"Useless" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... when it is important to know the exact topographical order of objects mentioned. In any case, however, his accuracy in detail is hardly to be accepted without question, especially in his description of the Acropolis, where he has to try his prentice hand upon a material far too great for him. A useless bit of lore stupidly applied may not be an impossibility for Pausanias, but, however low our opinion of his intellect may be, he is the best we have,[7] and must be treated accordingly. The passage about Ergane, etc., must not be simply cast aside as misunderstood lore, but neither should ...
— The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 • Various
... animal and a covering for the hand. 2. A voracious bird of prey and a useless plant. 3. A pipe and a flower. 4. A sweetmeat and a bunch of hair. 5. A noun meaning a quick breaking and a winged serpent. 6. A stone fence and the blossom of a plant. 7. Fragrant and a vegetable. 8. An entertainment of dancing and a boy's nickname. 9. Vapor frozen in flakes, and ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 - No 1, Nov 1877 • Various
... handicapped on every side by the failure of our transportation facilities to grow with the country. It is useless to talk about increased production to meet an increased standard of living in an increasing population without a greatly increased transport equipment. Moreover, there are very great social problems underlying our transport system; today ...
— Herbert Hoover - The Man and His Work • Vernon Kellogg
... own strength and weakness! The one instinct, which might itself be a delusion, was that one had a choice in the matter, a will, a power to act or to refrain from acting; there was a deep-seated impulse to fare onward, to hope, to struggle. It was useless to blame the mysterious conditions of the journey, for they were certainly there. The only faith that was possible was the belief that the truth was somehow larger, nobler, more beautiful than one could conceive it to ...
— Beside Still Waters • Arthur Christopher Benson
... of the natives, something like that which the Normans had accomplished in England, and the Saxons had done centuries before; but nothing of the kind was attempted. Whether Henry's original intention was simply to leave the Irish chiefs in possession or not, it is useless now to enquire. But if it was, he appears to have changed his views; for not long afterwards he granted large fiefs with palatinate jurisdiction to various Normans who had made their way over ...
— Is Ulster Right? • Anonymous
... better understanding between them of each other's requirements, mutual adaptation followed. The flower that offered the best advertisement, as the composites do, by its showy rays; that secreted nectar in tubular flowers where no useless insect could pilfer it; that fastened its stamens to the inside wall of the tube where they must dust with pollen the underside of every insect, unwittingly cross-fertilizing the blossom as he crawled over it; that ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan
... it is necessary to display all the resources of this secret strategy, it is often useless to attempt setting any traps for these satanic creatures. Once women arrive at a point when they willfully deceive, their countenances become as inscrutable as vacancy. Here is an example which ...
— The Physiology of Marriage, Part III. • Honore de Balzac
... little groups. Guarionex, the cacique of the Vega Real, was by gifts and smooth words soothed back into a friendship which was consolidated by the marriage of his daughter with Columbus's native interpreter. It was useless, how ever, to try and make friends with Caonabo, that fierce irreconcilable; and it was felt that only by stratagem could he be secured. No sooner was this suggested than Ojeda volunteered for the service. Amid the somewhat ...
— Christopher Columbus, Complete • Filson Young
... be useless," returned the youth, "for every man must tend his own; and as for me, the King will send me on a quest when He has received this flower, and I shall not return ...
— Jewel's Story Book • Clara Louise Burnham
... than any stable manure; it has been known to produce fifty bushels of corn to the acre, when stable-manure produced but forty bushels. Old wood, brush, and chips, should never be allowed to remain on uncultivated, useless land. Wood throws out the same amount of heat in decaying as it does when consumed as fuel. The action of that heat on the soil is highly beneficial, retaining it long in a mellow state: hence, all wood, too old to be of value for any other purpose, should be put ...
— Soil Culture • J. H. Walden
... above (I-II, Q. 3, AA. 1, 4), the gratuitous graces are ordained for the manifestation of faith and spiritual doctrine. For it behooves him who teaches to have the means of making his doctrine clear; otherwise his doctrine would be useless. Now Christ is the first and chief teacher of spiritual doctrine and faith, according to Heb. 2:3, 4: "Which having begun to be declared by the Lord was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders." Hence it is clear that all the gratuitous ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas
... matter, rather than only quantitative, can be appreciated by them. Any teacher who has tested them carefully in this respect is likely to agree to this assertion. It is as natural for a lot of children to condemn the mention of useless detail, because of its waste of time, as it is for them to ...
