"Laugh" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... others he gave to the other animals, giving all but the last to Frog. But the shortest one was left. Man cried out, "What animal have I missed?" Then the animals began to look about and found Coyote fast asleep, with his eyelids pinned together. All the animals began to laugh, and they jumped upon Coyote and danced upon him. Then they led him to Man, still blinded, and Man pulled out the sharp sticks and gave him the shortest bow of all. It would hardly shoot an arrow farther than a foot. All the ...
— Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest • Katharine Berry Judson
... years of age, broken hearted for the loss of his daughter, to whom it was no doubt allowed among his friends to praise himself with the garrulity of years, because it was understood that he had been unequalled in the matter of which he was speaking. It is easy for us to laugh at his boastings; but the account which he gives of his early life, and of the manner in which he attained the excellence for which he had been celebrated, is ...
— Life of Cicero - Volume One • Anthony Trollope
... laugh at me," she said, in her artless way, "if I were to dress as your countrywomen; and such I wish to become;" and Rolfe told her honestly that in his eyes she would be lovely however habited. She showed her satisfaction in a way he ...
— The Settlers - A Tale of Virginia • William H. G. Kingston
... believe that it was necessary to pay the slave-owners for the loss it was supposed they would sustain. But it was found to be a baseless fear, and the only result of the phantom so conjured up was a payment of twenty millions to the conjurors. (Hear, and a laugh.) Now, I maintain that had we known what we now know of the character of the negroes, neither would this compensation have been given to the slave-owners, nor we have been guilty of proposing to keep the negro in slavery five years, after we were decided that ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... a general soft laugh. Everybody was pleased. All admired, hated, and envied the Duke. It was settled beyond a doubt that he was an impostor,—and that the Denslows were either grossly taken in, or were "selling" their friends. In either case, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various
... common people. Its peculiarities in pronunciation, syntax, phraseology, and the use of words we are inclined to avoid in our own speech, because they mark a lack of cultivation. We test them by the standards of polite society, and ignore them, or condemn them, or laugh at them as abnormal or illogical or indicative of ignorance. So far as literature goes, the speech of the common people has little interest for us because it is not the recognized literary medium. These two reasons have ...
— The Common People of Ancient Rome - Studies of Roman Life and Literature • Frank Frost Abbott
... foretold have come to pass: the husband takes care of the children, while the wife goes out to vote! Then would the funny artist snatch up his pencil, and the funny editor his quill. It has always been a mystery to me where the laugh came in on this joke. True, it is not his calling; but what is there so very incongruous in a father's "taking care" of his own children? Fathers love their children, and will toil night and day for them, even for the very small ones. Is there any thing ridiculous, ...
— A Domestic Problem • Abby Morton Diaz
... while the Imagination cannot but be serious—she sees too far, too darkly, too solemnly, too earnestly, to smile often! There is something in the heart of everything, if we can reach it, at which we shall not be inclined to laugh. Those who have the deepest sympathies are those who pierce deepest, and those who have so pierced and seen the melancholy deeps of things, are filled with the most intense passion and gentleness ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. IV. October, 1863, No. IV. - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various
... Pedro, with a laugh, "well, it is almost unpronounceable. Perhaps you had better call him by the name he goes by among his friends—Spotted Tiger, ...
— The Rover of the Andes - A Tale of Adventure on South America • R.M. Ballantyne
... not reply, and the Very Young Man waited silent. Once one of the men laughed—a laugh that drifted out into the immense distances of the room in great waves of sound. Aura gripped ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings
... seemed to laugh with gayety as they drove down the Promenade des Anglais and past the English garden, where the band was playing beneath the acacias and palm-trees. On one side was a line of bright-windowed hotels and pensions, with balconies and striped awnings; on the other, the long reach of yellow sand-beach, ...
— What Katy Did Next • Susan Coolidge
... at Eulenspiegel: his portrait makes thee laugh. What wouldst thou do, if thou couldst see the jester himself? But Till is a picture and mirror of this world. He left many a brother behind. We are great fools In thinking that we are the greatest sages: Therefore laugh at thyself, as this ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853 • Various
... Little Billy. "You and I, with our minds freed of superstition, may laugh—but Sails, I think, believes in his visions. And, to tell you the truth, your words gave me something of a start at first. I have known MacLean a long time, you know. Last voyage, he told me one day ...
— Fire Mountain - A Thrilling Sea Story • Norman Springer
... the Doctor with a laugh, "but the approval of my conscience—or of my reason, which stands in its place—is necessary to my happiness, so I change my principles whenever my acts don't accord ...
— The Pagans • Arlo Bates
... like a wild flower blown by the wind. He is like the violets that laugh in spring ...
— For Greater Things: The story of Saint Stanislaus Kostka • William T. Kane, S.J.
... fear, ... whose joy in their babies ... is three parts pain.... The South is full of ... thousands of little boys who one day may be, and some of whom will be lynched." "And the babies, the dear, little, helpless babies ... have that sooner or later to look to. They will laugh and play and sing and grow up, and ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 • Various
... which she had promised Sitt el Milah, saying, "O Commander of the Faithful, I doubt me her lord is not found in this world; but, if she go about in quest of him and find him not, her hopes will be cut off and her mind will be set at rest and she will sport and laugh; for that, what while she abideth in hope, she will never cease from her frowardness." And she gave not over cajoling him till he gave Sitt el Milah leave to go forth and make search for her lord a month's space and ordered her an ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne
... that," returned Stubbs; "but some time I am bound to get the worst of it. Then I suppose you'll laugh." ...
— The Boy Allies in the Trenches - Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne • Clair Wallace Hayes
... mountain into proper ways, and to subdue the spirit of the wilderness that it diffused on every side. I had its lower channel across the place (K K) cleared out, thinking that this might answer for the present; and the gurgle of the little streamlet along the bottom of the ditch seemed a low laugh at the idea of its ever filling the three square feet of space above it. Deceitful little brook! Its innocent babble contained no suggestion of its hoarse roar on a March day, the following spring, as it tore its way along, scooping the stones and gravel ...
— Success With Small Fruits • E. P. Roe
... danger of being convicted of it, and, in his opinion, all the worst of the evils which had fallen on the Marchese were at an end. That was the only really irreparable mischief; the city would have its laugh at the Marchese for his sensibility to the charms of such a charmer as the singer. But even that would be quenched by the startling change of the comedy into a tragedy. The Marchese had shown that he was no wiser than many another man; and it would be but a nine days' wonder; ...
— A Siren • Thomas Adolphus Trollope
... of Whittle. A man of good plain sense, who tries to laugh the old beau out of his ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
... must perceive that there is an incongruity in my conduct, difficult to explain; but still, through all these mazes and windings, I trust that truth and constancy will be found at the bottom. You may probably laugh at the idea, but I really felt jealous of my father's praises so lavishly bestowed on Miss Somerville; and not supposing he was aware of my attachment, I began to fear he had pretensions of his own. He is a widower, healthy, and not old; and it appeared to me that he only ...
— Frank Mildmay • Captain Frederick Marryat
... knights to far lands. You are my knight, Chris, and you can do no wrong. Your will is my wish. I was once afraid of the censure of the world. Now that you have come into my life I am no longer afraid. I would laugh at the world and its censure for your sake—for my sake too. I would laugh, for I should have you, and you are more to me than the good will and approval of the world. If you say ...
— Moon-Face and Other Stories • Jack London
... inclined to hunt out his failings, the more inclined to admire his worth. A shrewd, sound-hearted, affectionate man, with a strong love of right and scorn of wrong, and a humour withal which saved him—except on really great occasions—from bitterness, and helped him to laugh where narrower natures would have only snarled,—he is, in many respects, a type of those Lowland Scots, who long preserved his jokes, genuine or reputed, as a common household book. {328} A schoolmaster by profession, and struggling for long years amid the temptations ...
— Health and Education • Charles Kingsley
... said, pressing inward at her waistline to abet laughter, following him voluntarily enough, and her voice rising. "You make me laugh. You make me laugh." ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst
... in Washington sent this thing down without any covering instructions, but it has to be opened in a hurry in a thin atmosphere. Er—I'd like you to stay on the intercom for a while in case it blows up in my face or something." He tried to laugh, but all that came out was ...
— Warning from the Stars • Ron Cocking
... and I shall grumble as much and as long as I please," cried the old gentleman snappishly; "and you, Lawrence, if you laugh at me, sir, I'll knock you off your horse. Here, what was the use of our buying weapons of war, if we are ...
— Yussuf the Guide - The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor • George Manville Fenn
... with her hornes pale, Saturn, and Jove, in Cancer joined were, That made such a rain from heav'n avail,* *descend That ev'ry manner woman that was there Had of this smoky rain a very fear; At which Pandarus laugh'd, and saide then "Now were it time a lady ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer
... for the fright I had gone through, by seeing the great fat padre pulled over. It was certainly a ludicrous sight, and I laughed the more, as I fancied the old fellow had taken occasion to laugh at me. He took it all in good part, however, telling me that it caused him no fear, as he had long been accustomed to those kind ...
— The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid
... "Madam Shippen was here one day with big Miss Peggy, who can laugh and be gay like any little girl, and who is so pretty—not like my dear mother in the frame, but—oh, I can't find a word, and I am learning so many new ones, too. But one would just like to kneel at her feet, ...
— A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... fear crept into Urrea's eyes, as the two antagonists stared at each other. But it was only for a few minutes. Then he looked away with a shrug and a laugh. ...
— The Texan Scouts - A Story of the Alamo and Goliad • Joseph A. Altsheler
... laugh followed this sally, and the Reverend Superior went off merrily, as he hastened to catch up with the Governor, who had moved on to another point in ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... friend," answered the professor, "it is all very well for you, who have a lovely wife and a sweet little daughter, to laugh at me. But I am a bachelor; I have no wife, no daughter, no domestic ties of any sort to beguile my restless nature and render me content to settle down in the monotonous placidity of a home; I must always be occupied in some exciting pursuit, or I should go ...
— With Airship and Submarine - A Tale of Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... happen. The first, is love, downright love, on the part of this young girl, for the poor little misshapen man. You may laugh, if you like. But women are apt to love the men who they think have the largest capacity of loving;—and who can love like one that has thirsted all his life long for the smile of youth and beauty, and seen it fly his presence as the wave ebbed from the parched lips of him whose fabled ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 21, July, 1859 • Various
... the largest one. The other slaves laughed and said he was foolish. But he threw it upon his shoulders and seemed well satisfied. The next day, the laugh was the other way. For the bundle which he had chosen had contained the food for the whole party. After all had eaten three meals from it, it was very much lighter. And before the end of the journey Aesop had nothing to carry, while the other slaves were groaning under ...
— Fifty Famous People • James Baldwin
... with a Grand Dance and Chorus, accompanied with Kettledrums and Trumpets." And when the Fair is over, and we are no longer invited to "walk up," let us march in the train of the great Mime, until he takes his ease in his inn,—the Black Jack aforesaid,—and laugh at his jibes and flashes of merriment, before the Mad Wag shall be silenced by the great killjoy, Death, and the jester's boon companions shall lay him in the graveyard in Portugal Fields, placing over him a friendly record of his ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon
... having had the itch; because when I prayed through for healing, I struck the evening light," meaning that he was beginning to discern the unity of God's people. This remark was often followed by a happy, hearty laugh. ...
— Trials and Triumphs of Faith • Mary Cole
... the trend of her thoughts, and in the way things often amuse us without in the least moving us to wish to laugh, he was amused by noting that she was trying to bring herself to stay on, out of consideration for his feelings! He said with a kind of ...
— The Grain Of Dust - A Novel • David Graham Phillips
... girl to the spot; her small hand averted the direction of the deadly weapon, and before the action had been perceived by any present, or the attempt could be resumed, she dropped a curtesy to the assailant, and in a loud voice, with an affected laugh, exclaimed— ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... hesitated, thinking for a moment, then, with a laugh which he thought a little bashful—"it's really too silly ...
— Blue-Bird Weather • Robert W. Chambers
... heard this, he took both his sons-in-law and Suero Gonzlez with them, and went upon the highest tower of the Alcazar, and showed them the great power which King Bucar of Morocco had brought; and when he beheld this great power he began to laugh and was exceeding glad: but Suero Gonzlez and his nephews were in great fear: howbeit they would not let it be seen. And when they came down from the tower the Cid went foremost, and they tarried behind, and said, If we go into this battle we shall never return to Carrion. ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various
... have them meet!" muttered Curtis. "The old gentleman would ask her to come back on any terms, and then all my scheming would be upset. That was a happy invention of mine, about heart disease," he continued, with a low laugh. "Though she only half believed it, she will not dare to run the risk ...
— Adrift in New York - Tom and Florence Braving the World • Horatio Alger
... whipped him soundly if he had not, on the ground that, being much stronger, he ought to. It is singular how ethical standards change." The doctor said this with such a twinkle in his eye that I was obliged to laugh. ...
— Looking Backward - 2000-1887 • Edward Bellamy
... I to do? The man was well off, and had conceived a fancy for the child. As for the world's sneers, if he could afford to laugh at them why should I refuse him the gratification of performing a noble action? I handed the child over to his care, having first procured from him written papers of adoption, and little Beatrice was installed in her new home. A nurse was procured ...
— The Mysteries of Montreal - Being Recollections of a Female Physician • Charlotte Fuhrer
... and if they are not satisfied, next Campaign the English shall stand still, and laugh at their Endeavours; the Dutch Snigger-snee 'em; the Scotch Cook them; and the wild ...
— The Fine Lady's Airs (1709) • Thomas Baker
... it as I find it," replied Steinmetz, with a laugh, "but I do not worry about it like some people. Now, Paul would like to alter the ...
— The Sowers • Henry Seton Merriman
... alarmed," he said, with a short nervous laugh. "The only thing any doctor ever removes from his patient is what is worth the doctor's while. Present day physicians get away with a lot that is no credit to their profession. The main thing that interests them is not the disease, but the sufferer's pocketbook. If they ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper
... that our friend Harriet was so zealous to see Shakspeare's house, when it wasn't his house, and so earnest to get sprigs from his mulberry, when it wasn't his mulberry." We were quite ready to allow the foolishness of the thing, and join the laugh ...
— Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1 (of 2) • Harriet Elizabeth (Beecher) Stowe
... threatned to beate them if they would not do as their maister bad them. The children began to crie, and said that they would tary by that good man, that loued them better then their maister did, wherat the Lady and the Erle began to laugh. The Erle not as a father but like a poore man, rose vp to doe honour to his daughter because shee was a noble woman: conceyuing marueilous ioy in his minde to see her: but she knewe him not at all, neither at that instant, nor after, because ...
— The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 • William Painter
... of us!" But he only replied, "Please take it, Doctor; I am sponger of that gun, and I shall do my duty; but I shall be killed to-night!" Then I took the package and locked it in my desk, thinking as I did so that I would return it to him on the morrow, and have a good laugh ...
— The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1886, Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 6, June, 1886 • Various
... and not to suffer that, which was the greatest Mark of his Respect, to be the Cause of her Hate or Indignation. The pitiful Faces he made, and the Signs of Mortal Fear in him, had almost made her laugh, at least it allay'd her Anger; and she bid him rise and play the fool hereafter somewhere else, and not in her Presence; yet for once she would deign to give him this Satisfaction, that she was got into a Book, which had many moving Stories very well writ; and that she found her self ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn
... a light laugh. That she was the final aim of Wiggins's plans she did not doubt. She saw now that plan clearly, as she thought. It was to gain control of her for purposes of his own in connection with the estate. Under such circumstances Mrs. Dunbar's entreaties seemed silly, and to make any answer was absurd. ...
— The Living Link • James De Mille
... and for a brief holiday, let us laugh and be as pleasant as we can. And you elder folk—a little joking, and dancing, and fooling will do even you no harm. The author wishes you a merry Christmas, and welcomes you to the ...
— The Rose and the Ring • William Makepeace Thackeray
... wholesome to inquire too deeply into a case of the kind. We will remain on the surface. Laugh ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo
... to me will, I dare say, appear at first very extravagant, but before you laugh at it, give me time to explain. It is the existence of a marvelous opal mine in the interior; the precise location of which is known to no one save Adele ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. VI, June, 1862 - Devoted To Literature and National Policy • Various
... very moment, and just as he was turning to another tree, a little chuckling laugh fell on his ear. It was such a strange sound in the stillness of the garden, and it seemed so close to him, that he started violently and dropped his knife. Where did it come from? He looked vaguely up in the sky, and down on the earth—there ...
— A Pair of Clogs • Amy Walton
... but take care you do not laugh the other way," said the younger man, who had worked himself into a fury, and was all the madder on account of the cynical indifference of his antagonist. "I tell you I had nothing to do with it; it was your scheme and Lind's; I did as I was bid. I tell ...
— Sunrise • William Black
... a laugh. "This ain' t no thin' at all, this is nothin' but child's play. Wait till yer see it hot and heavy. I s'pose we shall go back to-morrow, though. I'd like to have yer see some ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5 • Various
... know that," Mrs. Waldo replied with her low, sweet laugh. "Faith is often more useful in helping us to live than in preparing us to die. It saved my life, too, I'm sure, after my husband died. I had no right to die then, for Vincent and, far more, my daughters, ...
— Miss Lou • E. P. Roe
... that she and a girl friend of about the same age overheard the father of one of them—both well brought up and carefully protected, one Catholic and the other Protestant—referring to "those innocent children." "We did laugh so, WE and innocent children!!! What our fathers really think of us; we innocent!!! At dinner we did not dare look at one another or we should have exploded." It need scarcely be added that, at the same time, they were more innocent ...
— Little Essays of Love and Virtue • Havelock Ellis
... Coffee-House daily bestows! To read and hear how the World merrily goes; To laugh, sing and prattle of This, That, and T' other; And be flatter'd and ogl'd and ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers
... village green, the source of so much innocent happiness, is no more; and a recent writer has observed that the ordinary existence of agricultural labourers is so dull that in East Anglia they have almost forgotten how to laugh! ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield
... dressmakers to Berlin, and the monsters ask my advice. They wish to know of me how they are to demean themselves toward the members of the guild. The new French dressmaker asks advice of me, of the court dressmaker Pricker! Ha, ha, ha! is not that laughable?" And Mr. Pricker broke out into a loud, wild laugh, which made his friends shudder, and then sunk slowly into the arms of the glover. His son William, who had been a witness of this scene, hurried to his father's assistance, and carried him into ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... captain, officers, and men of the ship, with their caps in their hands, the reader might be reminded of the picture of the "Monkey who had seen the World" surrounded by his tribe. There was not, however, the least inclination on the part of the seamen to laugh, even at his flowing, full-bottomed wig: respect was at that period paid to dress; and although Mynheer Von Stroom could not be mistaken for a sailor, he was known to be the supercargo of the Company, and a very great man. ...
— The Phantom Ship • Captain Frederick Marryat
... text-books—and at home they had no candles, so he used to work with his back to the fire—half the night. My father used to call him a regular little Honest Abe. That's a surprise to you, isn't it," she added with a hard little laugh. ...
— The Harbor • Ernest Poole
... inventor of the "Noyades," which had been so successful at Lyons and Marseilles. "Why not give the inhabitants of Paris one of these exhilarating spectacles?" he asked with a coarse, brutal laugh. ...
— The Elusive Pimpernel • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... characteristic: she was careful to hide the traces of her behavior, and the habit was so strong that it extended to things innocent as slumber. Letting her hands drop to the sofa, she yawned and shook her head from side to side with that short laugh by which we express amusement at our own comfort ...
— The Mettle of the Pasture • James Lane Allen
... in solitude, she despises the society she cannot do without. "Men and women appear to me puppets who go, come, talk, laugh, without thinking, without reflecting, without feeling," she writes. She confesses that she has a thousand troubles in assembling a choice company of people who bore her to death. "One sees only masks, one hears only lies," is her constant refrain. She does not want to live, but ...
— The Women of the French Salons • Amelia Gere Mason
... White had a powerful capacity for ordered work. There was "a time to work and a time to play, a time to laugh and a time to weep." Nor did he acquire this from Sir Joseph Flavelle, with whom he was so long and intimately associated. He had it from the cradle, which he must have left at the appointed time ...
— The Masques of Ottawa • Domino
... too, but your desire makes me laugh; for I would rather not be turned into a woman to please you, especially as I expect I should not think you nearly as beautiful. Sit down, my dear, and let me see your fine hair flowing over your ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... things, and gentle—the sweet laugh Of children, Girlhood's kiss, and Friendship's clasp, The boy that sporteth with the old man's staff, The baby, and the breast its fingers grasp— All that exalts the grounds of happiness, All griefs that hallow, and all joys ...
— Poems of Henry Timrod • Henry Timrod
... himself until Czecho-Slovak was invented, and he plumped for that. He has the degree of Master of Arts; what arts I don't know; probably the black ones. His inner knowledge of the human species seems to give him plenty to laugh at. He notices everything, forgets nothing, and there is never a weakness in a man but he is on to it. He made up his mind that those secret instructions were passing and set about to find how they passed and what they were. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, October 27, 1920 • Various
... all very fine to laugh, but we shall be had up to the Doctor's desk this morning, and he'll want to know ...
— Burr Junior • G. Manville Fenn
... Still he could not be quite serious, and a smile played all round his huge beak. Dot could see that he was nearly bursting with suppressed laughter. He kept on saying, under his breath, "what a joke this is! What a capital joke! How they'll all laugh when I tell them." Just as if it was the funniest thing in the world to have a Snake coiled up on one's body—when the horrid thing might bite one with its poisonous fangs, at ...
— Dot and the Kangaroo • Ethel C. Pedley
... and the king himself could not refrain from smiling. Von Eckert's countenance had become pale and lowering, and casting an angry look at Von Pollnitz, he said, with a forced laugh: ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... fye, your company Must fall upon him and beat him; he's too fair i'faith, To make the people laugh. ...
— A History of Pantomime • R. J. Broadbent
... dutifully, "Oh no, sir." But she did not tell him what the "tea" was, and certainly she offered none of it to old Hannah. All that day there was a shy joyousness about her, with sudden soft blushes, and once or twice a little half-frightened laugh; there was a puzzled look, too, in her face, as if she was not quite sure just what she was going to do, or rather, how she was going to do it. And, of course, that was the difficulty. How could she "add the philter to the drink of one who ...
— The Voice • Margaret Deland
... of laugh. Nigel twitched on the divan like a man supremely irritated, then looked from one doctor to the other with eyes that included ...
— Bella Donna - A Novel • Robert Hichens
... retorted with a little flutter of a laugh. "My French heel caught on the stair; it was torn away. ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis
... punctured by Collins's irreverent attack upon their cry of religious uniformity, a cry which was "ridiculous, romantick, and impossible to succeed." He saw himself, in short, as an emancipated Butler or even Cervantes; and like his famous predecessors he too would laugh quite out of countenance the fool and the hypocrite, the pretender and the enthusiast, the knave and the persecuter, all those who would create a god in their ...
— A Discourse Concerning Ridicule and Irony in Writing (1729) • Anthony Collins
... school-fellows,—when brought home, I stole from my father and mother. I have long wished to rob on the high-way; the fear of death did not prevent me. The worst kind of death is the rack, but by going to see every execution, I have learnt to laugh even at the rack. When young, it alarmed me, but habit has done away ...
— Travels in France during the years 1814-1815 • Archibald Alison
... Then came the laugh again, repeated a number of times and coming now from directly over their heads where the branches of a great beech tree swept almost to the ground. Rudolf and Ann looked up just in time to catch sight of the queer little creatures who were looking down at them from between the beech leaves. ...
— The Wonderful Bed • Gertrude Knevels
... foolish little man! Laugh at him, Donkey, if you can: And Cat and Dog, and Cow and Calf Come, ev'ry one ...
— Aunt Kitty's Stories • Various
... laugh of triumph broke from her red lips as she returned to the parlor, when the portieres between it and the room were swept aside, and Emil Correlli himself walked ...
— The Masked Bridal • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... want further information," frowned the Captain, with a scornful laugh, "come in and I'll give it to you—just as ...
— Boy Scouts in a Submarine • G. Harvey Ralphson
... surrendered his daughter. In real life of course it is different. I know a colour-sergeant, and somehow I rather think that if I—but never mind. In Mr. JACOBS' beautiful world, as it is with Mr. Farrer so is it with Peter Russet, with Ginger Dick and with Sam Small. They know when the laugh is against them, and, waiving the appeal to force or to law, they grumble but retire. There is one exercise in the gruesome in Night Watches, but it hardly shows Mr. JACOBS at his best in this particular vein. There are also several charming illustrations by Mr. STANLEY DAVIS, executed with ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 11, 1914 • Various
... that sang like that. It rose and swelled, and died away and swelled again; and now I thought it was like someone weeping, only prettier; and now I thought it was like harps; and there was one thing I made sure of, it was a sight too sweet to be wholesome in a place like that. You may laugh if you like; but I declare I called to mind the six young ladies that came, with their scarlet necklaces, out of the cave at Fanga-anaana, and wondered if they sang like that. We laugh at the natives and their superstitions; ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... through the quarters, and he heard Darry at his prayin'," said Margaret. "Darry he don't mind to keep his prayers secret, he don't," she added, with a half laugh. "Spect nothin' but they'll bust the walls o' ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell
... prince of the revels bestowed a smart blow with the flat of the weapon across the bonnet maker's shoulders, who sprung to his feet with more alacrity of motion than he had hitherto displayed, and, accelerated by the laugh and halloo which arose behind him, arrived at the smith's house before he stopped, with the same speed with which a hunted fox makes for ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott
... her excitement she could laugh, and the humor presently became an acute infection for every one was shouting at the comedy of the rocks. And Kitty looked so funny. She was dressed up, had shoes and stockings on, and a "warmed over" hat, with pathetically drooping roses around it; and then ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis
... of the piece. I gave the whole thing in a mouthful, and started for my seat, got halfway there and remembered I had forgotten to bow, turned, went back to the platform, bowed with a jerk, started again for my seat, and hearing some one laugh, ran. ...
— Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... worth speaking! Through life we find him to have been regarded as an altogether solid, brotherly, genuine man. A serious, sincere character; yet amiable, cordial, companionable, jocose even;—a good laugh in him withal: there are men whose laugh is as untrue as anything about them; who cannot laugh. One hears of Mohammed's beauty: his fine sagacious honest face, brown florid complexion, beaming black eyes;—I somehow like ...
— Sacred Books of the East • Various
... long as Carthage had the stronger navy; so they began to build one of their own. They copied a Carthaginian war galley that had been wrecked; and meanwhile taught their men to row on benches set up ashore. This made the Carthaginians laugh and led them to expect an easy victory. But the Romans were thorough in everything they did, and they had the best trained soldiers in the world. They knew the Carthaginians could handle war galleys better than they could themselves; so they tried to give their ...
— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood
... the great stained glass window. Between them was an ancient cask, which seemed to be full of wine; for the younger Giant, clapping his huge hand upon it, and throwing up his mighty leg, burst into an exulting laugh, which reverberated through the hall ...
— Master Humphrey's Clock • Charles Dickens
... would all the girls say! How they would laugh, to hear of Hilda Graham living on a farm among pigs and hens and dirty people! Oh! it was intolerable; and she sprang up and paced the floor, with ...
— Queen Hildegarde • Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
... We laugh at the artless words. Tulacque intervenes, and says indulgently to Tiloir, "They don't know what war is back there; and if you started talking about the rear, it'd be ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... gloating laugh, as he rubbed his hands together after the manner of one performing an ablution. "It means, John," he answered, in a voice of oily softness, "that at last I have caught you napping. The Eureka Paper Company is my ...
— The Challenge of the North • James Hendryx
... indulged him, and so folks told them. The little Cambremer, seeing that he was never thwarted, grew as vicious as a red ass. When they told pere Cambremer, 'Your son has nearly killed little such a one,' he would laugh and say: 'Bah! he'll be a bold sailor; he'll command the king's fleets.'—Another time, 'Pierre Cambremer, did you know your lad very nearly put out the eye of the little Pougard girl?'—'Ha! he'll like the girls,' said Pierre. Nothing troubled him. At ...
— A Drama on the Seashore • Honore de Balzac
... expected from Oswald Langdon. Alice and Charles seem forgetful of all former experiences. The attraction is mutual. They talk and laugh as though no shadow ever crossed the path of either or hung like a menacing cloud over that Northfield household. Alice heard of Oswald's escape and romantic conduct. She so long had thought of him as dead that these reports sound ...
— Oswald Langdon - or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 • Carson Jay Lee
... no wish to offer himself as a tidbit. And he felt quite safe down in his home, for he was quick to learn that the hens were no diggers. They could only scratch the surface of the ground. So, in time, he used to laugh when he heard them. And now and then he would even fiddle a bit, as if to say to them, "Here I am! Come and get me ...
— The Tale of Chirpy Cricket • Arthur Scott Bailey
... Dick gave the wild horse his second lesson, and his name. He called him "Charlie," after a much-loved companion in the Mustang Valley. And long and heartily did Dick Varley laugh as he told the horse his future designation in the presence of Crusoe, for it struck him as somewhat ludicrous that a mustang which, two days ago, pawed the earth in all the pride of independent freedom, should suddenly come down so low as to carry ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... land of peace. Of course, in attempting to deceive game, one must always guard against approaching down wind, for most animals grow more frantic over the scent than they do over the sight of man. Later on, when I went hunting with Oo-koo-hoo, he used to make me laugh, for at one moment he would be a jolly old Indian gentleman, and just as likely as not the next instant he would be posing as a rotten pine stump that had been violently overturned, and now resembled an object against which a bear might like to rub ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... She had received but slight damage from the cannonade, opened on her by the Ypsilante, during the storming of the fort, and none after she got outside the harbour, so that the pirates were able to laugh at ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... of laughter interrupted him. It reminded me of Jock, except that Mr. O'Brien's laugh had such a flavour of ill-nature. The man might or might not be what I suspected, ...
— The Man From the Clouds • J. Storer Clouston
... "at the twentieth hour, we bled Madama on the right foot. It was exceedingly difficult to accomplish it, and we could not have done it but for the Duke of Romagna, who held her foot. Her Majesty spent two hours with the duke, who made her laugh and cheered her greatly." Lucretia had a codicil added to her will, which she had made before leaving for Ferrara, in the presence of her brother's secretary and some monks. She, however, recovered. Caesar remained with her two days ...
— Lucretia Borgia - According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day • Ferdinand Gregorovius
... than at these hours of supposed rest? Grim walls, with dimpled children sleeping behind them! Places of merrymaking athrob with music and dazzling with jets of incandescent light, with grief in the heart of the dancer and despair making raucous the enforced laugh! ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green
... off with a laugh, and looked round him. There was a ring in his voice suggestive of a keen excitement. Could Percy Roden, after all, be an enthusiast? Cornish glanced at him uneasily. In Cornish's world sincere enthusiasm was so rare that ...
— Roden's Corner • Henry Seton Merriman
... money, pestered the police, and exposed himself to the ridicule of the men and the indignation of the women for the last three months in trying to achieve his insane purpose, and is now as far from it as ever. He will not assign to anybody the smallest motive for his conduct. You can't laugh him out of it or reason him out of it. When we met him just now, I happen to know that he was on his way to the office of the police minister, to send out fresh agents to search and inquire through the Roman States for the ...
— The Queen of Hearts • Wilkie Collins
... own pangs were redoubled, as were also his, if I might judge by a fresh contortion of his visage. All the inequalities of my spirits are communicated to him, causing the unfortunate Monsieur du Miroir to mope and scowl through a whole summer's day, or to laugh as long, for no better reason than the gay or gloomy crotchets of my brain. Once we were joint sufferers of a three months' sickness, and met like mutual ghosts in the first days of convalescence. Whenever I have been in ...
— Monsieur du Miroir (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... brogues, or whatever the caliga shall finally be pronounced by the learned. But I must go to headquarters, to prepare the Prince for this extraordinary scene. My information will be well taken, for it will give him a hearty laugh at present, and put him on his guard against laughing when it might be very mal-a-propos. So, au revoir, ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... a critic in conversation, makes jests, and loves to laugh at them; takes a great deal of pains in his office, and is in a fair way of rising at court.—Swift. This is right enough, but he ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift
... you don't know New York," said Dandy, with a laugh. "Poor children don't live with rich, old ladies. Mrs. Tibbett hated children, anyway. Then dogs like poodles would get lost in the mud, or killed in the crowd if they ran behind a carriage. Only knowing dogs like me can make their way about." I rather doubted this speech; but I said ...
— Beautiful Joe • Marshall Saunders
... bowed—and received a hearty absent-minded nod and a "Fine evenin'." He sang to himself a monotonous song of great joy. When he stumbled over the feet of a large German in getting to a seat, he apologized as though he were accustomed to laugh easily with ...
— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis
... would that I could say it to all our Acadian people! but I say it to you, learn English. It may be that by not knowing it you may fail, or by knowing it succeed, in this errand. And every step of your way let your first business be the welfare of others. Hundreds will laugh at you for it: never mind; it will bring you through. Yes, I will tell Sosthene and the others good-by for you. I will tell them you had a dream that compelled you to go at once. Adieu." And just as the rising ...
— Bonaventure - A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana • George Washington Cable
... reflected. Poor Mr. Pericles, seeing him friendly for the first time, rubbed his hands and it was most painful to me to see him shake hands with Wilfrid again and again, till he was on board the vessel chuckling. Wilfrid suddenly laughed with all his might—a cruel laugh; and Mr. Pericles tried to be as loud, but commenced coughing and tapping his chest, to explain that his intention was good. Bella! the passion of love must be judged by the person who inspires it; and I cannot even go so far as to feel pity for Wilfrid if he has stooped to the humiliation ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... gratify this appetite he was compelled to steal from others, and all his thefts were directed to that purpose. He was such a wretch, and so indifferent about meeting death, that he declared while in confinement, that if he should be hanged, he would create a laugh before he was turned off, by playing off some trick upon the executioner. Holding up such a mere animal as an example was not expected to have the proper or intended effect; the governor therefore, with the humanity that was always conspicuous ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins
... grandmother's lap and laughed and crowed for the first time in his brief life, "just like he was talkin' to me," said the old woman, with a smile that struggled hard to keep down a sob. "I suppose it was a sort of inward cramp," she added—a mother's explanation of baby laugh in ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... uttered the last sound, there came a hearty laugh upon the air, which, indeed, sounded but a few paces in advance of them. The wind blew towards them, and would, therefore, cause the sounds to come to them, but not to go away in the direction they ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest
... feet and started in on the tattoo act. He just swung around like a revolving wheel with distended cogs, and every time he revolved down went one of the men, and Cad just stood up on the seat and laughed. The laugh in fact had bounded over to the opposite side of the cabin from where it first started. As the men who were downed attempted to regain their feet they got it again, and got it good. The two detectives having dropped the rascals ...
— Cad Metti, The Female Detective Strategist - Dudie Dunne Again in the Field • Harlan Page Halsey
... silent laugh she liked so well. It came from between close-shut teeth; but it lighted his ...
— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray
... exclaimed. "It sounds good to hear you laugh like that,—such a jolly, friendly sort ...
— Viola Gwyn • George Barr McCutcheon
... there rose up in me such a sense of God's taking care of those who put their trust in him that for an hour all the world was crystalline, the heavens were lucid, and I sprang to my feet and began to cry and laugh." H. W. Beecher, quoted ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James |
