"Diffusive" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... du 9 Thermidor," (as stated by Daunou).—Meillan, "Memoires," p.4. "His eloquence was nothing but diffusive declamation without order or method, and especially with no conclusions. Every time he spoke we were obliged to ask him what he was driving at..... Never did he propose any remedy. He left the task of finding expedients to others, and especially ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... that enter at the Eye, except Colours; but at the same time it is very much streightned and confined in its Operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular Objects. Our Sight seems designed to supply all these Defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of Touch, that spreads it self over an infinite Multitude of Bodies, comprehends the largest Figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote Parts of ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... except colors; but at the same time it is very much strained, and confined in its operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects. Our sight seems designed to supply all these defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of touch, that spreads itself over an infinite multitude of bodies, comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote ...
— Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism • F. V. N. Painter
... successful of all his tragedies, for it still keeps its turn upon the stage. It may be doubted whether he was, either by the bent of nature or habits of study, much qualified for tragedy. It does not appear that he had much sense of the pathetic; and his diffusive and descriptive style produced declamation rather than dialogue. His friend Mr. Lyttelton was now in power, and conferred upon him the office of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands; from which, when his deputy was ...
— Lives of the Poets: Gay, Thomson, Young, and Others • Samuel Johnson
... from the god received The glorious gift of Jove, And with fond embracement clasped her, Thrilled by potent love; And in loving dalliance with her Lived from day to day, While her bounteous smiles diffusive Scared ...
— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson
... stormed, that it penetrated into every secret recess that mercy casually opened, and gently stirred into fuller life those roots of human feeling that can be numbed by apathy but not killed even by hate, I know that it was persuasive, diffusive, inbreathing force, an influence vital in others because an effluence ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still
... to be inquired, my lords, whether the reports of fame are necessarily or even probably true? A question very intricate and diffusive, entangled with a thousand, and involving a thousand, distinctions; a question of which it may be said, that a man may very plausibly maintain either side, and of which, perhaps, after months or years wasted in disputation, no other decision can be obtained than what is ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 10. - Parlimentary Debates I. • Samuel Johnson
... seems funny enough to think of such a thing. The fact is, it is much easier to me to speak than to write. I think I could learn with a good deal of leisure and trouble to write intelligibly, but not without it. I am so diffusive and wanting in close condensed habits of thought. How often I go off in a multitude of words, and really say nothing worthy to ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge
... gambler: he had not that specific disease in which the suspension of the whole nervous energy on a chance or risk becomes as necessary as the dram to the drunkard; he had only the tendency to that diffusive form of gambling which has no alcoholic intensity, but is carried on with the healthiest chyle-fed blood, keeping up a joyous imaginative activity which fashions events according to desire, and having no fears about its own weather, only ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... for the morning shines with welcome ray, And to the sunny seabeach let us stray. What orient hues proclaim the master's hand! How light the wave upon the half-wet sand! How beautiful the sun, as still we gaze, Streams all diffusive through the opening haze! Artist—when to the thunder's pealing sound, Fire mixed with hailstones ran upon the ground, When partial darkness the dread prospect hid, And sole aspired the aged pyramid— Sublimity thy genius seemed to guide O'er Egypt's champaign, ...
— The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 • William Lisle Bowles
... of Wisdom, Eternal Light of the Universe! what Adorations can express the grateful Acknowledgments of thy diffusive Bounty! Who can contemplate the beauty of thy Works, the Product of thy single Fiat, and not acknowledge thy Omnipotence, Omniscience, and extensive Goodness! What Tongue can refrain from singing thy Praise! What ...
— A Voyage to Cacklogallinia - With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners of That Country • Captain Samuel Brunt
... more essential elements in the idea of real love. Again, De Quincey speaks of Shelley's "fearlessness, his gracious nature, his truth, his purity from all flesh-liness of appetite, his freedom from vanity, his diffusive love and tenderness." This testimony is worth much, the more especially when we remember that it is from the pen of Thomas de Quincey, who, while truthfully acknowledging the man, hesitates not to use polished irony, rough ...
— Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers - Reprinted From an English Work, Entitled "Half-Hours With - The Freethinkers." • Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts |
