"Better" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... sixth, General Meade became alarmed about his left flank and sent a dispatch, saying: 'Hancock has been heavily pressed and his left turned. You had better draw in your cavalry ...
— Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman - With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War • J. H. (James Harvey) Kidd
... your fates are sealed, and that both of you are bound by and bye to become secondary wives; but I can't help thinking that affairs under the heavens don't so certainly fall in always with one's wishes and expectations! So you'd better now pull up a bit, and not be cheeky ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin
... which there is room for it, is in the middle of the tent between the two poles. The result is that as the roof slopes, it is absolutely impossible to stand upright on either side and much space is therefore wasted. It would be better to arrange for the bed to stand close to one side of the tent and for the net to be attached to the sloping roof leaving the middle and the other side free for table and chair. Circles of hooks for clothes should be attached to the poles and large pockets in the walls of the tent itself are useful. ...
— A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State • Marcus Dorman
... however, were trifling; altogether he was so well known, and knew everybody else so well, that he seldom committed himself; and, singular to say, could on occasions even be serious. In addition to his other faculties, no one cut a sly joke, or trolled a merry ditty, better than Jerry. His peculiarities, in short, were on the pleasant side, and he was ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth
... then managed with the Colonel's help to raise him a little so that he could reach the water, of which he drank with avidity and was once more lowered back, to lie faint and giddy for a few minutes, but he recovered soon and said he was better, speaking so freely and kindly to the boy that Dick ...
— Our Soldier Boy • George Manville Fenn
... postmen in France—from 28 to 32 a year. The inhabitants of St. Bazile, he said, were all very poor, their chief food being potatoes and chestnuts. Before the vines a little further down the valley were destroyed by the phylloxera and mildew, the people were much better off. Then there was plenty of wine in the cellars, but now St. Bazile was a village of water-drinkers. He spoke of the neighbouring parish of Servires, where, at the annual pilgrimage, women go barefoot from one rock to the other on which the ...
— Two Summers in Guyenne • Edward Harrison Barker
... it have been better?" exclaimed the beggar in a great rage. "'Cause I'm poor and they're rich? Look at them now!" he said, pointing to the two corpses with his hooked stick, as he stood trembling and ragged, with the water dripping from him, and his battered hat, his matted beard, his ...
— The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5 (of 8) - Une Vie and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893
... were to have pensions as simoniacal.[295] The most reasonable objection made to the proceeding was, that such exceptional legislation to meet an isolated case tended to establish a dangerous precedent, and that, as there were other men of great age on the bench, it would be better to effect the end now aimed at by a large general measure providing means for the retirement of all clergymen, those of inferior rank as well as bishops, whom age or infirmity might incapacitate. But the general feeling was ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge
... from stronger ones, it acquires, at once, all the strength of those from which it is deduced; and even adds to that strength; since the independent experience on which the weaker induction previously rested, becomes additional evidence of the truth of the better established law in which it is now found to be included. We may have inferred, from historical evidence, that the uncontrolled power of a monarch, of an aristocracy, or of the majority, will often be abused: but we are entitled ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill
... burdens, and rushing frantically out into the black jungle for more and yet more leaves. My mind swept back over evolution from star-dust to Kartabo compound, from Gonium to man, and to these leaf-cutting ants. And I wondered whether the Attas were any the better for being denied the stimulus of temptation, or whether I was any the worse for the opportunity of refusing a second glass. I went back into the house, and voiced a toast to tolerance, to temperance, and—to pterodactyls—and drank ...
— Edge of the Jungle • William Beebe
... fate of the first. Then he put up a third, and the people let it alone. Even these heathen Chinese were beginning to get an impression of the dauntless determination of the man with whom they were to get much better acquainted. ...
— The Black-Bearded Barbarian (George Leslie Mackay) • Mary Esther Miller MacGregor, AKA Marion Keith
... meditation. He was again giving way to indecision. Why should he veer round so quickly? Eugene was an intelligent fellow, but his mother had perhaps exaggerated the significance of some sentence in his letter. In any case, it would be better to wait and hold ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola
... community, to co-operate with earnest farmers for the social and economic, as well as the moral and spiritual, upbuilding of the farm community. But he must know the farm problem. Here is an opportunity for theological seminaries: let them make rural sociology a required subject. And, better, here is a magnificent field of labor for the right kind of young men. The country pastorate may thus prove to be, as it ought to be, a place of honor and rare privilege. In any event, the country church, to render its proper service, not alone must minister to the individual soul, but ...
— Chapters in Rural Progress • Kenyon L. Butterfield
... nothing better," said Barbel, noticing my glance toward this novel counterpane, "for a bed-covering than newspapers: they keep you as warm as a blanket, and are much lighter. I used to use Tribunes, but ...
— A Chosen Few - Short Stories • Frank R. Stockton
... been attended with pecuniary loss to any considerable extent; for the diseased part being removed, the remainder was as fit to use as the soundest potato; and more pigs were reared and fatted than usual on the rotted portions, and they never fatted better or bore a higher price. But, (and this fact has been studiously suppressed by Sir Robert Peel,) even admitting that the loss has been great, there could be no famine. The crop of oats exceeded by a third any crop known ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 • Various
... the Colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut. New Haven, 1881. A much better book, being the best special history of the New ...
— The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut • M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.
... resolution calling on Congress to submit the Federal Amendment. In 1918 she was elected State Senator. In 1919 Dr. Airy was re-elected and Mrs. Anna G. Piercy and Mrs. Delora Blakely were elected to the Lower House. Altogether there have been thirteen women members of the Legislature. No State has better laws relating to women and ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various
... cogitations and conversations on the subject had come to the father's ears, they had been deemed so much empty talk; and the friends who were consulted in the dilemma had nothing more encouraging to say. One of them pronounced that Honore was worth nothing better than to make a scrivener of or a clerk in some Government department. The poor fellow had a good handwriting —this, indeed, deteriorated later. Through his parents' influence, it was thought he might ultimately ...
— Balzac • Frederick Lawton
... consequent glory of the Lord is the beginning and the end of his motives, he can go on with heart and tongue, under the Lord's banner, defying the very gates of hell. But if the love of self and the love of the world enter as the chief elements of his power and will in the work, it would be better for him, better for the cause, and less dishonorable to the Lord if he would stop off short. I will here repeat the text. You may now be better prepared to perceive the warmth of its power and the light of its truth. 'He that speaketh of himself'—or as the Greek more ...
— Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary - Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk • John Kline
... running away with my head," she remarked, "and I thought this poor creature, who was shunned and neglected by all, worth saving. I tried to befriend her, and hoped to waken the better nature which every woman possesses, I think, but she was ...
— An Ambitious Man • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... Cosette from time to time. I will not come often. I will not remain long. You shall give orders that I am to be received in the little waiting-room. On the ground floor. I could enter perfectly well by the back door, but that might create surprise perhaps, and it would be better, I think, for me to enter by the usual door. Truly, sir, I should like to see a little more of Cosette. As rarely as you please. Put yourself in my place, I have nothing left but that. And then, we must be cautious. If I no ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... and eggs on the table were not prepared for us, but for two other visitors who had not come downstairs at the appointed time. She seemed rather vexed, as the breakfast was getting cold, and said we had better sit down to it, and she would order another lot to be got ready and run the risk. So we began operations at once, but felt rather guilty on the appearance of a lady and gentleman when very little ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... Salemina has taken her little cloth bag and her notebook and gone to inspect the educational and industrial methods of Germany. If she can discover anything that they are not already doing better in Boston, she will take it back with her, but her state of mind regarding the outcome of the trip might be described as one of incredulity tinged with hope. Francesca has accompanied Salemina. Not that the inspection of systems ...
— Penelope's English Experiences • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... grew sober. "And what's worse, I haven't any one to tell me—except Mr. Congdon, and he's such a josher I don't trust him. He did give me a few points on the library, which ain't so bad, we think; but all the rest of it I had to dig out myself, and it's slow work. But I guess we better go down; my horse will be here in a few minutes." Then, with lowered voice, she added: "I can't stay out but a little while. The Captain dreads to have me leave him even to go down-town. I hadn't ought to go ...
— Money Magic - A Novel • Hamlin Garland
... property that, from 1623, held sway, and turned an uncertain venture into a career of industrial prosperity. Always tolerant, never injudicious, and alike pure-minded, liberty-loving, courageous, and wise, no hand could have better guided than did his, or have more systematically shaped, the destinies of the infant State. The testimony of contemporaries and the judgment of historians unite in crediting to William Bradford that rare combination of intelligence and ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3 of 8 • Various
... ears (by which we mean the outward part) are made prominent, to cover and preserve the hearing, lest the sound should be dissipated and escape before the sense is affected. Their entrances are hard and horny, and their form winding, because bodies of this kind better return and increase the sound. This appears in the harp, lute, or horn;[237] and from all tortuous and enclosed places sounds are ...
— Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... we have this big thing in our hands, it is better to keep it there than let it drop and break ...
— The Arbiter - A Novel • Lady F. E. E. Bell
... knows, Rupert, I do not so often inflict my presence upon you that you should be so anxious to show me how much better I should do to keep away. I admit nevertheless the justice of all you say. It is but right that Mesdemoiselles de Savenaye should be surrounded with young and cheerful society; and even were I in a state to ...
— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle
... it out of your system, Ford, and then you'll feel better. Then we can put our heads together and see if there isn't some way to beat ...
— The Uphill Climb • B. M. Bower
... of thought or expression, passages to prove that he can be whimsical and absurd, can deal abundantly in obscurities and contradictions, and can withal write the most motley, confused English of any man living? Better take, with thanks, from so irregular a genius, what seems to us good, or affords us gratification, and ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Vol. 54, No. 333, July 1843 • Various
... to Flanders, "I've always prided myself on having eyes a little better than the next one, but just now I guess I must of been seein' double. Seemed to me that that was Sandy Ferguson that you hot-footed out of that door—or has Sandy got ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand
... couple of A. No. 1 millionaire cigars," he said in a whisper. "If you've got nothing better, why, ...
— The Varmint • Owen Johnson
... and if he runs away he shall be punished as a vagrant, which probably means that he shall be sold to the highest bidder for a term of years; and that any person who entices him to leave his master, as by the offer of better wages, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be sent to jail for six months; and further, that these regulations include all persons of negro blood to the third generation, though one parent in each generation shall be pure white; that is, down to the man who has but one eighth ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes
... the hours since they first had seen each other, it seemed as though they could hardly know each other better; then why put off the consummation a single hour? Manetho had been right, and Balder marvelled at having required the spur. He knew of no material hindrances; unlimited resources would be his, and these would render easier Gnulemah's introduction to society. Perhaps (for doubtless ...
— Idolatry - A Romance • Julian Hawthorne
... immorality among the Negroes of Washington is due to the great rush of ignorant, purposeless colored people to the national capital, a condition of things which always leads, in its first effect, to social looseness and impurity. The very late marriages among the better element of the colored people also help to account for this awful state of things. But perhaps a greater than any cause yet assigned as leading to the social degradation of Negroes in cities is the excess of the female over the male element of the population. On account of the importance ...
— A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 1 • Kelly Miller
... began. "Don't be a fool," I whispered. "I've lost my life's happiness and you'd better take ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling
... tenth birthday we could not afford the newspaper subscription. But after that times were a little better, and the Boston Transcript began to come at irregular intervals. It formed our only tie with civilization, except for the occasional purely personal letter from ...
— The Log-Cabin Lady, An Anonymous Autobiography • Unknown
... meantime, Tarcisius, with his thoughts fixed on better things than her inheritance, hastened on, and shortly came into an open space, where boys, just escaped from school, were ...
— De La Salle Fifth Reader • Brothers of the Christian Schools
... brain, the character of its activity is denoted in both, according to the nature of the individual. Stupid people move like lay figures, while every joint of intellectual people speaks for itself. Intellectual qualities are much better discerned, however, in the face than in gestures and movements, in the shape and size of the forehead, in the contraction and movement of the features, and especially in the eye; from the little, dull, sleepy-looking eye of the pig, ...
— Essays of Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer
... Wentz. I couldn't hev' did better myself, and I was comin' for that purpose," said the frontiersman. "Leffler was tryin' to kiss the lass. He's been drunk fer two days. That little girl's sweetheart kin handle himself some, now you take ...
— The Spirit of the Border - A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley • Zane Grey
... halves, Marjorie and Fidge and myself; you'll have to get a whole ticket, I suppose, though I have seen a notice at a railway station somewhere, on which it stated, 'Soldiers and Dogs half-price.' Perhaps it applies to birds, too. You had better ask, I think." ...
— Dick, Marjorie and Fidge - A Search for the Wonderful Dodo • G. E. Farrow
... waked, the rain was much heavier than yesterday; but the wind had abated. By breakfast, the day was better, and in a little while it was calm and clear. I felt my spirits much elated. The propriety of the expression, 'the sunshine of the breast', now struck me with peculiar force; for the brilliant rays penetrated ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell
... the breath of an actor's nostrils. Without it good acting is almost impossible. Actors, like other artists, need encouragement. Applause gives heart, and, as Mrs. Siddons said, "better still—breath." Mrs. Siddons's niece has put on record her views, as valuable as her famous relative's: "'Tis amazing how much an audience loses by this species of hanging back, even when the silence proceeds from unwillingness to interrupt a good performance: ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, December 1878 • Various
... beg you the sun and the moon to behold, The one that's so bright and the other so cold. And say if two things in creation there be Better emblems ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow
... probably complete in many cases in less than twelve hours; but it is better, when practicable, to allow the solution to stand for this length of time. Vigorous shaking or stirring promotes the separation of ...
— An Introductory Course of Quantitative Chemical Analysis - With Explanatory Notes • Henry P. Talbot
... scene and acted the hero, leaving their traditions one to the other. I now came forth, and saying, "Give me leave," set to work, using some of the before-mentioned tradition, mark you. Added to this, Dion Boucicault brought his dramatic skill to bear, and by important additions made a better play and a more interesting character of the hero than had as yet been reached. This adaptation, in my turn, I interpreted and enlarged upon. It is thus evident that while I may have done much to render the character and the ...
— [19th Century Actor] Autobiographies • George Iles
... it may appear the better; what are the particular Observations, desired to be made, near Bristol or Cheap-stow bridg, it was thought not amiss, to set ...
— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various
... he lived, [19] much evil saw, 145 With men to whom no better law Nor better life was known; Deliberately, and undeceived, Those wild men's vices he received, And gave ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth
... manuscript back. The thought of appearing as a competitor for public favour in the novel-writing line began to produce a nervousness in her similar to the stage-fright of young actors on their first appearance. She had not taken pains enough, and could improve the work by introducing new and better scenes; she had imprudently said things she ought not to have said, and could imagine the reviewers (orthodox to a man) tearing her book to pieces in a fine rage, and scattering its leaves to ...
— Fan • Henry Harford
... for years heard little but oaths, and curses, and ribald jests, or the thief's jargon of his father's associates, and had been constantly cuffed and punished; but the better part of his nature was not extinguished; and at those words from the mouth of his enemy, he dropped on his knees, and clasping his hands, tried to speak; but could only sob. He had not wept before during that day of anguish; and now his tears gushed forth so ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. • Various
... do better than this. There is much ability displayed in her "Court of France"; and she has written a very clever story, entitled "The Romance of the Harem." But this book is thoroughly feeble and commonplace. The customary rich and whimsical ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various
... never meat sweet-savour'd in thy taste, Unless I spake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd to thee. How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes it, That thou art then estranged from thyself? Thyself I call it, being strange to me, That, undividable, incorporate, Am better than thy dear self's better part. Ah, do not tear away thyself from me; For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall A drop of water in the breaking gulf, And take unmingled thence that drop again, Without addition or diminishing, ...
— The Comedy of Errors • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]
... but without a joke, except the Opera and the house of Glyn, I have scarcely seen anybody or been anywhere. We have three dinner engagements this week, besides one at home, but not one Assembly. You must know that we contrive to go out almost every night, but that it is only one degree better, or if you please, two degrees worse, than dozing at home; then, you know, as the existence of an Assembly is the not having room to stir, when you have plenty of elbow room from the thinness of the company it must be bad; besides another ...
— The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I. • A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)
... gradually descend. When near the highest part of its orbit point the telescope at the star, having an assistant to hold the "bull's eye" so as to reflect enough light down the tube from the object end to illumine the cross wires but not to obscure the star, or better, use a perforated silvered reflector, clamp the tube in this position, and as the star continues to rise keep the horizontal wire upon it by means of the tangent screw until it "rides" along this wire and finally begins to fall below it. Take the ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882 • Various
... behind them better demonstrations of their capacity than pieces of "knot-work"—in the handwriting of their scholars. They taught what Jonathan Snelling described as "Boston Style of Wri^ting," and loudly do the elegant letters and signatures of their scholars, Boston patriots, ...
— Diary of Anna Green Winslow - A Boston School Girl of 1771 • Anna Green Winslow
... go to Chocorua as you suggested, but the congregation advised otherwise, so I came over here. It seemed the better thing to do. Up in New Hampshire you can't do much but rest, but here you can improve your taste and collect a good deal of homiletic material. So I've settled down in Rome. I want to have time to take it ...
— Humanly Speaking • Samuel McChord Crothers
... over her ankles, the poise of her shoulders under their transparent veil. . . . Laura saw a dozen men turn to look after the Wanhope party, and took no credit for it, though not long ago she had been accustomed to be watched when she moved through a public room. But now she was better pleased to see Isabel admired than ...
— Nightfall • Anthony Pryde
... to his godson? But of this transfretation and christening Perkin, in his supposed confession, says not a word, nor pretends to have ever set foot in England, till he landed there in pursuit of the crown; and yet an English birth and some stay, though in his very childhood, was a better way of accounting for the purity of his accent, than either of the preposterous tales produced by lord Bacon or by Henry. The former says, that Perkin, roving up and down between Antwerp and Tournay and other towns, and living much in English company, had the English tongue ...
— Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third • Horace Walpole
... the yolk of an egg boiled hard. The owner, however, about once a-day, gives it also a mealworm; he does not think this last dainty to be necessary, but only calculated to keep the nightingale in better spirits. The paste should be changed before it ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 569 - Volume XX., No. 569. Saturday, October 6, 1832 • Various
... no more time," said Gardiner, with enthusiasm. "You will need a team and rig, and you better pack a couple of blankets and some grub. Make the stableman throw in a couple of saddles; you may have to ride the last part of the trip. Riles and I will make it the whole way on horseback." Gardiner ...
— The Homesteaders - A Novel of the Canadian West • Robert J. C. Stead
... are changed." Similarly, to propose as the problem of the history lesson "the development of parliamentary government during the Stuart period" would be to use terms too difficult for the class to interpret. It would be better to say: "We are going to find out how the Stuart kings were forced by Parliament to give up control of certain things." Instead of saying, "We shall study in this lesson the municipal government of Ontario," it would be much better to proceed in some such way as the following: ...
— Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education • Ontario Ministry of Education
... would have gone farther, and changed the religion of his people. But Henry hated Luther and his doctrines, and did not hate the pope, or the religion of which he was the sovereign pontiff. He loved gold and new wives better than the interests of the Catholic church. Reform proceeded no farther in his reign; while, on the other hand, he caused a decree to pass both houses of his timid, complying parliament, by which the doctrines of transubstantiation, the communion ...
— A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon - For the Use of Schools and Colleges • John Lord
... up merchantmen? of course they do; and the more of value is on board, the better they are pleased. We lose so much, and they gain so much. Now we want to stop this fellow's power of doing ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner
... movement in the War, as a battle, and, in going into these, I shall have to act according to my judgment of the ground before me, as I did on this occasion. If upon reflection, your better judgment still decides that I am wrong in the article respecting the Liberation of Slaves, I have to ask that you will openly direct me to make the correction. The implied censure will be received as a soldier always should the ...
— The Great Conspiracy, Complete • John Alexander Logan
... after may efforts succeeded in extricating himself from the ditch. Stiff with cold, with no other covering than a worn-out shirt, he none the less resumed his singing, happy to suffer and thus to accustom himself the better to understand the ...
— Life of St. Francis of Assisi • Paul Sabatier
... tapes are at fault. More like a synaptic overload. Transferrals are okay, so I want to try it with a stepped-up synaptic check; that'll alleviate any overload without drain on the minor selective, which is better than setting up complete ...
— We're Friends, Now • Henry Hasse
... not constitute acquaintanceship. With us, as in Continental Europe, it does. It is for this reason that, in England, ladies are expected to bow first, while on the Continent it is the gentlemen who give the first marks of recognition, as it should be here, or better still, simultaneously, when the recognition is simultaneous. It is as much the gentleman's place to bow (with our mode of life) as it is the lady's. The one who recognizes first should be the first to show that recognition. Introductions take place in a ball room in order ...
— Our Deportment - Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society • John H. Young
... is one of the noted spots of the world," Dave responded slowly, "and I shall be glad to see a place of which I have heard and read so much. But I shall not gamble at Monte Carlo. I can make better use of my money ...
— Dave Darrin on Mediterranean Service - or, With Dan Dalzell on European Duty • H. Irving Hancock
... "But, Graeme, it is better that we should all go together—I mean Harry is more with us than he used to be. It must ...
— Janet's Love and Service • Margaret M Robertson
... will only try and save my life, when it would be better for me to die out of the way. I want to die. How can I face people at home again? No, no, don't fetch him. It's all over. There is ...
— Sail Ho! - A Boy at Sea • George Manville Fenn
... continued at St. Omer's long enough to fall in love with the daughter of an English clergyman. This second attachment appears to have been less ardent than the first, for upon weighing the evils of a straitened income to a married man, he thought it better to leave France, assigning to his friends something in his accounts as the cause. This prevented him from accepting an invitation from the Count of Deux-Ponts to visit him at Paris, couched in the handsomest terms of acknowledgment ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey
... wife has been dead for many years. I found my way to my own apartment in a half distracted condition, utterly exhausted, and I sank into my easy-chair, without the capacity to think or the strength to move. I was nothing better now than a suffering, vibrating machine, a human being who had, as it were, been flayed alive; my soul was like a ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume VIII. • Guy de Maupassant
... others will think. Vanity is an overweening admiration of self, craving equal admiration from others; self-consciousness is commonly painful to its possessor, vanity always a source of satisfaction, except as it fails to receive its supposed due. Self-esteem is more solid and better founded than self-conceit; but is ordinarily a weakness, and never has the worthy sense of self-confidence. ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... referred to by Herodotus and later writers. Although some of the Greek writers made Busiris an Egyptian king and a successor of Menes, about the sixtieth of the series, and the builder of Thebes, those better informed by the Egyptians rejected him altogether. Various esoterical explanations were given of the myth, and the name not found as a king was recognized as that of the tomb of Osiris. Busiris is here probably an earlier and less accurate Graecism than Osiris for the name ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... Paris, and became for a moment freer and more animated than I have ever yet seen him, as he discoursed to us about the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens in the church here. His words, as he spoke of them, seemed full of a kind of rich sunset with some moving glory within it. Yet I like far better than any of these pictures of Rubens a work of that old Dutch [14] master, Peter Porbus, which hangs, though almost out of sight indeed, in our church at home. The patron saints, simple, and standing ...
— Imaginary Portraits • Walter Horatio Pater
... swineherd hurried back with the message; but Ulysses said he dared not face the princes a second time and it would be better to speak with Penelope later in the evening, alone by the fireside; and when the queen heard this, she said that the stranger was right. By this time it was afternoon, and Eumaeus went up to Telemachus and whispered that he must be off to his work again. Telemachus said he might ...
— The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10) • Various
... expeditious Court of Probate and Divorce in matrimonial cases. After marriage, the women conceal themselves more strictly than in most other parts of Turkey. Perhaps in this the husbands act upon the homoeopathic principle, that prevention is better than cure; for divorces are unheard of, and are considered most disgraceful. Marriages are contracted at a much earlier age by the Christian than by the Mahommedan women, and it is no uncommon thing to find wives of from twelve to fourteen years of age. This abominable custom is encouraged ...
— Herzegovina - Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels • George Arbuthnot
... from December 1963, the Turkish Cypriots no longer participated in the government; negotiations to create the basis for a new or revised constitution to govern the island and for better relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been held intermittently since the mid-1960s; in 1975, following the 1974 Turkish intervention, Turkish Cypriots created their own constitution and governing bodies within the "Turkish Federated State of Cyprus," ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... sense will get the better in all cases when a man will but give it fair play—I began to stand convicted in my own mind, as an ass before the interview, for having expected too much—an ass during the interview, for having failed to extract the lady's real purpose—and an especial ass, ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott
... to the South; a practice, I fear, enforced more by the cupidity of the buyers, than the humanity of the seller. Our informant stated, in answer to inquiries, that by the general testimony of the slaves purchased, they were treated better by the planters than was the case ten years ago. He also admitted the evils of the system, and said, with apparent sincerity, he wished it was ...
— A Visit To The United States In 1841 • Joseph Sturge
... Protarchus, the son of Callias, who has been a hearer of Gorgias, is supposed to begin as a disciple of the partisans of pleasure, but is drawn over to the opposite side by the arguments of Socrates. The instincts of ingenuous youth are easily induced to take the better part. Philebus, who has withdrawn from the argument, is several times brought back again, that he may support pleasure, of which he remains to the end the uncompromising advocate. On the other hand, the youthful group of listeners by whom he is surrounded, 'Philebus' boys' ...
— Philebus • Plato
... "We'd better have a doctor though—-" she heard Billy say, as they carried her aunt in to the dining-room couch. Mrs. Lancaster's breath was coming short and heavy, her eyes were shut, her face dark ...
— Saturday's Child • Kathleen Norris
... unparalleled progress and combination, what are the little toys with which we vex ourselves in Europe? What is this needle gun we are anxious to get from Prussia, that we may beat her next year with it? Had we not better take from America the principle of liberty she embodies, out of which have come her citizen pride, her gigantic industry, and her formidable loyalty to the destinies ...
— The United States in the Light of Prophecy • Uriah Smith
... cord. This is merely a cord with a running noose at one end and a piece of wood at the other, to offer a better hold for the hand. ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture
... destruction of life is the spectacle of innumerable species profiting by a life, parasitic or predatory, at the expense of others. The parasites refute the vulgar prejudice that evolution is by the measure of man, progressive; adaptation is indifferent to better or worse, except as to each species, that its offspring shall survive by atrophy and degradation. The predatory species flourish as if in derision of moral maxims; we see that though human morality is natural to man, it is far from expressing the whole of Nature. Animals, ...
— Theism or Atheism - The Great Alternative • Chapman Cohen
... took on a German construction, from time to time. He was plainly excited now. "My playing began to improve. There would be a ghastly scene with Olga—sickening—degrading. Then I would go to my work, and I would play, but magnificently! I tell you, it would be playing. I know. To fool myself I know better. One morning, after a dreadful quarrel I got the idea for the concerto, and the psalms. Jewish music. As Jewish as the Kol Nidre. I wanted to express the passion, and fire, and history of a people. My people. Why was that? Tell me. Selbst, weiss ...
— Fanny Herself • Edna Ferber
... a division of cavalry from the Army of the Potomac, and on the 4th of August set out in person for Frederick, avoiding Washington, to see for himself just what the situation was, and to make better arrangements for the future. On the 5th of August he joined Hunter on the Monocacy, and at once ordered him to take Wright, Emory, and Crook across the Potomac, to find the enemy, ...
— History of the Nineteenth Army Corps • Richard Biddle Irwin
... words, that he believes, besides all the shame and trouble he hath brought on the office, the King had better have given L100,000 than ever have had him there. He did discourse about some of these discontented Parliament-men, and says that Birch is a false rogue, but that Garraway is a man that hath not been well used by the Court, though ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... joining in their innocent sports for a whole hour at a time. Let me see. This is Wednesday; and we have seven, eight, long holidays before us to be as happy as skylarks in. Now, I am thinking, that, if we would have next New Year's Day find us better and wiser, we could not hit upon a more proper plan for beginning so desirable an end than by spending a part of each day in making ourselves acquainted with the life and character of this good and great man, and, at the close of each evening's ...
— The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-Chief • Morrison Heady
... Don't talk about him—or work either. I shall never want to work again, or think of work, or anything else on earth till—till—What does he matter anyway—or his ideas? It's a free country and a man has the right to plan his life his own way. If he wants to get the best out of me, he'd better give me five hundred a year to-morrow and tell me ...
— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts
... her who can look after her better than we can; we have a right to her, at all events, and we will do our best for the little maiden," responded Adam, ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston
... prescriptions of impaired authorities, which was then beginning to absorb the energies of the Greek intellect, is the grandest movement in the profane annals of mankind, for to it we owe, even after the immeasurable progress accomplished by Christianity, much of our philosophy and far the better part of the political knowledge we possess. Pericles, who was at the head of the Athenian Government, was the first statesman who encountered the problem which the rapid weakening of traditions forced on the political world. No authority ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton
... many excellences; for instance, the snow falleth white from heaven, and it is traditional-that the beautifullest of a colours white. The Moslems also glory in white turbands, but I should be tedious, were I to tell all that may be told in praise of white; little and enough is better than too much of unfilling stuff. So now I will begin with thy dispraise, O black, O colour of ink and blacksmith's dust, thou whose face is like the raven which bringeth about the parting of lovers. Verily, the poet saith in praise of white ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton
... all men recognise them and crave an expression of them. Nothing is truer, on the lowest and most practical plane, than the old declaration that men do not live by bread alone; they sometimes exist on bread, because nothing better is to be had at the moment; but they live only in the full and free play of all their activities, in the complete expression not only of what is most pressing in interest and importance at a given time, but of that which is potential and possible at ...
— Books and Culture • Hamilton Wright Mabie
... Nevertheless I can assure the reader that, though I have found it an irksome task to take up work which I thought I had got rid of thirty years ago, and much of which I am ashamed of, I have done my best to make the new matter savour so much of the better portions of the old, that none but the best critics shall perceive at what places the gaps of between thirty and forty ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler
... well-wishers and friends spoke to him, saying: "It were proper that you either read the Koran throughout or offer an animal in sacrifice, in order that the Most High God may restore him to health." After a short reflection within himself he answered, "It is better to read the Koran, which is ready at hand; and my herds are at a distance." A good and holy man heard this and remarked: "He makes choice of the reading part because the Koran slips glibly over ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous
... that amounted at times to positive hatred. Yet he could say nothing, for he could not but acknowledge that, beside Dawes, he was incapable. He even submitted to take orders from this escaped convict—it was so evident that the escaped convict knew better than he. Sylvia began to look upon Dawes as a second Bates. He was, moreover, all her own. She had an interest in him, for she had nursed and protected him. If it had not been for her, this prodigy would not have lived. He ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... number of wires has had marked effect in diminishing the delays which at first occurred through paucity of trunk lines, but as the business is constantly increasing, the department is still looked to for additional lines. That the better accommodation is appreciated, however, is indicated by the fact that now the Bristol conversations average nearly 1,500 a day, or considerably over a quarter of a million a year. On Sundays the trunk telephones are available, but ...
— The King's Post • R. C. Tombs
... of the merchant's death has quite upset our royal master, and caused him sad distress. Would it not be better to fetch the worthy Ma[t.]havya from the Palace ...
— Sakoontala or The Lost Ring - An Indian Drama • Kalidasa
... closed. The circular window over the altar upon which a new roof seems to be intruding is in reality the interloper: the roof is the original one, and the window was cut later, in defiance of good architecture, by Vasari, who, since he was a pupil of Michelangelo, should have known better. To him was entrusted the restoration of the church in the middle of ...
— A Wanderer in Florence • E. V. Lucas
... addition to this, there was a real fear in England lest Piedmont should pay dearly for what was considered its rashness. The British Government put the question to Cavour, whether it would not be better to disarm the opposition of Austria by depriving her of every plausible reason for combating the policy of Piedmont? He replied that only Count Solaro de la Margherita and his friends could live on amicable ...
— Cavour • Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco
... accepted) women retained a very high position and much freedom, both before and after marriage, to a late period. "Every woman," it was said, "is to go the way she willeth freely," and after marriage "she enjoyed a better position and greater freedom of divorce than was afforded either by the Christian Church or English ...
— The Truth About Woman • C. Gasquoine Hartley
... feel that the cost was much greater than the result. But no man can look at the past of the history of this world without seeing a vision of the future of the history of this world; and when you think of the accumulated moral forces that have made one age better than another age in the progress of mankind, then you can open your eyes to the vision. You can see that age by age, though with a blind struggle in the dust of the road, though often mistaking the path and losing its way in the mire, mankind is yet—sometimes with bloody hands and battered ...
— President Wilson's Addresses • Woodrow Wilson
... there's no use of my staying here now. I'm going to New York, and maybe I'll come back when I've had a look at the great white way. I've got the coin, and I gave him the mit to-night. If you haven't anything better to do, drop in at the Bagatelle and give Walters my love, and tell them not to worry at home. There's no use trying to trail me. ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... a Monastery in Italy, talking with me said—'Melius est habere nullam quam aliquem—It is better to have none than any woman.' I asked him what he meant; he replied, 'Because, when a person is not tied to one, he may make use of many;' and his practice was conformable to his doctrine; for he slept in the same bed with three young women every night. He was a most insatiable ...
— Awful Disclosures - Containing, Also, Many Incidents Never before Published • Maria Monk
... to hear those lectures with indifference; nay, sometimes they got the better of his temper; and as the instances were not always amiable, provoked, on his part, some reflections, which I am persuaded his good-nature would else ...
— The Man of Feeling • Henry Mackenzie
... to be wedded to a compound of the most hideous deformity! "Soon enough!" To blot out the memory of the pure and immortal one, and to link herself to a revolting and miserable object! It were better to be lying peacefully beneath the green earth than to walk about a living corpse, with but the semblance of animation. What mockery it seemed to her as she stood by the silent dead! The pet name, too, was almost an insult to the pure and loving heart that had smothered its springing affections, ...
— The Elm Tree Tales • F. Irene Burge Smith
... was greatly lamented by the Nestorians. The bishops said to the afflicted husband, "We will bury her in the church, where none but holy men are buried;" and her death produced a subdued and tender spirit throughout the large circle of her acquaintance. This better state of feeling continued through the year, especially ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson
... I seek, protecting Power! Be my vain wishes still'd; And may this consecrated hour With better hopes be fill'd. ...
— Poems (1786), Volume I. • Helen Maria Williams
... flow of power. Many a time lack of instruction regarding the cultivation of the Spirit's friendship has resulted in just such a break. And so a new start is necessary. Then a full surrender is followed by a new experience or, shall I better say, a re-experience of the Spirit's presence. And this new experience sometimes is so sharply marked as to begin a new epoch in the life. Some of the notable leaders of the Church have gone through just ...
— Quiet Talks on Power • S.D. Gordon
... of that, my dear," he said, returning the invitation to Hoskins. "Your historical sense has been awakened late, but it promises to be very active. Lily had better go, by all means, and I shall depend upon her coming home with very full notes upon ...
— A Fearful Responsibility and Other Stories • William D. Howells
... prosecute my story to the last; And for the same, I, hours not few did spend, And weary lines (though lanke) I many pen'd: But 'fore I could accomplish my desire My papers fell a prey to th' raging fire. And thus my pains with better things I lost, Which none had cause to wail, nor I to boast. No more I'le do, sith I have suffer'd wrack, Although my Monarchies their legs do lack: No matter is't this last, the world now sees Hath many Ages ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell
... to look here, sir, but you tell me nothing. I ask you plain questions. Have you nothing better than, "Look here"? Is it the fact that these papers were served on you at Brighton on the occasion ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... our duty to extend our wishes to the happiness of the great Family of Man, I concede we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the World—That the rod of tyrants may be broken into pieces, and the oppressed made Free—That wars may cease in all the Earth, and that the confusions that are and have been among the Nations ...
— The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 4 • Samuel Adams
... better texts (i.e., of Boulak and Calcutta) there are no less than about two hundred and fifty stories; some long, others short. There is no direct order in which they follow one upon the other. The chief story may at any moment suggest a subordinate ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner
... all-Merciful God, suffer me to die that I may be reborn a wiser and a better man. Of Thine infinite mercy guide the steps of Yvonne who was my wife. Grant her the happiness for which she sought and which I denied her. To those who wait give faith and fortitude: to me, O God, ...
— The Orchard of Tears • Sax Rohmer
... told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a fresh reverse about six weeks or two months hence, when the returned lists of the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the late failures here, come home. The Western Bank of ...
— Lord George Bentinck - A Political Biography • Benjamin Disraeli |
