"Petrifying" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... substances the woody body shall be supposed to have been penetrated in a state of solution by water, the regular structure of the plant would still have remained, with its vacuities, variously filled with the petrifying substances, separated from the aqueous menstruum, and deposited in the vascular structure of the wood. There cannot be a doubt with regard to the truth of this proposition; for, as it is, we frequently find parts of the consolidated wood, with the vascular structure remaining perfectly in its ...
— Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4) • James Hutton
... Laurance felt that he was approaching some offended and avenging Fury, that he was drifting down to ruin, powerless to lift his hand and stay even for an instant the fatal descent; that he was gradually petrifying, and ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... human society, even Jewish society. Its health and vitality are dependent upon the health and vitality of the social residuum. The hope of liberal Judaism lies in a reincorporated national life for the Jews. That alone can preserve the Jewish religion, either from petrifying as orthodoxy through resistance against environmental pressure, or from evaporating as reform ...
— The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 • Various
... I am so desolate! so lonely! I am drifting down the current of life aimless, hopeless, useless! What shall I do with my future? I believe I am slowly petrifying; I neither suffer nor enjoy as formerly; my feelings are deadened; I am growing callous, indifferent to everything. I am fast losing sympathy for the sorrows of others, swallowed up in self, oblivious of the noble ...
— Macaria • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... his address at Johns Hopkins are especially worthy of attention as a part of his message to Americans. "It has been my fate to see great educational funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar in the petrifying springs of architecture, with nothing left to work them. A great warrior is said to have made a desert and called it peace. Trustees have sometimes made a palace ...
— Autobiography and Selected Essays • Thomas Henry Huxley
... cloudy height, When o'er the dismal, half-year's night He pours his sulph'rous breath, Hast known my petrifying wind Wild ocean's curling billows bind, Like bending sheaves by harvest ...
— The Sylphs of the Season with Other Poems • Washington Allston
... Nothing surely was ever so unaccountable! The very same whom I prevented from fighting, in the Champs Elysees! Ay, he! This identical Clifton, for Clifton it was, has again appeared; has been here, is here, is never hence. His aspect was petrifying! He came upon me this second time in the strangest, the most insolent manner imaginable; just as I had sent away my last letter to thee; when I was sitting the guardian of a treasure, which my fond ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft
... heaviest the men had yet experienced. The noise was ear-splitting; the explosions filled the quivering air; the ground seemed to shudder beneath them. Branches fell crashing to the ground; it seemed as if a god was flogging the tree-tops with a huge scourge. The din was awful, petrifying, numbing. ...
— "Contemptible" • "Casualty"
... depth the brown and crumbling remains of the root came into view. There were, indeed, parts of the roots which had undergone an alteration similar to that which had taken place in the stems: but these tended to establish the limits of the petrifying power; for they had felt it only either at their first outset from the bottom of the stems, or when, being obstructed in their progress, they had of necessity arched ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 2 • David Collins
... saddened by many a regret for neglects and omissions and commissions toward you all, and that old petrifying selfishness which only grace can cure, I would not be without such days, and almost thank "each wrench which has detected how thoroughly and deeply dear you are." I can hardly tell you what the thought of leaving ...
— A Brief Memoir with Portions of the Diary, Letters, and Other Remains, - of Eliza Southall, Late of Birmingham, England • Eliza Southall
... and presently crossed over the room, and,, brushing past Mrs. Crewe, seated herself immediately by her elbow. Mrs. Crewe, not admiring this familiarity, moved away, giving her at the same time a look of dignified distance that was almost petrifying. ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay
... not a muscle of my body would obey my wishes, not a breath came to my lips; and the old woman, bending over me between the curtains, fixed her stony stare upon me with a strange unearthly smile. I wanted to call for help, I wanted to drive her from me, but her petrifying stare seemed to fascinate and paralyse me, just as that of the serpent fixes the little bird ...
— The Man-Wolf and Other Tales • Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian |
