"Superciliously" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... cynical Mr. Malcolm had made the editorial page corrupt and brilliant—never so effective as when assailing a good cause. The great misfortune of good causes is that they attract so many fatal friends—the superciliously conscientious; the well-meaning but feeble-minded and blundering; the most offensive because least deceptive kinds of hypocrites. Mr. Malcolm, as acute as he was intellectually unscrupulous, well understood how to weaken or to ruin ...
— The Great God Success • John Graham (David Graham Phillips)
... doubt of the sincerity of any one who, thus far, had expressed a welcome for her; but the voice which now came coldly from Miss Barbara was less convincing. She did not approach the mountain girl, but sat somewhat superciliously upon a bench and spoke frigidly. "It is ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey
... arrival, he stood for a moment with a retrospective smile in his eyes. He almost fancied he could see his grandmother half-reclining on one end of the divan, with a pillow beneath her elbow, her stately head, with its tower of white hair, thrown imperiously, somewhat superciliously back, as her eyes flashed and her mouth poured forth a torrent of overwhelming argument. "Poor old girl!" he thought; "why do women like that have to die? How she and Weir would have—argued, to put it mildly. ...
— What Dreams May Come • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... enough to see wherein they erred. They gave superciliously, handing down their alms from a top lofty altitude of Tory superiority, and the Radicals down below sniffed or growled even while they grudgingly took these gifts—that was all nonsense. These aristocratic or tuft-hunting philanthropists ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic
... Willems now? Willems the. . . . He strangled the half-born thought, and cleared his throat to stifle a groan. Ah! Won't they talk to-night in the billiard-room—his world, where he had been first—all those men to whom he had been so superciliously condescending. Won't they talk with surprise, and affected regret, and grave faces, and wise nods. Some of them owed him money, but he never pressed anybody. Not he. Willems, the prince of good fellows, they called him. And now they will rejoice, no doubt, at his downfall. A crowd of ...
— An Outcast of the Islands • Joseph Conrad
... up the narrow but thickly carpeted stairs to a miniature boudoir, where Madame Adelaide, in a gilt rococo frame, looked superciliously down ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... had failed to appear, and with the spring came no rain. "April showers" became a hideously ironical joke at nature's expense. Always the wind blew, and sometimes great flocks of clouds would drift superciliously up from the far sky-line, play with men's hopes, and sail disdainfully on to some ...
— Rowdy of the Cross L • B.M. Sinclair, AKA B.M. Bower
... exquisite lip as she shook away from her painted muslin robe, the butter-cups, heavy with moisture and radiant with sunshine, which I had laid upon her knee. "She ought to have been an Irish child and born, in a hovel, don't you think so, papa?" and she put me aside superciliously. Dirt and Nature were ...
— Miriam Monfort - A Novel • Catherine A. Warfield
... Abbot had suddenly and superciliously vanished from the eyes of his expectant vassals, the Sub-Prior made amends for the negligence of his principal, by the kind and affectionate greeting which he gave to all the members of the family, but especially to Dame Elspeth, her foster-daughter, and her son Edward. ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott
... think it," remarked Enna superciliously and with a second toss of her head, as she turned from the glass; "you are so extremely childish in every way, while, as mamma says, I grow more womanly in appearance and ...
— Elsie's Girlhood • Martha Finley
... always treat science rather superciliously," said Planchette. "They all talk to us pretty much as the incroyable did when he brought some ladies to see Lalande just after an eclipse, and remarked, 'Be so good as to begin it over again!' What effect do you want to produce? The object ...
— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac
... Thirty geese and two turkeys, eight pigs and a sow; Now if these turn out well, at the end of the year I shall fill both my pockets with guineas, 'tis clear. Forgetting her burden when this she had said, The maid superciliously tossed up her head, When, alas for her prospects! her milkpail descended, And so all her schemes for the future were ended. This moral, I think, may be safely attached— "Reckon not on your ...
— Chips from a German Workshop - Volume IV - Essays chiefly on the Science of Language • Max Muller
... room for such pensioners in these days of small profits," Morton declared, superciliously. "However, it's no business of mine. Remember, though, it's your only ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan
... obsequiousness, replied that he was not aware that an assistant had been advertised for. She explained that they had seen no advertisement, but had merely come in to inquire, as her friend wished to get a situation in a shop. He smiled at her innocence—he even smiled superciliously—and, with no deference left in his manner, told them shortly that they had made a great mistake, and was about to show them out, when, wonderful to relate, all at once a great change came over his beautiful countenance, and he stood rooted to the spot, ...
— Fan • Henry Harford
... was roused almost to passion. "What is Gerald that I should not understand him?" said Jack; "he and I are the original brood. You are all a set of interlopers, the rest of you. What is Gerald that I should not talk of him? In the world, my dear Frank," continued the heir, superciliously, "as the Squire himself will testify, a man is not generally exempted from criticism because he is a ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant
... piece of humanity and good nature; Mr. Johnson, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offer'd one of his Plays to the Players, in order to have it acted; and the persons into whose hands it was put, after having turn'd it carelessly and superciliously over, were just upon returning it to him with an ill-natur'd answer, that it would be of no service to their Company, when Shakespear luckily cast his eye upon it, and found something so well in it ...
— Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare • D. Nichol Smith
... all was a young man with an agreeable face, who smiled superciliously from under a vast wig of powdered hair; a rose was in the buttonhole of his green cloth pelisse with orange facings, a red sabrecache hung against his boots a little lower than the hilt of his sabre. The costume represented ...
— Gerfaut, Complete • Charles de Bernard
... Chapter xxxvi.] As to cheerfulness and good manners, it is only necessary to reflect upon the baleful influence exercised upon the young—who have here my entire sympathy—by a bilious and depressing piety, or by those who are rudely and superciliously moral. ...
— A Handbook of Ethical Theory • George Stuart Fullerton
... up his winnings superciliously, without even the appearance of triumph, a man behind me whispered, "A foreign ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... an old man in rather a rusty dress, was inclined to think that he was an applicant for charity, and answered rather superciliously: ...
— The Erie Train Boy • Horatio Alger
... mothers. In a corner of the room was a little office, where the official, charged with receiving applications, was ensconced. He was a man of fifty, gruff, jaundiced from liver trouble, looking down superciliously at the girls whose names he had just received. When Madame Darbois entered with Esperance, the distinguished manner of the two ladies caused a little stir. The group of young men drew nearer. Madame ...
— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt |
