"Sever" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... forest of Pennsylvania, a young Virginian officer should fire a shot, and waken up a war which was to last for sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass into Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to sever ours from us, and create the great Western republic; to rage over the Old World when extinguished in the New; and, of all the myriads engaged in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame with him ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the edge of this blade above the notch, the baya flies away and thus strips off a narrow strand. Sometimes the strand adheres to the main part of the blade at the tip so firmly that the force of the flying baya is not sufficient to sever it. The bird then swings for a few seconds in mid-air, suspended by the strip of leaf. Not in the least daunted the baya makes a fresh effort and flies off, still gripping the strand firmly. At the third, if not at the second attempt, the thin strip is completely severed. Having secured its prize ...
— A Bird Calendar for Northern India • Douglas Dewar
... dreadful man, of gigantic size, with heavy beard, the arms of his blouse rolled up high, and bearing a heavy hatchet-knife in his hand, springing upon the person of the faithful Swiss, in order to sever his head from his body. The Count de Borennes had seen the corpse of the Swiss officer, Baron de Deshuttes, who guarded the iron gate, and whom the people murdered as they entered. The Marquis de Croissy told of the heroism with which another Swiss, Miomandre of ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach
... remained to Shelley after doing his utmost to assist his friend Hunt. To the last Shelley was faithful to his aim—that of doing all he could for others. His interviews with Byron had secured a return of the friendly feeling which nought but death was henceforth to sever, and the two great names, which nothing can divide, are linked by the unbreakable chain of genius—genius, the fire of the universe, which at times may flicker low, but which, bursting into flame here and there, ...
— Mrs. Shelley • Lucy M. Rossetti
... made better and happier by his boyish loves—for he generally has a succession of them, but they are seldom permanent. They are only beautiful foreshadowings of the deeper and more earnest love of manhood, which is to bind him to his other self with ties which only death can sever. Read ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells
... the same life after. Oh, that the caller might go on calling, Oh, that the music might go on falling Like a shower of silver spray, While we whirled on to the vast Forever, Where no hearts break, and no ties sever, And no one ...
— Poems of Passion • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... time, Unless thou be eked out from day to day, Goes round thee with his shears. Resuming then With greeting such, as Rome, was first to bear, But since hath disaccustom'd I began; And Beatrice, that a little space Was sever'd, smil'd reminding me of her, Whose cough embolden'd (as the story holds) To first ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri
... and strange— This blank and sudden change Men have known ever? This veil as hard and keen As the blade of a guillotine Flashing to sever? ...
— Perpetual Light • William Rose Benet
... my rifle. I have a very good delivery and Uncle William lay down on his side, then rolled over on his back, spread out his fingers and shivered. Before he could recover the use of his limbs I seized the knife that he had been using and cut his hamstrings. You know, doubtless, that when you sever the tendo Achillis the patient has no further use of his leg; it is just the same as if he had no leg. Well, I parted them both, and when he revived he was at my service. As soon as he comprehended ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 - Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales • Ambrose Bierce
... Alexandria speak to each other through a tube lying under thirteen hundred miles of Mediterranean waters; already Britain bound to Holland and Hanover and Denmark by a triple cord of sympathy which all the tempests of the German Ocean cannot sever. And if we come nearer home, we shall find a project matured which will carry a fiery cordon around the entire coast of our country, linking fortress to fortress, and providing that last, desperate resource of unity, an outer ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various
... the head hunters had paused to sever Number Twelve's head, Bulan had gained fifty yards upon them, and then, of a sudden, he came to a sheer wall rising straight across the narrow trail he had been following. Ahead there was no way—a cat could scarce have scaled that ...
— The Monster Men • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... instructed to take energetic action and to insist upon adequate attention to our demands. April 18 our government delivered what was considered an ultimatum to the effect that unless Germany abandoned her methods of submarine warfare, the United States would sever diplomatic relations. The president addressed congress on ...
— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney
... of his being, with all that is deepest and best in the spirit of the time, or the representation, with which he deals; and as others, using old materials, have been free to alter them in the sense of vulgarity or licence, so he has claimed and used the right to sever and recombine, to enlarge, retrench, and modify, for the purposes at once of a more powerful and elaborate art than his original presents, and of a yet more elevated, or at least of a far more ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson
... Petrograd. Its immediate purpose was to influence the All-Russian Council of Soviets. "Take the power into your own hands"—is what the Petrograd workingman wanted to say plainly to the Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviki. "Sever relations with the bourgeoisie, give up the idea of coalition, and take the power into your own hands." To us it was clear that the break between the Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviki on the one hand, ...
— From October to Brest-Litovsk • Leon Trotzky
... and must be, avoided. History has falsified the impression prevalent in the middle of the nineteenth century that the colonies would sooner or later follow the example of the United States, and sever their connexion with the mother-country. It has no less clearly demonstrated the impossibility of maintaining a centralized government of the empire in Downing Street. The union or federation of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa has strengthened ...
— The History of England - A Study in Political Evolution • A. F. Pollard
... him!—his short breath, His aspect, marked for early death, As he dropped into the night for ever; One caught in his prime Of high endeavour; From all philosophies soon to sever Through ...
— Moments of Vision • Thomas Hardy
... removed, Mr. Rothermel's hands were certainly free. The bands were cut, and we had no difficulty in believing that the hands which were dexterous enough to play the zither with very remarkable skill, under such conditions, behind the curtain, were deft enough to sever ...
— Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University • The Seybert Commission
... where Thou wilt, so it be far away—so far That the whole world shall sever thee and me, And shall divide me from thy woe! My soul Bleeds like an unheal'd wound when thou art near. As though thou wert its murderer, and lo, 'Twill bleed to death from thy propinquity, Thou fool! Hence, go, but give me first the ring Thou stol'st last night and which in wanton jest Thou ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various
... more shall the war-cry sever, Or the winding rivers be red; They banish our anger forever, When they laurel the graves of our dead. Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Love and tears for the blue, Tears and love for ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, August 1887 - Volume 1, Number 7 • Various
... taken From me: that with faith unshaken I might sleep and never waken On a weary world of woe! Links of love would never sever As I dreamed them, never, never! I would glide along forever Through the dreams of ...
— The Complete Works • James Whitcomb Riley
... painful circumstance to Dashall, who was seldom severe in his judgments, or harsh in his censures. He regretted its occurrence, and it operated in some degree to rob a splendid ceremony of its magnificence, and to sever from royalty half ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... race overthrown, and shall die by the hands of a hangman. [Footnote: He was found hanging in his own bed- room.] You, oldest son of St. Louis, shall perish by the executioner's ax; that beautiful head, O Antoinette, the same ruthless blade shall sever." ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 • Various
... serving-maid of the house, she so wrought that not only did Gabriotto know himself beloved of her, but was many and many a time brought, to the delight of both parties, into a goodly garden of her father's. And in order that no cause, other than death, should ever avail to sever those their delightsome loves, they became in secret husband and wife, and so stealthily continuing their foregatherings, it befell that the young lady, being one night asleep, dreamt that she was in her garden with Gabriotto and held ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio
... prepared, however, to recommend that any violent or coercive resolutions should be adopted for the purpose of constraining our brethren in Amoy to a course of procedure which would rudely sever the brotherly ties that unite them with the Missionaries of the English Presbyterian Church. But a Christian discretion will enable them, on the receipt of the decision of the present Synod in this matter, now under consideration, to take such initial steps as are necessary to the ...
— History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China • J. V. N. Talmage
... soul, thy true and loving friend, By death shall find a wished release From all that caused sin, In which it lived in; For then it doth begin Those blessed joys to win, for ever, for ever, For there is nothing can them sever. ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
... months bigger than you," the Doctor laughed. "He Is n't anybody you will be afraid of, Thistledown; but he is a very nice boy. His mother is just recovering from a sever illness, so she has n't been able to come to see him yet, and he feels ...
— Polly of the Hospital Staff • Emma C. Dowd
... image may be, No magic shall sever Thy music from thee. Thou hast bound many eyes In a dreamy sleep— But the strains still arise Which ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe
... more shall the war cry sever, Or the winding rivers be red; They banish our anger forever When they laurel the graves of our dead! Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Love and tears for the Blue, Tears and love ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various
... time he had a really serious difference with Robert. His brother wanted to sever relations with an old and well established paint company in New York, which had manufactured paints especially for the house, and invest in a new concern in Chicago, which was growing and had a promising future. Lester, ...
— Jennie Gerhardt - A Novel • Theodore Dreiser
... this barrier was never Demolished, broken down and swept away, But still remained to sunder and to sever Two of the choicest spirits of our day! For MEREDITH, though radiant, genial, kind, On this one point ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, March 12, 1919 • Various
... our former love restore Our bonds, too firm for aught to sever,— I shake off Chloe; and the door To Lydia open flies once more; ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various
... whispered at court that the protector had resolved to accept the title; and immediately Lambert, Fleetwood, and Desborough made[b] to him, in their own names and those of several others, the unpleasant declaration, that they must resign their commissions, and sever themselves from his councils and service for ever. His irresolution returned: he had promised the house to give a final answer the next morning;[c] in the morning he postponed it to five in the evening, and ...
— The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans - to the Accession of King George the Fifth - Volume 8 • John Lingard and Hilaire Belloc
... looked back and who told us what he saw. His circumstances were very different from those of the other. He was a prisoner. In a little while the sword of the executioner would sever the frail bond of life. He knew the time was near, and these are his words; "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept ...
— Heart Talks • Charles Wesley Naylor
... magical moment, without nearness or speech or touch, the floating strands of their destinies had become so miraculously entangled, that neither gods nor godlings, nor household despots of East or West, had power to sever them. From one swift pencil sketch, stolen without leave—he sitting on the path below, she dreaming on the Hotel balcony above—had blossomed the twin flower of their love: the deeper revealing of marriage—its living ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver
... a cavalry raid to sever the enemy's communications, a demonstration in force on the left to draw the enemy's attention, and the throwing of the main body of his forces across the river ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge
... 15 experienced pleasurable feelings with erection at the sight of a village beauty combing her hair; from that time flowing hair became his fetich, and he could not resist the temptation to touch it and if possible sever it, thus becoming a hair-despoiler, for which he was arrested but not sentenced. (Archives de l'Anthropologie ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... on well enough until it became necessary to sever the backbone. Then, try as we would, we could not in the general awkwardness reach a joint with a knife. At last we had a bright idea. I held the head back while Frank shot the vertebrae in two ...
— The Killer • Stewart Edward White
... Death she dwells, and in the garden of Queen Persephone, and there she shall be won, for there no more is beauty guarded of Those that stand between men and joy, and there no more shall the Snake seem as the Star, and Sin have power to sever those that are one. Now make thy heart strong, Odysseus, and so do as thy wisdom tells ...
— The World's Desire • H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang
... as it may," said John Grey. "Our first object must be to sever her from a man, who is, as you say, himself on the verge of ruin; and who would certainly make her wretched. I am here now, not because I wish her to be my own wife, but because I wish that she should not become the wife of such a one as your nephew. If I were you I would let him have ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... Radisson, after remaining for several years under the Hudson's Bay Company, at last in 1674 felt obliged to sever the connection, and went over again to France. Radisson told his nephew in 1684 that the cause was "the refusal, that showed the bad intention of the Hudson's Bay Company to satisfy us." Several influential members of the committee of direction for the Company ...
— Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson • Peter Esprit Radisson
... let us suppose that we sever this bar in the middle, as in Fig. 6, or at any other point between the ends. In this case each part becomes a perfect magnet, and a new north pole (N) and a new south pole (S) are made, so that the movement of the magnetic lines ...
— Electricity for Boys • J. S. Zerbe
... hopes are fading ever, Gloom is chasing 'way the bliss; Dear, I know that I can never Come thy ruby lips to kiss! But my heart will cling forever To that love I oft did hail, For those ties I can not sever, Though I'm floating with ...
— The Sylvan Cabin - A Centenary Ode on the Birth of Lincoln and Other Verse • Edward Smyth Jones
... is added that la belle Helene already gives promise of being playful in other ways beside that of expenditure. And that de Vallorbes has been heard to lament openly that he is not a native of some enlightened country in which the divorce court charitably intervenes to sever overhard connubial knots. In short, it is rumoured that de Vallorbes is not a conspicuous example ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet
... beloved; give us both this life of solitude and divine peace. Speak one word—say that you are ready to fly with me—I will arrange everything for our escape; will guide us both to liberty, to happiness. Speak this one word, and I will sever every tie that binds me to the world; my future and my life will belong to you alone. We will strip off all the luxury that surrounds us as the glittering snake-skin with which we have concealed our real natures, and escape into the solitude as free, happy children of God. If such a life of peace ...
— A Conspiracy of the Carbonari • Louise Muhlbach
... hour's discussion, Mr. Coburn had agreed at all costs to sever his connection with the syndicate, to emigrate to his brother in Chile, and to do his utmost to induce his daughter to remain in England to marry Merriman. On his side, Merriman undertook to hold back the lodging of information at ...
— The Pit Prop Syndicate • Freeman Wills Crofts
... of lakes, the union of lands, The union of States none can sever, The union of hearts, the union of hands, And the flag of our Union ...
— Many Thoughts of Many Minds - A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age • Various
... helping on the fate which awaited them, by uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it more easily. I was their only child, and they named me ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various
... fell on me, or I should say on my father; for I felt it but little, or only as in some degree a release from bonds which I hesitated to sever by my own act. On the morning of June 25, my father called me into his counting-room, and, closing the door, sat down, I, as was thought fit, standing until told to be seated. Since he made no sign of any such desire on his part, I knew at once that this ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell
... awakened to the blinding awfulness of your mistaken notions of life, death, and futurity, the result might be more overpowering than either you or I can imagine! I have told you what I can do,— your incredulity does not alter the fact of my capacity. I can sever you,—that is, your Soul, which you cannot define, but which nevertheless exists,—from your body, like a moth from its chrysalis; but I dare not even picture to myself what scorching flame the moth might not heedlessly fly into! You might ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli
... die!" (The problem of the unemployed male is, of course, not nearly so modern as that of the unemployed female. It may be said in England to have taken its rise in almost its present form as early as the fifteenth century, when economic changes began to sever the agricultural labourer from the land, and rob him of his ancient forms of social toil. Still, in its most acute form, it may ...
— Woman and Labour • Olive Schreiner
... fault-finding, criticising and complaining is a tool that grows keener by constant use, and there is grave danger that he who at first is only a moderate kicker may develop into a chronic knocker, and the knife he has sharpened will sever his head. ...
— Love, Life & Work • Elbert Hubbard
... sent for Meneval, and said to him that she had had cause to regard Napoleon at one time as an enemy, but now that he was in trouble she forgot the past. She declared that if it was still the determination of the Court of Vienna to sever the bonds of unity between man and wife in order that the Emperor might be deprived of consolation, it was her granddaughter's duty to assume disguise, tie sheets together, lower herself from ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman
... them at the crucial moment in a loving position locked in one another's arms, drawing attention to their illicit proceedings and leading up to a domestic rumpus and the erring fair one begging forgiveness of her lord and master upon her knees and promising to sever the connection and not receive his visits any more if only the aggrieved husband would overlook the matter and let bygones be bygones with tears in her eyes though possibly with her tongue in her fair cheek at the same time as quite possibly there were several others. He personally, ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... said Mr. Grahame, coloring with wonderful feeling, and fixing his clear, keen eye full on Mr. Trevanion,—"a great deal better if I wished to sever those ties—a great deal better if I would have Lilian believe that we had grown cold and indifferent to her. But, my dear child," and he turned to her, and taking both her hands, spoke very earnestly—"believe me, when I tell you, that you will find few among those who ...
— Evenings at Donaldson Manor - Or, The Christmas Guest • Maria J. McIntosh
... to forego all claim on her offspring, and allow an entire transference of her and her seed into another family. If nothing is given, the family from which she has come can claim the children as part of itself: the payment is made to sever this bond. In the case supposed, the young man has not been able to advance any thing for that purpose; and, from the temptations placed here before my men, I have no doubt that some prefer to have their daughters married in that way, as ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone
... with the threads of life, for ever, By those dread Powers that weave the woof,— Whose art the singer's spell can sever? Whose breast has mail to music proof? Lo, to the Bard, a wand of wonder The Herald[8] of the Gods has given: He sinks the soul the death-realm under, Or lifts it breathless up to heaven— Half sport, half earnest, rocking its devotion ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII. • Various
... (and indeed many kinds of sensations) are to be recognized as ingredients of the will, so, in the second place, thinking is also to be recognized; in every act of the will there is a ruling thought;—and let us not imagine it possible to sever this thought from the "willing," as if the will would then remain over! In the third place, the will is not only a complex of sensation and thinking, but it is above all an EMOTION, and in fact the emotion of the command. That which is termed "freedom of the will" is essentially ...
— Beyond Good and Evil • Friedrich Nietzsche
... he suddenly with a kind of fury, "I suppose that a sister who loves her brother, pities and does not insult him; that the Marquis de Roselle knows better what can make him happy than the Countess of St. Sever; and that he is free, independent, able to dispose of himself, in spite of all opposition." With these words he turned to leave the room brusquely. I run to him, I stop him, he resists. "My brother!" "I have no sister." ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury
... longer any meetings amongst us who stand in this country for Germany. Gatherings of this sort are finished. We meet, one or two of us, perhaps, by accident, in the clubs and in the streets, in our houses and perhaps in the restaurants, but the bond which unites us, and which no human power could ever sever because it is of the spirit, that bond from to-night is intangible. Wait, all of you, for a message. The task given to each shall not ...
— The Pawns Count • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... the strongest squadron of battleships or cruisers can protect England's frontiers and secure imports from oversea. Technical progress, in the shape of submarines, has put into the hands of all England's enemies the means at last to sever the vital nerve of the much-hated enemy, and to pull him down from his position of ruler of the world, which he has occupied for centuries with ever-increasing ruthlessness and selfishness. What science has once begun ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German ...
— Why We are at War • Woodrow Wilson
... rest in love for ever; When mortal systems sever, And the orbed universe is drowned, Leaving the empty skies The blank of ...
— My Beautiful Lady. Nelly Dale • Thomas Woolner
... have not taught. There are still men, of whom it was of old written, Bray them in a mortar! Or, in milder language, They have wedded their delusions: fire nor steel, nor any sharpness of Experience, shall sever the bond; till death do us part! Of such may the Heavens have mercy; for the Earth, with her rigorous Necessity, will ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... me, son and grandson of a soldier of the raj—a bold man, something heavy on his horse, but able to sever a sheep in two with one blow of his saber—very well regarded by the troopers because of physical strength and willingness to overlook offenses. Chatar Singh's chief weakness was respect for cunning. Having only a great bull's heart in him ...
— Hira Singh - When India came to fight in Flanders • Talbot Mundy
... I shrink out; and am not easy until I have run to bury my head in my mother's bosom. Alas! pride cannot always find such covert! There will be times when it will harass you strangely; when it will peril friendships—will sever old, standing intimacy; and then—no resource but to feed on its own bitterness. Hateful pride!—to be conquered, as a man would conquer an enemy, or it will make whirlpools in the current of your affections—nay, turn the whole tide of the heart ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 • Charles H. Sylvester
... thy Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, Save as an outlawed desperate man, The chief of a rebellious clan, Who, in the Regent's court and sight, With ruffian dagger stabbed a knight; Yet this alone might from his part Sever each true ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott
... to walk on the path,' she said. 'I have thought on this—for I was sure I gave you good advice, and well I knew Cleves would sever from ye.' She faltered: 'I ha' thought on it. But 'tis different to think on it and to ha' the ...
— Privy Seal - His Last Venture • Ford Madox Ford
... it not blissful, when from earth we sever, To know that we shall leave, with bard and sage, A name enrolled on fame's bright page forever— A wonder, and a theme ...
— International Weekly Miscellany Vol. I. No. 3, July 15, 1850 • Various
... satire and cynically, than seriously and wisely; for men have rather sought by wit to deride and traduce much of that which is good in PROFESSIONS, than with judgment to discover and sever that which is corrupt. For, as Solomon saith, he that cometh to seek after knowledge with a mind to scorn and censure, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction. But the managing of this argument with integrity and truth, which I note as deficient, ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon
... leave the house, and then are recalled by the bride's parents, and readmitted into caste on giving a feast, which is in lieu of the marriage ceremony. If they do not comply with the first summons of the parents, the latter finally sever connection with them. Widow marriage is freely permitted, and the widow is expected to marry her late husband's younger brother, especially if he is a bachelor. If she marries another man with his consent, the new husband gives him a turban and shoulder-cloth. The children by the ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume II • R. V. Russell
... may sever this; It yields to friends', not monarchs' calls; My whinstone house my castle is— I have my own ...
— Thomas Carlyle - Biography • John Nichol
... not sever the great Union party from this loyal element of the southern states. No new theories of possible utopian good can compensate for the loss of such patriotism and devotion. Time, as he tells you in his message, is a great element of reform, and time is on your side. I remember ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... you might have cause to repent you of it as a sin. As soon as he became yours, you became his. Had he not been yours, you might have acted as you had thought fit, at your own unfettered discretion, but, as you were his, 'twas robbery, 'twas conduct most disgraceful, to sever yourself from him against his will. Now you must know that I am a friar; and therefore all the ways of friars are familiar to me; nor does it misbecome me, as it might another, to speak for your behoof somewhat ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio
... conscience; because they cannot see these questions in the light in which their own churches present them; and rather than go to God's altars with even an implied falsehood upon their consciences, or embrace the alternative of remaining outside of Christ's fold, they will sever life-long ties, entwined with some of their dearest and tenderest recollections, and go alone with their conscience and their God to altars where no such tests are imposed. And in these new associations they bear themselves with all Christian fidelity. They bring forth rich fruits of grace. They ...
— Amusement: A Force in Christian Training • Rev. Marvin R. Vincent.
... interview in prospect; and as he leant he looked with languid and luxurious interest through the open casement at the spars and rigging of some luggers on the Seine, the pillars of the suspension bridge, and the scenery of the Faubourg St. Sever on the other side of the river. How languid his interest might ultimately have become there is no knowing; but there soon arose upon his ear the accents of Ethelberta in low distinctness from somewhere ...
— The Hand of Ethelberta • Thomas Hardy
... thing to do is to stop answering letters. Even the firm's most persistent customers will cease troubling you by and bye if you persist. Then, stop answering the telephone. A pair of office shears can sever a telephone wire much faster than any mechanician can keep it repaired. If the matter is really urgent, let the other people telegraph. While you are perfecting this scheme look about, in a dignified way, for another job. Don't take the first thing that offers itself, but wait ...
— Mince Pie • Christopher Darlington Morley
... torpedoing (March 24, 1916) of the Sussex, a Channel ferry-boat, crowded with passengers, among whom were many Americans. Then the President sent a flat message calling down the Potsdam pirates and declaring that unless they abandoned their nefarious practices "the United States had no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German ...
— Fighting For Peace • Henry Van Dyke
... guests, and to the pleasure of the Church in sharing that welcome. "To the history of our Catholic Church belongs the honour of having forged between the English Throne and a French Canadian people solid bonds which neither adversity nor bribery can sever." Faith in the Church and loyalty to the Crown were the lessons they desired to inculcate. The University address was then read by the Rev. O. E. Mathieu, the Rector. His Royal Highness in replying and accepting the honorary ...
— The Life of King Edward VII - with a sketch of the career of King George V • J. Castell Hopkins
... note - 25 June 1991 is the day the Croatian Parliament voted for independence; following a 3-month moratorium to allow the European Community to solve the Yugoslav crisis peacefully, Parliament adopted a decision on 8 October 1991 to sever constitutional relations with Yugoslavia ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... when, by the Italian lake, he roved with her for whom he had become the world itself. No, not now, nor ever, could he gaze upon those wan, mysterious orbs, and not feel the pang that reminded him of Lucilla! Between them and her was an affinity which his imagination could not sever. All whom we have loved have something in nature especially devoted to their memory; a peculiar flower, a breath of air, a leaf, a tone. What love is without some ...
— Godolphin, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... see nothing but the jagged teeth of whitish rock, and the green swelling stems of the plantain, from ten to fifteen feet in height, and as large as a man's leg, or larger. The stalks of the plantain are juicy and herbaceous, and of so yielding a texture, that with a sickle you might entirely sever the largest of them at a single stroke. How such a multitude of succulent plants could find nourishment on what seemed to the eye little else than barren ...
— Letters of a Traveller - Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America • William Cullen Bryant
... at seven o'clock in the morning, the First Consul mounted his horse, and, escorted by a detachment of the young men of the city, forming a volunteer guard, passed the bridge of boats, and reached the Faubourg Saint-Sever. On his return from this excursion, we found the populace awaiting him at the head of the bridge, whence they escorted him to the hotel of the prefecture, manifesting ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant
... fort, but its steepness had been increased by Roman art, and there were high banks on the summit which Lucian's father had told him were the vallum of the camp, and a deep ditch had been dug to the north to sever it from the hillside. On this summit oaks had grown, queer stunted-looking trees with twisted and contorted trunks, and writhing branches; and these now stood out black against the lighted sky. And then the air changed ...
— The Hill of Dreams • Arthur Machen
... I supposed you were making some move, and thought this might be it. I am glad that you do so so heartily, and more glad that I can say so. After all, the defiance offered us by the varied positions of our friends is what life needs. Each dissimilar act of my friend, while it does not sever him from me, throws me more sternly upon myself. Can we not make our friendship so fine that it shall be only a sympathy of thought, and let the expression differ, and court it to differ? This ray of the sunlight falls upon summer woods, that sinks into the wintry sea, yet are ...
— Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis • G. W. Curtis, ed. George Willis Cooke
... still grasped a handkerchief wet with her tears. She had rested the other on the back of her mother's chair. Janetta marveled at her irresolute attitude. In Margaret's place she would have flung her arms round Wyvis Brand's neck, and vowed that nothing but death should sever her from him. But Margaret was neither passionately ...
— A True Friend - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... smeller; the telegraph, or artificial nerves. Not only this, but there are always to be found nerve telegraph wires conveying the messages of the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, to the brain—telling the something in the brain of what has been felt at the other end of the line. Sever the nerves leading to the eye, and though the eye will continue to register perfectly, still no message will reach the brain. And render the brain unconscious, and no message will reach it from the nerves connecting with eye, ear, nose, tongue, or surface of the body. There is much more to the receiving ...
— Clairvoyance and Occult Powers • Swami Panchadasi
... the foremost man was nearly through, and, reaching up as high as he could to divide a pale green strand which had grown almost in darkness, and now hindered his way, he put all his strength out to sever it with one cut, not anticipating that wood which had grown under such conditions would be tender and soft, and, consequently, his knife went through it as easily as if it had been a thick stick of rhubarb, and he fell forward ...
— Old Gold - The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig • George Manville Fenn
... clasping her to his breast, and wildly kissing her face, but with cold and trembling lips, "this is indeed a bitter hour; let me not sink beneath it. Yes, Madeline, ask your father if he consents; I hail your strengthening presence as that of an angel. I will not be the one to sever you ...
— Eugene Aram, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... churches gathered within them. The full purport of this decision was that the law did not recognize a church independently of its connection with the parish in which it was gathered, from which it might sever itself and carry property with it." It was in accordance with the practice in New England for at least a century preceding the decision in the Dedham case, and the decision was rendered as the ...
— Unitarianism in America • George Willis Cooke
... Friend; oh, such a Friend! So kind, and true, and tender, So wise a Counsellor and guide, So mighty a Defender! From him, who loves me now so well, What power my love can sever? Shall life, or death, or earth, or hell? ...
— Gathering Jewels - The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries. • James Knowles and Matilda Darroch Knowles
... replied the husband. "He is not dead. He has only intimated to me his desire to sever his connection. I may add that he did so ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic
... life of ours, Soon its cord must sever! Death comes quick, nor brooks delay, Ruthless, he tears us away, ...
— Greifenstein • F. Marion Crawford
... placed her foot on a log of wood, adjusted the keen edge of the tomahawk so that when struck it would sever the toe and the portion of the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of the tomahawk steady as a rock, with firm ...
— Australian Search Party • Charles Henry Eden
... his fine Parts, as the Lady to her beauteous Form: You might see his Imagination on the Stretch to find out something uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her; while she writhed her self into as many different Postures to engage him. When she laughed, her Lips were to sever at a greater Distance than ordinary to shew her Teeth: Her Fan was to point to somewhat at a Distance, that in the Reach she may discover the Roundness of her Arm; then she is utterly mistaken in what she saw, falls back, smiles at her own Folly, and is so wholly discomposed, that her Tucker ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... though this latter hath been less observed: both which times kindle love, and make it more fervent, and therefore show it to be the child of folly. They do best, who if they cannot but admit love, yet make it keep quarters; and sever it wholly from their serious affairs, and actions, of life; for if it check once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, and maketh men, that they can no ways be true to their own ends. I know not how, but martial men are given to love: I think, it is but as they are given to wine; for perils ...
— Essays - The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. - Verulam Viscount St. Albans • Francis Bacon
... law knows nothing. If money were coming to her he could claim it, and the verdict against him would only be evidence, to be taken for what it was worth. It would have been all very well had she wished to sever herself from him; but as she is determined not to do so, any interference would be useless.' The question as to the marriage or no marriage was not made quite clear to the banker's mind, but he did understand that neither he, nor his wife, ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope
... to her seat, and longed for the hour which was to sever her from a Christian world. She thought not of herself, nor of what she was to suffer; she thought but of Philip; of his being safe from these merciless creatures—of the happiness of dying first, and of meeting him ...
— The Phantom Ship • Captain Frederick Marryat
... conferred; while, in point of fact, every year and every month during which they are retained under the administration of a despotic government, renders them less fit for free institutions. 'No consideration of money ought to induce parliament to sever the connection between any one of the colonies and the mother country,' though it was certain that the cost of the existing system was both large and unnecessary. But the real mischief was not here, he said. Our error lay in the attempt ...
— The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) - 1809-1859 • John Morley
... invitation referred incidentally to the difference of clan as a matter of no importance. Kumodini Babu's disappointment may be conceived when he got an answer from his younger brother, expressing strong disapproval of the match and ending with a threat to sever all connection with the family if it were persisted in! The recipient at first thought of running up to Ghoria, in view of softening Ghaneshyam Babu's heart by a personal appeal, but the anger caused by ...
— Tales of Bengal • S. B. Banerjea
... Israel's friend, Forsake Thy people never, In one our broken many blend, That none again may sever! Hear us, O Father, while we raise With trembling lips our song of praise, And bless ...
— The Poets' Lincoln - Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President • Various
... Damocles under This horror that hangs by a thread? Does he wilt in a palsy and wonder How soon it will sever his head? Are his lips and his cheeks of a blank hue? Does he toy with his victuals and drink? Not at all; on the contrary, thankyou, His health's ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, February 4, 1920 • Various
... to sever the stalk with the blunt knife as country cooks sever the necks of fowl—as schoolboys cut twine. With a little effort he finished the task. The cluster of roses grew thick, so he determined to ...
— Dracula's Guest • Bram Stoker
... moved. Since the stagnation of the battle German shelling in the back area had much increased. The field where the camp lay was bounded on three sides by railways or roads. Some of our 12-inch howitzers were close in front. Despite our best attempts to sever association with such targets we had a share in the shells intended for them. One night especially the long howl of German shells ended in their arrival very near our tents. The latter had been placed at one side of the field in order to escape, as we expected, the shells more ...
— The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry • G. K. Rose
... trouble here in Missouri," said he, with great indignation. "Up to that time we were strong for the Union, and took pains to say that the State had no call to sever her connection with it; but at the same time we recommended, as a sure means of avoiding civil war, that the Federal troops should be withdrawn from all points where they were likely to come into collision with the citizens. How was that recommendation received? With silent contempt, sir; ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon
... but not yet intimate. Marie de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette, was in her thirtieth year, La Rochefoucauld had completed his fiftieth when some cause which remains obscure drew them together with a tie which death alone, after seventeen wonderful years of almost unbroken association, was to sever. There was no scandal about it, even in that scandal-mongering age. The astute Mile de Scudery, writing to her gossip Bussy Rabutin (December 6, 1675), says, "Nothing could be happier for her, or more dignified for him; the fear of God on either side, and perhaps prudence ...
— Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France • Edmund Gosse
... industriously. He found he had undertaken no mean job when he contracted to sever one of the front paws of the dead Polar bear. Not only did he have to cut through ligaments and tough skin, but the bones themselves gave ...
— Air Service Boys Over the Atlantic • Charles Amory Beach
... pointing out to them that every additional seaman whose help we could secure added very materially to the chances of a successful issue. What I said seemed only to render them the more determined to sever their brief connection with the pirates at any cost, and they unhesitatingly declared their readiness to join me, and to implicitly obey my orders. More than this, they informed me that there were ...
— The Pirate Slaver - A Story of the West African Coast • Harry Collingwood
... of the kind. But instinct served him well. The fact that the rope had been left out of doors, in all weathers, for several years, served him far better. Not only did it sever the more easily; but it soon lost the cohesion needed for resisting ...
— Further Adventures of Lad • Albert Payson Terhune
... with his raking talons, then he made the rope fast after drawing the lion clear of the ground, dropped his five pigskin sacks to earth and leaped down himself. Numa was striking frantically at the grass rope with his fore claws. At any moment he might sever it and Tarzan must, therefore, ...
— Tarzan the Untamed • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... the place very stupid—as stupid as Saratoga in June or Long Branch in September. He was impatient to get to Switzerland, but his wife had contracted a table d'hote intimacy with a Polish countess, and she positively refused to take any step that would sever so advantageous a connection. ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 • Various
... we could never laugh so heartily as when we choked with sandwich; Virtue never looked so beautiful or Vice so deformed as when we paused, sandwich in hand, to consider what would come of that resolution of Wickedness in boots, to sever Innocence in flowered chintz from Honest Industry in striped stockings. When the curtain fell for the night, we still fell back upon sandwich, to help us through the rain and mire, and home ...
— The Uncommercial Traveller • Charles Dickens
... with chain-linked hearts we come, Which naught but death can sever, To thank thee for thy "Uncle ...
— Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) • Various
... And seeking wealth, secures a grave. The last, grasps yet the brittle thread: Though friends are gone and joy is dead— Still dares the dark and fretful tide, And clutches at its power and pride— Till suddenly the waters sever, And like the ...
— Poems • Sam G. Goodrich
... the first place, the "productive consumption" economist might fairly claim that as his food, etc., enabled the workman to obtain his wages or revenue, they belonged to revenue capital. On the other hand, regarding it as essential to distinct terminology to sever entirely consumptive goods from productive goods, I should insist that the "production capital" of the community was synonymous with its "revenue capital," and that although the individual view of capital is not always coincident with the community's ...
— The Evolution of Modern Capitalism - A Study of Machine Production • John Atkinson Hobson
... so soon, the changes came. This August day we two alone, On that same river, not the same, Dream of a night forever flown. Strange distances have come to sever The hearts that gayly beat in pleasure, Long miles we cannot cross or ...
— Maurine and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... sounding their thrilling call, and blue masses, before the smoke had lifted, were rushing into the pit, intending to climb the far side and sever the Southern line. But Colonel Winchester did not yet give the word to his own regiment, and Dick knew that they were to ...
— The Tree of Appomattox • Joseph A. Altsheler
... both naule and bristles now for euer; The shoe and soale—ah, woe is me!—must sever. Bewaile, mine awle, thy sharpest point is gone; My bristle's broke, and I am left alone. Farewell old shoes, thumb-stall, and clouting-leather; Martin is ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli
... had been silent and I had not disturbed that silence. I had much to think of. Should we find him living, or should we find him dead? If dead, would it sever the relations between us two? Would I ever ride with ...
— The Golden Slipper • Anna Katharine Green
... much higher levels of oratory, but seldom to such a height of accusing vindication and personal affection for the accused from whom an insurgent is driven to sever his allegiance. Clark can always make some sort of big human speech with a natural knack of getting at the vitals of a subject in simple, dignified language and a searching logic—once you admit his major premiss. That one speech ...
— The Masques of Ottawa • Domino
... innocence, whose presence always calls forth the purest memories, are not with us; nor do we feel the almost omnipotent influences of the old school-house gatherings, of the church-going bell, and of the home-fireside. When you sever all these ties and helps to a moral life, and throw a man in the immediate association of the vicious, he must be only a little less than an angel not to fall. Here we are all dressed alike, live alike, and ...
— Three Years in the Federal Cavalry • Willard Glazier
... that word "Farewell!" As if 'twere friendship's final knell— Such fears may prove but vain: So changeful is life's fleeting day, Whene'er we sever, Hope may say, ...
— The Illustrated London Reading Book • Various
... nature upon the Northern foe, which was aiming to seize this petted horror from her grasp. She recalled often the tyrant's wish; like him would have given worlds had the subjects of Yankeedom but a single neck, that she might sever the Gorgonian head at ...
— Hubert's Wife - A Story for You • Minnie Mary Lee
... sausages, and went out, in the vain hope of finding Reginald somewhere. But there was no sign of workmen anywhere, and, to his disgust, he ascertained from a passing boy that the compositors' dinner-hour did not begin till he was due back at his work. Everything seemed to conspire to sever the two brothers, and Horace dejectedly took a solitary and frugal repast. He determined, at all hazards, to wait a minute after the bell summoning him back to work had ceased pealing, and was rewarded by a hasty glimpse of his brother, and the exchange of a few hurried ...
— Reginald Cruden - A Tale of City Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... butcher-bird is among the feathered tribes—an assassin, a beautiful fiend. It would seem that nature reproduces among animals and plants every phase of human character. Was it Nero or Caligula who said, 'Oh, that Rome had but one neck, that I might sever it?' Such is the spirit that animates the ermine. Its instinct to kill is so strong that, were it possible, it would destroy the means of its subsistence. It would leave none of its varied prey alive. The lion and even the man-eating tiger, ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe
... separate, cut off, rescind, segregate; set apart, keep apart; insulate,, isolate; throw out of gear; cut adrift; loose; unloose, undo, unbind, unchain, unlock &c. (fix) 43, unpack, unravel; disentangle; set free &c. (liberate) 750. sunder, divide, subdivide, sever, dissever, abscind[obs3]; circumcise; cut; incide|, incise; saw, snip, nib, nip, cleave, rive, rend, slit, split, splinter, chip, crack, snap, break, tear, burst; rend &c. rend asunder, rend in twain; wrench, rupture, shatter, shiver, cranch[obs3], ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... case, contrary to its expectations, its protest be ineffectual, the Government of the Chinese Republic will be constrained, to its profound regret, to sever the diplomatic relations at present existing between the two countries. It is unnecessary to add that the attitude of the Chinese Government has been dictated purely by the desire to further the cause of the world's peace and ...
— Peking Dust • Ellen N. La Motte
... cannot but look upon her total neglect of me since her arrival in America as being wholly inexcusable. She has never even written me one line since her departure, and I learned of her safe arrival only by the newspapers. I can but infer from her obstinate and persistent silence that she wishes to sever all ties between herself and me, and I have resigned myself to the prospect of a lonely and cheerless old age. I trust that she may be happy in the brilliant marriage which, you say, she is about to make, and I can assure her that her old uncle ...
— Not Pretty, But Precious • John Hay, et al.
... said Nina, waving her arm with angry majesty, while her eyes sparkled as a lioness, whom the huntsmen would sever from her young. "I am the wife of Cola di Rienzi, the Great Senator of Rome, and by his side will I ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... The surface is nicely polished and the margins neatly beveled. The marginal zone is less than half an inch wide and contains at the upper edge two perforations, which have been considerably abraded by the cord of suspension. Four long curved slits or perforations almost sever the central design from the rim; the four narrow segments that remain are each ornamented with a single conical pit. The serpent is very neatly engraved and belongs to the chevroned variety. The eye is large and the neck is ornamented with a single rectangular intaglio figure. ...
— Illustrated Catalogue of a Portion of the Collections Made During the Field Season of 1881 • William H. Holmes
... unkind. I have then considered myself as a particle broken off from the grand mass of mankind; I was alone, till some involuntary sympathetic emotion, like the attraction of adhesion, made me feel that I was still a part of a mighty whole, from which I could not sever myself—not, perhaps, for the reflection has been carried very far, by snapping the thread of an existence, which loses its charms in proportion as the cruel experience of life stops or poisons the current of the heart. Futurity, ...
— Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark • Mary Wollstonecraft
... object, despising the mean and corrupt practices by which that agitation was attended, and being filled with horror at the occurrence of so much agrarian crime, he came to the conclusion that an armed attempt to sever Ireland from Great Britain was the duty of Irishmen, and the only hope left for her political or social redemption. Mr. O'Brien was a member of the Church of England, and his sympathies were with the evangelical section. He was well acquainted ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... use beating about the bush. You are the centre of my life as it is, you are what I—all that is left of me—love best in the world! I cannot now conceive the possibility of anything but hatred for what might come between us, for what might sever the existing link, whatever it may be—I care little what it is called, so long as I may keep ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan
... from England bought and sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold; But though slave they have enrolled me, Minds are never to be sold. Still in thought as free as ever, What are England's rights, I ask, Me from my delights to sever, Me to torture, me to task? Fleecy locks and black complexion Cannot forfeit Nature's claim; Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... cast, and when Rita went to the theatre to dress for the afternoon performance she was pledged to sever her connection with the stage on the termination of her contract. She had luncheon with Monte Irvin, and had listened almost dazedly to his plans for the future. His wealth was even greater than her mother had estimated it to ...
— Dope • Sax Rohmer
... ties, obligations, and prospects, in the consummation of this one object? to hazard friends, opinion, the world—perhaps it may be, to sacrifice them for the love that has grown up between us, and which, for good or evil, must this day bind us together, or sever us for ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. • Various
... sanctuary, With the same shuddering feeling forth I step, As when I trod it first, nor ever here Doth my unquiet spirit feel at home. Long as a higher will, to which I bow, Hath kept me here conceal'd, still, as at first, I feel myself a stranger. For the sea Doth sever me, alas! from those I love, And day by day upon the shore I stand, The land of Hellas seeking with my soul; But to my sighs, the hollow-sounding waves Bring, save their own hoarse murmurs, no reply. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... convenience we may include here the causal relations between venereal disease and desertion. In so far as syphilis brings about mental and physical deterioration, the relation between the two is obvious. The presence of the disease in the man, if known to his wife, may lead her to sever relations with him in self-protection, and this severance, in turn, may lead ultimately to desertion or complete separation. Often separation is desirable, but the syphilitic who is on the whole a good family man raises some of the most difficult ...
— Broken Homes - A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment • Joanna C. Colcord |
