"Astound" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... report kind enough to say to whom?" answered the lady, with a tone of indifference which seemed to astound ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott
... bound, At wrists, sides, and each aperture, With pearls the whitest ever found,— White all her brave investiture; But a wondrous pearl, a flawless round, Upon her breast was set full sure; A man's mind it might well astound, And all his wits to madness lure. I thought that no tongue might endure Fully to tell of that sweet sight, So was it perfect, clear and pure, That precious pearl with ...
— The Pearl • Sophie Jewett
... have not sought Thee, I have not found Thee, I have not thirsted for Thee: And now cold billows of death surround me, Buffeting billows of death astound me,— Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti
... this description coldly, let it not be supposed that I was not violently agitated and astonished almost into the belief that what I beheld was a mere vision, a phenomenon. The sight of the body I examined did not nearly so greatly astound me as the spectacle of this ice-locked schooner. It was easy to account for the presence of a dead man. My own situation, indeed, sufficiently solved the riddle of that corpse. But the ship, perfect in all respects, was like a stroke of magic. She lay with a slight list or inclination to larboard, ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell
... We seem to have before us a type of the mystery of the whole world, the tragic fact which extends far beyond the limits of tragedy. Everywhere, from the crushed rocks beneath our feet to the soul of man, we see power, intelligence, life and glory, which astound us and seem to call for our worship. And everywhere we see them perishing, devouring one another and destroying themselves, often with dreadful pain, as though they came into being for no other end. Tragedy is the typical form of this mystery, because that greatness ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley
... "Astound you?" He left his neckcloth half undone, and stepped toward me, alertly courteous. "You mean you take exception to what I ...
— The Unspeakable Gentleman • John P. Marquand
... disguise himself, and mix with the pass-holders and convict servants, in order to learn their signs and mysteries. When in charge at Bridgewater it had been his delight to rate the chain-gangs in their own hideous jargon, and to astound a new-comer by his knowledge of his previous history. The convict population hated and cringed to him, for, with his brutality, and violence, he mingled a ferocious good humour, that resulted sometimes in tacit permission to go without the letter of the law. Yet, ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... dying are heard all around you, And heartrending sights every day are displayed; While blasphemous curses may well nigh astound you, And dangers fast thicken; yet be not dismayed. Lend, lend a hand! Lend, lend a hand! If these things appal you ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd
... fighting all day. We heard their cannon even after dusk. What is the result, I wonder? I fear we shall not hear till to-morrow. That essential but most aggravating censor causes such delays, and dishes up such garbled accounts of the actual facts, as to astound those who know the truth.... There is little chance of our being able to attempt even to defend this place. It simply means evacuation or surrender, and stand by and see the Transvaal flag go up! O England! ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) - From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, - 15th Dec. 1899 • Louis Creswicke
... added, with a suddenness which seemed to astound himself,—for afterwards he looked round quickly, as if to see if he had been heard,— "Elise Malboir—h'm! a pretty name, Elise; but Malboir—tush! it should be Malbarre; the difference between Lombardy cider and wine of ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... these moves were being made—one to find out what the other was doing—other and unsuspected moves were being made which were to astound the world. ...
— The Boy Nihilist - or, Young America in Russia • Allan Arnold
... to scorn the triumphs which he lacked the force to win. He imagined that industry and a regular existence were sufficient justification in themselves for any man's life. Constance had dropped the habit of expecting him to astound the world. He was rather grave and precise in manner, courteous and tepid, with a touch of condescension towards his environment; as though he were continually permitting the perspicacious to discern that he had nothing to learn—if ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett
... in my life I find London very pleasant; hurry, bustle, and noise are all in unison with my feelings. And I have plenty to do in spare moments. I work at Astronomy, as I suppose it would astound a sailor if one did not know how to find Latitude and Longitude. I am now going to Captain Fitz-Roy, and will keep [this] letter open till evening for anything that may occur. I will give you one proof of ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin
... is that what we have gone through will startle the world into some new realization of the sanctity of life—all life, animal as well as human. Don't you find that a visit to a zoo can humble and astound you with all that amazing and grotesque ...
— The Haunted Bookshop • Christopher Morley
... worshipped. This explains in part the size of the cemeteries; the length of time during which they were used will explain the rest. As Dr. Peters says of each:(4) "It is difficult to convey anything like a correct notion of the piles upon piles of human relics which there utterly astound the spectator. Excepting only the triangular space between the three principal ruins, the whole remainder of the platform, the whole space between the walls, and an unknown extent of desert beyond ...
— Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs • Rev. A. H. Sayce
... Doubtless they would give you absolution for all the sins you are accustomed to commit against your wife, but, my virtuous brother, I shall outlive the morrow, that I promise you, and shall gain such a victory over Frederick as will astound you and the ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... Madame Fribsby seemed to astound and sober the stranger. He looked down upon her, and cried out, ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... eyes missed few features of the abounding life of the Great White Way. As it happened, a stranger in New York could not have entered the city's main thoroughfare at any point better calculated to bewilder and astound than the very corner where Curtis had picked up the cab. On both sides, from the level of the street to a height often measurable in hundreds of feet, nearly every building blazed with electric signs. Many of the devices seemed to be alive. Horses galloped, either in Roman stadium or modern ...
— One Wonderful Night - A Romance of New York • Louis Tracy
... them. He had sung The Messiah and Arminius until they were a weariness to his flesh, and Hiawatha's call to Gitche Manito, the Mighty had become second nature to his tongue. He had moments of acute longing to astound his audience with a German student song, and, upon his off nights, he fell into the vaudeville habit. Not even his Puritanism could enjoy an ...
— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray
... whence as soon again, the sound Dunbalrase drew, From whose stone-trophed head, it on the Wendrosse went, Which tow'rds the sea again, resounded it to Dent, That Brodwater therewith within her banks astound, In sailing to the sea, told it to Egremound, Whose buildings, walks, and streets, with echoes loud and long, Did mightily commend old Copland for ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth
... through putting his experience into words, he eased his heart and cleared his brain. He came to hints of great and wonder- working things that were going to happen soon. There was just a possibility that Jud gleaned an idea that the experience in Multiopolis had brought his friend home to astound and benefit the neighbourhood. At any rate Junior picked up the lines with all the sourness gone from his temperament, which was usually sweet, except that one phrase of Mickey's, and the laughter. Suddenly he ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter
... was pleasure to follow, for there was a fitting-on at the dress-maker's, the fitting-on of a tea-gown, to be worn at winter-evening bridge-parties, which, unless Miss Mapp was sadly mistaken, would astound and agonize by its magnificence all who set eyes on it. She had found the description of it, as worn by Mrs. Titus W. Trout, in an American fashion paper; it was of what was described as kingfisher blue, and had lumps and wedges of lace round the edge of the skirt, ...
— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson
... thought that she was some ordinary, intriguing girl, who had been baiting a hook for a husband, after the manner which scandal states to be so common among the Littlebathians; and Bertram longed, therefore, to surprise his eyes and astound his intellect with a view of her charms and a near knowledge of her attributes. Nothing should be said of her beauty, and the blaze of it should fall ...
— The Bertrams • Anthony Trollope
... the United States were definitely to cease. When every discount is made, the celebration, heartily supported by the national leaders on {250} both sides, of a century of peace between the British, Canadian, and American peoples, does exhibit, in Sir Wilfred Laurier's words, "a spectacle to astound the world by its novelty ...
— The Wars Between England and America • T. C. Smith
... even in them you may discover something that makes you simply wonder that men have been such fools as to let them grow old without noticing them. Bare-footed girls or unattractive ones, you must take by surprise. Didn't you know that? You must astound them till they're fascinated, upset, ashamed that such a gentleman should fall in love with such a little slut. It's a jolly good thing that there always are and will be masters and slaves in the ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... to come true in a way which is rather calculated to astound most folks: a hospital vessel, the Queen Victoria, is actually at work, and has gone out on the wintry sea just at the time when the annual record of suffering reaches its most intense stage; a scheme ...
— A Dream of the North Sea • James Runciman
... cursed man low sitting on the ground, Musing full sadly in his sullein mind; His griesly lockes long gronen and unbound, Disordered hong about his shoulders round, And hid his face, through which his hollow eyne Lookt deadly dull, and stared as astound; His raw-bone cheekes, through penurie and pine, Were shronke into the jawes, as he did never dine. His garments nought but many ragged clouts, With thornes together pind and patched reads, The which his naked sides he ...
— The Piazza Tales • Herman Melville
... becoming more perplexed and struggling with his memory, and trying to recollect himself, the soldiers that stood nearest killed him with their spears, looking upon his confusion and silence as a confession of his guilt: very fine, indeed! The place, the spectators, the expectation, would astound a man even though were there no object in his mind but to speak well; but WHAT when 'tis an harangue upon which his life depends?' You that happen to be of my ear, it is my style that we are speaking of, and there is ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon
... thou wert, we found thee. "Behold!" we cried, "the Sergeant reappears." Let not our welcome overmuch astound thee, Whom we have missed through twelve unhappy years. Restored at length to England, home, and beauty, Sergeant-at-Arms ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, June 27, 1891 • Various
... a horse, curveting on blue rockers, would be found on this very morning. Two days before had he in an absent moment beheld a vision of this horse poised near the door of the attic; but when he ran to make report of it below, thinking to astound people by his power of insight, Clytemnestra, bidding him wait in the kitchen where she was baking, had hurried to the spot and found only some rolls of blue cambric. She had rather shamed him for giving her ...
— The Seeker • Harry Leon Wilson
... also the causes which have led to the non-payment of the principal moneys and interest due in respect of such loans." Its report is a very interesting document, well worth the attention of those interested in the vagaries of human folly. It will astound the reader by reason of the wickedness of the waste of good capital involved, and at the same time it is a very pleasant proof of the progress that has been made in finance during the last half century. It is almost incredible that such things should have happened so lately. It is quite impossible ...
— International Finance • Hartley Withers
... Vanderbilt's fortune, consisting chiefly of a fleet of steamboats, amounted to about $10,000,000; he died twelve years later, in 1877, leaving $104,000,000, the first of those colossal American fortunes that were destined to astound the world. The mere fact that this fortune was the accumulated profit of only ten years shows perhaps more eloquently than any other circumstance that the United States had entered a new economic age. That new factor in the life of America and the world, ...
— The Age of Big Business - Volume 39 in The Chronicles of America Series • Burton J. Hendrick
... after this comes the actual perpetration of the deed meditated. A better situation than that, however, is for the deed to be done in ignorance, and the relationship discovered afterwards, since there is nothing odious in it, and the Discovery will serve to astound us. But the best of all is the last; what we have in Cresphontes, for example, where Merope, on the point of slaying her son, recognizes him in time; in Iphigenia, where sister and brother are in a like position; and in Helle, where the son recognizes his mother, when on the point of ...
— The Poetics • Aristotle
... we tread its puzzling paths, shows many profiles and glimpses of wonder and loveliness; many shapes and symbols to entrance and astound. Yet it will offer us nothing more beautiful than our mother's face; no memory more dear than her encircling tenderness. The mountain tops of her love rise as high in ether as any sun-stained alp. Lakes are no deeper and no purer blue than her bottomless charity. We need ...
— Mince Pie • Christopher Darlington Morley
... rules of ship-building, and which, indestructible as they were, threatened to annihilate all existing systems. They were low vessels which floated on the water like huge tortoises. These mortar-boats, which were destined to astound not only the Americans but the whole world, had been constructed in Japanese shipyards, to which no stranger had ever been admitted. In place of the ordinary level-firing guns found on a modern warship, these uncanny gray ...
— Banzai! • Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff
... logically, to the letter. The treatises on the subject simply astound one by their wealth of blasphemous and obscene epithets which it was allowable for the exorcist to use in casting out devils. The Treasury of Exorcisms contains hundreds of pages packed with the vilest epithets ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White
... ought to judge of such enterprises: the first warred to such or such winter quarters; the other to subdue the world. It frequently behoved him not merely to gain a battle, but to gain it in such a manner as to astound Europe and to produce gigantic results. Thus political views were incessantly interfering with the strategic genius; and to appreciate him properly, we must not confine ourselves within the limits of the art of war. This art is not composed exclusively ...
— The Illustrated London Reading Book • Various
... skipp'd with a bound o'er The stairs to the ground floor, And turning his feet bore Straight on for the street door; When—what could astound more—' The spot he was bound for Was guarded in force by that great butter tubber, The patriot millionaire, Alderman Grubber: A smart riding-whip impatiently cracking, The food for his vengeance the only thing lacking. "Is the Editor ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... Pontigny Pilgrimages; the dating of historic epochs from the definition of the Immaculate Conception; the proclamation of the Divine Glories of the Sacred Heart—standing in the midst of these chimeras, which astound all thinking men, it did not appear to me extravagant to claim the public tolerance for an hour and a half, for the statement of more reasonable views—views more in accordance with the verities which science has brought to light, and which many weary souls would, I ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall
... along the line. We felled trees. We impressed little sawmills and sawed the logs into timbers for bridges and cars. Out of the battle-scarred and march-worn ranks came creative and constructive genius in such profusion as to astound us, who thought we knew them so well. Those blue-coated fellows, enlisted and serving as food for powder, and used to destruction, rejoiced in once more feeling the thrill there is ...
— Aladdin & Co. - A Romance of Yankee Magic • Herbert Quick
... heard unintermitted sound, And thought the battled fence so frail, It waved like cobweb in the gale; Amid his senses' giddy wheel, Did he not desperate impulse feel, 705 Headlong to plunge himself below, And meet the worst his fears foreshow? Thus, Ellen, dizzy and astound, As sudden ruin yawned around, By crossing terrors wildly tossed, 710 Still for the Douglas fearing most, Could scarce the desperate thought withstand, To buy his safety with ...
— Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott
... seem to astound Jim an' Bill none when the rattlesnake 'sassinates himse'f that a-way, an' I reckons they has this yere sooicide in view. They keeps pesterin' an' projectin' about ontil the rattlesnake is plumb defunct, an' then they emits a ...
— Wolfville • Alfred Henry Lewis
... blow, but that his foe he hit; And never hit, but made a grievous wound: And never wounded, but death followed it; And yet no peril, hurt or harm he found, No weapon on his hardened helmet bit, No puissant stroke his senses once astound, Yet like a bell his tinkling helmet rung, And thence flew flames of ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... not for your imitation. Burke happened to be a genius, with a swoop and range of mind, as of language to interpret it, with a gift to enchant, a power to strike and astound, which together make him, to my thinking, the man in our literature most nearly comparable with Shakespeare. Others may be more to your taste; you may love others better: but no other two leave you so hopeless of discovering how it is done. ...
— On the Art of Writing - Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914 • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... form, exists. You must consider, too, the plants common to the Azores, Portugal, the West of England, Ireland, and the Western Hebrides. In so doing young naturalists will at least find proofs of a change in the distribution of land and water, which will utterly astound them when they face ...
— Scientific Essays and Lectures • Charles Kingsley
... earth's crust, such as is still going on to-day, would, if continued, produce mountains; and the washing away of the land by rains and floods, such as we see all around us, would, if continued through the long centuries, produce the valleys and gorges which so astound us. The explanation of the past is to be found in the present. But this geological history told of a history of life as well as a history of rocks. The history of the rocks has indeed been bound up in the history of life, and no sooner did it appear that the earth's crust ...
— The Story of the Living Machine • H. W. Conn
... the steamer would stop a few hours at least, and thought that might be enough in which to learn the truth. Strange things have happened since we landed. I have learned several facts which astound me. ...
— Miss Caprice • St. George Rathborne
... course, fills and hands to him as he takes his seat, while the boatmen themselves, generally Albanians, and singularly handsome and athletic men, lay themselves down to their work with a vigor and a heartiness which would astound the boatmen of an ...
— Jack Archer • G. A. Henty
... sped but galloped on, As they expressed it, e'er they could "turn round;" Before they were aware, the month had gone, The first of August, too, had come they found, (A fact which seemed the household to astound) On which date, I imagine, they designed A short excursion, by the pleasant sound Of tossing waters wild and unconfined: In following this ...
— The Minstrel - A Collection of Poems • Lennox Amott
... Mrs. Stevens, you astound me. I hadn't the remotest idea of such a thing. It is very strange my children ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb
... is strange! Is Lanciotto's name a spell to all? I ask a simple question, and straight you Start to one side, and mutter to yourself, And laugh, and groan, and play the lunatic, In such a style that you astound me more Than all the others. It appears to me I have been singled as a common dupe By every one. What mystery is this Surrounds Count Lanciotto? If there be A single creature in the universe Who has a right to know him as he is, ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini • George Henry Boker
... through a few more nights as easily as I have tonight, I'll soon astound myself by maxing it" (making one of the highest marks), he told himself. "I think I'm beginning to see real light in conic sections, but I'll have the books out ...
— Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point - Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life • H. Irving Hancock
... backes brake under them, The knights were both astound: To avoyd their horsses they made haste And ...
— Book of Old Ballads • Selected by Beverly Nichols
... last!" I madly shouted. "Gentle pieman, you astound me!" Then I waved the turtle soup ...
— The Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert
... is not the only one to astound me," said Monsignor. "Anne, you have brought back your youth again. What ...
— The Art of Disappearing • John Talbot Smith
... who now occupy positions of respectability in New York and who have criminal records on the other side would astound even their compatriots. Even several well-known business men, bankers, journalists, and others have been convicted of something or other in Italy. Occasionally they have been sent to jail; more often they have ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train
... "You astound me, Anstruther," the Major said. "Not a lawful child! Some Eurasian legacy—a relic of the old days of the Pagoda Tree! Why, the old commissioner always was a woman hater, and absolutely hostile to all social influences!" The Captain was now stealing longing ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage
... of the most celebrated of them, of Robespierre, frequently astound one by their incoherence: by merely reading them no plausible explanation is to be found of the great part played by the ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon
... defeat, could hardly find a constituency to open the doors of the House to him. It is a spectacle presented by all free countries, a salutary warning to the victors of the day, and a consolation to the vanquished, to whom hope is always left. But what does astound me is that the change should not have been foreseen. It is rather a severe democratic shock to the parliamentary machine. Is it the effect of the lowering of the franchise, or of the secret ballot? I do not know. But does not the astonishment of ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton
... Arthur had left the house, "you astound me. Who are these new friends and their philosophies, Barrow and the Danish fellow, what's ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 23, 1914 • Various
... Nothing can astound an American. It has often been asserted that the word "impossible" in not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise. ...
— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne
... of Cheops, as a work of human labor, astound by their greatness. This pyramid is a pointed stone mountain; its original height was thirty five stories, or four hundred and eighty-one feet, standing on a square foundation each side of which was seven hundred ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus
... art near, the hemisphere Commissioned to surround me, (As well as you,) is subject to Some changes that astound me. Where'er I look I seem mistook; All objects—what, I care not— At once arrange to make a change To something that they were not! When thou art near, love, Strange things occur— Thickness is clear, love, Clearness a blur. Penguins ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, July 19, 1890 • Various
... strongly riuetted with steele, At the first stroke each other they astound, That as they staggering from each other reele; The Duke of Gloster falleth to the ground: When as Alanzon round about doth wheele, Thinking to lend him his last deadly wound: In comes the King his Brothers life to saue And to this braue Duke, a ...
— The Battaile of Agincourt • Michael Drayton
... Wasps whose story we have described in former volumes are wonderfully well versed in the art of wielding the lancet; they astound us with their surgical methods, which they seem to have learnt from some physiologist who allows nothing to escape him; but those skilful slayers have no merit as builders of dwelling-houses. What is their home, in point of fact? An underground passage, with a cell ...
— The Wonders of Instinct • J. H. Fabre
... further astound Jake by making a list of what the customers were buying. After that he concentrated on spotting those cars that would provide the fastest sale for ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith
... very interesting and useful letters you have sent me. You rather astound me with respect to value of grounds of generalisation in the morphology of plants. It reminds me that years ago I sent you a grass to name, and your answer was, "It is certainly Festuca (so-and-so), but it agrees as badly ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin
... knees that never bow'd before. In stupid wonder flares the child; The maiden turns her glances wild, And lifts to hear the coming roar: The aged shake their locks so hoar: And stoutest hearts begin to fail, And many a manly cheek is pale; Till nearer closing peals astound, And crashing ruin mingles round; Then 'numbing fear awhile up-binds The pausing action of their minds, Till wak'd to dreadful sense, they lift their eyes, And round the stricken corse, shrill shrieks of ...
— Poems, &c. (1790) • Joanna Baillie
... the little maid, Not a danger could astound her, With her bucket and her busy spade, On the sea-bound shore I found her, Of the winds and the waves all unafraid While the sea-gulls floated ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... weakness was a professional pride in his wonderful achievements in induction. He was ever ready to astound and charm his ...
— Sixes and Sevens • O. Henry
... delicate tissues are most sensitive to them, were responsible for nearly the entire death-roll. These were aggravated by the errors habitually committed by those in charge of infants. These errors were a lack of cleanliness which would astound us nowadays, and a complete absence of any sort of rule concerning infant diet. The soiled napkins which were wrapped round the baby under its swaddling bands would be dried in the sun again and again, and replaced on the infant without being washed. No care ...
— Spontaneous Activity in Education • Maria Montessori
... family lived had subjected them to vulgar prejudice; that the existence of this feeling becoming known to the "afflicted girls" led them to cry out against him and his wife. It may be so. They availed themselves of every such advantage; and particularly liked to strike high, so as the more to astound and overawe the ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham |
