wants, a sort of 'abandon', and being entertaining because it is his nature and he cannot help it. I only mean Mr. Ward in his happier hour, for what I have said of him is the very reverse of what he is when vanity or humour ...
— The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. • Lord Byron
... gig-horse for the sending back of his gig; which thing Drouet perceiving came over in red ire, menacing the Inn-keeper, and would not be appeased. Wholly an unsatisfactory day. For Drouet is an acrid Patriot too, was at the Paris Feast of Pikes: and what do these Bouille Soldiers mean? Hussars, with their gig, and a vengeance to it!—have hardly been thrust out, when Dandoins and his fresh Dragoons arrive from Clermont, and stroll. For what purpose? Choleric Drouet steps out and steps in, with long-flowing nightgown; ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... stubbornly. "It's a man's natur to be mean about money matters whar his wife is concerned, an' when he begins to be different it's a sign that thar's a screw loose somewhar inside of him. My Abner was sech a spendthrift that he'd throw away a day's market prices down at the or'nary, but he used to expect the money from ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... met with a graduate of Cambridge (England), tutor of a grandson of Percival, with his pupil (Percival, the assassinated minister, I mean). I should not like this position of tutor to a young Englishman; it certainly has an ugly twang of upper servitude. I observed that the tutor gave his pupil the best seat in the railway carriage, and in all respects provided ...
— Passages From the English Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... Consequently a process of redistribution begins which continues until the nearest approach to equilibrium is restored. In this process water will pass in every direction from the wet portion of the soil to the drier; it does not necessarily mean that water will actually pass from the wet portion to the drier portion; usually, at the driest point a little water is drawn from the adjoining point, which in turn draws from the next, and that from the next, ...
— Dry-Farming • John A. Widtsoe
... "I mean just what I say, Mr. Grinder," went on Dick, when he could be heard. "You are master here, and we are bound to obey you, in certain things. But you shan't keep my brother in an icy room all night, and on a supper of stale bread and cold water. Such treatment ...
— The Rover Boys In The Mountains • Arthur M. Winfield
... tree!" cried Wriggs, in a tone of thorough disgust. "Why, I call it a himposition. What does a thing mean by going on like that? I could ha' sweered as ...
— Fire Island - Being the Adventures of Uncertain Naturalists in an Unknown Track • G. Manville Fenn
... of Stahl does not mean that the Government's investigation of the Lusitania affidavits, and the way in which they were procured, is at an end. On the other hand it is proceeding vigorously. Three witnesses, all Government ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 4, July, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... the last page of the story of those bold spirits who played no mean part in the making of Australasia by exploring the continent. For nearly a century and a quarter the white man had been restlessly searching out and traversing every square mile of the land, and now, at the beginning of the twentieth century, ...
— The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work • Ernest Favenc
... Hector his father, were strangely mingled—the more perhaps that the two fathers were equally silent. It would have been a valuable revelation to some theologians to see in those two what <i>love might mean. ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald
... necessary. I know what you mean as well as if I said it myself, and, moreover, short sermons are always the best. You mean that a pilot ought to know where he is steering, which is perfectly sound doctrine. My own experience tells me, that if you press a sturgeon's nose with your foot, it will spring up as ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper
... "Mr. Pope is too hasty, Ward, in suggesting that I don't mean to use you. To-morrow, after a night's rest, there may be work enough for you. Come, we are to pass your door, and will see you home. You, Doctor, will accompany us, I hope? We may ...
— Major Vigoureux • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... beautiful Italian's hand to her lips and lifted the little boy and hugged him. Melchior in the mean while hurried to the entrance door, there he bowed three times and solemnly lifted aloft his arms toward the evening-star that was just showing itself above the roof of a ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... soul with the same fulness through each of these channels, as if, for instance, we depended in the same degree for enjoyment upon our sentient as we do upon our intellectual or moral nature. All I mean to assert is, that whatever proportion may come through each, God has so made us, that perfect joy is derived only through all. Such is man's actual constitution as he came from the hands of his Maker; and such would have ...
— Parish Papers • Norman Macleod
... forth with electricity and makes an impression on life, altering the song of those it acts upon as the violin sound alters the formation of sands resting on a tightened drum. By what ancient intuition does the Latin word "malum" mean both "apple" and "evil"? Music creates substance through the speed of gaiety, and God in His Creation is a cosmic humorist. (Cosmic means beautiful.) To distinguish between fascination and sympathy is a counsel of perfection for critics which has its spiritual analogies. ...
— The Forgotten Threshold • Arthur Middleton
... you post for me to Marguerite Heinrich? I don't know what you mean,' Arthur said, the old worried look settling upon his face, which always came there when he was trying to recall something he ought ...
— Tracy Park • Mary Jane Holmes
... head out of the door, and, not seeing anything, slowly stepped outside. Now there were two men hidden behind a fence, with their guns pointed at the door. As soon as that cow-thief got fairly out of his house, we—THESE FELLOWS, I MEAN—pulled trigger and shot him dead. The authorities held a sort of inquest on the case, but all that is known of the matter is that he came to his death by ...
— Four Months in a Sneak-Box • Nathaniel H. Bishop
... stuff—probably carpenter's glue. But let us see what the legend attached to the number says: 'And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'—Zechariah, xiii. 6. What does this mean? It means, innocent reader, that the piece we have described in its principal features is the Holy Family of the Pre-Raphaelites! This is their mode of going to nature, selecting nothing but the mean and repulsive, and rejecting nothing but poetical and ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 432 - Volume 17, New Series, April 10, 1852 • Various
... only one phase of your rather feverish life, little girl," he said. "I don't mean that I want to lecture you or reproach you. I only want to ask ...
— Dope • Sax Rohmer
... and ragged red boots, part leather and part cloth; in his hand he bore a black staff with a silver head, and a coast-made umbrella and sword were carried by his slaves. Altogether his appearance was far from being either kingly or soldier-like, and he displayed the most mean degree of rapacity. He was the ruin of his country by his unnatural ambition, and by calling in the Fellatas, who would remove him out of the way the moment he is of no more use to them. Even then, he dared not move without their permission. It was reported, and generally believed, ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... violent, not loud, although the lips are opened to show teeth of dazzling whiteness; but fine and delicate, playing over the whole face like a ripple sent up from the depths of the soul within? Who was he? What does the lamb mean? How should the legend be interpreted? We cannot answer these questions. He may have been the court-fool of Ferrara; and his genius, the spiritual essence of the man, may have inclined him to laugh at all things. That at least is the value he now ...
— New Italian sketches • John Addington Symonds
... have plenty to live for. When this scoundrel Rodolphe is disposed of they will be reinstating you. You've got to live to have your honour vindicated. Does that mean ...
— The Rocks of Valpre • Ethel May Dell
... father drive away up the road, just too far for me to make him hear when I called. That seemed too bad at first, until I remembered that he would come back again over the same road after a while, and in the mean time I could make my call. The house was low and long and unpainted, with a great many frost-bitten flowers about it. Some hollyhocks were bowed down despairingly, and the morning-glory vines were more miserable still. Some of the smaller plants had been covered to keep them from ...
— Deephaven and Selected Stories & Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett
... in such a neighborhood, Aeneas sailed to Delos, where an oracle informed him he would be able to settle only in the land whence his ancestors had come. Although Anchises interpreted this to mean they were to go to Crete, the household gods informed Aeneas, during the journey thither, that Hesperia was their destined goal. After braving a three-days tempest, Aeneas landed on the island of the Harpies, horrible monsters who defiled the travellers' ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber
... had puzzled Pauline at the first reading, and which perplexed her still at the second. It was on account of this sentence that she did not read the letter to Cary. What could Zulma mean ...
— The Bastonnais - Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 • John Lesperance
... suffering, hour after hour, but still insisting that the fight go on. Which it did, but not to much purpose, for it was only under her eye that men were heroes and not afraid. They were like the Paladin; I think he was afraid of his shadow—I mean in the afternoon, when it was very big and long; but when he was under Joan's eye and the inspiration of her great spirit, what was he afraid of? Nothing in this world—and that is ...
— Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Volume 1 (of 2) • Mark Twain
... back-fill will [under certain circumstances] lighten the load on the structure," is considered subject to modification by some such clause as the following, "the word 'lighten' here being understood to mean the reduction to some extent of what would be the total pressure due to the combined original and added back-fill, ...
— Pressure, Resistance, and Stability of Earth • J. C. Meem
... mean that no objection was made by Mr. Anderson to Harrison being allowed to sell goods at the time when he (Harrison) was applying for that permission?-There is no doubt Mr. Anderson may have objected to him, or to any other party, doing so, but he could not ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie
... citizens. There is no false pride among those in high places nor envy among those lower in the social scale. They wear the same garb, the same cap, with the same cross on their foreheads. For the soldiers there is the same uniform, and when you say uniform you mean equality in devotion, in the risk of life, and in loyalty to duty. Between the classes of society there is no contention, there is only emulation. I do not know whether or not, in times of peace, they had all and everywhere escaped the local ...
— Fighting France • Stephane Lauzanne
... lean to, or kneel to, with the deepest reverence. Wordsworth has been in town, and is gone. Tennyson is still here. He likes London, I hear, and hates Cheltenham, where he resides with his family, and he smokes pipe after pipe, and does not mean to write any more poems. Are we ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon
... the red-haired girl who spoke, and her tone suggested that the silence marked a lull in some debate—"how much do you mean to advance me this year ...
— The Return of the Prodigal • May Sinclair
... "I hope you will have a good day." Does he mean an enjoyable one in general? a profitable or lucrative one, in case I have business in hand? a successful one, if I am selling stocks or buying a house? Possibly he means a sunshiny day if I intend to play golf, a snowy day if I plan to go hunting, a rainy day if ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor
... of the defendant's case, when both sides have rested, the defendant again moves to dismiss. Here again it is a formal motion, which he may not altogether mean, but which the lawyer often makes as a matter of form. If the judge really believes there is not enough evidence to let the case go to the jury, he ought to say so without the necessity of a motion. Suppose there is ...
— The Man in Court • Frederic DeWitt Wells
... that we have something else to do in the world than just to amuse ourselves." At this point it occurred to Phillida that in defending her own view of life she was reflecting on her companion's. "I don't mean to find fault with anybody else's pursuits, Mr. Millard, but ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston
... be too sure of winning, though. Mr. Morton once did me a mean turn when he started the ...
— The heart of happy hollow - A collection of stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar
... said the Tracer, as Miss Smith rolled up the scroll and looked at him for further instructions. "Now, perhaps you had better run over the short summary of proceedings to date. I mean the digest which you will find attached ...
— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers |
