"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... at last, "duty to one's country does not mean being treacherous to one's old friends. I'm obliged to fight against them; but I'll fight fairly and openly. I will not, duty to my country or no duty, go crawling through passages to stab them in ...
— Crown and Sceptre - A West Country Story • George Manville Fenn
... and Clear weather these 24 Hours. A.M. found the Variation by the Mean of 5 Azimuth to be 21 degrees 40 minutes West, 3 Degrees more than what it was found Yesterday, which I cannot account for,* (* Cook, as all other navigators of his time, was unaware of the deviation of the compass caused by the iron of the ship.) as both Observations appeared to me to ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook
... was quite a success. I don't mean to be brutal, but it was. He was glad to have me, and showed it.... A deathbed is so terribly egoistic; it can't be helped, but he forgot himself more than ever before. I was touched profoundly, but all the time I saw that he was rising to the occasion without ...
— Secret Bread • F. Tennyson Jesse
... the hero those fair gifts. Then answered Poeas' mighty-hearted son; "Friend, I forgive thee freely, and all beside Whoso against me haply hath trangressed. I know how good men's minds sometimes be warped: Nor meet it is that one be obdurate Ever, and nurse mean rancours: sternest wrath Must yield anon unto the melting mood. Now pass we to our rest; for better is sleep Than feasting late, for ...
— The Fall of Troy • Smyrnaeus Quintus
... a Bacchante dancing, the whole figure I mean, nude, under a canopy of vine leaves, make all the background, everything, green vines with clusters of purple grapes, and then have her dancing down the sort of avenue towards the foreground, with the light ...
— Five Nights • Victoria Cross
... surrounded the house or shed where we were to breakfast. Most of our companions were bound for Nebraska, Oregon, and Utah, the most distant districts of which they would scarcely reach with their slow-paced animals for four months: exposed in the mean time to the attacks of the Sioux, Comanches, ...
— The Englishwoman in America • Isabella Lucy Bird
... Greekish religion vnto the ceremonies of the Church of Rome. But against the Liuonians for none other cause, but onely for an incredible desire of enlarging his dominions. Howbeit what impulsiue causes of litle or no moment happened in the mean season, we will in another place more plainely declare. Notwithstanding he was very often and in diuers battels vanquished by Plettebergius the great master of the Dutch knights: but it is not to the purpose to stand any longer ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, • Richard Hakluyt
... entirely understand the king," said he, after some time. "What does he mean by saying that he will try to make ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... knows what I mean. He can, in a few words, explain why he has for years borne the accusation of a crime ...
— Mary Louise • Edith van Dyne (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)
... and found the young Quaker no mean authority. The horn blew to summon them within, where a bountiful feast was spread, to which they all did ample justice and talked of family affairs. Captain Nevitt had another view of his father from his brother's comprehension of him, and though it was much narrower, ...
— A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... would similarly find themselves embarrassed for an answer. But an examination of the Central Melanesian theory of the soul would lead us too far from our immediate subject; we must be content to say that, "whatever word the Melanesian people use for soul, they mean something essentially belonging to each man's nature which carries life to his body with it, and is the seat of thought and intelligence, exercising therefore power which is not of the body and is invisible in its action."[554] However the soul may be defined, the Melanesians are universally ...
— The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) • Sir James George Frazer
... fiddlestick, sir!" retorted the new comer. "Pooh, sir!—I say dammit!—are ye mad, sir, to go bowing and scraping to a gate-post, as though it were an Admiral of the Fleet or Nelson himself—are ye mad or only drunk, sir? I say, what d' ye mean?" ...
— The Amateur Gentleman • Jeffery Farnol et al
... "What can it mean?" he finally asked himself, as a vague alarm crept over him. "We must be much closer together than we were before, and I haven't heard him whistle for the ...
— Adrift in the Wilds - or, The Adventures of Two Shipwrecked Boys • Edward S. Ellis
... the Austrian Government that Dr. Dumba, the Austrian Ambassador in Washington, had cabled that the Lusitania Note from America to Germany was only sent as a sop to public opinion in America and that the government did not really mean what was said in that note. I then called on Zimmermann at the Foreign Office and he showed me Dumba's telegram which was substantially as stated above. Of course, I immediately cabled to the State Department and also got word to President Wilson. The rest of the incident is public property. I, ...
— My Four Years in Germany • James W. Gerard
... a person and withdrawn the stylets, a small area about the puncture whitens, then soon becomes pink and begins to swell, then to itch and burn. Some people suffer much more from the bites of mosquitoes than do others. For some such bites mean little or no inconvenience, indeed may pass wholly unnoticed, to others a single bite may mean much annoyance, and several bites may cause ...
— Insects and Diseases - A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread - or Cause some of our Common Diseases • Rennie W. Doane
... cypher rates of wage Upon that printed page, There joined in the charmless scene And stood over me and the scribbled book (To lend the hour's mean hue A smear of tragedy too) A soldier and wife, with haggard look Subdued to stone by strong endeavour; And then I heard From a casual word They were parting ...
— Moments of Vision • Thomas Hardy
... for mirth. Ill shapes that man his course, who makes his wrong Of other's worth. Four daughters were there born To Raymond Berenger, and every one Became a queen; and this for him did Romeo, Though of mean state and from a foreign land. Yet envious tongues incited him to ask A reckoning of that just one, who return'd Twelve fold to him for ten. Aged and poor He parted thence: and if the world did know The heart he had, begging ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri
... fair the sun came loafing up over the eastern mountains about ten o'clock in the morning, and lounged down behind the western tops about half-past three, after dinner. But then he left the eternal snows of the Dent-du-Midi all flushed with his light, and in the mean time he had glittered for five hours on the "bleu impossible" of the Lake of Geneva, and had shown in a hundred changing lights and shadows the storied and sentimentalized towers of the Castle of Chillon. Solemn groups and ranks of Swiss ...
— A Little Swiss Sojourn • W. D. Howells
... out from it looking like a ghost? You and he both misled me, causing me to believe that the Ashtons were entering an action against him for breach of promise; laying the damages at ten thousand pounds. I mean that secret, Mr. Carr," she added with emphasis. "The same man was here on Friday night again; and when you came to the house afterwards, you and Lord Hartledon sat up ...
— Elster's Folly • Mrs. Henry Wood
... theatres had doubtless reached Stratford. From such incidents seems to have sprung the opportunity which offered Shakespeare fame and fortune. According to Rowe's vague statement, 'he was received into the company then in being at first in a very mean rank.' William Castle, the parish clerk of Stratford at the end of the seventeenth century, was in the habit of telling visitors that he entered the playhouse as a servitor. Malone recorded in 1780 a stage tradition 'that his first office in the theatre was ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee
... strutting about like a peacock, has always been odious to me. I hated it already from the bottom of my soul before I came to the throne, and, since my accession, I have done everything I could to suppress it. I mean to proceed on this path, without taking heed of any one, and, indeed, no power on earth shall divert ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
... look ahead, vers libre, even when more libre than vers, is full of meaning—poetic realism, even when more real than poetry, charged with possibility. For with all its imperfections much of this new poetry is trying to mean more than ever before to the general reader. I am not sure that the democracy can be interpreted for him in noble poetry and remain the democracy he knows. And yet I think, and I believe, that, in his sub-consciousness ...
— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby
... schools between the ages of nine and thirteen years, and might be entitled: "The Story of a Scholastic Year written by a Pupil of the Third Class of an Italian Municipal School." In saying written by a pupil of the third class, I do not mean to say that it was written by him exactly as it is printed. He noted day by day in a copy-book, as well as he knew how, what he had seen, felt, thought in the school and outside the school; his father at the end of the year wrote these pages on those notes, ...
— Cuore (Heart) - An Italian Schoolboy's Journal • Edmondo De Amicis
... know well what I am saying. I have good judgment between the noble and the mean blood of ...
— Three Wonder Plays • Lady I. A. Gregory
... mean economical. Don't you see it saves the bread? One piece does for both butter ...
— Three Boys - or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai • George Manville Fenn
... simple utterance of the dead, "I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest; for it is thou, Lord, only that makest me dwell in safety." But the tombs of the later ages are a ghastly struggle of mean pride and miserable terror: the one mustering the statues of the Virtues about the tomb, disguising the sarcophagus with delicate sculpture, polishing the false periods of the elaborate epitaph, and filling with strained animation the features of the portrait statue; and the other summoning ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) • John Ruskin
... St. Andrews, he foretold both the manner of their surrender, and their deliverance from the French gallies; and when the lords of the congregation were twice discomfited by the French army, he assured them, in the mean time, that the Lord would prosper the work of reformation. Again, when queen Mary refused to come and hear sermon, he bid them tell her, That she would yet be obliged to hear the word of God whether she would or not; which came to pass at her arraignment in ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie
... great size. man'aged, controlled; brought to do one's wishes. mane, the long hair on a horse's neck. man'tel, a narrow shelf over a fire-place, with its support. mar'gin, edge; border. mark'et, a place where things are sold. mark'ings, marks; stamped places. mean'time, during the interval; meanwhile. mel'low ing, ripening; growing soft. melt'ed, changed to a liquid form by the action of heat. mem'o ry, the power of recalling past events. mer'chants, those who buy goods to sell again. ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes
... the mischief does all that mean?" mused the chief clerk, when Ford and his new track man had gone out. "A month's hunting trip over the range, with the surveying instruments taken along. And last summer Mr. Ford spent a good part of his time over there—also hunting, so he said. Confound it all! I wish I ...
— Empire Builders • Francis Lynde
... hope you will not write in verse. When you write in prose you say what you mean. When you write in rhyme ...
— Over the Teacups • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... again on the trail. I could not walk at all, and Georgia only a short distance at a time. So treacherous was the way that our rescuers often stumbled into unseen pits, struggled among snow drifts, and climbed icy ridges where to slip or fall might mean death in ...
— The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate • Eliza Poor Donner Houghton
... "You mean the ones who've sighted things? Perhaps, in a few cases. But most of the pilots know what happened to Captain Emil Smith, on United, and those Eastern pilots. They keep still so they won't be laughed at. Also the airlines don't like their ...
— The Flying Saucers are Real • Donald Keyhoe
... do you mean? You must be crazy!" he exclaimed, running to the stove and pulling the ...
— The Mountain Divide • Frank H. Spearman
... from the gay world. She sat there, her hands on her lap staring at the three crimson rolls in the neck of her driver. She was thinking of nothing, nothing at all. Did she struggle to think? Only words would come, "Martin," or "Bryanston Square," or "cab," again and again, words that did not mean anything but physical sensations. "Martin" hot fire at the throat, "Bryanston Square" an iron rod down the spine, and "cab" dust ...
— The Captives • Hugh Walpole
... said Mr. Petulengro, coming after me; "the dook tells me that in less than three months he will be sold for twice seventy." "I will have nothing to do with him," said I; "besides, Jasper, I don't like his tail. Did you observe what a mean scrubby tail he has?" "What a fool you are, brother!" said Mr. Petulengro; "that very tail of his shows his breeding. No good bred horse ever yet carried a fine tail—'tis your scrubby-tailed horses that ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... silly ways and remember only that I am his wife and how much he loves me. He does love me, nothing can alter that; but lately I have held aloof from him for reasons I have explained to you, and he is hurt. You may not understand how desperately mean I feel, and how unfit to kiss him and receive his kisses after what has happened. For the life of me I could not keep it up without telling him all. And how could I, when Captain Dalton is convalescent and my husband will have to ...
— Banked Fires • E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
... Why, what do you mean?" he asked in uncomprehending astonishment, taking the boy on his knee; but when the little scamp had explained, the stupidest person in the world ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright
... off into space. "Seems funny. You and I were born on this planet. We were brought up here, and a lot of people once knew us. But they've all forgotten, and we don't belong any more. I'm beginning to see what they mean by 'the lonely life of ...
— The Players • Everett B. Cole
... Filipinos rose in rebellion against American rule. For three years a kind of irregular war went on. Then the leader of the rebellion, Aguinaldo, was captured, and after that the Filipinos gradually laid down their arms. And when they found that the Americans did not mean to oppress them as the Spaniards had done they became ...
— This Country Of Ours • H. E. Marshall Author: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
... "General Ashley—I mean, Roger Franklin. He's another boy. But he's been captured and two of our partners. We're to follow and rescue them. We've got ...
— Pluck on the Long Trail - Boy Scouts in the Rockies • Edwin L. Sabin
... northward. He had reached Tlamath Lake when overtaken by a special messenger from Washington, the bearer of a despatch which had been memorized by the messenger to prevent its falling into the hands of the Mexicans, and which Fremont interpreted to mean that it was the wish of the Cabinet that he should aid in taking and holding California, in the event of any occurrence which he thought justification for so doing. The English must not strengthen their foothold on the coast. Someone must ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various
... the case. Even where in a primitive society extra food is the first form savings may take, it belongs to the act of saving that this food shall not be consumed so soon as it was available for consumption. In short, Mill's notion was that savings must necessarily mean a storing up of more food, clothing, etc., which, after all, is not stored, but is handed over to others to consume. He fails to perceive that a person who saves from the social as opposed to the individual point of view necessarily produces something which ...
— The Evolution of Modern Capitalism - A Study of Machine Production • John Atkinson Hobson
... man could not have imagined what we mean by a nation. We on the other hand cannot imagine those to whom it is a difficulty; 'we know what it is when you do not ask us,' but we cannot very quickly explain or define it. But so much as this is plain, a nation means a LIKE body of men, because of that likeness capable of acting together, and ...
— Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society • Walter Bagehot
... I perceive how small, How mean, your notions are of manly worth. Suspecting, in an honest man's discourse, Naught but a flatterer's artifice—methinks I can explain the cause of this your error. Mankind compel you to it. With ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... It is a mean little town, but far cleaner than Coatzacoalcos. Real grass grows there, and the little plaza is almost a lawn. Last year, when yellow fever was so terrible at Coatzacoalcos, and when, even at El Salto, there were forty cases, there were none here. The town is hot, and during ...
— In Indian Mexico (1908) • Frederick Starr
... be hungry, an' your Paw was so mean to you. There, now, don't cry," for Guy began to weep again at the recollection of his wrongs. Then she whispered confidentially: "Paw's going to Downey's this afternoon, an' you can slip away as soon as he's gone, an' if you work well before that he won't be so awful mad after ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton
... clergy, again, are steadily improving. I do not mean merely in morality—for public opinion now demands that as a sine qua non—but in actual efficiency. Every fresh appointment seems to me, on the whole, a better one than the last. They are gaining more and more the love and ...
— Yeast: A Problem • Charles Kingsley
... (Acts 12). These angels that are servants to them that fear the Lord, are them that will, if God doth bid them, revenge the quarrel of his servants upon the stoutest monarch on earth. This, therefore, is a glorious privilege of the men that fear the Lord. Alas! they are, some of them, so mean that they are counted not worth taking notice of by the high ones of the world; but their betters do respect them. The angels of God count not themselves too good to attend on them, and camp about them to deliver them. This, then, is the man that hath his angel to wait upon ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... hour has come!" The man had pronounced his sentence as coldly and unfeelingly as if he had been a machine which, when its keys are pressed, gives forth sounds like words. The judge ordered the gaoler to withdraw. The old man hesitated—what could that mean? The judge had to repeat his order before the old man would go. When the judge was alone with the prisoner, he bent down and felt with his hands, for he was not yet accustomed to the darkness. Then he said ...
— I.N.R.I. - A prisoner's Story of the Cross • Peter Rosegger
... I mean the wimmen: an' how on earth did old Tinker ever get away from Mrs Tinker for that length of time? You'll never see one of them kind of wimmen at anythink that makes for progress. That's the way they make theirselves superior to the likes of you an' me—by never doin' nothink only for theirselves. ...
— Some Everyday Folk and Dawn • Miles Franklin
... notwithstanding the cooling or distracting influences of their daily avocations, are to keep themselves 'fervent in spirit.' That is a noble and needful conception of the command, but it does not express what is in the Apostle's mind. He does not mean by 'business' a trade or profession, or daily occupation. But the word means 'zeal' or 'earnestness.' And what Paul says is just this—'In regard to your earnestness in all directions, see that you ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) • Alexander Maclaren
... him to sit for her picture—he does not go to her. She must consult his time, his convenience, and his humour; and wear a sombre or a fantastic garb, or his Lordship turns his back upon her. There is no ease, no unaffected simplicity of manner, no "golden mean." All is strained, or petulant in the extreme. His thoughts are sphered and crystalline; his style "prouder than when blue Iris bends;" his spirit fiery, impatient, wayward, indefatigable. Instead of taking his impressions from without, in entire and almost unimpaired ...
— The Spirit of the Age - Contemporary Portraits • William Hazlitt
... you mean?' inquired Mr. Calton, who, like Septimus Hicks, was all but out of his ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens
... well enough qualified for the office; but, at present, you must find room for him in the house. — His incorruptible honesty and indefatigable care will be serviceable in superintending the oeconomy of my farm; tho' I don't mean that he shall interfere with Barns, of whom I have no cause to complain. — I am just returned with Baynard, from a second trip to his house, where every thing is regulated to his satisfaction. — He could not, however, review the apartments without tears and lamentation, so that ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett
... Cleo thoughtfully. "Oh, you mean sackcloth and ashes. That's in a different department—Con Grazia, also a different priced goods. But I don't believe we need worry about the laundry work. Mother thought we were perfectly heroic to undertake the task, and she was pleased ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis
... singular and plural) and 4 municipalities* (krong, singular and plural); Banteay Mean Cheay, Batdambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Spoe, Kampong Thum, Kampot, Kandal, Kaoh Kong, Keb*, Kracheh, Mondol Kiri, Otdar Mean Cheay, Pailin*, Phnum Penh*, Pouthisat, Preah Seihanu*, Preah Vihear, Prey Veng, Rotanah Kiri, Siem ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... Han was followed by the wars of the "Three Kingdoms," and that of Ts'in by a struggle of North and South under four states, so the House of T'ang was now [Page 127] succeeded by five short-lived "dynasties," with a mean duration of scarcely more than ten years. The numerical progression is curious; but it is more important to notice a historical law which native Chinese writers deduce from those scenes of confusion. They state it in this form: "After long union the empire ...
— The Awakening of China • W.A.P. Martin
... fresh dread assailed the prisoner. Why was this man bending over him, and did he mean evil ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn
... here?—I tell you, one and all, I mean to do my duty, as I ought; With eager satisfaction let us clear the decks for action And fight the ...
— Modern British Poetry • Various
... last speech, Octavius, considering that he had reason to be offended with Antonius, formed a plot for his assassination by means of some slaves, which however was discovered. In the mean time Antonius began to declare more and more openly against the conspirators. He erected a statue in the forum to Caesar, with the inscription, "To the most worthy Defender of his Country." Octavius at the same time was trying to win over the ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero
... the same time, another knowledge, which cannot but excite the attention of all persons who have a taste and inclination for polite learning; I mean the manner in which arts and sciences were invented, cultivated, and improved. We there discover, and trace as it were with the eye, their origin and progress; and perceive, with admiration, that the nearer we approach those countries which were once inhabited by the sons of Noah, in ...
— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin
... I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure Caesar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleas'd and displeas'd them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no ...
— The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar • William Shakespeare
... talk of electric currents. We say there is a current of such and such a number of electrons a second going by each point in the circuit. We don't mean that the current isn't going to change, for it may get larger or smaller, but we do mean that if the stream of electrons keeps going just as it is there will be such and such a number of electrons pass by in the ...
— Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son • John Mills
... herding, hay-making, and fuel-getting—filling the long days of summer, while the long, dark winter was used in weaving and a hundred indoor crafts. The climate is not so bad as might be expected, seeing that the island touches the polar circle, the mean temperature at ...
— The Story of the Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) - With Excerpts from the Poetic Edda • Anonymous
... write last week. I had no heart to send the usual greetings of the season. Words still mean something to me, and when I sat down, from force of habit, to write the letters I have been accustomed to send at this season, I simply could not. It seemed to me too absurd to even celebrate the anniversary of the days when the angel hosts sang ...
— On the Edge of the War Zone - From the Battle of the Marne to the Entrance of the Stars and Stripes • Mildred Aldrich
... the snow goes," said Prescott. "Doesn't it seem strange that the dead cold of winter alone should mean peace nowadays?" ...
— Before the Dawn - A Story of the Fall of Richmond • Joseph Alexander Altsheler
... you know, is no part of my plan, so long as I can keep out of the noose. Whenever I do submit to be shackled, it must be from a necessity of mending my fortune. This girl would be far from doing that. However, I am pleased with her acquaintance, and mean not to abuse her credulity and good nature, if ...
— The Coquette - The History of Eliza Wharton • Hannah Webster Foster
... make them conspicuous in the eyes of men, or to attain for themselves some distinction, or to flatter their vanity, or to arouse the envy of their neighbours, or to contribute in some indirect way to the increase of their riches. Perhaps you may not altogether understand what I mean; but no matter, your mother may explain as much as ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... things—American property in flames, American interests ruined, and that five times as many women and children have died of fever and starvation in three months in Cuba as the Sultan has massacred in Armenia in three years—it would mean war with Spain." ...
— The Lion and the Unicorn and Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis
... how you do puzzle us! Why do you say Neith does it? You don't mean that she is a real ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... will no doubt be expected by my Readers upon these pillars and mainstays of the Constitution of Flatland, the controllers of our conduct and shapers of our destiny, the objects of universal homage and almost of adoration: need I say that I mean ...
— Flatland • Edwin A. Abbott
... of authorship refuses to work. My memory has grown weak; there is a lack of sequence in my ideas, and when I put them on paper it always seems to me that I have lost the instinct for their organic connection; my construction is monotonous; my language is poor and timid. Often I write what I do not mean; I have forgotten the beginning when I am writing the end. Often I forget ordinary words, and I always have to waste a great deal of energy in avoiding superfluous phrases and unnecessary parentheses in my letters, both unmistakable ...
— The Wife and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov
... exclaimed St. Marsan. "I have likewise reason to complain, and must demand explanations. What does it mean that the Prussian government has suddenly dispatched orders to all provincial authorities to recall the furloughed soldiers and proceed to another draft; that artillery-horses are bought, and a vast quantity ...
— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach
... I passed at Mason's Corner near you was like Heaven to me, and, now, for a week or more I mean to live in Paradise again. What a joy it will be to see the old scenes and faces, hear the familiar voices, and remember the happy days we ...
— The Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks • Charles Felton Pidgin
... were too grotesque not to be amusing. "Well, what can you do?" he went on. "If you don't strike, the men think you're afraid of them; and so you have to begin hard and go on hard. I always tell a man, 'Now, my man, I always begin with a man the way I mean to keep on. You do your duty and you're all right. But if you don't'—Well, the men ain't Americans any more,—Dutch, Spaniards, Chinese, Portuguee, and it ain't like ...
— Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools - Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists • Various
... had struck a new key-note; her thoughts had taken a new turn. If Mr. Dayton had made money in mines why should not she and Jim do the same? They needed it far more than he did. To him it only meant driving four horses instead of one; to them it might mean driving one horse once in a while. It might even mean giving up the tiresome, profitless shop, and going to live in a snug little house of their own, where there should be a porch for Jim in pleasant ...
— Peak and Prairie - From a Colorado Sketch-book • Anna Fuller
... is not all, brother. The queen goes still further. Down to the present time we have been accustomed to see the men who stoop to be the mean servants of tyrants array themselves in the monkey- jackets of the king's livery; but in St. Cloud, the Swiss guards at the gates, the palace servants, in one word, the entire menial corps, array themselves in the queen's livery; and if you are walking ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach
... for lagging ages while she got ready to go. Curse the endless delays! They always kill me—they make me neglect every duty and then I have a conscience that tears me like a wild beast. I wish I never had to stop anywhere a month. I do more mean things, the moment I get a chance to fold my hands and sit down than ever ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... man was too noble-minded to take a mean revenge. It pained him deeply to enforce the severities which his instructions enjoined; but as an old soldier, accustomed to fulfil his orders to the letter with blind fidelity, he could do no more than pity, compassionate. The unhappy man found ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... to speak evil of the dead; that is very well, but as this maxim was not observed toward Lord Byron, I also will repeat what I have heard said of his wife—I mean that the blame was hers—that her temper was so bad, her manners so harsh and disagreeable, that no one could endure her society; that she was avaricious, wicked, scolding; that people hated to wait upon her or live near her. How dared this lady to marry a man so distinguished, and then to treat ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli
... name. Principles unassailable by reason, principles which had withstood the fiercest attacks of power, the most valuable truths, the most generous sentiments, the noblest and most graceful images, the purest reputations, the most august institutions, began to look mean and loathsome as soon as that withering smile was turned upon them. To every opponent, however strong in his cause and his talents, in his station and his character, who ventured to encounter the ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... review, and I have depicted the present characteristics of political society in that country. But a sovereign power exists above these institutions and beyond these characteristic features which may destroy or modify them at its pleasure—I mean that of the people. It remains to be shown in what manner this power, which regulates the laws, acts: its propensities and its passions remain to be pointed out, as well as the secret springs which retard, accelerate, or direct ...
— Democracy In America, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville
... the collection of pence. We have a higher object. Few of the admirers of our prototype, merry Master PUNCH, have looked upon his vagaries but as the practical outpourings of a rude and boisterous mirth. We have considered him as a teacher of no mean pretensions, and have, therefore, adopted him as the sponsor for our weekly sheet of pleasant instruction. When we have seen him parading in the glories of his motley, flourishing his baton (like our friend Jullien at Drury-lane) in time with his own unrivalled discord, ...
— Punch, Volume 101, Jubilee Issue, July 18, 1891 • Various
... being especially associated with the "Synthetic Philosophy," the sentence quoted will suggest to many the thought that large portions of that work were written by deputy. This, of course, the reviewer did not mean to say. The work to which he referred is entitled "Descriptive Sociology, or groups of sociological facts, classified and arranged by Herbert Spencer, compiled and abstracted by David Duncan, Richard Scheppig and James Collier," eight parts of which have thus far appeared. Knowing that he ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord
... Stewart in the mean time sat with a pompously assumed calmness and dignity, like a turkey cock beside his brooding mate before awaking the dawn with his matin gobbling. After a time he began to gather himself up, and slowly lengthened out to his full height, about six feet four. His blue frock ...
— The Story of Cooperstown • Ralph Birdsall
... really so bad to find refuge in a good, clean place like that, for outside it was very damp—almost wet with the ocean spray. Mr. Bobbsey found seats for all, and with the big carriage doors swung open, the party sat and listened for every sound that might mean the return of the ...
— The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore • Laura Lee Hope
... artificial heat of jurisdiction. But it is observable that so long as the church, in true imitation of Christ, can be content to ride upon an ass, carrying herself and her government along in a mean and simple guise, she may be as she is a Lion of the tribe of Judah; and in her humility all men, with loud hosannas, will confess her greatness. But when, despising the mighty operation of the Spirit by the weak things of this world, she ...
— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst
... very much to do, if we were to punish all those who betray us. The superintendent was the first faithless subject we met, but he will not be the last. Let us forget him. But what is that? Why does the postilion drive so fast? It seems as if the carriage had wings. What does it mean?" ...
— Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia • L. Muhlbach
... of the water to charge the nearest horseman. Our Western horses proved to be only just a trifle faster than the rhino, so that each time the beast nearly caught them. Besides, here and there, the ground was bad with ant-bear holes, which had to be avoided, for a fall would mean disaster. But little by little it became apparent that the rhino's continual charging was ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine
... he was so joyous that the people whom he passed on the street caught happiness from him. Men and women alike turned to look after the youth, for they felt the virtue of his passing presence, and wondered what it might mean. Even the necessary parting from Cornelia was only a phase of this wonderful gladness; for Love never fails of his token, and, though Arenta's sharp eyes could not discover it, Hyde received the silent message that was meant for him, and for him only. That one thought made his heart bound and ...
— The Maid of Maiden Lane • Amelia E. Barr
... that, Nance. I mean to go as soon as I am a lawyer. I won't poke about Deal long after that, nor Monday Port either. I mean ...
— The Inn at the Red Oak • Latta Griswold
... kinder lonesome," remarked the other gruffly. He lowered his gun and leaned on it, irresolutely. "You've sure touched me in the right spot, son, for I knows all you mean and more that you ain't even ever dreampt of. But you see, we don't know nothing about your name, your character, if you've got one, nor what you really intends. I like your looks and the way you talk, fine, just fine, ...
— Lahoma • John Breckenridge Ellis
... does this mean, father? This is not argument. I felt sure that we should agree perfectly. With the profoundest astonishment I see that this is not the case. How is it, my father, then, you do not take up the motto: each for himself, and in his own way? Still, it is impossible for any man ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
... made up my mind to arrest the head men, if the proceedings of the convention were calculated to disturb the tranquility of the Department, but I had no cause for action until they committed the overt act. In the mean time official duty called me to Texas, and the mayor of the city, during my absence, suppressed the convention by the use of the police force, and in so doing attacked the members of the convention, and a party of two hundred negroes, with fire-arms, ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan
... expressed great delight in the hearty and cheerful behaviour of Adams; and particularly in the familiarity with which he conversed with Joseph and Fanny, whom he often called his children; a term he explained to mean no more than his parishioners; saying, "He looked on all those whom God had intrusted to his care to stand to him in that relation." The gentleman, shaking him by the hand, highly applauded those sentiments. "They ...
— Joseph Andrews, Vol. 2 • Henry Fielding
... second mate of the Pilgrim, and had laid up no mean sum of money. True to his resolution, he was going to England to find his mother, and he entered into the comparative advantages of taking his money home in gold or in bills,— a matter of some moment, as this was in the disastrous financial ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... stopped on German soil, he found the Emperor William and Prince Henry of Prussia waiting with their suites to welcome him to Germany and, at the same time, to offer personal congratulations upon his escape. This occurrence created wide comment in Europe generally, and was taken to mean a desire by the German Emperor to express friendly national as well as friendly personal feelings. When His Royal Highness arrived at Dover, the welcome was immense in numbers and enthusiastic in character. The same thing occurred at Charing-Cross Station, ...
— The Life of King Edward VII - with a sketch of the career of King George V • J. Castell Hopkins
... Paul's words "a spiritual body," to mean a ghost, when the accent is as strongly on the soma as on the pneumatichon, his real thought evidently being that of a body spiritualized; so some, remembering that "the letter killeth," would etherealize Scripture by telling us that the divine idea is the chief thing, ...
— The Ministry of the Spirit • A. J. Gordon
... first place, what does all this mean? Why this deception—this abduction? Who am I? Where are you being taken? When are you to be restored to your friends? This is what you would ask, is it not? Very well; now to answer you. What does this ...
— The Unseen Bridgegroom - or, Wedded For a Week • May Agnes Fleming
... knew that one free drink would mean a dozen paid for. But the rivermen merely shook ...
— The Riverman • Stewart Edward White
... last three months, Antonin Goulard and the procureur-du-roi, Frederic Marest, have received, so they say, equivocal answers which mean anything—except yes." ...
— The Deputy of Arcis • Honore de Balzac
... does not mean immunity from the risks of naval warfare or from loss by the capture or sinking of merchant vessels. It does not imply absolute security for British coasts, for British coasts have been raided in every great war that Britain has waged. It does not even involve the defeat ...
— A Short History of the Great War • A.F. Pollard
... a black staff with a silver head, and a coast-made umbrella and sword were carried by his slaves. Altogether his appearance was far from being either kingly or soldier-like, and he displayed the most mean degree of rapacity. He was the ruin of his country by his unnatural ambition, and by calling in the Fellatas, who would remove him out of the way the moment he is of no more use to them. Even then, he dared not move without their permission. It was reported, and generally believed, that ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... to be liberal of quotations; not to show my reading, or to save the labour of composition, but to give the reader the satisfaction of some other authority than my own. In commending the study of English grammar, I do not mean to discountenance that degree of attention which in this country is paid to other languages; but merely to use my feeble influence to carry forward a work of improvement, which, in my opinion, has been ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... Darthea. "What does all this mean? Tell me, Hugh. Why is it kept from me?" It was plain that soon or ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell
... and agreeable visions in the fancy. To which Mr. Addison adds, that these must occasion surprise as well as delight; Spectator, Vol. I. No. LXII. See Note on Canto III. l. 145. and Additional Note, VII. 3. Perhaps wit in the extended use of the word may mean to express all kinds of fine writing, as the word Taste is applied to all agreeable visible objects, and thus wit may mean descriptive sublimity, beauty, the pathetic, or ridiculous, but when used ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin
... even to the Mount of St. Bernard. The other ray went towards Ireland, and divided into seven beams. Each of these seven beams shone bright and clear, alike on water and on land. By reason of this star which was seen of all, the peoples were sorely moved. Uther marvelled greatly what it might mean, and marvellously was he troubled. He prayed Merlin that he would read him the sign, and the interpretation thereof. Merlin answered not a word. Sorrow had him by the heart, and he wept bitterly. ...
— Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut • Wace
... Mean about minor details, a turn of character probably inherited from the Ulster mother, she was utterly destitute of that careful and honest economy which is an admirable trait in the natives of the north of Ireland, and which enables them so ...
— The Uninhabited House • Mrs. J. H. Riddell
... mean? Darvid halted in the centre of one of the drawing-rooms, right there behind him the bundle of raw silk halted also, and stood on its shaggy paws. What was he doing in those empty drawing-rooms; why had he commanded to light them? This act seems like madness. He called to mind recent ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)
... through industrial conscription about fifty thousand young men every year at its disposal under a national works department. What could be done? First of all it would mean that every young man in the country would have received an industrial training of some kind. The work of technical instruction could be largely carried on in connection with this industrial army. People talk of the benefit of discipline ...
— National Being - Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity • (A.E.)George William Russell
... on him, and hope and fear sprang up in her heart together. She knew not what his saying about his nets and "Horn of horn" might mean. With a steadfast look, she took her drinking-horn, and filled it with wine, ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)
... about four hundred yards from the middle part of the island. The islands at this place are so situated as to form a capacious and secure anchorage, with passages among the islands in all directions. The latitude observed with an artificial horizon on shore, was 34 22' 39" north; longitude by mean of two chronometers, agreeing nearly, 126 2' 52" east. The tides run at the springs at the rate of three and four knots, the flood to the north north-east; the rise and fall is fifteen feet. Strong eddies are felt among the ...
— Account of a Voyage of Discovery - to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island • Captain Basil Hall
... boomers who mean to stay long enough to play off their misery on someone else before ...
— The Magnetic North • Elizabeth Robins (C. E. Raimond)
... do was to prevent a suspicion from arising in Phillis's mind, and it was to this that he applied himself on explaining the different kinds of paralysis. He knew her well enough to know that he had succeeded. But what would she do now? How did she mean to make use of Madame Dammauville's declaration? Had she spoken of it to any one besides himself? Was it her intention to go to Nougarede and tell him what she had learned? All that must be made clear, and as soon as possible. ...
— Conscience, Complete • Hector Malot
... an attempt to snatch them. They hanker after those only who have tamed their nearer thoughts. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to feel that the early Pantheists were true prophets and seers, though the things were unknown to them without which a complete view was unattainable. What does Linus mean, we ask ourselves, when he says:—"One sole energy governs all things"? How can one sole energy govern, we will say, the reader and the chair on which he sits? What is meant by an energy governing a chair? If by an effort we have made ourselves believe ...
— God the Known and God the Unknown • Samuel Butler
... required that the betrayal and condemnation of Jesus should take place during the Passover week, when it was unlawful for the Jews to put any man to death. The excuse of the Jewish rulers, that they could not inflict death, did not mean that this power had been withdrawn from them, but that it was against their law to exercise it then. Had the season been different, had the Jews themselves carried out the sentence of death, it would have been accomplished not by crucifixion, but by stoning. Such an execution ...
— Exposition of the Apostles Creed • James Dodds
... forget what I am. No, no, kind friend—for such I'll call you—your opinion of me touches me deeply. I am not used to such passages in life. A union between the child and brother of nobles and a daughter of the people is impossible. It would mean estrangement from your family, their hopes destroyed, their pride outraged. Believe me, the gulf ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... of Christ, This is My Body. Now the words as they stand may certainly be supposed to mean what you say they mean; yet, interpreted by Reason, they cannot possibly mean anything of the kind. Did not Christ Himself sit in bodily form at the table as He spoke them? How then could He hold ...
— Paradoxes of Catholicism • Robert Hugh Benson
... my eyes open: I was persuaded you were an honest man; in which you see I was not mistaken; and as a man of business, I knew you would pay Jones only his due. The remainder of the money I meant, and mean, should lie in your hands for my friend Edwards's use. I feared he would not have taken it from my hands: I therefore left it in yours. To have taken my friend out of prison merely to let him go back again to-day, ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. IV • Maria Edgeworth
... nearer to reality, and not farther away, in the charming side of it. Realism does not necessarily imply only the representation of the mean and the defaulting. It is perhaps because humanity so passionately desires the reign of beauty that it is inclined to doubt that art which witnesses to the dream of ...
— George Du Maurier, the Satirist of the Victorians • T. Martin Wood
... were trying to carry off as much of their worldly goods as possible. The whole country-side showed those concrete evidences of disturbance and alarm which brought home to all our minds what this retreat meant and all that it might come to mean. ...
— 1914 • John French, Viscount of Ypres
... with their names, Jasper, Melchior, Balthazar, and the abbreviated motto, "in . god . is . a . r.," which the late Mr. Crofton Croker, who compiled a descriptive catalogue of these rings, thought might probably mean "in God is a remedy." Fig. 145 furnishes a good example of a fashion of hoop-ring prevalent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, flat inside and angular outside. Each face is inscribed with the same talismanic names. It is formed of cheap mixed metal, was found ...
— Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places • Frederick William Fairholt
... warp, twist; prejudice, prepossess. Adj. misjudging &c. v.; ill-judging, wrong-headed; prejudiced &c. v.; jaundiced; shortsighted, purblind; partial, one-sided, superficial. narrow-minded, narrow-souled[obs3]; mean-spirited; confined, illiberal, intolerant, besotted, infatuated, fanatical, entete[Fr], positive, dogmatic, conceited; opinative, opiniative[obs3]; opinioned, opinionate, opinionative, opinionated; self-opinioned, wedded to an opinion, opinitre; bigoted &c. (obstinate) 606; crotchety, fussy, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget
... greater depth of feeling, and keener perception of what the soul needs, the Hindu religion could never have held its ground for so long. In spite of what many writers say about Hinduism permeating every corner of domestic life, which is true in a sense, it does not mean that "religion," as we understand the word, permeates the Indian household. In an article in the Fortnightly of September 1909, an educated Hindu, Mr. P. Vencatarao by name, writing on the subject, "Why I am not a Christian," after ...
— India and the Indians • Edward F. Elwin
... as much—I mean as to your name being Darrell. I had the honour to know Mr. Darrell very well when I was a lad, and I have a vague recollection of a small child in white frock, who, I think, must have been yourself. I have only been home a week, or I should have done myself ...
— Milly Darrell and Other Tales • M. E. Braddon
... he declared. "Just because there was a train on the other track moving slowly, they got it into their heads that Macdougal had boarded it and was back in New York somewhere. That ain't my theory. If I were looking for James Macdougal, I'd search the hillsides there. I'll show you what I mean when ...
— The Black Box • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... and it was evident that unless I called upon my father for help I must go back to the West; and much as I loved to talk of the broad fields and pleasant streams of Dakota, I dreaded the approach of the hour when I must leave Boston, which was coming to mean more and more ...
— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland
... "I don't mean to say," said Kate demurely, "that you're to give up the serape entirely; you can wear it on rainy nights and when you ride over here from your friend's house to spend the evening—for the sake of old times," she ...
— Snow-Bound at Eagle's • Bret Harte
... more passed. The suspense continued. Yet the shouts of triumph had ceased. Did it mean repulse or victory? "Victory! victory!" for now a spectral vision of sails could be seen, drawing near the town. They grew nearer and plainer; dark hulls showed below them; the vessels were ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... down to it, I guess it doesn't mean so much! No man's got much more guts than any other man, if you ask me. All you need to be a good fighter is pride, that's all. I'm not a professional soldier even though I'm dressed like hell, but let me tell you. I'm not forced to ...
— The Underdogs • Mariano Azuela
... "you must still improve. You must become still more steady and collected, and prepare more earnestly and eagerly for your real calling, the only calling of a woman,—I mean the state of a housewife. Women have a difficult task; the constant occupation with apparent trifles, the interception of each drop of rain, that it may not evaporate, but be conducted into the right channel, the unremitting attention to every detail,—all these are the weighty ...
— Among the Great Masters of Music - Scenes in the Lives of Famous Musicians • Walter Rowlands |
