"Thief" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... read them. I do it in your presence, for I am no dishonourable thief. But I will know everything. You are in my power—you need ...
— Olive - A Novel • Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)
... atheistic and reckless, would destroy all law and all property, is one of the thieves, and the devotee of the gold god of our time, who clutches his money-bags and says, "I have a right to get all the money I can, and do with it what I please," is the other thief. Christianity stands between them; her mission is to change them both, and bring them with a regenerated ...
— White Slaves • Louis A Banks
... rarely left the room; never unless Morley slept. She stole like a thief to her closet and ate her food when, and as ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock
... too, that ye have no longer to deal with Duke William, who, if he were a thief and a cruel lord, was yet a prudent man and a wise warrior; but cruel are these, and headstrong, yea, thieves and fools in one—and ye shall lay their heads ...
— A Dream of John Ball, A King's Lesson • William Morris
... represent them in official capacity. There can be no offense heavier than that of him in whom such a sacred trust has been reposed, who sells it for his own gain and enrichment; and no less heavy is the offense of the bribe giver. He is worse than the thief, for the thief robs the individual, while the corrupt official plunders an entire city or State. He is as wicked as the murderer, for the murderer may only take one life against the law, while the corrupt official and the man who corrupts the official ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... Dancing! These are words of magic to the rich and poor, noblemen and peasant alike, if he be a true Hungarian. There are two kinds of gipsies. The wandering thief, who can not be made to take up any occupation. These are a terribly lawless and immoral people, and there seems to be no way of altering their life and habits, altho much has been written on the subject to improve matters; but the Government has shown itself ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume VI • Various
... query, Mrs. Porter pointed one of the weapons at the intruder, and he, so goes the story, gracefully surrendered, for the reason that he was himself without firearms. The man made the best of the situation, however, by assuring the occupant of the vehicle that he was "no common thief," and had been driven to his present course by the wants of a starving family. He told her, at the same time, where he lived, and urged his distresses with such earnestness, that she spared him all the money in her purse, ...
— The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield • Edward Robins
... to put off the old astronomer with fair words," bellowed Sir Tiglath. "The thief inserteth his thumb into the tail pocket of the unobservant archbishop for purposes of research. The young man playeth merrily ...
— The Prophet of Berkeley Square • Robert Hichens
... been negotiable. She recalled Tom Abbott's warning to keep them always in her safe deposit box and the key hidden. They might be traced if stolen, but State's Prison for the thief would be cold comfort if the bonds had been ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton
... seen that other night. A rough brute, perhaps, who would stick at nothing in that empty house. Yet the very thought pricked her courage even at the moment when the descending flame stung her finger. Unlike Caw she was under no obligation to his late master. If a thief was there, she would shoot before she would let the Green ...
— Till the Clock Stops • John Joy Bell
... into deep water. The hawser was instantly cut, and we headed directly for the bar channel. We were soon out of danger from the blockading fleet; but as we drew in toward Fort Caswell, one of the look-outs on the wheel-house (who, like the thief in Shakespeare, "feared each bush an officer") would every now and then say to the pilot, "that looks like a boat on the star-board bow, Mr. D." "There are breakers on the port-bow, Mr. D." And at last "There is a rock right ahead, Mr. D;" at which last ...
— The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner • John Wilkinson
... sounds were astir,—the robins whistled, thief-like, over the cherry-trees; the killdeer, from some high twig, sent forth his sweet clear note; and now and then a pair of wheels rolled softly along the smooth road: the rush of the wind filled up the pauses. Anybody who was down by the Mong might have heard the soft roll ...
— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner
... I mean, you lying little thief. That's just what I mean. Kick and squall as you like, I'll take those papers with me if I have to ...
— The Dark Star • Robert W. Chambers
... the other, indicating symptoms of a barricade. In the Rue des Abbesses I counted three cannons and a mitrailleuse, menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the Rue des Acacias, a man had been arrested, and was being conducted by National Guards to the guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such arrests are characteristic features in a Parisian emeute. Notwithstanding these little scenes the disorder is not excessive, and but for the multitude of men in uniform one might believe it the evening of a popular fete; the victors ...
— Paris under the Commune • John Leighton
... transfixed him between the shoulders. "Tell how I died like a brave man," said he, "and tell your mother that I am gone to Paradise." From an intimate knowledge of my honoured father's character, in the qualities of thief, liar, and coward, although I promised to deliver the message, I very much doubted ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat
... see a boat drawn in among the bushes until he was right over it. Sitting in it was a man with a terrible gun, very intently watching Mrs. Quack out in the middle of the Big River. Sammy was so startled that before he thought he opened his mouth and screamed "Thief! thief! thief!" at the top of his lungs, and flew away with all his might. Mrs. Quack heard his scream and understood ...
— The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack • Thornton W. Burgess
... is a thief Who comes in the guise of a friend Saying, "Let us travel together, We have much to give each other. See, I hold back nothing— For what is giving ...
— Fires of Driftwood • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
... menaced by bands of horse-thieves operating under a secret well-organized system. Horses disappeared night by night and were never recovered, till at last the farmers, in despair of the local authorities, organized a Horse Thief Protective Association which undertook to pursue and punish the robbers and to pay for such animals as were not returned. Our county had an association of this sort and shortly after we opened our new farm my father became a member. My first ...
— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland
... of the Aethiopians; and Night was laying the yoke upon her steeds; and the heroes were preparing their beds by the hawsers. But Jason, as soon as the stars of Heliee, the bright-gleaming bear, had set, and the air had all grown still under heaven, went to a desert spot, like some stealthy thief, with all that was needful; for beforehand in the daytime had he taken thought for everything; and Argus came bringing a ewe and milk from the flock; and them he took from the ship. But when the hero saw ...
— The Argonautica • Apollonius Rhodius
... "You are a thief!" cried the mouse, and he knocked down the sweetmeat-seller, seized all his sweetmeats, and ran ...
— Indian Fairy Tales • Anonymous
... God's Kingdom was to be set up with a great capital at Jerusalem and a great and powerful king on the throne to whom all the world around would come and pay tribute. Anybody who claimed that the King had already come and been crucified like a thief was a dangerous fanatic and should be haled to ...
— "Say Fellows—" - Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues • Wade C. Smith
... from the school that day, but the affair did not end there. The father of the boy who owned the knife was a great judge, and he caused the ragged lad to be sent to a State reformatory, where the next five years of his life were spent in rigid discipline—stigmatized as a common thief! And all these years the bitterness of a terrible hatred rankled in his bosom against you—who were responsible for ...
— Mischievous Maid Faynie • Laura Jean Libbey
... the Greeks Went forward, breathing valor, mindful still To aid each other in the coming fray. As when the south wind shrouds a mountain-top In vapors that awake the shepherd's fear,— A surer covert for the thief than night,— And round him one can only see as far As one can hurl a stone,—such was the cloud Of dust that from the warriors' trampling feet Rose round their rapid ...
— The Story of Troy • Michael Clarke
... principles of honour; I have therefore, to try the power of dull Iron against gold, put him into Irons that Weigh 16 Pound. I thought it moderate enough, for I remember poor Doctor Oates[10] had a 100 weight of Iron on him when he was a prisoner in the late Raign. There never was a greater Lyar or Thief in the World than this Kidd; notwithstanding he assured the Councel and me every time we examined him That the great Ship and her Cargo waited his return to bring her hither, and now your Lordships will see by Two severall Informations of Masters of Ships from Curacao, ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various
... her home. She was visiting her aunt in New York, and there she married her villainous-looking professor, and would you believe it? I heard they went right off to the slums on a wedding trip, taking a thief, and an anarchist, and a murderer with them, as chaperons, I suppose. Oh, I ought to ...
— The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives • Elizabeth Strong Worthington
... all this,' said Montgomery, suddenly growing serious, 'when out she darted from behind the other wing—I never knew she was there. She called me a thief, and said she wouldn't have me another five minutes in her theatre. Monti, the Italian composer, was sent for. I was shoved out, bag and baggage, and there will be no more rehearsals till the new music is ...
— A Mummer's Wife • George Moore
... The thief, however, apparently suffered some pangs of remorse. "It's pretty rough to be gone through like this, ain't it, ...
— Toaster's Handbook - Jokes, Stories, and Quotations • Peggy Edmund & Harold W. Williams, compilers
... peaceable way for you if you do take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is and steal out ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett
... individual things which exist outside the soul, yet tends to them as standing under the universal; as when it desires something because it is good. Wherefore the Philosopher says (Rhetoric. ii, 4) that hatred can regard a universal, as when "we hate every kind of thief." In the same way by the intellectual appetite we may desire the immaterial good, which is not apprehended by sense, such as knowledge, ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas
... think I shall buy this," said he. "I can make believe that there is a fire, and can run about springing my rattle, and crying, 'Fire! Fire!' or I can play that a thief is breaking into a store, and can rattle my rattle at him, and call out, 'Stop ...
— Rollo at Work • Jacob Abbott
... bear to be under the roof of the daughter, as he said, of his enemy. The Captain, just happening to come home on leave for his autumn holiday, met his father quite at his own door—the very last place to expect him. He afterward acknowledged that he was not pleased for his father to come 'like a thief in the night.' However, they took him in and made him welcome, and covered up their feelings nicely, as ...
— Erema - My Father's Sin • R. D. Blackmore
... "Suppose a thief were to go into a man's store in the daytime, and take away something secretly, would it ...
— The Teacher • Jacob Abbott
... became as hard and defiant as his. "Sandy Flash, mark my words!" she exclaimed. "You're a-goin' the wrong way, when you stop takin' only from the Collectors and the proud rich men, and sparin' the poor. Instead o' doin' good to balance the bad, it'll soon be all bad, and you no better 'n a common thief! You needn't show your teeth; it's true, and I say it ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor
... looking at bad objects or pictures; by our ears listening to bad conversation; by our tongue saying and repeating immodest words, etc. If then, we guard all the doors of our soul, sin cannot enter. It would be foolish to lock all the doors in your house but one, for one will suffice to admit a thief, and we might as well leave them all open as one. So, too, we must guard all the senses; for sin can enter by one only as ...
— Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) - An Explanation Of The Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine • Thomas L. Kinkead
... a hypocrite! enough to make one shudder! No doubt he can't pay his rent! A thief, my dears, a beggarly thief, who set fire to his own cellar, and who accused me of trying to steal from him, while it was he who cheated me, the villain, out of a piece of twenty-four sous. It's lucky I turned up here! Well, well, we shall have some fun! Here's another little business on ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... reading "Mad Music" and "The Thief of Time." I don't like long stories. They are too interesting to have to wait a month ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various
... The six toothbrushes in the bathroom make her wild and profane. She flirts with death at the top of a dark, deep pit, and thinks out the stages of decomposition if she yielded herself to Death, who would dearly love to have her. She confesses herself a thief on several occasions, but comforts herself because the stolen money was given to the poor. Sometimes her "very good legs" carry her out into the country, where she has imaginary love confabs with the devil, but the world is so empty, dreary, and cold, and it is all so hard to bear when ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall
... precedes the text with:—'Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about.' That is to say, do not let your affections go straggling anywhere and everywhere, ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... man can be atoned for by minor punishments: crimes between citizens and their country can only be properly avenged by death. You may teach the murderer or the thief the iniquity of his fault; and when he has learnt to hate the deed he has committed, he may be pardoned. It is not so with traitors. Though the truest child of France should spend his life in the attempt, he would not be able to inspire one aristocrat ...
— La Vendee • Anthony Trollope
... share in guarding the integrity of the dollar. But the Government's efforts cannot be the entire campaign against inflation, the thief that can rob the individual of the value of the pension and social security he has earned during his productive life. For success, Government's efforts must be paralleled by the attitudes and actions of ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... emphatic hands. "Am I a thief? Is it theft to take gifts from another woman? And finally, M. le Commissaire, seeing that you are bound for La Hourmerie, I ask you to observe that this precious elopement took place from that very spot, and ...
— The Tale Of Mr. Peter Brown - Chelsea Justice - From "The New Decameron", Volume III. • V. Sackville West
... well; she loved it even now that it was not worth living. She never even asked herself the question, whether it would not be better and easier to end all and leave Gregorio to his fate. Gregorio! Her smooth lip curled in contempt. A coward, a thief, a fool—why should she care what became of him? Coldly and sincerely she wished that she were going to kill him, and not Veronica. She despised the one, and hated the other; of the two, she would rather have let the hated one live. But ...
— Taquisara • F. Marion Crawford
... Ramadeen, the youngest son, was warming himself at a fire on a small terrace in front of the door, when he saw a party of armed men approaching. He called out, and asked who they were and what they wanted. They told him that they were Government servants, had traced a thief to the village, and come to seize him. Four of the party, who carried torches, now approached the fire and lighted them. Syampooree and his other son, Ramchurun, hearing the noise, came out, and placed themselves by the side of Ramadeen. By the light of the torches they now recognised the ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman
... aright." A man's character, feelings, and conduct, all depend upon his opinions. If a man can reason himself into the belief that it is right to take the property of others and to deceive by false statements, he will probably prove a thief and a liar. It is of the greatest concern, therefore, to every man, that his fellow-men should believe right, and one of his most sacred duties is to use all his influence ...
— An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism - With reference to the duty of American females • Catharine E. Beecher
... mediaeval library in the kingdom. There is not a room in Oxford so impressive with a sense of antiquity. Its lancet windows, its rough desks sticking out from the bookcases, the chains which thwart the project of the book-thief, all help to obliterate the ages; though the decorations of the ceiling, and the stained-glass windows, tell of the desire of later centuries to soften the original sternness of the room. It is here that one must wait quietly as dusk begins to fall, if one would see faint forms of those of ...
— Oxford • Frederick Douglas How
... began arranging its medley of contents; ties, letters, studs, concert and theatre programmes—all higgledy-piggledy. And in the midst of this childish strategem he heard a faint sound, as of heavy water trickling from a height. He turned. A thief was in one of the candles. It was guttering out. He would be left in darkness. He turned hastily without a moment's heed, to call for light, flung the door open and full in the flare of a lamp, illuminating her pale forehead and astonished face beneath her black ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare
... mysterious. She saw where his hints led, but she would not follow up the clue. Her father had been ruined by Brandon, and her heart was filled with anger, in which she found it some relief to indulge. Dick had long been their enemy and thought her a thief, while the possibility that he was justified in the line he had taken made matters worse. If she was the daughter of a man dishonored by some treason against his country, she could not marry Dick. She had already ...
— Brandon of the Engineers • Harold Bindloss
... distinguished between his powers in conversation and in writing, by saying 'I have only nine-pence in my pocket; but I can draw for a thousand pounds[1010];'—JOHNSON. 'He had not that retort ready, Sir; he had prepared it before-hand.' LANGTON: (turning to me.) 'A fine surmise. Set a thief to catch a thief.' ...
— The Life Of Johnson, Volume 3 of 6 • Boswell
... Helinand. Helinand Helmond. See Helinand. Heredity, influence of Hereford, N. de Hermits Herodes Antipas Heredotus Herrtage, S. J. Hippocrates Hoeffer Holford, J. Holy Mawle Holy Scripture Homer Honesty Horse and the thief Hospitallers Hosts, duties of Hound and the ...
— Game and Playe of the Chesse - A Verbatim Reprint Of The First Edition, 1474 • Caxton
... expressed his regret that he had not joined Fred and Terry earlier in the day, so that he could have been with them when they met the horse thieves. Had he done so, there can be no doubt that they would have recaptured every one of the animals, even if they had had to shoot each thief from the back of his stolen steed. Such a result would have changed the whole course ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis
... would have lost all patience; as for Peter, he rushed upon the brute, who, with piercing screams, strove to escape; but it was a hapless day to the thief, for her master caught her in the doorway and dealt her so well applied and vigorous a blow on the side of her skull with the spigot that the sow fell dead ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various
... others clean scowred, and the Floors clean as well as places above them, not to sit up junketing and gigling with Fellows, when she should be in bed, such an one is a Consumer of her Masters Goods, and no better than a Thief; and besides, such Behaviour favoureth much of Levity. But such an one that will take the Counsel I have seriously given, will not only make her Superiours happy in a good Servant, but she will make her self happy also; for by her Industry she may come ...
— The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet • Hannah Wolley
... "Am I a thief?" she cried. "The brat shall have them in her turn when she grows up. Would you have me give her them now to ...
— The Waif Woman • Robert Louis Stevenson
... a pardon was granted John Appowell for abetting John Done, a thief, who stole a gown and a piece of cloth belonging to Thomas Ardrenne from the house of ...
— Shakespeare's Family • Mrs. C. C. Stopes
... Sheriff,' said he, 'and bid him send him to Newgate.'—'My Lord (said I unto my Lord of Arundel, for that he was next me, as they were rising) I trust you will not see me thus used to be sent to Newgate; I am neither thief nor traitor.'—'Ye are a naughty fellow,' said he; 'ye were alway tuting in the Duke of Northumberland's ear, that ye were.'—'I would he had given better ear unto me,' said I; 'it had not been with him then as it is now.'—Mr Hastings ...
— Robin Tremain - A Story of the Marian Persecution • Emily Sarah Holt
... to light. There is a discovery of all evil, and there is a grace which money cannot remove, neither from the thief nor from his children. And we rejoice to see that so much is being made known, and that in all probability the public will be fully informed as to who were principally guilty in these ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various
... the thief, then!" said the conductor. "Boy, give up the ring you stole from this ...
— The Errand Boy • Horatio Alger
... tradition or to any one in knee-skirted 1916. Mr. Hodshon was a good man as good men go, though he was capable of the little dishonesties and compromises with truth that characterize every profession. A man simply cannot succeed as a teacher, lawyer, doctor, merchant, thief, author, scientist, or anything else if he blurts out everything he knows or believes. No preacher could occupy a pulpit for two Sundays who told just what he actually thought or knew or could find out. The detective is equally compelled to ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes
... abuse. The first English translation (by James Mabbe) of Aleman's famous romance is, indeed, entitled The Rogue, and it had as running title The Spanish Rogue. There is a novel by George Fidge entitled The English Gusman; or, The History of that Unparalleled Thief James Hind (1652, 4to). Salamanca had an unsavoury reputation owing to the fictions of Titus Gates. cf. The Rover ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn
... swallowed all six at one mouthful. I am glad to say that they were very hot, and burned him so badly that he could not repress a surprised yelp. Daisy heard it, ran in, saw the empty dish, also the end of a yellow tail disappearing under the bed. Without a word she seized that tail, pulled out the thief, and shook him till his ears flapped wildly, then bundled him down-stairs to the shed, where he spent a lonely evening in ...
— Little Men - Life at Plumfield With Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott
... my father had several hundred dollars about him in gold; and my uncle would have done no worse to rob him of that, than to have his steamer taken from him when it was not engaged in acts of war. In either case, Homer Passford is a thief ...
— Taken by the Enemy • Oliver Optic
... would declare her Scorn of him the next Moment; but he is well received by them because it is the Fashion, and Opposition to each other brings them insensibly into an Imitation of each other. What adds to him the greatest Grace is, the pleasant Thief, as they call him, is the most inconstant Creature living, has a wonderful deal of Wit and Humour, and never wants something to say; besides all which, he has a most spiteful dangerous Tongue if you ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... love him," laughed Morgan, "but I cannot help admiring him. He it was who discovered our well-laid plans, and forced me to flee from Lexington, as a thief in the night." ...
— Raiding with Morgan • Byron A. Dunn
... its rightful owners. We know they said that God told them to requisition that fine little landed estate of Canaan. Half the thieves in history have said the same thing. We don't believe them. God never told any man to rob his neighbor, and whoever says so lies. The thief's statement does not suffice. Let him produce better evidence. A rascal who steals and murders cannot be believed on his oath, and 'tis more likely that he is a liar than that God ...
— Arrows of Freethought • George W. Foote
... Scotland, it would come out in a hundred small ways. For instance, there are crack regiments in the British Army which wear the kilt—the kilt which, as Macaulay says with perfect truth, was regarded by nine Scotchmen out of ten as the dress of a thief. The Highland officers carry a silver-hilted version of the old barbarous Gaelic broadsword with a basket-hilt, which split the skulls of so many English soldiers at Killiecrankie and Prestonpans. When you ...
— All Things Considered • G. K. Chesterton
... ensuing twenty years pictured as a noisy disturber, but he was shrewd, very shrewd. He could call a man "liar," "thief," "scoundrel," "impostor," in virile speechmaking, or could pass him up with a shrug, all the while keeping a cold eye on the main chance, and in the end getting his own way because he was strong enough to get ...
— Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck • John Hubert Greusel
... bars shut out the thief who coveted your jewels; but no bolts nor bars, however ingeniously constructed or strongly made, could keep out the thief who coveted your character. One little word from a pretended friend might consummate the sorrow of your whole life, and be witnessed by the perpetrator without ...
— Mizora: A Prophecy - A MSS. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch • Mary E. Bradley
... the Indians have a steer or two for food, if they need it," begged Mrs. Bobbsey, who had a kind heart even toward an Indian cattle thief, or "rustler", as they ...
— The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West • Laura Lee Hope
... Denoisel, "a revolution that makes one think of the words of Chapon, the celebrated thief: 'Robbery, Monsieur le President, is the principal trade of ...
— Rene Mauperin • Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt
... taken sides either with Mr. Ridgway or the Consolidated. Still, you have an option. Is he what his friends proclaim him—the generous-hearted independent fighting against trust domination? Or is he merely an audacious ore-thief, as his enemies say? The ...
— Ridgway of Montana - (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) • William MacLeod Raine
... many lumps of sugar you take from each pound as it arrives. I have counted the lumps, you old thief, and for years have never said a word, except to Miss Clapperclaw, the first-floor lodger. Once I put a bottle of pale brandy into that cupboard, of which you and I only have keys, and the liquor wasted and wasted away until it was all gone. You drank the whole of it, you ...
— The Christmas Books • William Makepeace Thackeray
... religion a paying concern. Sometimes a jailbird just released from prison would find in the Mission House an opportunity to recover his self-respect. But whoever the guest was, soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, apothecary, ploughboy, or thief, he was judged at the Mission House as a man. Some of the visitors repaid their host by theft or fraud; but when they did, nobody uttered proverbs or platitudes about mistaken kindness. If one lame dog bit the hand that was helping him over the stile, the next dog that came limping ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie
... here because I ordered you to come with me; because if you hadn't I would have killed you back there in the shack, you red-handed murderer. Now listen, Hughes. I know what you are—a cattle thief. You and Le Fevre belong to the same outfit, only he was the smarter of the two. I have spared your life for a purpose, and if you fail me now I 'll shoot you down as I would a dog. Don't try to threaten me, you cur, for I am not that kind. I am not trusting you; I have n't from the ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish
... that he would have gone off with his plunder. One night he went to T'nowhead, and Bell, who slept in the kitchen, was awakened by the noise. She knew who it would be, so she rose and dressed herself, and went to look for him with a candle. The thief had not known what to do when he got in, and as it was very lonely he was glad to see Bell. She told him he ought to be ashamed of himself, and would not let him out by the door until he had taken off his boots so as not to soil ...
— Stories by English Authors: Scotland • Various
... because it was the third nest she had built that summer. One had been used for the first brood. The second had been seized and appropriated to their own use by another pair of birds. (As this was told me, and I cannot vouch for it, I shall not name the alleged thief.) This, the third, was made of twigs and fibres of bark,—or what looked like that,—and was strongly stayed to the rose stems, the largest of which was not bigger than my little finger, and most ...
— A Bird-Lover in the West • Olive Thorne Miller
... good taste must be masked by a strong impression, which brings our passion into play. In other words, the low impression must be absorbed by a superior tragic impression. Theft, for example, is a thing absolutely base, and whatever arguments our heart may suggest to excuse the thief, whatever the pressure of circumstances that led him to the theft, it is always an indelible brand stamped upon him, and, aesthetically speaking, he will always remain a base object. On this point taste is even less forgiving ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... ways, for fear the newspapers will get hold of it and ridicule us, and accuse us of trying to drag the country into war. That's why we have to prepare under cover. That's why I've had to skulk around these hills like a chicken thief. And," he added sharply, "that's why that boy must not know who I am. If he does, the General Staff will get a calling down at Washington, and ...
— The Boy Scout and Other Stories for Boys • Richard Harding Davis
... word. To me that seemed A curious happening when I heard of that wonder, That a worm should swallow the word of a man, A thief in the dark eat a thoughtful discourse 5 And the strong base it stood on. He stole, but he was not A whit the wiser when ...
— Old English Poems - Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose • Various
... damned and done for yourself, my cocky criminal. Raffles the burglar! Raffles the society thief! Not dead after all, but 'live and 'listed. Send him home and give him fourteen years, and won't he like ...
— Raffles - Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman • E. W. Hornung
... Mahomet, in his re-introduction of God to man, had imposed himself upon their faith, its master idea, its central figure, the superior in sanctity, the essential condition—the ONE! Knowingly or unknowingly, he left a standard of religious excellence behind him—Himself. And by that standard the thief in the wake of the mighty caravans robbing the dead, the Thug strangling a victim because he was too slow in dying, were worthy Paradise, and would attain it, for they believed in him. Faith in the Prophet of God was more essential than faith in God. Such was the inspiration of ...
— The Prince of India - Or - Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 1 • Lew. Wallace
... it has been selected on purpose between a courtyard and a garden to avoid any communication with other houses. The porter is an old Spaniard, who never speaks a word of French, but peers at people as Vidocq might, to see if they are not thieves. If a lover, a thief, or you—I make no comparisons—could get the better of this first wicket, well, in the first hall, which is shut by a glazed door, you would run across a butler surrounded by lackeys, an old joker ...
— The Girl with the Golden Eyes • Honore de Balzac
... 162. The thief who expiated a sinful past by his repentance in the last hour, and was outwardly subjected to the same suffering as our Lord, is the type of the Turkish nation, which now puts Christianity (outside Germany) to shame.—DR. PREUSS, quoted in H.A.H., ...
— Gems (?) of German Thought • Various
... one night upon a hard and furrowed face. It was of ghostly pallor. A thief was dying on the cross, and this was his wretched face. About the cross stood men with staves and swords and spears, but none paid heed unto the thief. Somewhat beyond this cross another was lifted up, and upon it was stretched a human body my light fell not upon. ...
— A Little Book of Profitable Tales • Eugene Field
... enchanted sword with better right Would have been worn by good Anglantes' chief, Who from the fearful garden by his might Had won the blade with mickle toil and grief, Than by Rogero, who that faulchion bright Received with good Frontino, from the thief, He willingly thereof, as with the rest, As soon as ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto
... thief, to whom did he give the loot? If the gems had been put upon the market, some trace of them must have been discovered. Remains: Who got ...
— A Woman Named Smith • Marie Conway Oemler
... sixteenth of June Mr. Rollin Billings entered his home at Westcote very much later than usual, and stealing upstairs, like a thief in the night, he undressed and dropped into bed. In two minutes he was asleep, and it was no wonder, for by that time it was five minutes after three in the morning, and Mr. Billings's usual bedtime was ten o'clock. Even when he was delayed at his ...
— The Water Goats and Other Troubles • Ellis Parker Butler
... payable to bearer or indorser in blank, which has been stolen or lost, cannot be collected by the thief or finder, but a holder who receives it in good faith before maturity, for value, can hold it against the owner's claims at ...
— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens
... Solon, (Cicero de Legibus, ii. 23—26:) the furtem per lancem et licium conceptum, is derived by Heineccius from the manners of Athens, (Antiquitat. Rom. tom. ii. p. 167—175.) The right of killing a nocturnal thief was declared by Moses, Solon, and the Decemvirs, (Exodus xxii. 3. Demosthenes contra Timocratem, tom. i. p. 736, edit. Reiske. Macrob. Saturnalia, l. i. c. 4. Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanatum, tit, vii. No. i. p. 218, edit. Cannegieter.) *Note: Are not the same points of similarity ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... little, and from her mother, who had been a neglected wife, it was no more than a step to that other, lying on her back, tortured and lonely. If Christabel Sales had a daughter, what would be her fierce young thoughts about this thief, sitting by the fire in a joy which was half misery? Yet she was no thief: she was only picking up what would otherwise be wasted. It seemed to her that life was hardly more than a perpetual and painful choice. Some one had to be hurt, and why should it not be ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG
... you got there?" said the young thief making a dash at the purse, but he was not quite tall enough, ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli
... having been partially uncovered by coyotes. The brand had been cut out, and with the sight of this significant find, the two cowpunchers, their obnoxious joke, even the Schoolmarm, were forgotten; for there was a new thief on the range, and a new thief meant excitement ...
— 'Me-Smith' • Caroline Lockhart
... counterfeiter." The slave-overseer, Achmet, said, "He has cajoled the king." But Archaz, the treasurer, his most wicked enemy, who himself, even, now and then put his hand into his lord's coffers, exclaimed, "He is a thief." In order to be sure of the thing, they consulted together, and the head cup-bearer, Korchuz, placed himself one day, with a very sorrowful and depressed air, before the eyes of the king. He made his wo so apparent, that the king asked ...
— The Oriental Story Book - A Collection of Tales • Wilhelm Hauff
... is well for the reporter who has to cover a story of this class to acquaint himself with the distinctions that characterize the various kinds of robbery and the various names applied to the people who commit this sort of crime: e.g., robber, thief, bandit, burglar, hold-up man, thug, embezzler, ...
— Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence - A Manual for Reporters, Correspondents, and Students of - Newspaper Writing • Grant Milnor Hyde
... have said is avarice. She does not expect to lose money. France is not like America where one loses a fortune to-day and makes one to-morrow. In France when you make a fortune you keep it. The Russia which confiscated foreign holdings and ceased to pay dividends is a thief of portentous guilt to France. France, therefore, steadfastly opposes that Russia, and she has as steadfastly supported the other Russia which says she will recognize these old debts and pay them back plus dividends. France disapproved of the ...
— Europe—Whither Bound? - Being Letters of Travel from the Capitals of Europe in the Year 1921 • Stephen Graham
... of a clan. His tribe were moral and decent people at home; they had their religious rites, initiated their children solemnly, and divided their earnings on system. After setting aside 3-3/4 per cent. for the gods, 28 per cent. was divided between the chief and the thief, while the remainder went to the tribe at large. Their morality, however, was conterminous with the limits of the clan. They considered themselves to be in Hobbes's 'state of nature,' with regard to other men. They wandered far and wide through India, and made enough to live ...
— The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. - A Judge of the High Court of Justice • Sir Leslie Stephen
... gun and laid in wait for him inside the old sow's pen, grimly determined, if the devil swooped down after another pig, to take a shot at him flying. He felt sure of at least winging the satanic thief, for he had scratched a cross on every buckshot in ...
— Bears I Have Met—and Others • Allen Kelly
... chief—he was no better than a bold thief—made no reply, but rode northwest with his following for a lower ford, as I fancied. He went at speed through the open pine forest, I, my hands being free, holding on to my man as well as I could, and, as you may suppose, not very happy, A mile away we came out on a broad road. Here the captain ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell
... "conditions" for poetry are intensified by reason of the Great War. We have got everything except the Genius. And the paradox is that although the Genius may arise out of right conditions, he may not; he may come like a thief in the night. The contrast between public interest in poetry in 1918 and in 1830, for an illustration, is unescapable. At that time the critics and the magazine writers assured the world that "poetry is dead." Ambitious young authors were gravely advised ...
— The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century • William Lyon Phelps
... our troubles at home. They are not all economic, but the primary problem is our economy. There are some good signs. Inflation, that thief, is down, and interest rates are down. But unemployment is too high, some industries are in trouble and growth is not what it should be. Let me tell you right from the start and right from the heart: I know we're in hard times, ...
— State of the Union Addresses of George H.W. Bush • George H.W. Bush
... in great force, as there was a fair going on down beyant, which nearly all the men and some of the women had attended. This was accounted cruel unlucky, as it left the place without any one able-bodied and active enough to go in pursuit of the thief. A prompt start might have overtaken him, especially as he was said to be "a thrifle lame-futted," though Mrs. M'Gurk, who had seen him come down the hill, opined that "'twasn't the sort of lameness 'ud hinder the miscreant of steppin' out, on'y a ...
— Strangers at Lisconnel • Barlow Jane
... thing in man's pocket!" exclaimed Koku, after the thief had been carted away to jail. "It stuck to round green thing when I yank away from um." He handed Tom a bit of pasteboard from which the lower ...
— Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope • Victor Appleton
... through the wretched, mud-built village of Latrun (said to be the birthplace of the Penitent Thief), a dozen long-robed Arabs were earnestly discussing some question of municipal interest in the grassy market-place. They were as grave as the storks, in their solemn plumage of black and white, which were parading philosophically along the ...
— Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land - Impressions of Travel in Body and Spirit • Henry Van Dyke
... or benefactress? Once more he gives his unflinching answer. Justice still requires of me in the interests of mankind to save the more valuable life. "What magic is there in the pronoun 'my' to overturn the decisions of everlasting truth?" My mother may be a fool, a liar, or a thief. Of what consequence then, is it that she is "mine"? Gratitude ought not to blind me to my duty, though she have suckled me and nursed me. The benevolence of a benefactor ought indeed to be esteemed, but not because it benefited me. A benefactor ought to be esteemed as much by another ...
— Shelley, Godwin and Their Circle • H. N. Brailsford
... also climbed the stairs, his head swimming and his knees knocking together. Nervously, he turned over the few pages of his manuscript, then, hearing Dorothy coming, grabbed it and fled like a thief to the library on the first floor. In his panic he bolted the doors and windows of Uncle Ebeneezer's former retreat. It was unnecessary, however, for ...
— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed
... so fresh"—"how remarkably clever the Irish were!" Such were among the observations his ignorant blunders produced; and he who, as Handy Andy, had been anathematised all his life as a "stupid rascal," "a blundering thief," "a thick-headed brute," &c., under the title of Lord Scatterbrain all of a sudden was voted "vastly amusing—a little eccentric, perhaps, but so droll—in fact, so witty!" This was all very delightful for Andy —so delightful that he quite forgot Bridget rhua. ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover
... lady at the Court of Francis I., wishing to prove that she has no commerce with a certain gentleman who loves her, gives him a pretended tryst and causes him to pass for a thief. ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. V. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre
... reproach of the white man's dishonesty; when he states that the spirits of white children enter only those birds that are counted great thieves, one cannot wonder at it, for as far as honesty is concerned, a comparison between the forest Indian and the white man brands the latter as a thief. Not only is that the private opinion of all the old fur traders I have met, but I could quote many other authorities; let two, however, suffice: Charles Mair, the author of "Tecumseh," and a member of the Indian ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... the dog's rage is quickly overblown, Who flies the approaching robber to arrest, If the thief proffer piece of bread or bone, Of offer other lure which likes him best; As readily Zerbino to the crone Humbled himself, and burned to know the rest; Who, in the hints of the old woman, read That she had news of her he mourned ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto
... encouraged among boys as a developer of their wits. The Spartan boy and the fox is a classical example; and Diodorus relates that in Egypt the boy who wished to become a thief was required to enrol his name with the captain of the thieves, and to turn over to him all stolen articles. The citizens who were robbed went to the captain of thieves and recovered their property ...
— Sex and Society • William I. Thomas
... pleasanter than a Dahcotah girl. But he found a flower on the prairies, and he plucked it, and brought it into his lodge. He forgets that he is the master of a single horse. He gives them all to the stranger, for Mahtoree is not a thief; he will only keep the flower he found on the prairie. Her feet are very tender. She cannot walk to the door of her father; she will stay, in the lodge of a valiant warrior ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper
... occupation visibly and effectively before your eyes,—aye, and the very bird-catcher pops out and in from behind his screen, while a rustic having caught a schoolboy in his apple-tree, applies his rod to the young thief's seat of honour, with all the regularity of a drummer beating time. I defy the gravest person living to abstain from laughter, when this universal bustle begins; for no human being appears to be idle, and no single act seems to be performed ...
— Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II • G. R. Gleig
... and elsewhere too, it is a widely-spread habit, that if a theft has been committed, the next clan has to restore the equivalent of the stolen thing, and then look itself for the thief. A. H. Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, Leipzig, 1887, vol. i. ...
— Mutual Aid • P. Kropotkin
... meeting on the chosen ground of our opponents. Moreover, Mr Denis Johnston, the Chief Organiser of the League, who had come down from Dublin with all his plans for my extermination cut and dried, dared not take the train that evening in the ordinary course from the Macroom station, but, like a thief in the night, stole out of the town in a covered car and drove to ...
— Ireland Since Parnell • Daniel Desmond Sheehan
... of November, to anticipate that day, and to lose no more time. On Friday, the third day of the month of October, the eve of St. Francis, they collected very hurriedly in the above-mentioned fort; consequently, by nightfall, there were two thousand men in it. Joan Bautista de Vera—a thief in the role of an honest man, since he was the leader and organizer of the treason—went immediately to the city and told the governor that the Sangleys had risen, and that they were collecting on the other side of the river. The governor, suspecting the mischief, had him immediately arrested ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVI, 1609 • H.E. Blair
... blindfolded one catching them; the fun of the game being that it was very difficult not to make a noise hopping on the gravel, and the "blind man" usually pretended not to hear, and then made a dash at the hopping thief just as he or she ...
— The Gap in the Fence • Frederica J. Turle
... himself so that no one could have told who he was, set off at night, and entered the city just at dawn. By asking questions in the town he discovered that a body had been prepared for burial at a certain house. Having found the house, the thief marked the door with chalk ...
— The Elson Readers, Book 5 • William H. Elson and Christine M. Keck
... burning orb of fire is a mass of cold unmeaning ice," said Juliet, pointing to the sun, "then will I suspect the man I love to be a base unnatural monster, a thief and a parricide." ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie
... cigar. "We have been victimised in those fires by people who have grudges against us, labour unions and others. This talk of an arson trust is bosh - yellow journalism. More than that, we have been systematically robbed by a trusted head of a department, and the fire at Stacey's was the way the thief took to cover - er - her stealings. At the proper time we shall produce the bookkeeper ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve
... democracy there? Not one of them. Again, while Olynthus was standing, were there others of the same character there? I am sure that there were. Was it then through them that Olynthus was destroyed? No. Again, do you not suppose that in Megara there was someone who was a thief and who embezzled public funds? There must have been. Well, has any such person been shown to be responsible for the recent crisis there? {295} Not one. But of what sort are the men who commit crimes of such a character and magnitude? They are those ...
— The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 1 • Demosthenes
... smiled in his peculiar fashion, and said nothing; Franklin Dexter looked up from a newspaper he was reading, and exclaimed: "This is beneath our notice"; but Mr. Webster rose to his feet and said with great indignation: "Am I to sit here to hear myself charged with sharing the spoils with a thief?" The presiding judge said: "The counsel for the Government will confine himself to the evidence." That was all. But Mr. Webster was deeply incensed. The jury disagreed. Mr. Webster came to the next trial prepared with an attack on Huntington, in writing, covering many pages, denouncing ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar
... addressed, O king, by that messenger, king Drupada, like a thief caught (in the act), could not speak. He exerted himself greatly, by sending sweet-speeched emissaries with his own instruction to them, saying,—This is not so,—in order to pacify his brother. King Hiranyavarman, however, ascertaining once again, that the child of the king ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... also leaking wine. Till, as was natural, smoke rose,—kindled, some say, by the desperate Saint-Lazaristes themselves, desperate of other riddance; and the Establishment vanished from this world in flame. Remark nevertheless that 'a thief' (set on or not by Aristocrats), being ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... the stream happens to be navigable, the promoter must first get an Improvement Charter from a board of control appointed by the State. So Thorpe knew that he had to deal, not with a hand-to-mouth-timber-thief, but with a great company preparing to log the country ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White
... simple or complex; sentences of type 2 are compound. A simple sentence contains one independent clause (The dog barks angrily). A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses (The dog barks when the thief appears). A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses (The dog barks, and the ...
— The Century Handbook of Writing • Garland Greever
... course open to him. If he marched through that gate and straight to the door, as if he meant business, as if he had a moral and legal right to be there on business, Jerry would understand and permit him to pass. But if he snooped in, like a thief in the night, and peered ...
— Kindred of the Dust • Peter B. Kyne
... worth your while, then, just to try how you may like the usage of another master, who gives you fair promises at least to come to him? Surely, my friends, of all stupidity in the world, his must be the greatest, who, after robbing a house, runs to the thief-takers for protection. And yet, how are you more wise? You are all seeking comfort from one that has already betrayed you, applying to a more malicious being than any thief-taker of them all; for they only decoy and then hang you; ...
— Goldsmith - English Men of Letters Series • William Black
... two men was a curious one. To each it appeared that the other must be the thief. They alone had the keys of the safe; they alone knew the magic word which could open the massive door. The banker urged Bertomy to confess, promising him forgiveness; the other haughtily rejected the suggestion, and hinted that his employer had converted the L12,000 to his own use. In the ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IV. • Editors: Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
... irresistible impulse, and snatches up "the portion of gold which is nearest." He has no sooner returned to his wife and confessed his deed, than Conrad suddenly appears on the scene, and at the very moment of an unexpected and joyous reunion with his parents, learns that his father is a thief. Kruitzner pleads "guilty with extenuating circumstances," and Conrad, who either is or pretends to be disgusted at his father's sophistries, makes the best of a bad business, and undertakes to conceal his father's dishonour ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron
... commandments; and yet men speak of the "superiority" of the white race, and, speaking, forget to ask who of us would go hungry if the situation were reversed, but condemn the black fellow as a vile thief, piously quoting—now it suits them—from those same commandments, that men "must not steal," in the same breath referring to the white man's crime (when it finds them out) as "getting into trouble over some shooting affair with blacks." Truly we British-born have reason to brag ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn |
