"Serious" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a thousand ways 490 She whirls her giddy empire. Lo, thus far With bold adventure to the Mantuan lyre I sing for contemplation link'd with love, A pensive theme. Now haply should my song Unbend that serious countenance, and learn Thalia's tripping gait, her shrill-toned voice, Her wiles familiar: whether scorn she darts In wanton ambush from her lip or eye, Or whether, with a sad disguise of care O'ermantling ...
— Poetical Works of Akenside - [Edited by George Gilfillan] • Mark Akenside
... been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have had a serious conversation? ...
— A Doll's House • Henrik Ibsen
... me a serious source of annoyance that so large a number of persons endeavor to impress upon my mind the idea that it is an act of charity to patronize me to the extent of the purchase of a single book, while just after me a strong man, with faculties unimpaired, a man amply able to do other ...
— The World As I Have Found It - Sequel to Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl • Mary L. Day Arms
... during the voyage, and this is the first day that he has found tolerable. Once more he is able to eat and stand up; able to think, devise, resolve, and execute; able, in short, to be Coronado. Look at the little, sunburnt, sinewy, earnest, enduring man; study his diplomatic countenance, serious and yet courteous, full of gravity and yet ready for gayety; notice his ready smile and gracious wave of the hand as he salutes the skipper. He has been through horrors; he has fought a tremendous fight of passion, crime, and peril; yet he scarcely ...
— Overland • John William De Forest
... "I don't think anything serious happened to them, anyhow," said Job Titus one day. "And I should hate to think our work was responsible ...
— Tom Swift and his Big Tunnel - or, The Hidden City of the Andes • Victor Appleton
... serious we all are getting! It was your moths, Pierre, that set me moralizing this way. Our work with them is not yet done, either, for we must spread out the sheets of paper on which they are to lay their eggs. Then we can move the pairs ...
— The Story of Silk • Sara Ware Bassett
... flower-like head was nodded with meaning, deep and serious. "Oh, sure!" she cried. "And having the Cow-pens ...
— The Frontiersmen • Charles Egbert Craddock
... all else was forgotten in the serious illness of his beloved Fanny. At first the physician declared that the malady would prove slight; but she herself seemed to feel that she was doomed. "Send for a lawyer," she urged; "I want to make my will. It is little enough I have, God knows; but I wish to be sure ...
— Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters • H. Addington Bruce
... Was it, he asked, no affront for these three powers to tell a great country like this, that the treaty which settled the possession of all the powers of Europe, and to which it was a party, should be infringed and violated at their pleasure? By the violation of the neutrality of Cracow a serious blow had been inflicted on our national reputation, and on ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... down upon the town crouching beneath. On arrival we found a lodging in the little square below the castle, and here I thought it necessary to call a halt for a couple of days. Thus far our journey to Paris had been free from serious misadventure; but I was full of fears, for I knew not what folly De Ganache might commit in his madness, and the evil phantom of Simon was ever grinning over my shoulder. I, therefore, judged it prudent to write to Le Brusquet, ...
— Orrain - A Romance • S. Levett-Yeats
... very perilous situation: the pieces of ice, crowded together by the action of the current and wind, pressing strongly against its feeble sides. A partial opening, however, occurring, we landed without having sustained any serious injury. Two men were then sent round the bay, and it was ascertained that instead of having entered a narrow passage between an island and the main, we were at the mouth of a harbour, having an island at its entrance; and that it was necessary ...
— Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 2 • John Franklin
... hook-worm. This parasite has unquestionably existed over the area just named since the advent of the Negro—recent investigations having shown that the worm is in all probability of African origin. This hook-worm disease is probably the most common of all the serious diseases prevalent in the South, and as it is easily curable, and can be readily prevented, there is no matter which should be of greater interest to the people in the infected regions, especially those who live in villages ...
— Health on the Farm - A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene • H. F. Harris
... the question drop, but to proceed in the investigation. They wanted to arrive at the truth, first, about the nature of justice and injustice, and secondly, about their relative advantages. I told them, what I really thought, that the enquiry would be of a serious nature, and would require very good eyes. Seeing then, I said, that we are no great wits, I think that we had better adopt a method which I may illustrate thus; suppose that a short-sighted person had been asked by some one to read small letters from a distance; and it occurred to some ...
— The Republic • Plato
... lines is used to cross a wide stretch swept, or likely to be swept, by artillery fire or heavy, long-range rifle fire which cannot profitably be returned. Its purpose is the building up of a strong skirmish line preparatory to engaging in a fire fight. This method of advancing results in serious (though temporary) loss of control over the company. Its advantage lies in the fact that it offers a less definite target, hence is less likely ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss
... is by no means so demoralizing to man as to woman, despite the frantic protests of those who would drag the millennium in by the ears by forcing upon society, willy nilly, the single standard of morals. Man is the grosser animal, has not so far to fall; the shock to his sensibilities is not so serious—he is not so amenable to shame. A coat of black paint ruins a marble Diana, but has little appreciable effect on an iron Hercules. Illicit intercourse is not so demoralizing to man as to woman, for the ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann
... of the "world without," that he started not at this sudden interruption of the previous stillness. Regardless, too, of the serious and indeed reproving tone of the old man's voice, he hastily replied without averting his gaze from the canvass. "Hush, maestro! I beseech you. Question me not, for Heaven's sake! I cannot spare a word in reply. The ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 341, March, 1844, Vol. 55 • Various
... Then he stung the first goat in the ear. "Now," said the first goat, "this is a serious matter. Ouch!" he added, as the bee stung him again. "Come on, you," he called to the others, "it is time to get out of here!" With that he led them straight to the hole in the fence, and they ran through it, all three of them, and ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17) - Fun and Thought for Little Folk • Various
... considerable. I do not want to die here," he said. "I am growing more and more particular about the place." A week later brought another alarming letter, also one from Mr. Allen, who frankly stated that matters had become very serious indeed. I went to New York and sailed the next morning, cabling the Gabrilowitsches to come ...
— The Boys' Life of Mark Twain • Albert Bigelow Paine
... side, if emancipated women had not applied themselves, since 1870, to the direction of education, literature, religion and amusements, all these interests must have suffered serious neglect and probable deterioration through the concentrating of the interests of the ablest men in engineering, manufacturing, commerce and other fields of pure and applied science. By popularizing these interests, women have really humanized them, as all ...
— Woman in Modern Society • Earl Barnes
... means north of the pass, and Ribadda made the serious military mistake of defending his pass ...
— Egyptian Literature
... Botany Bay is interesting from the associations connected with it—I am quite serious, though the expression may raise a smile on some of my readers' lips—the tract of country best worth seeing in the neighbourhood of Sydney, is Illawarra, commonly called the Garden of New South Wales. By a change in the formation from sandstone ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes
... engaging their interest, than was always afforded by the tragedies of the old writers. The same change, then, which is observable in many other branches of the French literature of late years, seems to have taken place, to a considerable extent, in compositions for the stage; and from the serious and melancholy turn which was often given to the public mind, it has become requisite, in later writings, to introduce subjects of deeper interest, and more fitted to affect the imagination in moments of strong popular feeling, ...
— Travels in France during the years 1814-1815 • Archibald Alison
... all moving toward the kitchen as if by common instinct. The best room was too suggestive of serious occasions, and the shades were all pulled down to shut out the summer light and air. It was indeed a tribute to Society to find a room set apart for her behests out there on so apparently neighborless and remote an island. Afternoon visits and evening ...
— The Country of the Pointed Firs • Sarah Orne Jewett
... appearance at the polls before and at the next Presidential election, the question as to nominees for that office would contain a new element, and the views and preferences of this large constituency would receive serious consideration at the hands of president-makers in both the great ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... had never seen, his elder had long since forgotten, his occasional bursts of temper, but he suffered keenly from their effects, especially as regarded some of his children. Though Richard's timidity had been overcome, and Tom's more serious failures had been remedied, he was not without anxiety, and had a strange unsatisfactory feeling as regarded Flora. He could not feel that he fathomed her! She reminded him of his old Scottish father-in-law, Professor Mackenzie, whom he had never understood, nor, if the truth ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge
... the serious business of the day commenced. The school posed as a whole, then an infinity of smaller groups disentangled themselves and posed separately, while those who were not in the picture stood behind the camera and ...
— Just Patty • Jean Webster
... is something I wish to say to you. Will you not sit down?" and he placed a chair for her. "What I have to say is most serious, and whatever your feeling of ill-usage may be, I hope you will try to look at the matter also a little from my side. The situation is this: Your father, as you doubtless know, is the inventor of a mechanism which ...
— The Destroyer - A Tale of International Intrigue • Burton Egbert Stevenson
... said nothing, for I did not think Belle was improved in appearance by having submitted to the ministry of Mrs. Petulengro's hand. Nature never intended Belle to appear as a gypsy; she had made her too proud and serious. A more proper part for her was that of a heroine, a queenly heroine,—that of Theresa of Hungary, for example; or, better still, that of Brynhilda the Valkyrie, the beloved of Sigurd, the serpent-killer, ...
— Isopel Berners - The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825 • George Borrow
... pass before another man was to take up the horse as a serious scientific study; and this was Leonardo da Vinci, a man in many ways very much like Aristotle. The distinguishing feature in these men—the thing that differentiates them from other men—was the great ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard
... and Cappon, backed by some Camisards, threw themselves before his horse. Just then the whole band shouted with one voice, "No peace! no peace! no reconciliation till our temples are restored!" Cavalier then saw for the first time that things were more serious than he had believed, but Vincel, Cappon, Berlie, and about twenty Camisards surrounded the young chief and forced him to enter a house; it was the ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... and the hero gets out. He had hoped to slink home unobserved; but, to his amazement, he is received with shouts of "Long live Tartarin!" "Three cheers for the lion-slayer!" The people are waving their caps in the air; it is no joke, they are serious. There is Major Bravida, and there the more noteworthy cap-hunters, who cluster round their chief and carry him in triumph down ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... the nearby mountains and lounging every afternoon in the cafe; but he was no longer content with the admiration of the idlers hanging around a billiard table, nor was he taking part in the game upstairs. He was frequenting the circles of "serious" people now, had made friends with the alcalde and was talking all the time of the great need for getting all "decent" folk together to ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... if the worst comes to the worst it will only be a matter of knocking him on the head with an oar. I don't want to do that if I can help it. My lord will be angry if he has to get me out of a fresh scrape. It will be a serious matter to assault this captain in cold blood. I'll do it, of course, if necessary, ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham
... somewhat prepared her—that at recess the malcontents—one and all—seemed to have forgiven the man who had overcome them, and gathered round him with unmistakable interest. All this, however, did not blind her to the serious intent of the rebellion, or of Twing's unaccountable assumption of her prerogative. While he was still romping with the children ...
— Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... I am an Icelander, my Lord, and I came lately from Greenland, and now from Norway, intending to bring you this white bear. I gave all I had for him, but I have had a serious setback, so now I only own half of the beast.—Then Audunn told the King what had happened between ...
— Seven Icelandic Short Stories • Various
... for her and held her hand. But he knew that her only experience with her father's affairs had been an effort to balance Captain Golden's account-books, which were works of genius in so far as they were composed according to the inspirational method. So there was nothing very serious in their elaborate discussion of giving ...
— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis
... excuse for introducing so delicate and, perchance, so offensive, a topic; a topic which necessarily implies a state of serious moral defectiveness. If the system of slavery did not do us harm in every segment and section of our being, why have we for generations complained of it? And if it did do us moral as well as intellectual harm, why, when attempting by ...
— Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading • Various
... faltered the unknown, holding tight in the fingers of her left hand the corner of the ten-rouble note, which fluttered in the draught. Varvara Petrovna frowned slightly, and with a serious, almost severe, face held out her hand. The cripple kissed it with reverence. Her grateful eyes shone with positive ecstasy. At that moment the governor's wife came up, and a whole crowd of ladies and high officials flocked after ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... the transition produced no bewilderment, it seems. Realizing that without Rostom he would be in a position of helplessness that might be serious, the Irishman put his hands to his lips and called out with authority to the running figure of his frightened guide. He shouted to him ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood
... which cost him ten years of research and labour. His boys' books were the spontaneous utterance of his joyous nature, and their production he regarded in the light of a recreation amid the more serious affairs of life. He had an ambition, which the results of his labour fully justified, to be regarded as an authority on Typography. I can remember his amusement, and perhaps annoyance, when he had gone down to a Yorkshire town ...
— Kilgorman - A Story of Ireland in 1798 • Talbot Baines Reed
... well that this is the case; for, whether as a retainer of miasma, a shelter for wild beasts, both carnivorous and herbivorous, alike dangerous to man, or from their liability to ignite, and spread destruction far and wide, the grass-jungles are most serious obstacles to civilization. Next to the rapidity with which it can be cleared, the adaptation of a great part of the soil to irrigation during the rains, has greatly aided the bringing ...
— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker
... time there, for I was warmly received by several American families, and gladly availed myself of their hospitality and friendly attentions. To own the honest truth, ere a month had elapsed, I had so well compensated myself for past privations, that I had a serious attack ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... replied Pan with a frank, serious smile. "I've been a respectable sober cowboy for some time. ...
— Valley of Wild Horses • Zane Grey
... of rural education which has in the past proved a serious handicap to rural progress and open country pursuits, would thus ...
— The Stewardship of the Soil - Baccalaureate Address • John Henry Worst
... how that may be," said the man seriously. "But whoever it was that ran me down did me a bad turn. I can't find my name—or who I am—or where I belong. I tell you what it is, Billy Long, that is a serious condition for ...
— The Girls of Central High Aiding the Red Cross - Or Amateur Theatricals for a Worthy Cause • Gertrude W. Morrison
... he ejaculated, as he threw the paper upon the table. "This is a serious matter, truly! Why how have you managed to offend Everett? I always thought that you were ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur
... excited chief beat to that of his great leader. There was a moment during that wild and tumultuous expression of the common feeling, when the British officers looked as if they expected some more serious results of the General's proposition than the mere utterance of the dissatisfaction it, had created. But the apprehension soon passed away, for a sudden and commanding movement of the proud Tecumseh stayed the tempest his own powerful eloquence ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson
... He had hurried back to the house, followed within a few minutes by the police sergeant, who arrived at the scene of the crime a little after twelve o'clock, after taking prompt steps to warn the county authorities that something serious was afoot. ...
— The Valley of Fear • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
... he continued, "there is a certain elephant that's tramping, too, and how much progress is it making?" And then, again, he would grow solemn when he spoke of the average man. Turning aside from the humorous, he would strike a serious note ...
— Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him • Joseph P. Tumulty
... something like effort in the dark unreadable eyes. Then suddenly Pierce smiled, his young face disarmingly innocent and merry. "Oh, come on, Bryce, it's not that serious. Be a good sport. You ...
— The Man Who Staked the Stars • Charles Dye
... can't be serious! We can't take this place; let me urge you not to make the attempt; it is too desperate. Let me order the ...
— Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Volume 1 (of 2) • Mark Twain
... an intensely serious instant, yet I actually laughed. The man's nose was quite out of joint, even from such a slight blow. It was twisted over on his face in the ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve
... serious—about as serious a thing as a man can think of; but a man cannot put it off on that account. If I mean to make such a change in my plans, the sooner ...
— The Claverings • Anthony Trollope
... vessel from Jamaica to London. Finished reading Bassnett's manuscript tour, Syria, Egypt, etc. Much depressed by the recollection of my dear father's departure; told Mr. Grindrod the cause, which led to some serious and at the same time consolatory remarks. At dinner Mr. Jackson enquired what was the matter, upon which Mr. G. very kindly explained the cause. Commenced reading B. H.'s[9] Notes on Chili, Peru, etc., he is a very pleasing and agreeable writer. The measles ...
— A Journey to America in 1834 • Robert Heywood
... was threatened with serious rivalry by the hot-air engine. About the year 1816 the Rev. Mr. Stirling, a Scotch clergyman, invented one which a member of this Institute (Mr. George Anderson) remembers to have seen still at work at Dundee. The principle of it was ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 508, September 26, 1885 • Various
... boy to the window, and there, surrounded by half a dozen serious-faced men, stood Riley Sinclair, tall, easy, formidable. The sight of Sinclair filled Lowrie with dismay. Pushing a silver coin into the hand of the boy, he said: "Tell him—tell him—I'm ...
— The Rangeland Avenger • Max Brand
... commercial complications were serious. The isthmus was Colombia territory, and, since October, 1899, a civil war had been raging in that republic. Its financial condition was desperate. Two hundred million inconvertible paper pesos had depreciated to the value of two cents each in gold, yet were legal tender for all obligations. In such ...
— History of the United States, Volume 6 (of 6) • E. Benjamin Andrews
... East they do not do so much damage, though they sometimes cause the farmers serious loss. When summer comes we may listen to ...
— The Insect Folk • Margaret Warner Morley
... of buying plant-food in the form of commercial fertilizers is a mooted question in any naturally fertile agricultural region just so long as crop yields do not drop to a serious extent. The natural strength of the land and the skill that enters into the farming are important factors in determining the profitableness of recourse to purchased plant-food. The free use of organic matter to maintain the supply of humus defers the time when commercial fertilizers should be ...
— Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement • Alva Agee
... so and listening to petitions for sunshine and petitions for rain and to prayers for automobiles and diamonds and interest on mortgages and silk stockings, death and babies that some days he just gets tired of being a serious God and shuffles things up for a joke. And, mark me, Roger, that boy, Billy Evans, is just one of God's tender jokes. If only people would see ...
— Green Valley • Katharine Reynolds
... gratitude to the new God, who delivered the Israelites from their bondage, was the reason why they proved on the whole so loyal to Jehovah. This conclusion is possible and in many ways attractive, but it is beset with serious difficulties. We know, in ancient history, of no other example of a people suddenly changing their religion. When there have been such sudden and wholesale conversions in later times they have been either under the compulsion of the sword, as in the history of Islam, or under the influence of a far ...
— The Making of a Nation - The Beginnings of Israel's History • Charles Foster Kent and Jeremiah Whipple Jenks
... orders—verbally of course, though he will write them out later for the sake of curious generals who make collections of such things. While he is waiting for the cavalry to report he engages in very earnest conversation with Begbie Lyte, the signalling officer. Lyte is the serious-faced young man standing arguing with his little knot of flag-waggers. He has just realised that one mistake has already been made in the campaign, for, in the enthusiasm of youth, he brought bicycles to ...
— From the St. Lawrence to the Yser with the 1st Canadian brigade • Frederic C. Curry
... People require that. We Russians are all desperately loose. Happily, life is so arranged that, whether we will it or not, we gradually brace up. Dreams are for the lads and maidens, but for serious people ...
— Foma Gordyeff - (The Man Who Was Afraid) • Maxim Gorky
... them, and sighed supreme relief. He turned to face Hortensia, and a smile broke like sunshine upon his face, and dispelled the serious gloom of his ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini
... but very serious. I'll be back in a few hours. If there's a change, send for me, and remember, as I said, look ...
— The Romance of a Plain Man • Ellen Glasgow
... had thrown a mantle of snow over the follies and adventures of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and had whitened them so thoroughly that it now required a serious effort of memory to recall them. Of the queen once adored by so many courtiers, and whose follies might have given a theme to a variety of novels, there remained a woman still adorably beautiful, thirty-six years of age, but quite justified in calling ...
— The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan • Honore de Balzac
... the first casual remarks absolutely required of them, they had not a word to say to each other. Miss Armstrong managed cleverly enough to strike a little spark of epigram from the flinty dialogue. It flickered and went out. Knowles smiled politely at the abortive attempt; but at her first serious remark he shook his head, as much as to say, "My dear lady, this is a conundrum; I give it up," and finally turned to Katherine on his left. In fact, he monopolised her during the rest of dinner, much to the annoyance ...
— Audrey Craven • May Sinclair
... known men who would have fished for others if they had not been afraid of being warned?-I suppose they would have preferred that but warning comes to be a very serious thing here. In the south a man can shift from town to town and get employment: but here, if he leaves his house and farm, he has no place to go to except Lerwick, and there is no room to be got there, either for ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie
... painfully shackling themselves with all sorts of wearisome rules imitated from religious orders, the "hermits" had to prepare for social pleasures and Court festivities. In order to enjoy Court life in a new way people disguised it under the serious mask of the cloister; people tortured and bored themselves in order to be merry, and buckled social intercourse into a straitjacket, in order to give it the appearance of an entirely new and ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various
... particularly the doctrine of descent, as socialist theories and dangerous to the community, run as follows:—"Now, picture to yourself the theory of descent as it already exists in the brain of a socialist. Ay, gentlemen, it may seem laughable to many, but it is in truth very serious, and I only hope that the theory of descent may not entail on us all the horrors which similar theories have actually brought upon neighbouring countries. At all times this theory, if it is logically carried out to the end, has an uncommonly suspicious aspect, and the fact that it has ...
— Freedom in Science and Teaching. - from the German of Ernst Haeckel • Ernst Haeckel
... cheese, And aft he's prest, and aft he ca's it good; strong] The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell How 'twas a towmond auld sin' lint was i' the bell. [twelve-month, flax, flower] The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face They round the ingle form a circle wide; The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, The big ha'-bible, ance his father's pride: [family-Bible] His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare; [gray hair on temples] Those strains that once did sweet ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson
... that evening," she spoke in a curiously softened tone. "Elizabeth sat in the glow of the drop-light and scribbled this card, while the rest of us watched her idly, and talked, half serious, half in fun over the novelty of choosing our mottoes. It was Elizabeth who had proposed it. She had such a shy, sweet, humorous way of being good. Everybody ...
— Beatrice Leigh at College - A Story for Girls • Julia Augusta Schwartz
... Crystal, The Bodega, and The Novelty, to recall many incidents to all those who were fortunate enough to be with us. It was certainly delightful, but played havoc with our banking accounts, and must have given Mr. Cox a very busy time. We did a certain amount of training in our more serious moments, which were not many, ordinary work normally finishing about 1.0 p.m., and the men being allowed out from 2.0 p.m. onwards. Many guards and camp and town fatigues had to be found, however, almost daily, which much depleted our numbers on parade. Training was mainly of the barrack ...
— The Sherwood Foresters in the Great War 1914 - 1919 - History of the 1/8th Battalion • W.C.C. Weetman
... to say anything, my love, please say it now, but you should always remember to think before you speak. A woman should be seen seldom but never heard. Quietness is the beginning of virtue. To be silent is to be beautiful. Stars do not make a noise. Children should always be in bed. These are serious truths, which cannot be controverted; therefore, silence is ...
— The Crock of Gold • James Stephens
... control. This was, indeed, the position which the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission subsequently took in ruling that to establish a claim it would be necessary to show that the destruction of property was the consequence of negligence upon the part of Spanish authorities or of military orders. Of other serious grievances there was no doubt. American citizens were imprisoned, interned in reconcentrado camps, and otherwise maltreated. The nationality of American sufferers was in some cases disputed, and the necessity of dealing with each of these doubtful cases by the slow and roundabout ...
— The Path of Empire - A Chronicle of the United States as a World Power, Volume - 46 in The Chronicles of America Series • Carl Russell Fish
... done? I mentioned the grievance to a friend, and he remonstrated with my lively classmate, threatening him with my serious displeasure. "Pooh! how can he help himself?" was the reply which came duly to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862 • Various
... crusade against that most ancient evil known as the white slave traffic we have made at least one serious advance. All over the world that conspiracy of silence which has fettered thought and prevented open action ...
— Little Lost Sister • Virginia Brooks
... cannot evacuate, because your army cannot be moved. You must either surrender absolutely to the Mahdi or defend Khartoum at all hazards. The latter is the only course which ought to be entertained. There is no serious difficulty about it. The Mahdi's forces will fall to pieces of themselves; but if in a moment of panic orders are issued for the abandonment of the whole of the Eastern Soudan, a blow will be struck against the security of Egypt and the peace of the East, ...
— The Life of Gordon, Volume II • Demetrius Charles Boulger
... away was not polite; to throw them away was sinful; to eat them was impossible. Mrs. S. said, "Save them for seed." So we did. Next day, our neighbor sent us a dozen more. We thanked the messenger grimly and took them in. Next morning another dozen came. It was getting to be a serious matter; so I rose betimes the following morning, and when my neighbor's cucumbers came I filled his man's basket with some of my own, by way of exchange. This bit of pleasantry was resented by my neighbor, who told ...
— Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor - Volume I • Various
... as my text, rather than those which immediately go before or follow it, because it affords one of the most serious instances of mistranslation that are to be met with in the whole New Testament. For the true translation of the words is this: "For who were they who, when they had heard, did provoke? nay, were they not all who ...
— The Christian Life - Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps • Thomas Arnold
... Civil List Stanley regarded as quite essential to the maintenance of British authority.[4] In fact, any discussion of the subject seemed to him the "reopening of a chapter which has already led to such serious consequences, and in the prosecution of which I contemplate seriously the prospect of the dismemberment of the Empire."[5] Holding views so resolute, he could not, like Russell, trust his representative on the spot; and, from the first, ...
— British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government - 1839-1854 • J. L. Morison
... spread in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland this year. We are very much alarmed about the situation. The Chinese chestnut is very severely affected. We have learned that in Missouri. One year there were three Chinese chestnuts killed by the fungus, the next year 60. The oak wilt is a serious ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 43rd Annual Meeting - Rockport, Indiana, August 25, 26 and 27, 1952 • Various
... the abashed boy nearer to her, she put her arm about him, softly saying: "I greatly fear you have been led by those older than yourself to do things you would not have done had you had proper advisors. I fear you will get into serious trouble if you do not follow your father's and mother's advice. Now, Alfred, listen to every word grandmother says to you. You will not be punished for taking the sheets more than your conscience reproves you. You are ...
— Watch Yourself Go By • Al. G. Field
... was hastened by the news of his father's death, and his mother and sister spent the following summer and autumn in his cottage at Lasswade. This summer produced his first serious attempt in verse, "Glenfinlas," which was followed by the noble ballads, "Eve of St. John," "The Grey Brother" and "Fire-King"; and it was in the course of this autumn that he first visited Bothwell Castle, the seat of Archibald, Lord Douglas, whose wife, and her companion, Lady Louisa Stuart, ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol X • Various
... that part of his career when he as a youth undertook to secure an education by which he might be qualified for the serious duties of life. How he began as a teacher during the beginning of Negro education of the Reconstruction period, and how he finally became an exhorter and developed into a minister acceptable to ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 • Various
... Newfoundland coast, he told such tales of cod fisheries thereabouts, that three small ships set sail from England to catch fish and trade with the natives of the new-found isle. Portuguese and Frenchmen followed, and year after year visited the Newfoundland fisheries. No serious attempt was made to settle the island. What Europe wanted was a direct westward passage through America to Cathay. This John Verrazano, an Italian sailing under the flag of France, attempted to find, and came to what is now the coast of North Carolina. ...
— A Brief History of the United States • John Bach McMaster
... excited, too, when he left. She had talked to him so tenderly—the proud mother who so seldom unbent. How marriage was a beautiful but serious thing, and he must love and try to understand his wife—and then she spoke of her own great love for him, and her pride in ...
— The Reason Why • Elinor Glyn
... ridicule. And this we had in plenty upon the road. Landlords, grooms, and'ostlers, and even our own post-boys, laughed and jested coarsely at his sky-blue frock, and their sallies angered him beyond all reason, while they afforded me so great an amusement that more than once I was on the edge of a serious falling-out with him as a consequence of my merriment. Usually, when we alighted from our vehicle, the expression of mine host would sour, and his sir would shift to a master; while his servants would go trooping in again, with many a coarse fling that they would get no vails ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... professor of church history at St. Andrews, was processed before the judicatories of this church, for maintaining a scheme of dangerous and most pernicious principles, which he published to the world, having a manifest tendency to subvert revealed religion, and expose the exercise of serious godliness, under the notion of enthusiasm; to advance self-love, as the leading, principle and motive in all human actions whatever, and to destroy the self-sufficiency of God, making him a debtor to his ...
— 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
... be a great occasion and reason to have an abhorrance for marrying. But when we begin again with serious judgement to consider, the weaknesses, strange humors, and deficiences, that the most gaudiest and neatest Ladies are subject to; experience will teach us, that they are Cakes bak'd of one Dough, and ...
— The Ten Pleasures of Marriage and The Confession of the New-married Couple (1682) • A. Marsh
... about compensating the Corporation by remitting their annual contribution to the expenses of the police force, and by defraying the same out of the Consolidated Fund. However, there is cause for gratitude that a still more serious loss is not yet to be inflicted upon the ways and means of the City. The metage duty on coals which may belong to the Corporation after the year 1862, under 1 & 2 William IV., and 8 & 9 Victoria, is not ...
— The Corporation of London: Its Rights and Privileges • William Ferneley Allen
... refrain for the life of him from giving a sarcastic chuckle, which of course added to the evident embarrassment of Giraffe; who, however assumed a serious air upon ...
— The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods - The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter
... dress too striking. Two fairies were they; the younger, it is true, was not Dame Fortune herself, but one of the waiting-maids of her handmaidens who carry about the lesser good things that she distributes; the other looked extremely gloomy—it was Care. She always attends to her own serious business herself, as then she is sure of ...
— Andersen's Fairy Tales • Hans Christian Andersen
... out!" snorted George, who never knew when his companion was serious or joking, since his pudgy face was always set in a broad smile. "What d'ye take me for, hey? Think this is an excursion to teach fellows who won't try it on at home, how to swim? You've got another think coming then. ...
— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel
... astonished her, as did his language. Bill mixed slang, the colloquialisms of the frontier, and the terminology of modern scientific thought with quaint impartiality. There were times when he talked clear over her head. And he was by turns serious and boyish, with always a saving sense of humor. So that she was eternally discovering new sides ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... pictures, it is perhaps significant that 'blue,' 'mauve' and 'green' are commonly regarded in village India as variants of 'black'—many Indians making no distinction between them. In Indian painting, the fact that Krishna is blue makes it easy to identify him, his only serious rival being another and earlier incarnation of Vishnu, the princely Rama. The latter can usually be distinguished from Krishna by the fact that he carries a bow (never a cowherd's stick) and is often accompanied by ...
— The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry • W. G. Archer
... hammock at the same time that the fusee was thrown into the nest; the smoke would keep all but the most militant of the wasps just outside the stinging line, and as long as Waldo remained within its protection he would escape serious damage, and could be eventually restored to his mother, kippered all over and swollen in places, but ...
— Beasts and Super-Beasts • Saki
... (With his Lordship's permission) by Adams, Jun. and Recommended by the Loughborough Association For the Support of the Constitution to The Serious ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth
... my worst songs fall below my best. It sometimes seems to me, as I know it does to others who have told me so, that they ought to be ALL BEST,—if not in actual execution, at least in plan and motive. I am grateful—he continued—for all such criticisms. A man is always pleased to have his most serious efforts praised, and the highest aspect of his nature get the ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes
... capital, where there were still worlds within worlds to explore. She questioned Madame Vauchelet as to the probable cost of a femme de menage. Madame quickly ran through some calculations and pronounced a sum alluringly small. Since the landlady difficulty was so serious, and made personal superintendence necessary, it seemed as if one might as well have the greater comfort and independence ...
— The Daughters of Danaus • Mona Caird
... one's way in the world is, ordinarily, difficult enough; but when one is handicapped by a cloud on the family name, the difficulty becomes far greater. With his father thrown into prison on a serious charge, Roger finds that few people will have anything to do with either himself or his sister, and the jeers flung at him are at times almost more than he can bear. But he is "true to himself" in the best meaning of that saying, rising above those ...
— True to Himself • Edward Stratemeyer
... that characterized all his movements when serious matters were in question, he passed through the suites of apartments he had already visited, ran down the stairs, and sprang into the carriage, ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas, pere
... caus'd on earth those deeds, And twice-born Bacchus' cradle safe was hid; 'Tis said that Jove with heavenly nectar flush'd, All serious cares dismiss'd. With sportive jests, At ease conversing, he and Juno sate: When he:—"The thrilling ecstasies of love, "Are surely strongest on the female side." She differs,—and the question both agree Tiresias, who each sex had prov'd, shall judge. Two mighty ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... the fact that it is quite useless. It is perhaps the most obviously useless structure in the whole vegetable kingdom. Notwithstanding this, it has come to be as completely hereditary as any of the most beautiful adaptations in nature. Therefore it is one of the most serious objections to the hypothesis of slow and gradual improvements on the sole ground of their usefulness. The struggle for life and natural selection are manifestly inadequate to give even the slightest indication ...
— Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation • Hugo DeVries
... that among some of the inhabitants of these northern provinces there is a disposition to think that the commands of the king are not absolute, and that in certain cases they may be disregarded. Far be it from us to think that this feeling prevails to any serious extent. We are happy to know that, in all the southern provinces, they are abundantly loyal; and, indeed, in the northern provinces this rebellious and dangerous disposition is confined to a few mischievous fanatics; but it is a poisonous plant, ...
— The Young Captives - A Story of Judah and Babylon • Erasmus W. Jones
... atop, of the rich red marl, below them, of sandstones, and of those vast deposits of rock-salt, which have been long worked, and worked to such good purpose, that a vast subsidence of land has just taken place near Nantwich in Cheshire; and serious fears are entertained lest the town itself may subside, to fill up the caverns below, from whence the salt has been quarried. Underneath these beds again are those which carry the building-stone of Runcorn. Now these beds altogether, in Cheshire, at least, are ...
— Town Geology • Charles Kingsley
... this assumption may be taken for granted; so that he does not trouble himself about proofs. The subject of mother-right is dismissed as unworthy of serious attention. Such an attitude is surely instructive, and illustrates the failure, to which I have already pointed, in considering the woman's side in these questions. There would seem to be a tendency to doubt as being possible any family arrangement favourable to the authority of women. Even ...
— The Position of Woman in Primitive Society - A Study of the Matriarchy • C. Gasquoine Hartley
... expense of those who deserved it. After having consulted some time, they at last resolved upon a mode of conveying it into her own hands. Lord Muskerry was just going out, when she received it: he was a man of honour, rather serious, very severe, and a mortal enemy to ridicule. His wife's deformity was not so intolerable to him, as the ridiculous figure she made upon all occasions. He thought that he was safe in the present case, not ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... your account; and on my own account I have not much reason to rejoice. My chief object and task is taking a very serious and painful turn. I had no right to expect much else in that direction, and was prepared, but these long entanglements which I have to submit to have caused me much trouble and have jeopardised my pecuniary position, so that at present I am unable to assist a friend. This ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 • Francis Hueffer (translator)
... only the joys of the night before, she arose early and in the exuberance of her spirits pulled Mary out of bed and tickled her until she was seized with a fit of coughing; and Mary's cough was a serious affair. Next she visited the boys' room and ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith
... wounded leg almost failed me; and greatly shaken, but with no other serious damage, I picked myself up from the dust of the roadway. It was a mockery of Fate that the problem which Nayland Smith had set me to solve, should have been solved thus; for I could not doubt that by means of the branch of a tall tree or some other ...
— The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu • Sax Rohmer
... more serious difficulty in determining the rank of the several forms is that, according to Gallesio (10/16. 'Teoria della Riproduzione' page 53.) they largely intercross without artificial aid; thus he positively states that seeds taken from lemon-trees ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin
... Closer!)—The dice yet lay in the box, and were not destined to be thrown that day. It was probably spent in reconnoitring, in order to make up the parties for the grand game in which empires were the stake. The preparations for the defence of the city became more serious and alarming. The exterior avenues had been previously palisaded, and provided with chevaux de frise; but the greater part of them were completely closed up. Loop-holes were formed in every wall, and tirailleurs ...
— Frederic Shoberl Narrative of the Most Remarkable Events Which Occurred In and Near Leipzig • Frederic Shoberl (1775-1853)
... of execution the scene grew still more shocking, and the clergyman who attended was more the subject of ridicule than of their serious attention. The Psalm was sung amidst the curses and quarrelling of hundreds of the most abandoned and profligate of mankind, upon them (so stupid are they to any sense of decency) all the preparation of the unhappy wretches seems to serve only for subject of a barbarous ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward
... listening; and it came in my mind that I had scarce ever heard him address three serious words to any woman, but he was always drolling and fleering and making a private mock of them, and yet brought to that business a remarkable degree of energy and interest. Something to this effect I remarked to him, when the goodwife ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... a-talkin' of—of—ahem—of subjects too serious to be talked of in that manner; but I did you wrong, Sam; I did you injustice. Give me your hand, my boy. It's better for me to mistake and apologize, than for you to sin and repent. I don't think ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... presented itself, one fully as serious. The provisions were dwindling, the seed-sacks shrinking fast, and, estranged from Lounsbury, they had nowhere to ask credit ...
— The Plow-Woman • Eleanor Gates
... during previous sorties. There was, however, some very hard fighting in the gardens and serais, where we were received by a storm of bullets; but the men being persuaded to keep well under cover, the losses were not very serious, the casualties amounting in all to about ninety officers and men.[2] The enemy, as usual, suffered severely, more especially from the fire of our field-guns, which mowed them down when collected in groups of two ...
— A Narrative Of The Siege Of Delhi - With An Account Of The Mutiny At Ferozepore In 1857 • Charles John Griffiths
... Fred declared it was all George's fault—that he had ridden his horse too fast or too slow—that he had been too forward, or not forward enough. His temper was by far too much soured by the loss of his own bets, to allow him to console his brother for the more serious injury he ...
— The Macdermots of Ballycloran • Anthony Trollope
... tradition there, you will find accounts of a time when there was direct intercourse between the gods or spirits that live in the sky, and men. That intercourse is always said to have been cut off by some human error; for example, the Fernando Po people say that once upon a time there was no trouble or serious disturbance upon earth because there was a ladder, made like the one you get palm-nuts with, "only long, long;" and this ladder reached from earth to heaven so the gods could go up and down it and attend personally to mundane affairs. But one day a cripple boy started to go ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley
... employed when an event occurred which changed the current of their thoughts, and led to consequences of a somewhat serious nature. This event, however, was in itself insignificant. It was nothing more than the sudden appearance of a wild-pig among the bushes close ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne
... nude statuary, and books with illustrations of the nude figure; and nude statues are to be seen also in places of public resort. A demand for the removal of such nude figures is so stupid, that it hardly deserves serious discussion—outside of the columns of the comic papers. A classical education, too, gives so many opportunities for the sight or the mention of the nude—for instance, delineations of the gods of the ancient mythology that the demands of the "morality-fanatics" could be met only ...
— The Sexual Life of the Child • Albert Moll |
