"Astound" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... single darkness do I find. What might this be? A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. These thoughts may startle well, but not astound The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong siding champion, Conscience. O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, And thou unblemished ...
— L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas • John Milton
... twang the string, Or mount the breeze on many-colour'd wing. But never tawny monarch of the wood His raging rival meets, athirst for blood; Nor thunder-clouds, when winds the signal blow, With louder shock astound the world below; When the red flash, insufferably bright, Heaven, earth, and sea displays in dismal light; Could match the furious speed and fell intent With which the winged son of Venus bent His fatal yew against the dauntless fair Who seem'd with heart of proof to meet ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... reasons, as the Israelites worshipped the golden calf; the usual hunting people, who either ride straight and are grimly sarcastic or talk very big and go for the gates; and the usual English visitors, who astound by their guilelessness and simplicity when confronted by aboriginal horse-copers and native bogs and stone-walls. If cubbing be included, I should be afraid to say how many meets are described in ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 19th, 1914 • Various
... 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 unlimited ...
— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray
... thou 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 are weasels, Cheap things are dear, "Jumps" ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, July 19, 1890 • Various
... so presumptious!" This he repeated three times, slowly shaking his head in an ecstasy of admiration. It flashed upon me that the apparition of a black soldier must amaze those still in bondage, much as a butterfly just from the chrysalis might astound his fellow-grubs. I inwardly vowed that my soldiers, at least, should be as "presumptious" as I could make ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various
... Where dashing cataracts astound, And foaming shake the neighbouring ground, And spread a hoary mist around, With you I gaze!— And think, amid'st the deaf'ning sound, ...
— Cottage Poems • Patrick Bronte
... of the previous September: other elements of opinion, and in all classes, were strengthened in like measure, and everywhere the first expression of fear of a servile insurrection largely disappeared. In truth, pro-Northern England went to such lengths in its support of emancipation as to astound and alarm the Saturday Review, which called these demonstrations a "carnival of cant[959]." More neutral minds were perplexed over the practical difficulties and might well agree with Schleiden who wrote in January, 1863, quoting Machiavelli: ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams
... 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' ...
— Wolfville • Alfred Henry Lewis
... Wilfred quietly, "But it was not of Saint Mary, nor of any other saint, that I had intent to tell thee, but of one whom no Pope ever took the pain to canonise, and who yet, as methinks, was the greatest woman of whom ever I heard. It may perchance astound thee somewhat, to learn that I am not purely an English man. My mother came from far over seas,—from Dutchland, [Germany.] in the dominions of the Duke's Grace of Austria. And when she was a young maid, at home in her country, that befel of which I am about to tell thee. It ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt
... 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 ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... by George, you'll astound London. My dear fellow, we'll go to town together to claim the L50,000 which the Admiralty offered, and the L20,000 from the Black Anchor Line, to say nothing of American money galore. You're made for life, old ...
— The Iron Pirate - A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea • Max Pemberton
... 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 thought, welcome ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall
... Stevens, you astound me. I hadn't the remotest idea of such a thing. It is very strange my ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb
... same time, made it known to Hon. Wm. Pitt Fessenden, chairman of the Finance Committee in the Senate, that there was then a movement on foot, to be executed as soon as the gunboats, then building at St. Louis, were ready, which would satisfy the entire country and astound the world; and he so reassured the Senate that they calmly waited until the time arrived for ...
— A Military Genius - Life of Anna Ella Carroll of Maryland • Sarah Ellen Blackwell
... 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 ...
— The Wars Between England and America • T. C. Smith
... presentiment had been his that such 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 such a start. A few rolls of shiny blue cambric against a white ...
— The Seeker • Harry Leon Wilson
... "You astound me, Geoffrey. However, you shall tell me all about it this evening, for be assured that we shall come. Inez has so often talked about you, and lamented the ill-fortune that befell ...
— By England's Aid • G. A. Henty
... his height, it through the mountains threw, From 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 ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth
... 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 at the end of it; a gallery, an ...
— The Wonders of Instinct • J. H. Fabre
... 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 ...
— Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott
... 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 Fitz-Roy being a good officer—all the officers are the same as before; two-thirds of ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin
... minute course and learn to study successfully. Astound your teachers in any way. ...
— The 1926 Tatler • Various
... 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 ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell
... implied in this prompt assent to my proposal I could only darkly guess. For myself I knew I must appear to her a weak impostor. What would there possibly be in the sea to interest Sarah Walker? For the moment I prayed for a water-spout, a shipwreck, a whale, or any marine miracle to astound her and redeem my character. I walked guiltily down the hall, holding her hand bashfully in mine. I noticed that her breast began to heave convulsively; if she cried I knew I should mingle my tears with hers. We reached the veranda in gloomy silence. As I expected, the sea ...
— By Shore and Sedge • Bret Harte
... discovering the elixir of life. Only I should like to punish that beggarly vagrant, that rascally herb-culler, and pitiful conjuror, as he deserves. Let him only come for once into my quarters! With all his contemptible jugglery, I would astound him! I am so enraged with the fellow, the blood runs into my head at the very thought ...
— The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano - Tales from the German of Tieck • Ludwig Tieck
... I think she has already punished herself horribly, and will continue to do so. My prayer 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 variety of ...
— The Haunted Bookshop • Christopher Morley
... 1915-16, and wrote at the time that I saw in him "a leader of men who in open warfare might win great victories by doing the common-sense thing rapidly and decisively, to the surprise of an enemy working by elaborate science. He would, I think, astound them by the simplicity of his smashing stroke." Those words of mine were fulfilled—on the day when the Canadians helped to break the Drocourt-Queant line, and when they captured Cambrai, with English troops on their ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs
... drop into the sea, With a heavy splashing sound, And I saw the captain's bloody hands As he quickly turned him round; And he drew in his breath when me he saw Like one convulsed, whom the withering awe Of a spectre doth astound. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 396, Saturday, October 31, 1829. • Various
... astound me," said Durtal with an effort. "No: I assure you I am not at all disposed to imprison myself in such a place. I know well that at Paris I shall never come to any good. I swear to you that I am not proud of my life, nor satisfied with my soul, but from thence ... to ... where I cannot tell; ...
— En Route • J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
... geographically so self contained; or it may be because we work in clay and iron; or it may merely be because it is our nature to be stolid and taciturn. But stolid and taciturn we are; and some of the instances of our stolidity and our taciturnity are enough to astound. They do not, of course, astound us natives; we laugh at them, we think they are an immense joke, and what the outer world may think does not trouble our deep conceit of ourselves. I have often wondered what would be the effect, other than an effect of astonishment, on the outer world, of one ...
— The Grim Smile of the Five Towns • Arnold Bennett
... Turenne, manoeuvring on the Renchen, that we ought to judge of such enterprises. The first warred to secure 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 ...
— Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 276 - Volume 10, No. 276, October 6, 1827 • Various
... more beautiful than I have ever seen you, except on that one occasion; do you remember?—on that first evening in the orchard at dear old Eyethorne. Look at my dress, Fan, my second best! But how much more did it astound me to hear Harold—I call Mr. Northcott by his Christian name now—addressing you as Miss Eden when he left. What does it all mean? If he had called you Mrs. Eden I might have guessed what wonderful things had happened ...
— Fan • Henry Harford
... ascribe actions of this sort on the part of a bird to a desire to please and astound the mate who is supposed to look on with fervent admiration. Sometimes this may be the case, but I think more often the bird, like my nighthawk, does it to please himself. There was no mate in sight when this nighthawk did his sky coasting, nor did any appear afterward. ...
— Old Plymouth Trails • Winthrop Packard
... "is constantly revealing wonders which surprise and astound even the most cultured minds of the civilised world; how much more capable is it then of overawing the uncultured savage, however shrewd and clever he may be in those simple matters which affect his everyday ...
— The Log of the Flying Fish - A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... orators both employ images, but with a very different object, as you are well aware. The poetical image is designed to astound; the oratorical image to give perspicuity. Both, however, seek ...
— On the Sublime • Longinus
... them nine such grins, As would astound even Mandarins; And throw such somersets before The picture of King GEORGE (God bless him!) As, should Duke Ho but try them o'er, Would, by ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... 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 it for ...
— Scientific Essays and Lectures • Charles Kingsley
... been there; especially when the yellow bird's feathers came floating down to Squire Hathorne's reverential amazement," said Lady Mary, laughing heartily. "You must come up here tomorrow morning at noon. Master Mather is to bring his feathers to show the Governor, and to astound the Governor's skeptical wife. You are not ...
— Dulcibel - A Tale of Old Salem • Henry Peterson
... only 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 suggestion they ...
— The Minstrel - A Collection of Poems • Lennox Amott
... and thou shalt witness that which must astound thee," old Goliba shouted, his squeaky voice being just audible above the loud hissing as our car flew along ...
— The Great White Queen - A Tale of Treasure and Treason • William Le Queux
... 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 ...
— The Battaile of Agincourt • Michael Drayton
... the spring of 1806. During his first visit home in June, he connected himself with his father's church. A college course means to some young men four years of frolic, or worse. To others it is an opportunity to cram knowledge, that shall by-and-by astound the round world and they that dwell therein. To one, at least, it was the time for choosing "smooth stones" for his combat with the giant adversary, whom he was brave enough to meet alone, if need be, "in the name of ...
— A Story of One Short Life, 1783 to 1818 - [Samuel John Mills] • Elisabeth G. Stryker
... curious traveller, and pass not bye, Until this fetive (elegant) pile astound thine eye, That shoots aloft into the realms of day, The Record of the Builder's fame for aie— The pride of Bristowe and the Western ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 470 - Volume XVII, No. 470, Saturday, January 8, 1831 • Various
... sighed the disguised pilgrim, "but, on the other hand, how much time must pass by in the siege, by defeating which that suit must needs be advanced? While I sat in my lonely castle, tidings came to astound me with the numerous, or rather the constant dangers, with which my lover was surrounded, until at length, in a moment I think of madness, I resolved to set out in this masculine disguise; and having myself with my own eyes seen in what situation I had placed my knight, I ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... when Arthur had left the house, "you astound me. Who are these new friends and their philosophies, Barrow and the Danish fellow, ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 23, 1914 • Various
... under them, The knights were both astound: To avoid their horses they make haste And light upon ...
— The Book of Brave Old Ballads • Unknown
... that wasteth at noonday." It confronts us all the day; it is the spectre that ever sits beside our bed. No doubt we make mistakes about it; no doubt there are outbreaks growing out of some phases of it that astound, and shock, and stun you, as they do ourselves. But believe me, the Anglo-Saxon race has set itself, with all its power, to face it and to overcome it; to solve it in some way, and in the wisest way. Have patience and it will be solved. Time is the great ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... round We stand, I think, on safish ground That, by your English custom bound Our senses weak it will astound He holds the lady safe and sound If either gentleman is found In trust for either rival, Prepared to meet his rival. Until we clearly testify Their machinations we defy; By sword or pistol, by and by We won't be ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... 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 ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter
... always the boldest and most adventurous beings who elect to dwell amid "calling shapes and beckoning shadows dire." The "virtuous mind," whom supernatural horrors may "startle well but not astound," sometimes finds a melancholy pleasure in beguiling weaker mortals into haunted ruins to watch their firm nerves tremble. Sometimes too, though a man be wholly innocent of the desire to alarm, he is led astray, whether he will or not, among the terrors of the invisible world. Grey ...
— The Tale of Terror • Edith Birkhead
... similar mystifications, with even more startling results. Incredible as it may seem to those who have not looked into the subject, it is a fact that there are boys and girls—especially girls—who take a morbid delight in playing pranks that will astound and perplex their elders. The mere suggestion that Satan or a discarnate spirit is at the bottom of the mischief will then act as a powerful stimulus to the elaboration of even more sensational performances, and the result, if detection does not soon occur, will be a full-fledged ...
— Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters • H. Addington Bruce
... "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 glances at the willowy ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage
... with the waltz song in the first act of Romeo and Juliet. It was the piece that had revealed her talent to Madame Bonanni, who had accidentally overheard her singing to herself, and it suited her purpose admirably. Such fireworks could not fail to astound, even if they did not please, and half the full volume of her voice was more than enough for the long drawing-room, into which the whole party gathered almost as soon as she began to sing. Such trifles as having ...
— The Primadonna • F. Marion Crawford
... Madame Fribsby seemed to astound and sober the stranger. He looked down upon her, and cried out, ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the ground, Musing full sadly in his sullein mind; His griesie lockes, long growen, and unbound, 310 Disordred 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 his jawes, as[*] ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser
... groans from the 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 your help ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd
... have taken place, and the decision of yesterday, astound everybody here. The Chancellor and the Prime Minister differing and dividing on a question which the former argues as vital to the jurisprudence of the country, is what England, I believe, has never ...
— Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) - From the Original Family Documents • Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
... 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 see Thy ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti
... sacraments Greece stood, a finger to her lips. Yet the whispers from them that have reached us, while furtive perhaps, are clear. They furnished the poets with notes that are resonant still. They lifted the drama to heights that astound. Even in the fancy balls of Aristophanes, where men were ribald and the gods were mocked, suddenly, in the midst of the orgy, laughter ceased, obscenities were hushed. Afar a hymn resounded. It was the chorus of ...
— The Lords of the Ghostland - A History of the Ideal • Edgar Saltus
... Astound, breathless, thunder-struck, at this intolerable profaneness, I stood like an idiot, unable to speak or think. Hector took hold of my arm and dragged me along. I obeyed, for I was insensible, soul-less; and ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... any other expanding, growing thing, tends to depart from the norm—loves apparently to surprise its progenitors. Holding in its grasp latent tendencies of all ages, of all the race, it may at any time astound by its sudden expansion in unexpected directions, as well as by its inexplicable failure to follow ordained grooves.'" Here Britt paused again. "You can see the old chap was hard hit. He now gets evolutionary. 'We are all goats, satyrs, and serpents potentially—even from the neurologist's ...
— The Tyranny of the Dark • Hamlin Garland
... though the library really belonged to him. Some evenings he would go into the Cathedral to pursue his musical studies, and talk with the Chapel-master and the organist, and at other times in the hall of sacred oratory he would astound the professors and the Alumni by the fervour and conviction with which he ...
— The Shadow of the Cathedral • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... a professional pride in his wonderful achievements in induction. He was ever ready to astound and charm his ...
— Sixes and Sevens • O. Henry |
