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adjective
Better  adj.  (compar. of Good)
1.
Having good qualities in a greater degree than another; as, a better man; a better physician; a better house; a better air. "Could make the worse appear The better reason."
2.
Preferable in regard to rank, value, use, fitness, acceptableness, safety, or in any other respect. "To obey is better than sacrifice." "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes."
3.
Greater in amount; larger; more.
4.
Improved in health; less affected with disease; as, the patient is better.
5.
More advanced; more perfect; as, upon better acquaintance; a better knowledge of the subject.
All the better. See under All, adv.
Better half, an expression used to designate one's wife. "My dear, my better half (said he), I find I must now leave thee."
To be better off, to be in a better condition.
Had better. (See under Had). Note: The phrase had better, followed by an infinitive without to, is idiomatic. The earliest form of construction was "were better" with a dative; as, "Him were better go beside." () i. e., It would be better for him, etc. At length the nominative (I, he, they, etc.) supplanted the dative and had took the place of were. Thus we have the construction now used. "By all that's holy, he had better starve Than but once think this place becomes thee not."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Better" Quotes from Famous Books



... nor of that other dish which was brought in all enveloped in the flames of spirit, and amused as well as frightened the ladies extremely. I will say nothing of these dishes, because I like to eat them better than to spend many ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... rumbling voice, and Allee, thinking it was the President on his way to the sick-room, sobbed out, "O, Grandpa, she sent me away! She says she never wants to see a pair of good legs again. You better—" ...
— Heart of Gold • Ruth Alberta Brown

... gone by without some remembrance for them both; remembrances chosen with the rarest taste and forethought. Emma Jane had seen him only twice, but he had called several times at the brick house, and Rebecca had learned to know him better. It was she, too, who always wrote the notes of acknowledgment and thanks, taking infinite pains to make Emma Jane's quite different from her own. Sometimes he had written from Boston and asked her the news of Riverboro, and she had sent ...
— Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... during the war of 1861-'65, and he has sought to furnish material far the future historian, who, when the passions and prejudices of the day shall have given place to reason and sober thought, may, better than a contemporary, investigate the causes, conduct, ...
— The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government • Jefferson Davis

... getting any better. They continued to travel up and down his body with the dignified regularity of Pennsylvania ...
— Supermind • Gordon Randall Garrett

... first slept, but had turned about there, and had gone back. "There were only a few of them," they said. "We two were almost tempted to attack them, but we had been told only to watch them, and we thought it better to do that." Four days afterward ...
— When Buffalo Ran • George Bird Grinnell

... think that this audience before me to-night has demonstrated the wisdom and good sense of the leaders of the C.I. in selecting this city, above all others in this State, to open the campaign for the C.M. In order that you may feel better acquainted with the persons who will address you to-night, I will let you into a little secret which came to me in a very indirect way. It seems that the gentleman and lady who are on the platform were about to start on their wedding tour ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge

... it was night, so she lit a torch and set off, telling the neighbors she would never come back till Proserpina was found. In her hurry she quite forgot her chariot with the dragons; may be she thought she could search better on foot. ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... reasons for being silent besides approval of the government. He may be silent because speech would avail nothing; because to protest might be dangerous—cost him his liberty, if not his life; because he sees and knows nothing better, and is ignorant that he has any choice in the case; or because, as very likely is the fact with the majority, he has never for moment thought of the matter, or ever had his attention called to it, and has ...
— The American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny • A. O. Brownson

... the tea, we resumed our journey in better spirits, and even affected to believe we were taking an agreeable afternoon walk for the first mile or so. We soon, however, fell to zero again, as we gazed wistfully upon the long line of coast ...
— Hudson Bay • R.M. Ballantyne

... people seemed so pleased to see her. Aunt Charlotte is a good woman, and good people are generally happy. I know what Tom says about old maids," continued Bessie presently, "but that is all nonsense. Aunt Charlotte says she is far better off as she is than many married people she knows. 'Married people may double their pleasures,' as folks say, 'but they treble their cares, too,' I have heard her remark; 'and there is a great deal to be said in favor ...
— Our Bessie • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... is deemed better to classify in accordance with the function or effect it is known a means must perform or accomplish than in accordance with the object with respect to which an act or acts are directed or in accordance with some effect which may or may ...
— The Classification of Patents • United States Patent Office

... which no departure could be permitted! The laxity of modern life, by comparison is, I think, somewhat appalling. We have made the mistake of breaking away from old beliefs and convictions without replacing them with something better. We do not make as much, or as good, use of our Sundays as we might do. There is a medium between the rigid Sabbatarianism of our ancestors and the absolute waste of the day of rest in mere pleasure ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence

... want anything better? They would be gone a long time. You can take them to New York to-morrow and ship them off in the afternoon. Put them before the mast. ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 • Various

... achievements of his predecessors, but with all the regions they had discovered. Dom Joao, on the return of Diaz, selected him to command the fleet he meant to send to follow up this discovery. In the ten years that elapsed before he actually sailed, it is probable that he had grown to be not only a better geographer, but also a stronger, more cool-headed, and reliable man. That he was able to command, those mutineers who cavilled at his severity during the stormy passage of four months from Lisbon to ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... up higher than you fellows. There's a number of planes off in the sou'west. Gettin' so dark could hardly tell 'em apart. Better ...
— Our Pilots in the Air • Captain William B. Perry

... performed. But I found the whole could not be inserted in one number, and no other part but this could be omitted without breaking the continuity of the discussion. I concluded, therefore, it would be better to save it for another article, ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... gave greater satisfaction to the men, as it was more like what they were accustomed to on shore; and it was an important point to land them in the best possible condition. Volunteers and yeomanry when carried separate from the regulars were fed on a slightly better scale than the latter. If carried in the same ship all were fed alike ...
— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice

... understand. "But," as Professor James so well remarked a propos of this subject, "whenever a debate between the mystics and the scientists has been once for all decided, it is the mystics who have usually proved to be right about the facts, while the scientists had the better of it in respect to theories." But inasmuch as only the "facts" are now in dispute, and no one cares as yet what theory shall be adopted in order to explain them, is it not time at least to investigate them, and to see whether or not such facts exist—quite irrespective of whether they ...
— The Problems of Psychical Research - Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal • Hereward Carrington

... He shifted uneasily. "It's a good suit," he said. "Maybe I better go some other place, if you ...
— The Skull • Philip K. Dick

... favourite penitent. No, no; the Senorita (but for her beauty, which I wish most honestly she had less of) has not a hair's resemblance to what her mother was at the same age. I could not bear to have you think so; though, Heaven knows, it were, perhaps, better that you should.' ...
— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson

... advocated seizure of the Rams[1027]. Russell had acted under the fear that one of the Rams might slip away as had the Alabama; he had sent orders to stop and investigate, but he delayed final seizure in the hope that better evidence might yet be secured, conducting a rapid exchange of letters with Lairds (the builders), seeking to get admissions from them. It was only on September 9 that Lairds was officially ordered not to send the vessels on a "trial trip," and it was not until September 16 that public announcement ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams

... better tell me what he says," said Comstock coolly. "I don't know but that I should have been well within my rights to open it, eh? But I hate to open another man's ...
— Six Feet Four • Jackson Gregory

... the effect to call an answering smile to the face of Mrs. Wade, and a better feeling to her heart. And it was finally agreed between them, that the man, as he seemed like a decent kind of a person, should be permitted to occupy the minister's room, if that individual did not arrive, an ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... sad story far better than I do. The few short years of enchantment when Louise lived in the delirium of love's young dream, yet was never really happy, never enjoying her honors as Duchesse de La Valliere, the royal favorite, ...
— In Chteau Land • Anne Hollingsworth Wharton

... from whom I bought the Spirit Lake tract, was rough in defending what he believed to be his own. I want to be decent; I desire to preserve the game and the timber, but not at the expense of human suffering. You know better than I do what has been the history of Fox Cross-roads. Twenty-five years ago your village was a large one; you had tanneries, lumber-mills, paper-mills—even a newspaper. To-day the timber is gone, and so has the town except for your homes—twenty houses, perhaps. Your soil is sand and slate, ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers

... might have spared Your patience many a trivial verse, Yet these my earlier welcome shared, So, let the better ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... control of the superior courts as shall make justice certainly attainable, and such control of the police as shall insure its enforcement. But in all this, after the absolute authority has been established, the further the natives can themselves be used to carry out the details, the better. ...
— Problems of Expansion - As Considered In Papers and Addresses • Whitelaw Reid

... able to recall from their previous study of Scott some interesting facts about the author. They will understand the book better, too, if they are somewhat ...
— Teachers' Outlines for Studies in English - Based on the Requirements for Admission to College • Gilbert Sykes Blakely

... better by the time night settled in around that little shack in the wilderness, and even doubting Thad made up his mind that George was going to ...
— The House Boat Boys • St. George Rathborne

... yesterday, after a long journey up the Mississippi, which route I was induced to take, for the better accommodation of my horse, as I wished to spare her as much annoyance and fatigue as possible, she already having undergone so much suffering in my service. I landed her at Wheeling and left her to come over ...
— Heroes Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie

... ye there, lad! But I'll trust ye on better grunds than that. I believe ye to be an honest man, and that's enough for me. Weel, ye maun ken, it's saxteen year since I howkit the hidy-hole below my hoose, an' wad ye believe it?—they've no fund it oot yet! Not ...
— Hunted and Harried • R.M. Ballantyne

... who will be kinder to a sick tramp than to a conquering hero. But the sick tramp had better remember that's what he is. Take care, take ...
— The Turmoil - A Novel • Booth Tarkington

... principle; tragedy delights by affording a shadow of the pleasure which exists in pain. This is the source also of the melancholy which is inseparable from the sweetest melody. The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself. And hence the saying, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of mirth". Not that this highest species of pleasure is necessarily linked with pain. The delight of love and friendship, the ecstasy of the admiration of nature, the joy of the perception, and ...
— English literary criticism • Various

... hitherunto had born a kind of fayned friendship towards him, began now greatly to envie at his progresse and rising in goodness, using manie crooked, backbiting meanes to diffame his vertues with the black markes of hypocrisie. And the better to authorise their calumnie, they brought in this that happened in the violl, affirming it to have been done by art magick. What more? this wicked rumour encreased, dayly, till the king and others ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott

... silent. I knew better than they that busy city which glowed beyond the dark forests. I had lived there until, grown sick and weary, I had gone back to my brothers on the hillside. I wondered would life, indeed, go on ceaselessly ...
— AE in the Irish Theosophist • George William Russell

... of God makes the society of all human affection. "God made the country, and man made the town," is an oft quoted line; and not seldom it is implied that the open or thinly-peopled landscape is somehow a better and holier place for the soul than the thronged city. But let it not be forgotten that man himself is God's work and His highest work on earth. Would we sing our psalm now or hereafter with the sweetest relish, we must go forth from any little circle we may have drawn around ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various

... are extensive orchards, the trees whereof produce abundance of cherries. In Devonshire and Herefordshire likewise are vast quantities of apple-trees, the produce whereof makes far better cider than any other ...
— A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies - A Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses • Unknown

... confirmed their words by miracles which came to pass I cannot see what grounds we have for complaint which they could not at once turn against us. Now, what should be done in such a case? There is only one course; to return to argument and let the miracles alone. It would have been better not to have had recourse to them at all. That is plain common-sense which can only be obscured by great subtlety of distinction. Subtleties in Christianity! So Jesus Christ was mistaken when he promised the kingdom of heaven to the simple, he was mistaken when he began his finest ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

... the substance of him continues. The Valet-World has to be governed by the Sham-Hero, by the King merely dressed in King-gear. It is his; he is its! In brief, one of two things: We shall either learn to know a Hero, a true Governor and Captain, somewhat better, when we see him; or else go on to be forever governed by the Unheroic;—had we ballot-boxes clattering at every street-corner, there were no remedy ...
— Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History • Thomas Carlyle

... of House in 1861, see vol. i.; denounces Lincoln's emancipation scheme, see vol. ii.; considers Constitution destroyed; on admission of West Virginia; on unpopularity of Lincoln in Congress; admits Lincoln to be better than McClellan. ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II • John T. Morse

... is not to encourage laudation, adulation, or encomium, or even praise. These can wait. The cow, to change the metaphor, will generally give her milk all the better if she is not in the act of being stroked or patted or wreathed ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, June 7, 1916 • Various

... how long she will lie there? They told us, in York, that there was a Frenchman, of our burthen and metal, rummaging about among the fishermen, lower down on the coast. Now, Sir, no man knows that the war is half over better than myself, for not a ha'penny of prize-money has warmed my pocket, these three years;—but, as I was saying, if a Frenchman will come off his ground, and will run his ship into troubled water, why—whose fault is it ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper

... I knew better. It was the inherent greatness of a noble soul that impelled him to make nothing of his own heroic act. He must have supported me miles on miles in those stalwart arms. No protest of his could lessen the bravery of his action or the force of my gratitude. ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens

... when it was nearly dark, for the new moon had not yet made her appearance, Dick ran on first; he was lost to sight for several hours. Hatteras became anxious, as there were many bear-marks on the ground; he was considering what had better be done, when a loud barking was heard in front. The little procession moved on quicker, and soon came upon the faithful animal in the depth of a ravine. Dick was set as if he had been petrified in front of a sort of cairn, made of limestone, ...
— The English at the North Pole - Part I of the Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne

... together on the grass; there some luckless wight counting out his pocket-money to pay his penalty. The hours passed quietly over, and the moon rose, and at last it came to my turn to make the tour of the garden. As I was supposed to know all its intricacies better than the rest, a longer time was given for them to conceal themselves; at length the word was given, and ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... had led the black goat to her shed, he took the little kid in his arms, for it was now coming home with him. Mggerli did not look as if it would rather stay there, but pressed close to Moni and felt that it was under the best protection, for Moni had for a long time treated it better and more kindly than its ...
— Moni the Goat-Boy • Johanna Spyri et al

... to give. It belongs to—some one else. Is his name ancient? I don't know. It is his, and he ennobles it. Cuthbert has youth, but youth is only promise. In the man I love I find fulfilment. And he is loyal and brave and honest—I am afraid he isn't beautiful, but I love him the better for ...
— Spanish Doubloons • Camilla Kenyon

... except some few insignificant corps, standing armies were unknown in Christendom. The renown of the Spanish troops was justly high, and the infantry in particular was considered the best in the world. His fleet, also, was far more numerous, and better appointed, than that of any other European power; and both his soldiers and his sailors had the confidence in themselves and their commanders, which a long career of successful warfare alone ...
— The Fifteen Decisive Battles of The World From Marathon to Waterloo • Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.

... husband came home accompanied by a friend and knocked at the door; so she arose and opened to him and admitted them. Then she asked, "And hast thou brought only one man?[FN484] hie thee forth and fetch at least two or better still three." "'Tis well," said he and went off to do her bidding. Then the woman accosted the guest who came first and cried, "Oh the pity of it! By Allah thou art lost and the La Haul of Allah[FN485] ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... likely to sell; but this is for the other series, and a chaperon is a sine qua non. Marguerite doesn't need one half as much as the girls in the 'Yellow Prism' books, but she's got to have one just the same, or the American girl will not read about her: and who is better than Dorothy Willard, who ...
— A Rebellious Heroine • John Kendrick Bangs

... in the accompanying figure which expresses it, being 15 triangles in three groups of 5 (Illustration 86). Few arrangements of openings in a facade better satisfy the eye than three superimposed groups of five (Illustrations 76-80). May not one source of this satisfaction dwell in the intrinsic beauty of ...
— The Beautiful Necessity • Claude Fayette Bragdon

... how near they was. 'Tain't likely they kin see us much better 'n we kin see them. The sea's got an ugly swell to it, an' the feller likely cussed afore he thought. Enyhow it wa' n't my place ter ...
— Wolves of the Sea • Randall Parrish

... of a life-time," mused Jentele, looking at her parched and yellow better-half. "Do as you ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith

... sentiment. One of the longer ballads, "Willie and Keatie," supposed to be a narrative of one of his early amours, obtained a temporary popularity, and was copied into the periodicals. It is described by Allan Cunningham as a "plain, rough-spun pastoral, with some fine touches in it, to mark that better was coming." ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... is self-willed. He has not yet felt either the cold or the heat of the world. He thinks that all men, great and small, tremble at his sword, and it must needs be that he learn better by experience. However, I will go; I will give him the best advice that I can. If he will be persuaded by me, it will be well; but if not, the way is open, and Rustem shall go with his army." All night long he revolved these matters ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... eyes, and he patted Harriet's shoulder with infinite tenderness. He was deeply moved by what had taken place, for Clifford had become dear to him; yet the boy's conduct under the trying circumstances filled him with pride. Now he patted the girl's shoulder, saying, "'Twill be far better for us to be at home than here. Come, Harriet! Perchance something will occur to us now that we have ...
— Peggy Owen and Liberty • Lucy Foster Madison

... things to be expressed in a base are its levelness and evenness. We cannot do better than construct the several members of the base, as developed in Fig. II., p. 55, each of a different colored marble, so as to produce marked level bars of color all along the foundation. This is exquisitely ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin

... of this era several large species of Homalonotus (Figure 522) are conspicuous. The genus is still better known as a Silurian form, but the spinose species appear to belong exclusively to the "Lower Devonian," and are found in Britain, Europe, and the Cape ...
— The Student's Elements of Geology • Sir Charles Lyell

... Tony, as if struck by a sudden idea, after a few moments of silence. "I say! A promise is a promise, you know. You won't throw me over and make me look and feel an ass, will you, if you should happen to meet someone you think you like better than me? You've promised to ...
— Bandit Love • Juanita Savage

... diminish; I'm sick of the taste of champagne. Thank God! when I'm skinned to a finish I'll pike to the Yukon again. I'll fight—and you bet it's no sham-fight; It's hell!—but I've been there before; And it's better than this by a damsite— So me ...
— Songs of a Sourdough • Robert W. Service

... they exercise over other parts of the organic world. But from the moment that the form of his body became stationary, his mind would become subject to those very influences from which his body had escaped; every slight variation in his mental and moral nature which should enable him better to guard against adverse circumstances, and combine for mutual comfort and protection, would be preserved and accumulated; the better and higher specimens of our race would therefore increase and spread, the lower and more brutal would ...
— Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection - A Series of Essays • Alfred Russel Wallace

... increasing pleasure I found in his society—partly from his increased cordiality to me, but chiefly on account of his close connection, both in blood and in affection, with my adored Helen. I loved him for it better than I liked to express: and I took a secret delight in pressing those slender white fingers, so marvellously like her own, considering he was not a woman, and in watching the passing changes in his fair, pale features, ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte

... that you are sailing away from Nassau as fast as you can, and I think I had better explain my business as soon as possible," continued Percy, who seemed to be as confident as though he had already accomplished his purpose as hinted at in ...
— Taken by the Enemy • Oliver Optic

... told of this at once,' I said, 'and perhaps I had better tell her; she might receive ...
— Allan Quatermain • by H. Rider Haggard

... said. "This pit is damp and chilly, but even here a bed of stale straw is better than the rock floor or the patches of mud on it or the heaps of filth. I know every inch of this hole and I know the least uncomfortable place ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... favourable result. Amongst these great contrivers of petty machinations the well-known Fauche Borel, the bookseller of Neufchatel, had long been conspicuous. Fauche Borel, whose object was to create a stir, and who wished nothing better than to be noticed and paid, failed not to come to France as soon as the peace of Amiens afforded him the opportunity. I was at that time still with Bonaparte, who was aware of all these little plots, but who felt no personal ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... they had been. Where is the society of Beforethewars? Destroyed, Doctor! What good were youth and new things? We are better off now. The world is peaceful and jogs along. The race goes nowhere but after all, there is nowhere to go. They proved that. The men who built the road. I will speak with your visitors as I agreed, if they come. But I think I will only ask ...
— Youth • Isaac Asimov

... nay, I can't tell that neither: My Master loves it as well as if it were his own, and for ought I see better than my Dame. ...
— The City Bride (1696) - Or The Merry Cuckold • Joseph Harris

... sadly at her. But immediately another wave came, and the head sank back into the water without having said a word. The pond lay still and motionless, glittering in the moonshine, and the hunter's wife was not a bit better off than she had ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang

... fighting qualities—the hardihood of the individual soldier, the daring with which the officers will lead, the dogged loyalty with which the men will follow. As an illustration of the warlike qualities in our race by which empire has been achieved, nothing better can be desired than the story of how the breaches ...
— Deeds that Won the Empire - Historic Battle Scenes • W. H. Fitchett

... two, C—— and I got into a little cab and went to hear the band, and I listened once more to the municipal music of Nice. "Come," I said to Collignon, "if this piece is gay, our journey will be, too. I am superstitious." And the piece was very lively. So much the better! ...
— Marie Bashkirtseff (From Childhood to Girlhood) • Marie Bashkirtseff

... little squaw," he said to Jack when he returned to the camp-fire. "Follered us from that 'ere Injun village. I guess she were skeered o' them drunken braves. I'm goin' to take some meat an' bread an' tea to her. No, you better stay here. She's as skeery as a ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

... London, which is now pictured in my mind. And, undoubtedly, like him I may be building castles in the air, but time will prove it. Please to do all in your power to procure subscribers, as your address will be looked upon better than that of a clown. When two are got you may print it, if you please; so do ...
— Life and Remains of John Clare - "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" • J. L. Cherry

... visiting more than one—the usual limit should be not less than two nor more than four. An advantage in visiting two families is that the visitor is less likely to be feverishly active during the earlier stages of acquaintance, and the contrasts and resemblances between the two give the visitor a better grasp of principles. Not only is a new visitor liable to err in overvisiting a family, but some families have too many charitable visitors. The New York visitor, who refused to go to a family on whom three charity workers had lately called, was wise. There are families so ...
— Friendly Visiting among the Poor - A Handbook for Charity Workers • Mary Ellen Richmond

... all right. I shall feel better after this. I have not cried for two years. I went into the garden last night to see if our old theatre were still standing. I see it is. I wept there for the first time in two years, and my heart grew lighter, and my ...
— The Sea-Gull • Anton Checkov

... not tell, saith St. James, what shall be to-morrow. To-day he is set up, and to-morrow he shall not be found, for he is turned into dust, and his purpose perisheth. And altho the air which compasseth adversity be very obscure, yet therein we better discern God than in that shining light which environeth worldly glory; through which, for the clearness thereof, there is no vanity which escapeth our sight. And let adversity seem what it will—to happy men, ridiculous, who make themselves ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I • Francis W. Halsey

... favour. But how stands the case if we read horizontally? Does Mr Sadler believe that, during the thirty years which elapsed between 1754 and 1784, the population of Prussia had been diminishing? No fact in history is better ascertained than that, during the long peace which followed the seven years' war, it increased with great rapidity. Indeed, if the fecundity were what Mr Sadler states it to have been, it must have increased with great rapidity. Yet, the ratio of ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) - Contributions To The Edinburgh Review • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... friends, but it was also a time of pleasant communing about days that seemed so long past, although so recent. They also communed of days to come, and especially of that great day of reunion in the Better Land. And intensely earnest was the final prayer of the native pastor Totosy, as he commended his friends to ...
— The Fugitives - The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar • R.M. Ballantyne

... conception of the world lets loose any action in him that is easy, or any faculty which he is fond of exercising, he will deem it rational in so far forth, be the faculty that of computing, fighting, lecturing, classifying, framing schematic tabulations, getting the better end of a bargain, patiently waiting and enduring, preaching, joke-making, or what you like. Albeit the absolute is defined as being necessarily an embodiment of objectively perfect rationality, it is fair to its english advocates to say that those who have espoused the hypothesis most ...
— A Pluralistic Universe - Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the - Present Situation in Philosophy • William James

... reported of three British bishops who assisted at the council of Rimini, A.D. 359, tam pauperes fuisse ut nihil haberent. Sulpicius Severus, Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 420. Some of their brethren however, were in better circumstances.] ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon

... the embodiment of an inner want or law, which only the stronger nature can realize as such? He has found his purpose. That purpose is the people. "But the people is himself. The desire to help it comes from within. Will he fulfil this the better for regarding its suffering part as an outward motive, as something alien to himself, and for which Self must be forsaken?" In plain words: would he not serve it as well by serving his own interests as ...
— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr

... some day. There is sweet flag and poisonous flag, and all sorts of berries and things, and you'd better look out when you are in the woods or you'll touch ivy and dogwood, and have a horrid time if you don't ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, May, 1878, No. 7. - Scribner's Illustrated • Various

... of this great day of assault was to convince Witigis and his counsellors that the City could not be taken in that manner, and that the siege must be turned into a blockade. A general sally which Belisarius ordered, against his better judgment, in order to still the almost mutinous clamours of his troops, and which took place about the fiftieth day of the siege, proved almost as disastrous for the Romans as the assault had done for the Goths. It was manifest that this was not a struggle which could be ended by ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin

... testified here, I think, in a way that answers that. I said to Aguinaldo, 'There is our enemy; now, you go your way and I will go mine; we had better act independently.' That was the wisest thing I ...
— The Philippines: Past and Present (vol. 1 of 2) • Dean C. Worcester

... well, very well. She seems taller, more—more everything; nothing better could be asked of her; but since she has become sensible the house is silent. The songs, the tumult, all the boisterousness of the past have disappeared. The good nurse, who is enchanted to see her so quiet, so silent, so sedate, yet misses the noisy gayety that ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Spanish • Various

... them; then he bade the Ambassadors be honourably entreated and, summoning his Wazirs, took counsel with them of what he should do. Herewith rose up among them a Wazir, an ancient man, Dandan[FN156] highs, who kissed the ground before Omar and said, "O King, there is nothing better to do in this matter than equip an army valiant and victorious, and set over it thy son Sharrkan with us as his lieutenants; and this rede commendeth itself to me on two counts; first, because the ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... we are absorbingly interested in the advance of our world's life; we dream of better cities here, rather than of some golden city beyond our horizon; we care far more intensely for lasting earth-wide peace that shall render impossible such awful orgies of death as this present war, than for ...
— Some Christian Convictions - A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking • Henry Sloane Coffin

... of admiration shone for a moment through his cynicism. This was better than meek surrender. A woman who ...
— Rosa Mundi and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell

... own sake destroy a thing so precious, a thing by which he might, at the worst, ransom his life. The Syndic wondered that he had not discerned that point before: and still in sanguine humour he retired to bed, and slept better than he had slept for weeks, ay, for months. The elixir was his, as good as his; if he did not presently have Messer Basterga by the nape he was ...
— The Long Night • Stanley Weyman

... boy, a little inclined to fat, with small eyes, heavy low forehead, thick lips, and amorphous nose, lurched over to where Dam endeavoured to read himself into a better and brighter world inhabited by Deadwood Dick, Texas Joe, and Red Indians of no manners ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren

... His mother wept long over his grave in long-drawn-out wails, then went home. She was convinced that her boy would be far better off there than upon the earth, and was consoled. But such truly Russian people as Kerbakh, Ostrov, and others would not be consoled. They let loose evil ...
— The Created Legend • Feodor Sologub

... Tom do my talking, because he can do it better," smiled Harry. "At the same time, I've known Tom Reade for a good many years, and his performance is always as good as his promise. As for me, Mr. Blaisdell, I've just told you that Tom does my talking, but I back up all that he promises ...
— The Young Engineers in Colorado • H. Irving Hancock

... woman often undertook to speak for the invalid, and gradually the image of a basely-destroyed life, that had been worthy of a better fate, appeared before Henrica and Wilhelm. Fear, anxiety and torturing doubt had from the first saddened Anna's existence with the unprincipled adventurer and gambler, who had succeeded in beguiling her young, experienced heart. A short period of intoxication was followed ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... of the eyebrows and a quizzical look at the lovely disturbed face before him. "I can well believe it! Well, there's a better way, if you would like to try it; at least a more secluded one," giving her a keen glance. "When you come down College Avenue, watch till you see a large brown house with a tower, and ...
— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry

... I think," I said, for, sure enough, it was Babcock true to the minute, heading the Tallahassee straight in. I could have given him a hundred dollars on the spot I was so delighted, for he couldn't have timed it better, nor at a moment when it could have pleased me more. She ran in under easy steam, making a splendid appearance with her raking masts and razor bow, under which the water spurted on either side like dividing silver. Except a beautiful woman, I don't know that there's a sweeter ...
— Love, The Fiddler • Lloyd Osbourne

... But if you have considerable money, you had better leave it in the office safe. You can pay me when we return. The sing-song girls in Hong-Kong are far handsomer. That is a part of the show in Hong-Kong. ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath

... Nelson, with a laugh. "Better say now—and—always. No, thank you," and with a shake of her head she declined some candy from the bag. "Just had lunch a little while ago. Mother and I ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View - Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand • Laura Lee Hope

... me a different answer this time, Ruth? It has been a weary waiting, and I seem to have grown worse instead of better. I fear it is an incurable complaint! Can you give me a glimmer of hope, dear, or is it ...
— The Fortunes of the Farrells • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... steer east or west, as the case might be, until they arrived at their destination, this plan being further complicated by the intrusion of obstacles in the shape of headlands and what not in the way. But George Saint Leger happened to be better equipped in this respect than perhaps any other man of his time; for as has already been mentioned, he was a lad of ideas, and one of those ideas was that there ought to be some way of ascertaining the longitude of a ship, ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood

... get to my hands till these arrangements were all taken between Mr. Adams and myself, and the persons appointed. That gave me the first hint that you would have acted in this business. I mean no flattery when I assure you, that no person would have better answered my wishes. At the same time, I doubt whether Mr. Adams and myself should have thought ourselves justifiable in withdrawing a servant of the United States from a post equally important with ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... to execute their sentence. When we look into the true nature of his authority, he appears to be nothing more than a chief of bumbailiffs, sergeants-at-mace, catchpoles, jailers, and hangmen. It is impossible to place anything called royalty in a more degrading point of view. A thousand times better it had been for the dignity of this unhappy prince, that he had nothing at all to do with the administration of justice, deprived as he is of all that is venerable and all that is consolatory in that function, without power of originating any process, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12) • Edmund Burke



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