"Forswear" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... is too soon, too soon, though time be brief, Quite to forswear thy quest, O Light, whose farewell dyes the falling leaf, Fades thro' the ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes
... therefrom, seeing men do unseemly things all day long, keeping not the commandments of God neither fearing His judgment? Many times a day I had liefer been dead than alive, seeing young men follow after vanities and hearing them curse and forswear themselves, haunting the taverns, visiting not the churches and ensuing rather the ways of the world than that of God.' 'My son,' said the friar, 'this is a righteous anger, nor for my part might I enjoin thee any penance therefor. But ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio
... his helplessness unless Bootea would now yield to his entreaties and forswear the horrible sacrifice, turned to the girl, his face drawn and haggard, and his voice, when he spoke, vibrating tremulously from the pressure of his despair. He held out his arms, and Bootea threw herself against ...
— Caste • W. A. Fraser
... "Most miserable man, forswear now the error of thy beliefs, or prepare thy unworthy flesh to chastisement. In this dead hour of night when all do sleep, save the God thou blasphemest and Holy Church, thou shall ...
— Martin Conisby's Vengeance • Jeffery Farnol
... please you," said the strange guest. "What if your young lord could not forswear himself that my name is Theurdank! Are you foes to ...
— The Dove in the Eagle's Nest • Charlotte M. Yonge
... that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, Swear not at all: neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... there, In hauberks dressed, closed helms that gleamed in the air, And golden hilts upon their swords they bare. They followed him, right to the sea they'll fare; Marsile they left, that would their faith forswear, For Christendom they've neither wish nor care. But the fourth league they had not compassed, ere Brake from the North tempest and storm in the air; Then were they drowned, they will no more appear. Were he alive, I should have brought him here. ...
— The Song of Roland • Anonymous
... This scene, however, has fixed my resolves. That Helen may be a fool, but she's not much of a papist. Odds, it will hardly require the temptation of a handsome husband, and a splendid settlement, to make her forswear her creed. I will see Jerrold this very day." When he arrived at his counting-house, he went directly to his desk, and penned a note, which he directed and sealed, then handed it to his porter to take to Mr. Jerrold. Then he perched himself on his high writing-stool, ...
— May Brooke • Anna H. Dorsey
... could not endure such solid fare. Having no milk in the fort, they managed to keep him alive on rice-water. It would appear that the Saharowi can easily live on milk for a week, and with milk and cheese can thrive indefinitely, as indeed could most other folk, if they cared to forswear luxury and try. ...
— Morocco • S.L. Bensusan
... lightened of a weight, or as if a spell had been dissolved. I know not in what words I answered; but, standing before her on the cliffs, I poured out the whole ardour of my love, telling her that I lived upon the thought of her, slept only to dream of her loveliness, and would gladly forswear my country, my language, and my friends, to live for ever by her side. And then, strongly commanding myself, I changed the note; I reassured, I comforted her; I told her I had divined in her a pious and heroic spirit, with which I was worthy to sympathise, and which I longed ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson
... a thing? Luc. Yes marrie did I; but I was faine to forswear it, They would else haue married ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... to lead a new life; to forswear spirits, to drink nothing but water. Indeed, the sight and smell of brandy make me ill. All goes well for some weeks, when I grow nervous, discontented, moody. I smoke, and am soothed. But moderation is not to be thought ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... my hand, Prince Richard; that same night, Which secondeth the day of your return, I'll be your bed-fellow, and from that hour Forswear the loathed bed of Fauconbridge: Be speedy, therefore, as you ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) • Various
... to be seen, by each man who would live a true life to himself and not a merely specious life to society, how many luxuries he truly wants and to how many he merely submits as to a social propriety; and all these last he will immediately forswear. Let him do this, and he will be surprised to find how little money it requires to keep him in complete contentment and activity of mind and senses. Life at any level among the easy classes is conceived upon a principle ...
— The Pocket R.L.S. - Being Favourite Passages from the Works of Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Well, I will dare forswear that at all the tables the same subject was discussed. And that subject was—America. For the air we had heard was "The Star Spangled Banner," and the men we had seen were General Pershing, commanding the first American contingent to France, and ...
— Defenders of Democracy • The Militia of Mercy
... help here unless you forswear your duty. Forswear it! Do not kill my father—the father of the woman who loves you. Worse and more horrible it would be to let my father kill you! It's I who make this situation unnatural, impossible. ...
— The Rustlers of Pecos County • Zane Grey
... dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The dancing done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand, Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne'er saw true ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... flowers seem the natural adornment of youth especially, and to forswear the pretty custom would appear an uncalled-for giving up of the sweet thought which dedicates the flowers of the field to their human prototypes. Yet there is reason in the custom that has, in great measure, withdrawn them ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... slunk away? They'll look me from the field, When we encounter next. Why should not I Strut with my shapeless body, as old Guido Struts with his shapeless heart? I'll do it! [Offers, but shrinks back.] 'Sdeath! Am I so false as to forswear myself? Lady ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini • George Henry Boker
... uncertainty that shot through his heart till he knew for sure. Barney's full as tall as I am, and he weighs twenty-five pounds more; and to hear a great, hulking brute like that talking slush was enough to make a man forswear love in all forms forever. He'd show me her picture regular, every time I met him, and expect me to hand out a jolly. She wasn't so much, either. Her nose was crooked, and she didn't appear to have any eyebrows ...
— The Range Dwellers • B. M. Bower
... with you, amen. I did write unto you of late, and told you what extremity the parliament had concluded upon concerning religion, suppressing the truth, and setting forth the untruth; intending to cause all men, by extremity, to forswear themselves; and to take again for the head of the church him that is neither head nor member of it, but a very enemy, as the word of God and all ancient writers do record. And for lack of law and authority they will use ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude
... social; and it was touching to observe the earnestness with which they urged him to lumber the path of fashion and gay life. He nearly broke his own heart, and unseated his instructor's reason, in his efforts to learn dancing; and, to secure elegant apparel for Sundays and parties, he would forswear the butcher's wagon for months at a time. Once in a while he would smoke an Havana cigar from the assortment to be found at the grocery-store on the corner, and sometimes, when a national holiday or the gloom of unrequited love rendered strong measures a necessity, ...
— Bressant • Julian Hawthorne
... and yon broad Heav'n above, And Stygian stream beneath, the weightiest oath Of solemn pow'r to bind the blessed Gods; By thine own sacred head, our nuptial bed, Whose holy tie I never could forswear; That not by my suggestion and advice Earth-shaking Neptune on the Trojan host, And Hector, pours his wrath, and aids the Greeks; In this he but obeys his own desire, Who looks with pity on the Grecian host Beside their ships o'erborne; and ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her in his heart.' And hereby he calleth the defilement and consent of the affection adultery. Furthermore, where the law forbade a man to forswear himself, Christ commanded him to swear not at all beyond Yea and Nay. There we read, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth': here, 'Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus
... heaven everywhere, Preparing for the morrow When God shall hear my anxious prayer And banish all my sorrow. Be quiet then, my soul, Press onward to thy goal. All carnal pleasures thou forswear, And ...
— Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark • Jens Christian Aaberg
... the King, in which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew. But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more: and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys
... trouble. They simply had not believed the tale before. Thought it was some dodge of his. I could hear their peals of laughter all the way up the harbour. These are the difficulties we have. The old girl must be protected from that sort of eye-opener, if I've to forswear my soul. I've been keeping guard over her ever since we arrived here—besides looking out for you people, as long as there was ...
— Romance • Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
... varieties of barberries are cultivated—the thorny shrub loses much of its armor, putting forth many more leaves, in rosettes, along more numerous twigs, instead. Even the prickly pear cactus might become mild as a lamb were it to forswear sandy deserts and live in marshes instead. Country people sometimes rob the birds of the acid berries to make preserves. The ...
— Wild Flowers Worth Knowing • Neltje Blanchan et al
... they are to-day—not for what they will be when we come to make unreasonable demands on them. The sun is beautiful and delightful. It will not shine for us in the night nor, in the daytime shine for us alone. We were bereft of our minds did we, therefore, enter a cave and forswear all further pleasure ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern
... more urgent question: Had his uncle and his "prefaces" committed him to forswear tobacco? He resolved to take ...
— Count Bunker • J. Storer Clouston
... father could make Sheila forswear allegiance to what her own heart told her was just and honorable and generous; and indeed her father at this moment was not displeased to see her turn round on himself with just a touch of indignation in her voice. "Mairi is my guest, papa," she ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various
... meet it round a corner next year. I suppose there are men in all grades of sport, as in all grades of work, to whom the cards invariably fall awry, and the worst of the case is that there is only one piece of advice to tender—forswear the cards, or grin and bear. The angler ought to hold by the latter clause. The retrieving chances that may happen; the many useful objects turned up even when the philosopher's stone is never reached; the assets to the right if there are deficits to the left—these may be philosophically ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior
... more inimical to natural sensibility. I know that an isolated man is sometimes restrained by shame from outraging the venerable feelings arising out of the memory of genius, which once made nature even lovelier than itself; but associated man holds it as the very sacrament of this union to forswear all delicacy, all benevolence, all remorse; all that is true, or tender, or ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron
... earnestly in love? Hast thou that feeling which the poets describe—a feeling which makes us neglect our suppers, forswear the theatre, and write elegies? I should never have thought ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various
... none at all! They will forswear themselves, And when you urge them with it, their replies Are, that Jove ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various
... wise, yea truthful, till that blighted vow Which God avenged to-day. Wrap them together in a purple cloak And lay them both upon the waste sea-shore At Hastings, there to guard the land for which He did forswear himself—a warrior—ay, And but that Holy Peter fought for us, And that the false Northumbrian held aloof, And save for that chance arrow which the Saints Sharpen'd and sent against him—who can tell?— ...
— Queen Mary and Harold • Alfred Lord Tennyson
... the prince,—"I have revolved The question in my mind with care, Do what you will,—I am resolved, To do the right, all deaths I dare. The gods, perhaps, may please to spare My tender years; if not,—why, still I never shall my faith forswear, I can but say, be done ...
— Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan • Toru Dutt
... magistrate upon other people's account (for law-suits are unknown among the Friends), we give evidence to the truth by sealing it with our yea or nay; and the judges believe us on our bare affirmation, whilst so many other Christians forswear themselves on the holy Gospels. We never war or fight in any case; but it is not that we are afraid, for so far from shuddering at the thoughts of death, we on the contrary bless the moment which unites us with ...
— Letters on England • Voltaire
... to powers of ill, for Heav'n hath spurned my prayer; My love is deadly love! No hope on earth have I! So, treasure of my heart, flowers of the meadow fair, Because I bless the hand that gathered thee, good-bye! Pascal must not love such as I! He must th' accursed maid forswear, Who yet to God for him doth cry! In wanton merriment last year, Even at love laughed Franconnette; Now is my condemnation clear, Now whom I love, I must forget; Sold to the demon at my birth! My God, how can it be? Have I not faith in Thee? Oh! blessed blossoms of the earth; Let ...
— Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist • Samuel Smiles
... your quails feed on poison. That old dog-fox, that politician, Florence! I 'll forswear hunting, and turn dog-killer. Rare! I 'll be friends with him; for, mark you, sir, one dog Still sets another a-barking. Peace, peace! Yonder 's a fine slave ...
— The White Devil • John Webster
... her husband, she could not be expected to forswear society, and doubtless she would see Milvain pretty often. He called occasionally at Mrs Yule's, and would not do so less often when he knew that Amy was to be met there. There would be chance encounters like that of yesterday, of which she ...
— New Grub Street • George Gissing
... my daughter. I have no will to forswear myself; nor hast thou asked me a thing which is over-hard. Yet indeed I would that to-day were yesterday, or that many ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris
... forbidden to speak, or even to sing to which pastime it could hardly be thought he would feel much inclination—and then left to himself, till famine and misery should break his spirit. When that time was supposed to have arrived he was examined. Did he confess, and forswear his heresy, whether actually innocent or not, he might then assume the sacred shirt, and escape with confiscation of all his property. Did he persist in the avowal of his innocence, two witnesses sent him to the stake, one witness to the rack. He was informed of the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... another stage of the propagation of these horrible principles. After having grounded upon them the defence of his conduct against our charge, and after he had got a person to forswear them for him, and to prove him to have told falsehoods of the grossest kind to the House of Commons, he again adheres to this defence. The dog returned to his vomit. After having vomited out his vile, bilious stuff of arbitrary power, and afterwards denied ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. XI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... at 3.40 a.m., the bugles were sounding in the Egyptian portion of El Hejir camp. It was nearly an hour later before reveille went in the British lines and the Lincolns made us think of our sins and forswear all sleep by playing their awakening air, "Old Man Barry." By 5 a.m., Major-General Hunter's division of four brigades, with bands playing, were streaming out of their zereba openings and taking the broad, well-worn tracks across the sand and gravel ridges towards Um Terif. Macdonald's ...
— Khartoum Campaign, 1898 - or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan • Bennet Burleigh
... that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the ...
— McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... Did you—I forget—did you have a kick at the stern works of that melancholy puppy and humbug Daniel Deronda himself?—the Prince of Prigs; the literary abomination of desolation in the way of manhood; a type which is enough to make a man forswear the love of women, if that is how it must be gained.... Hats off all the same, you understand: a woman ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 23 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... abominable, vile, (a pox on them, I cannot abide them!) rascally verses, Poetry, poetry, and speaking of Interludes, 'twill make a man burst to hear him: and the wenches, they do so jeer and tihe at him; well, should they do as much to me, I'd forswear them all, by the life of Pharaoh, there's an oath: how many water-bearers shall you hear swear such an oath? oh, I have a guest, (he teacheth me) he doth swear the best of any man christened. By Phoebus, ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson
... heart was in a turmoil, her hands trembled with excitement. Ah, it was hard for her to put away from her the brilliant vista which had opened there before her startled eyes! But she was sure that she must do it; that if she loved this man she must forswear him for his own dear sake. What right had she, a mountain-girl, to come down there to the bluegrass to shame him in the face of friends and foes by her ignorance and awkwardness? Her heart yearned toward him with a warmth and fervor which she had not known as possible to human longings, ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey
... swain, I wot, is Jockey now. How didst thou bear thy Maggy's falsehood? How, When with a foreign loon she stole away, Didst thou forswear thy pipe and shepherd's lay? Where was thy boasted wisdom then, when I Applied those proverbs ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill
... the Southern army, as in every army, many who went with the multitude in the first enthusiastic rush, or who were brought into the ranks by the needful process of conscription; but it is not a little remarkable that few of the poorest and the most ignorant could be induced to forswear the cause and to purchase release from the sufferings of imprisonment by the simple process of taking the oath. Those who have seen the light of battle on the faces of these humble sons of the South, or witnessed their steadfastness in camp, ...
— The Creed of the Old South 1865-1915 • Basil L. Gildersleeve
... cachinnation slow, dilatory laughable, risible lime, calcimine fear, trepidation coal, lignite live, exist man, anthropology bridal, nuptial winter, hibernate wed, marry gap, hiatus husband/wife, spouse right, ethical shore, littoral showy, ostentatious forswear, perjure spelling, orthography steal, peculate time, chronology steal, embezzle handbook, manual lockjaw, tetanus hole, cavity mistake, error dig, excavate mistake, erratum boil, tumor wink, nictation ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor
... never forgive him. But she has said that she will not, and I know that she will not forswear herself. I shall go on with it, Lady Julia. I have made up my mind to that. I suppose it will never come to anything, but I shall stick to it. I can live an old bachelor as well as another man. At any rate I shall stick to it." Then ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope
... children during the second year of the war, their tasks being made lighter until they are restored to full strength again. They invariably return as soon as possible, however. It may be, of course, that the young men and women of the lower bourgeoisie will forswear the dot, for it would be but one more old custom giving way to necessity. In that case the sincere, hardworking and not very humorous women of this class no doubt would find full compensation in the home, and promptly do her duty by ...
— The Living Present • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... his tone, Frank gave him a distinct account of the death of Morris. Rob Roy struck the butt of his gun with great vehemence on the ground, and broke out, "I vow to God, such a deed might make one forswear kin, clan, country, wife, and bairns! And yet the villain wrought long for it. He but drees the doom he intended for me. Hanging or drowning—it is just the same. But I wish, for all that, they had put a ball or a dirk through the traitor's breast. It will cause talk—the fashion of his death—though ...
— Red Cap Tales - Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North • Samuel Rutherford Crockett
... convey your Highness' letter if the plot shall not burst for many days. If it be to come soon I will forswear myself and be no longer ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford
... enough to pay the sum demanded as the price of blood. For men of wealth, or who have rich relations, it is easy to compound the matter for a sum of money, in return for which the dead man's relatives regard his death as due to natural causes, and forswear revenge. It is hard, I say, upon those men we met just now; and especially upon the man who slew his brother—may Our ...
— Oriental Encounters - Palestine and Syria, 1894-6 • Marmaduke Pickthall
... affirms them to be of Egyptian original, when he lies also about himself? for although he was born at Oasis in Egypt, he pretends to be, as a man may say, the top man of all the Egyptians; yet does he forswear his real country and progenitors, and by falsely pretending to be born at Alexandria, cannot deny the [4] pravity of his family; for you see how justly he calls those Egyptians whom he hates, and endeavors to reproach; for ...
— Against Apion • Flavius Josephus
... beautiful; and quite, so far as I know, original. It is too short for a song, else I would forswear you altogether unless you gave it a place. I have often tried to eke a stanza to it, but in vain. After balancing myself for a musing five minutes, on the hind legs of my elbow-chair, ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham
... enough to bid me forswear England again, and bury myself in a desert, where a sigh from your sex ...
— The Mother's Recompense, Volume I. - A Sequel to Home Influence in Two Volumes. • Grace Aguilar
... message is—or ought to be—fingered by at least six more men before it gets to the delivering office. And do you suppose that out of all those poor devils of telegraph clerks there wouldn't be at least one who would forswear his vows and pocket the information? No, no; 'tisn't good enough. If your man was smart enough to eavesdrop, you can lay to it he wasn't a sufficiently stupendous idiot to shout his secret down ...
— The Recipe for Diamonds • Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne
... a narrow band of flat spring steel that passed under his collar and down either side to keep it from creasing and to help it to fit closely to his body. "That patent thing has done the mischief, without a doubt. Oh, what a fool I am! I might have sent the whole ship-load of us to Davy Jones. I'll forswear this fashionable toggery henceforth when I'm away on holiday, and follow the innocent example of ...
— Adventures in Many Lands • Various
... they say Colonel Rivers is gone to marry Madame Des Roches, a lady at whose house he was some time in autumn; if this is true, I forswear the whole sex: his manner of stealing off is certainly very odd, and she is rich and agreable; but, if he does not love Emily, he has been excessively cruel in shewing an attention which has deceived her into a passion for him. ...
— The History of Emily Montague • Frances Brooke
... One night ... aye, men have said it ... maketh tame A woman in a man's arms.... O shame, shame! What woman's lips can so forswear her dead, And give strange kisses in another's bed? Why, not a dumb beast, not a colt will run In the yoke untroubled, when her mate is gone— A thing not in God's image, dull, unmoved Of reason. O my Hector! best ...
— The Trojan women of Euripides • Euripides
... you your misconduct to forswear; The wife of poor old Ibycus should have more savoir faire. A woman at your time of life, and drawing near death's door, Should not play with the girly girls, and think she's ...
— Echoes from the Sabine Farm • Roswell Martin Field and Eugene Field
... who rushes from the music hall to the Thames and thinks of the unfinished glass with his last breath. No, I do not underestimate the tragedy of the paradox. Yet I say that if love were accountable for it (which it is not), it would still be folly to forswear love. Do you ask why? Because its dangers are the dangers common to all life, and we are so made that we cannot be frightened away from our portion of experience. We are as loth to give up our nights as ...
— The Kempton-Wace Letters • Jack London
... into that crafty mind of the Wanderer's, and he answered her, not in his own voice, but in the smooth, soft, mocking voice of the traitor, Paris, whom he had heard forswear himself in the oath ...
— The World's Desire • H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang
... through social strata and showed the poet that this step would raise him many rungs higher in the ladder. Seizing the moment, she persuaded Lucien to forswear the chimerical notions of '89 as to equality; she roused a thirst for social distinction allayed by David's cool commonsense; she pointed out fashionable society as the goal and the only stage for such a talent as his. The rabid Liberal became a Monarchist in petto; Lucien set his teeth ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac
... by sending the culprit to the priests, and the latter, to their shame be it said, always exhort him to obedience. But since the exhortation in Christ's name to forswear Christ is for the most part unsuccessful, after he has received the admonitions of the spiritual authorities, they send him to the gendarmes, and the latter, finding, as a rule, no political cause for offense in him, dispatch him back again, and ...
— The Kingdom of God is within you • Leo Tolstoy
... lived in the United States since he was two years old,—a matter of forty-seven years and three months, if we are to believe Mr. Codge, who seemed rather proud of the fact that his father had neglected to forswear allegiance to Queen Victoria, leaving it to his son to follow his example in the case of King Edward the Seventh and of ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon
... will pour All down his throttle, ere a year is o'er? You fear to come to want yourself, you say? Come, calculate how small the loss per day, If henceforth to your cabbage you allow And your own head the oil you grudge them now. If anything's sufficient, why forswear, Embezzle, swindle, pilfer everywhere? Can you be sane? suppose you choose to throw Stones at the crowd, as by your door they go, Or at the slaves, your chattels, every lad And every girl will hoot yon down as mad: When with a rope you kill your ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace
... Heaven! I rather would forswear The Earth, and all the joys reserved me, Than dare again the 'specious Snare', From which 'my Fate' ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron
... their sport and laughter, but for gain To laugh with them, and wonder at their parts: Whate'er they say, I praise it; if again They contradict, I praise that too: does any Deny? I too deny: affirm? I too Affirm: and in a word, I've brought myself To say, unsay, swear, and forswear, at pleasure: And that is now ...
— The Comedies of Terence • Publius Terentius Afer
... found, And a new palsy seized them when I frown'd. Ye sovereign wives! give ear, and understand: Thus shall ye speak, and exercise command; For never was it given to mortal man 70 To lie so boldly as we women can: Forswear the fact, though seen with both his eyes, And call your maids to witness ...
— Poetical Works of Pope, Vol. II • Alexander Pope
... unerring God Within thy heart, I question. What's at stake? Not whether diadem of royalty Be to be won or not—that mightest thou think on. Thy friend, and his soul's quiet are at stake: The fortune of a thousand gallant men, Who will all follow me; shall I forswear My oath and duty to the emperor? Say, shall I send into Octavio's camp The parricidal ball? For when the ball Has left its cannon, and is on its flight, It is no longer a dead instrument! It lives, a spirit passes into it; The avenging ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... sacrifice, forswear, To what, my art, shall I give thee in keeping? To the long winds of heaven? Shall these come sweeping My songs forgone against my face ...
— Poems • Alice Meynell
... (dishonesty) 940; artfulness &c (cunning) 702; misstatement &c (error) 495. V. be false &c adj., be a liar &c 548; speak falsely &c adv.; tell a lie &c 546; lie, fib; lie like a trooper; swear false, forswear, perjure oneself, bear false witness. misstate, misquote, miscite^, misreport, misrepresent; belie, falsify, pervert, distort; put a false construction upon &c (misinterpret); prevaricate, equivocate, quibble; palter, palter ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... This chamber, I perceive, is what is usually termed in the outside world, 'the torture chamber'; and I gather that it is here you subject those whom you stigmatise as heretics to unspeakable torments for the purpose of compelling them to forswear themselves and embrace your religion against their will. Now, which of you is responsible for the hellish suffering that goes on from time to time ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood
... Adister. 'Yet it says everything I wish to have said. It spares my brother and it does not belie me. The effect of a letter is often most important. I cannot but consider this letter very ingenious. But the moment I hear it is jesuitical I forswear it. But then my dilemma remains. I cannot consent to give pain to my brother Edward: nor will I speak an untruth, though it be to save him from a wound. I am indeed troubled. Mr. Patrick, I cannot consent ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... angrily, and yet with a certain timidity, as men will do before a scoffing friend and their own accusing conscience, "you ask me to forswear myself." ...
— The Heart's Highway - A Romance of Virginia in the Seventeeth Century • Mary E. Wilkins
... have been meditating this half hour, On all the properties of a brave friendship, The mysteries that are in it, the noble uses, Its limits withal, and its nice boundaries. Exempli gratia, how far a man May lawfully forswear himself for his friend; What quantity of lies, some of them brave ones, He may lawfully incur in a friend's behalf! What oaths, blood-crimes, hereditary quarrels, Night brawls, fierce words, and duels in the morning, He need not stick at, to maintain ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb
... of imagination—to us the familiar ornaments of poetry—were qualities eschewed by the masters of the age of Louis XIV. They were willing to forgo comprehensiveness and elaboration, they were ready to forswear the great effects of curiosity and mystery; for the pursuit of these led away from the high path of their chosen endeavour—the creation, within the limits they had marked out, of works of flawless art. The fact that they succeeded so well is precisely ...
— Landmarks in French Literature • G. Lytton Strachey
... To-morrow, when thou leav'st, what wilt thou say? Wilt thou then ante-date some new-made vow? Or say, that now We are not just those persons which we were? Or, that oaths made in reverential fear Of Love and his wrath any may forswear? Or, as true deaths true marriages untie, So lovers' contracts, images of those, Bind but till Sleep, Death's image, them unloose? Or, your own end to justify For having purposed change and falsehood, you Can have no way but falsehood to be true? Vain lunatic! Against these ...
— Tudor and Stuart Love Songs • Various
... in that respect; second, because our beer is nearly finished, and we have not yet the means to concoct more, so that it were ill-advised to rob you, Biarne, by helping to consume that which I do not like; and, last of all, I think it a happy occasion this in which to forswear beer altogether!" ...
— The Norsemen in the West • R.M. Ballantyne
... younger sisters, Arcadia and Marina, and with all the impressive ceremonial of the Eastern Church, made a solemn vow to devote their lives to the keeping of their father's heritage and the assistance of their only brother; to forswear the world and all its allurements; never to marry; and to be in all things faithful and constant to each other in this their promise and ...
— Historic Girls • E. S. Brooks
... at least less revolting than the disgustful meanness of to-day; besides, nothing is really known about the reasons for the suppression of the Templars. Men who forswear women are open to all contumely. Oh! the world is wondrous, just wondrous well satisfied with ...
— Mike Fletcher - A Novel • George (George Augustus) Moore
... abroad, studying at Bonn, Mrs. Stowe describes a most tempestuous passage between New York and Charleston, during which she and her husband and daughters suffered so much that they were ready to forswear the sea forever. The great waves as they rushed, boiling and seething, past would peer in at the little bull's-eye window of the state-room, as if eager to swallow up ship and passengers. From Charleston, however, they had a most delightful run to their journey's end. She writes:—"We ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe
... the boy was a Mamzer and a Ben Haniddah; upon which the sages exclaimed, "Great is Rabbi Akiva, for he has overcome his masters;" and as they congratulated him they said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath revealed His secret unto Akiva the son of Joseph." Thus did the Rabbi forswear himself, and thus did his companions compliment him on the success of his perjury; yet the Bible says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exod. xx. 7), and "Keep thou far from a ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various
... him and knit his brow, and said: "What is this, Thiodolf? Didst thou not swear to the Gods not to bear helm or shield in the battles of this strife? yet hast thou Ivar's helm on thine head and his shield ready beside thee: wilt thou forswear thyself? so doing shalt thou bring woe ...
— The House of the Wolfings - A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse • William Morris
... the night before, with a face like a lacerated angel's, that her choice was made, that their union and their work were more to her than any other life could ever be, and that she deeply believed that should she forswear these holy things she would simply waste away, in the end, with remorse and shame. She would see Mr. Ransom just once more, for ten minutes, to utter one or two supreme truths to him, and then they would take up their old, happy, active, fruitful ...
— The Bostonians, Vol. II (of II) • Henry James
... was by no means her intention to forswear prophesying and chivalry. During her trial Jeanne had been asked by the examiner: "Jeanne, was it not revealed to you that if you lost your virginity your good fortune would cease and your Voices desert you?" She denied that such things ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France
... sunlight streams. The way lies through yourself and the portals open as the inner day expands. Who is there who has not felt in some way or other the rhythmic recurrence of light within? We were weary of life, baffled, ready to forswear endeavor, when half insensibly a change comes over us; we doubt no more but do joyfully our work; we renew the sweet magical affinities with nature: out of a heart more laden with love we think and act; our meditations prolong themselves into the shining wonderful ...
— AE in the Irish Theosophist • George William Russell
... Vanity! How? soul of a pickle-herring, body of a spagirical tosspot, doublet of motley, and mantle of pilgrim, how art thou transmuted! Wilt thou desert our brotherhood, fool sublimate? Shall the motley chapter no longer boast thee? Wilt thou forswear the order of the bell, and break thy vows to Momus? Have mercy on Wisdom ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 • Various
... loved to call my lady Rose (Lichfild) I have house and land in Kent (Melismata) I joy not in no earthly bliss (Byrd) I live and yet methinks I do not breathe (Wilbye) I marriage would forswear (Maynard) I only am the man (Maynard) I saw my Lady weep (John Dowland) I sung sometime my thoughts and fancy's pleasure (Wilbye) I weigh not Fortune's frown nor smile (Gibbons) I will no more come to thee (Morley) If fathers knew but how to leave (Jones) ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various
... poet fired to sing The snail's discreet degrees, A rhapsody of sauntering, A gloria of ease; Proclaiming their's the baser part Who consciously forswear The delicate and gentle ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas
... not know what you ask," he said at length. "You would have me forswear my God, and my King, ...
— The Path of the King • John Buchan
... this. Persuade thy beauteous child To leave the nunnery and return to court, And I protest from henceforth to forswear All such conceits of ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various
... during the performance of his own plays, distorting his countenance at every line, "to make gentlemen have an eye on him, and to make players afraid" to act their parts. A further charge is thus worded: "Besides, you must forswear to venture on the stage, when your play is ended, and exchange courtesies and compliments with the gallants in the lords' rooms (or boxes), to make all the house rise up in arms, and cry: 'That's Horace! that's he! that's he! that's he that ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook
... and they tasted sweeter than Cox's best dinners; I nibbled, and contemplated my late experiences; nibbled, and was almost persuaded to be a Christian,—that is, to forswear thenceforth and forever all company which I could not afford to keep, all appearances which were not honest, all foolish pride, and silly ambition, and moral cowardice;—as I did after I had ridden in a certain carriage I have mentioned, and which I am coming ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various
... the mother-bird protects the helpless birdlets; the eagle flies under her young and gently eases them to the ground; above the babe's helplessness rise the parents' shield and armor. God appoints strong men, the industrial giants, to protect the weak and poor. The laws of helpfulness ask them to forswear a part of their industrial rights; and they fulfill their destiny only by fulfilling the debt ...
— The Investment of Influence - A Study of Social Sympathy and Service • Newell Dwight Hillis
... fearing failure, therefore no beginning makes, Why forswear a daily dinner for the chance ...
— Indian Poetry • Edwin Arnold
... of an engagement, and he was invariably poor. It was always his poorest moment that he would choose for the indulgence of an odd, and surely kindly, eccentricity. He would half starve himself, go without drinks, forswear tobacco, deny himself car fares, till at last he had saved up five dollars. This by no means easy feat accomplished, he would have his five-dollar bill changed into five hundred pennies, filling his pockets with which, he would sally forth from his lodging, and, seeking ...
— Vanishing Roads and Other Essays • Richard Le Gallienne
... and sent to prison, shee is arrayned and condemned, and being at the gallows, taketh it uppon her death that shee is not gylty." Discourse, G 4-G 4 verso. And so, Gifford explains, the Devil is pleased, for he has put innocent people into danger, he has caused witnesses to forswear themselves and jurymen to ...
— A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 • Wallace Notestein
... that the dreams of our modern youth are entirely commercial. In the morning of life they are rapt by intoxicating visions of some great haberdashery business, beckoned to by the voluptuous enticements of the legal profession, or maybe the Holy Grail they forswear all else to seek is a snug editorial chair. These quests and dreams were not for me. Since I was man I have had but one dream,—namely, Woman. Alas! till this my thirtieth year I have found only women. No! that is disloyal, disloyal to my First Love; for this is sadly true,—that ...
— The Quest of the Golden Girl • Richard le Gallienne
... storey higher, have my arranging to manage of my pretty new books and my three hyacinths, and a pot of primroses which dear Mr. Kenyon had the good nature to carry himself through the streets to our door. But all the flowers forswear me, and die either suddenly or gradually as soon as they become aware of the want of fresh air and light in my room. Talking of air and light, what exquisite weather this is! What a summer in winter! It is the fourth day since I have had the fire wrung from ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon
... and leave a man who, when he taketh breath clippeth close and when he entereth goeth leisurely, and when he hath done, repeateth, and when he pusheth poketh hard, and as often as he withdraweth, returneth?' The boy's leman was edified by her speech and said, 'I forswear my lover by the lord of the Ka'abah!'" And amongst tales is ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... accustomed to speak truth in private, will in his common speech be a faithful witness in public: but a man accustomed to lying, dissembling, swearing in private, will not stick to forswear himself, to make professions and vows contrary to his mind in public, ver. 5. (and also chap. xii. 17. and vi. 19.) Such men seek wisdom and make a show of religion, but find it not; whereas it is easy to godly men to find it, to find repentance and salvation, ver. 6. Go away from foolish men, and ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... protested Mabel, catching his hand in hers almost appealingly, "and I'm going to be at home for a whole day and evening. Will you forswear business and help me ...
— Grace Harlowe's Fourth Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... said he, grasping the bottle by the neck, "and I forswear it! I've given up gambling, and I'll give up this too." He was on the point of deliberately pouring the whole contents of the bottle on to the table, but Hargrave wrested it from him. "On you be the curse, then!" said he. And, backing from the room, he shouted, "Farewell, ye tempters!" ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte
... say, ma'am, thar's a deal of truth in it," they agreed, nodding dejected craven heads over their pipes. Like all born politicians, their eye was for the main chance rather than for the argument, and they found it easier to forswear a conviction than ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... dollars, free rent, and two suits of clothes. You must give something in return. Give me that second writing of the Electress, the one which you have sworn to hand only to the Electoral Prince; or rather, no, you shall not forswear yourself. Just tell me where you have stuck it, and I shall take ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach
... it not to improve my Int'rest with the Ladies, I wou'd forswear all manner of Bus'ness, and grow perfectly idle, like a Dancing-Master's Brains. I have been squeez'd up at the Custom-House, 'mongst Jews, Swedes, Danes, and dirty Dutchmen, that were entering Hung-Beef, 'till ...
— The Fine Lady's Airs (1709) • Thomas Baker
... Buchanan and Dallas on the tariff that won the October election of 1844 for Francis R. Shunk for governor of Pennsylvania, and thus assured the election of Mr. Polk. The administration of which Buchanan and Dallas were such conspicuous and influential members could not forswear protection and inflict a free-trade tariff on Pennsylvania, without apparent dishonor and the abandonment of that State to the Whigs. It was therefore regarded not only as impracticable ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine
... tell me. She is Higginson's sister. For all I know, she may be prepared to swear, or to forswear, anything.' ...
— Miss Cayley's Adventures • Grant Allen
... day, has been recently recovered. On the first volume is inscribed, in Burns's hand, "And ye shall not swear by My Name falsely, I am the Lord. Levit. 19th chap. 12th verse;" and on the second volume, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath. Matth. 5th chap. 33rd verse." But the names of Mary Campbell and Robert Burns, which were originally inscribed on the volumes, have been almost obliterated. It has been suggested by Mr. Scott Douglas, the most recent ...
— Robert Burns • Principal Shairp
... Anointed. Whoever else might actively resist or forsake the King, they could not without apostasy. But the Revolution of 1688 was not content to pierce the High Churchmen through one hand. Not only did the Revolution require the Church to forswear its King, but also to see its spiritual fathers deprived and intruders set in their places without even the semblance of any spiritual authority. If it was hard to have James II. a fugitive in foreign lands ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell
... The man caught up the last phrase as a cue. Eagerly he spoke, the doors of the jail opening wide for exit—"So it is indeed. Wine never benefited man; much less a samurai. Hence, with Kahei and Sakurai Uji, it was decided to forswear wine forever. It was determined to make a pilgrimage to Kompira San. There the vow of abstinence was to be taken; on its holy ground. All went well. We met at Nihonbashi. Alas! At the Kyo[u]bashi the perfume of a grog shop reached ...
— The Yotsuya Kwaidan or O'Iwa Inari - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 1 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville
... a gesture of dismissal, to the door. "Go back to him who sent you! If he will insult me, let him do it to my face! If he will perjure himself, let him forswear himself in person. Or, if you come on your own account," she continued, flinging prudence to the winds, "as your brethren came to Philippa de Luns, to offer me the choice you offered her, I give you her answer! If I had thought of myself only, I had not lived so long! And rather than bear your ...
— Count Hannibal - A Romance of the Court of France • Stanley J. Weyman
... writer. Nothing could be clearer than that, whatever the effusion might owe to the inspiration of Cupid, Apollo had no share in its charm. On my part, it would probably have been an act of the truest friendship, to have bid him burn his tablets, forswear poetry for ever, and regard himself as forbidden the temptations of the maids of Parnassus. But I should have broken his heart. I took the simpler but more effectual cure—I bade him find out this ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various
... interrupt, in spite of my disclaimer. What you say sounds very ingenious, but it cannot be carried out. Treves, Cologne, and the Count Palatine are already pledged to vote for Prince Roland, so is Mayence himself, and to change front at the last moment would be to forswear himself, and act as traitor to his colleagues. Now, he cannot afford to lose even one vote, and I believe that the Archbishop of Cologne will vote for Prince Roland through thick and thin. I think the same of the Count Palatine. Treves, of course, is always doubtful and wavering, but you see that ...
— The Sword Maker • Robert Barr
... in eyes that look love, no delirium in the soft dreams of the lotus—so easy when these things are dead and barren for himself, to say they are forbidden! But men must be far more or far less than mortal ere they can blind their eyes, and dull their senses, and forswear their nature, and obey the dreariness of the commandment; and there is little need to force the sackcloth and the serge upon us. The roses wither long before the wassail is over, and there is no magic that will make them bloom again, for there is none that renews us—youth. The Helots ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida
... heart was touched, did not wait for the oath (knowing how strong the temptation was, and fearing he might forswear himself), but tripped lightly down the stairs, and with her own fair hands drew back the rough fastenings of the workshop window. Having helped the wayward 'prentice in, she faintly articulated the ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... indeed, were condemned by the German Government itself, but only after many years, and mainly because they were wasteful. Government representatives have told the Reichstag, as Herr Schleitwein did in 1904, that they must pursue a 'healthy egoism,' and forswear 'humanitarianism and irrational sentimentality.' 'The Hereros must be forced to work, and to work without compensation and for their food only. ... The sentiments of Christianity and philanthropy with which the missionaries work must be repudiated with all energy.' This ...
— The Expansion of Europe - The Culmination of Modern History • Ramsay Muir
... come what might, I would never profess myself a Mussulman, if it were even to save my head. I thought the least I could do was to imitate the noble example, which The Desert reports of Major Laing—Sooner than forswear my religion, be it good or bad, it was better to die! "Mental reservation" may be good for the Jesuits and papists[73], who misquote the conduct of Jacob to Esau, but it is neither fit for a Christian, or a patriot, or, at any rate, for an honest man, ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson
... arch-deceiver,—deceiver of thine own self, and plotter of thine own ruin,—I would save thee from thy doom. Promise, renounce, and for ever forswear thy vows. The priest will absolve thee; it must be done ere ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... that loves the day, love me, or seek me, Nothing that loves his own life haunt about me: And Love, I charge thee, never charm mine eyes more, Nor ne're betray a beauty to my curses: For I shall curse all now, hate all, forswear all, And all the brood of fruitful nature vex at, For she is gone that was all, and ...
— Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (2 of 10) - The Humourous Lieutenant • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... at the task, but such an one was I never. The King was never man of mine, nor should have been had I any say in the matter.' She half closed her eyes again. 'Doubtless had it been otherwise the King would have constrained me by threats and tortures to forswear myself. I am as I was when I came to Dover. As the King saw me so he left me. Yet do I maintain and avow it was rather because he feared alliance with my brother's party than for any foulness of ...
— Privy Seal - His Last Venture • Ford Madox Ford
... Pyrates get notice, and avoid the Warrant for that time. You may please to o[bser]ve too that Gardiner the Deputy Collector[20] is accused to have been once a Pyrat, in one of the [paper]s. I doubt he will forswear himselfe rather than part with Gillam's gold which is in his hands. [It is] impossible for me to transmit to the Lords of the Treasury these proofs against Gardiner. [I am] so jaded with writing, ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various
... in the presence of thy friend. I will not for my part have any hand in such meanness nor will I taste the olives; furthermore, it standeth not to reason that after seven years' keeping they should be fit to eat. I do implore thee to forswear this ill purpose." On such wise the merchant's wife protested and prayed her husband that he meddle not with Ali Khwajah's olives, and shamed him of his intent so that for the nonce he cast the matter from his mind. However, although the trader ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... throne, and that may be the worser cause, and may do hurt to England. O, madam, I do see my sin. I am unfit for life. I will, for penance' sake, and to avoid worse evil, once I have finished this adventure, get me to a cloister. I will forswear Joanna and the trade of arms. I will be a friar, and pray for your good kinsman's spirit ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... acknowledged to be from God, is divided into three parts: into that part which is fulfilled by the Saviour, such as Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not forswear thyself, for they are included in this, thou shalt not be angry, thou shalt not lust, thou shalt not swear; into that which is completely abolished, such as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, being tainted with unrighteousness, and having ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.
... speak oftener from the heart than from the head. Mr. C. I look upon as a public character, and thus I am enabled to say how much I esteem him. Should he be wroth, I vow, if I ever should visit Albany again, never to make one at the "Feast of Shells." On the contrary, I'll fly the Eagle; forswear "the villanous company" of mine host; I'll disclaim him, renounce him, "and d—n me if ever ...
— Impressions of America - During the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Tyrone Power
... let a Syrian take up new politics, join the Young Turk Party, forswear religion, or grow cynical about accepted doctrine, and the angle of his tarboosh shows it, just as surely as the angle of the London Cockney's "bowler" betrays irreverence and the New York gangster's "lid" ...
— Jimgrim and Allah's Peace • Talbot Mundy
... enough to make one forswear the whole sex," the commissary angrily replied. "Nor am I the man to put up with such womanish humoursomeness. "I've stood your caprice till my patience is exhausted; now I'll teach ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford
... a Talmudist, like all modern Jews, and he tried to make me believe that he was very devout; but I once extracted a smile of approbation from him by telling him that he would forswear Moses if the Pope would make him a cardinal. As the son of a rabbi he was learned in all the ceremonies of his religion, but like most men he considered the essence of a religion to lie in its discipline and ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... Mr. Coroner, that I, A. B., a thief, have stolen such a thing, or have killed such a woman, or man, or a child, and am the King's felon; and for that I have done many evil deeds and felonies in this same his land, I do abjure and forswear the lands of the Kings of England, and that I shall haste myself to the port of Dover, which you have given or assigned me; and that I shall not go out of the highway; and if I do, I will that I shall be taken as a thief and the King's felon; and ...
— The Customs of Old England • F. J. Snell
... life who holds my guiding rein, I swear * I'll meet on love ground parlous foe nor care: Good sooth I'll vex revilers, thee obey * And quit my slumbers and all joy forswear: And for thy love I'll dig in vitals mine * A grave, nor shall ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton
... learned counsellors appointed from the various provinces for wisdom and experience, usually about eighteen in number, and sworn in all things to be faithful to the whole republic. The allegiance of all was rendered to the nation. Each individual member was required to "forswear his native province in order to be true to the generality." They deliberated in common for the general good, and were not hampered by instructions from the provincial diets, nor compelled to refer to those diets for decision when important questions were at ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... persuading him to sit at all. It was made a great favour of; and altogether it was more than I could bear; and so I never would finish it, to have it apologised over as an unfavourable likeness, to every morning visitor in Brunswick Square;—and, as I said, I did then forswear ever drawing any body again. But for Harriet's sake, or rather for my own, and as there are no husbands and wives in the case at present, I will break ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen
... therefore, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering." And then I addressed her in calm, encouraging tones: "Are you ready, woman, to put away your evil-doing, and forswear your carnalities forevermore? Have you repented of your black and terrible sin? Do you ask for mercy? Have you ...
— A Book of Burlesques • H. L. Mencken
... Soaping-Club, never mention Drury-lane Playhouse; be attentive to those Pinchbeck buckles which fortune has so graciously given you, of which I am afraid you're hardly fond enough; never wash your face, but above all forswear Poetry: from experience I can assure you, and this letter may serve as a proof, that a man may be as dull in prose as in verse; and as dullness is what we aim at, prose is the easiest of the two. Oh! my friend! profit by these my instructions; think that you see ...
— Boswell's Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica • James Boswell
... over them—these, and the hot, strong, antiseptic sunlight which burns up all rot and decay. It isn't inhuman. It's the humanity of one part of the human race. It isn't ours, it isn't as good as ours, but it's jolly good all the same. There are times when it grips me so hard that I'm inclined to forswear the gods of ...
— Greenmantle • John Buchan |