— How To Study and Teaching How To Study • F. M. McMurry
... as I had done many times before, with tears in my eyes and despair in my heart, to renew my useless efforts, vainly turning and returning in all ...
— Delsarte System of Oratory • Various
... before his birth, the judges of Persia had given a solemn opinion, (Herodot. l. iii. c. 31, p. 210, edit. Wesseling.) Nor had this constitutional maxim been neglected as a useless and barren theory.] ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... doth fleet a vernal dream; The transient flowers pass like a running stream; Maidens and youths bear this, ye all, in mind; In useless grief ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... yielding only to the inexorable. This right wing had already possession of the Mississippi as far south as Vicksburg, around which place Grant was preparing to tighten his coils; it had occupied the line of the Tennessee River, and had rendered useless to the Confederates the railroad from Memphis to Chattanooga, which had been the great central artery between Richmond and the trans-Mississippi States. The Southern partisans, with Morgan and Forrest as typical chiefs, had up to this ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge
... Bazarov was saying meanwhile; 'if you think of it, what a lot of foreign ... and useless words! To a Russian they're ...
— Fathers and Children • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
... young as I am—this very minute! You've got to borrow some youth from me—for I have plenty to go around—and help me make this fight for friends! It may not come to anything—for the soul of this city is hard as nails! This music man may turn me down—or be perfectly fat and useless! Who knows? But how can I tell till I meet the man? And when will you go and see him? Today or tomorrow? I haven't very much time, you know, for any more shilly-shallying! I want some action ...
— His Second Wife • Ernest Poole
... the county would probably take charge of him; but she recalled what she had heard in its full meaning to the child only when she saw him turn the corner, going toward the centre of the town. There was a feeling of keen joy in her heart as she realized that she was not useless in the world, and she went about her morning's work with the lightest heart in all Willow Creek beating ...
— The Court of Boyville • William Allen White
... order to obtain the maximum amount of work from a machine, the internal resistance of the armature must equal the resistance of the exterior circuit, although the application of this principle entailed the useless expenditure of at least 50 per ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
... murdered Boniface and his fellow-monks, on entering their tents, discovered little to gratify their avarice, save a few relics and a number of books, which, with a barbarism corresponding with their ignorance, they threw into the river as useless; but fortunately, some of the monks, who had escaped from their hands, observing the transaction, recovered them and carried them away in safety with the remains of the martyred missionary, who was ...
— Bibliomania in the Middle Ages • Frederick Somner Merryweather
... and bade Fry to take Robinson to the dark cell. The poor fellow knew resistance was useless. He came out at the word of command, despair written on his face. Of all the horrors of this hell the dark cell was the one he most dreaded. He looked up to Hawes to see if anything he could say would soften him. No! that hardened face showed neither pity nor ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade
... (2) her growing individualism; (3) her lost art of giving, replaced by a highly developed receptive faculty. The American woman, this writer states, in discovering her own individuality has not yet learnt how to manage it; it is still "largely a useless, uneasy factor, vouchsafing her very little more peace than it does those in her immediate surcharged vicinity." Her circumstances tend to make of her "a curious anomalous hybrid; a cross between a magnificent, rather ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... half an hour, the officer returned; all hope had gone from his face. "It is useless!" he cried out. "The guides refuse to proceed. See! They are going off with their countrymen! We are lost without them. I do not know what to do. We cannot get to Ganlook; I do not know the way, and the danger is great. Ah! Madam! Here ...
— Beverly of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon
... limitations. Beginning with South Wales, we find one of these tales told by the Rev. Edward Davies, a clergyman in Gloucestershire at the beginning of this century, who was the author of two curious works on Welsh antiquities, stuffed with useless, because misdirected, learning. The tale in question relates to a small lake "in the mountains of Brecknock," concerning which we are informed that every Mayday a certain door in a rock near the lake was found open. He who was bold enough to enter was led by a secret passage to a small ...
— The Science of Fairy Tales - An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology • Edwin Sidney Hartland
... mountains did to them. And I know men who have thought to find this memory and desire in foreign countries, in Africa, hunting great beasts such as our fathers hunted; yet even these have not relit those old embers, which if they lie dead and dark in a man make his whole soul dusty and useless, but which if they be once rekindled can make him part of ...
— Hills and the Sea • H. Belloc
... capture grizzlies we took into consideration the proclivity of this beast to attack. We knew his speed was tremendous. He is able to catch a horse or a dog on the run. Therefore, it is useless for a man to try to run away from him. There is no such thing as being able to climb a tree if the animal is at close quarters. Adams has shown that it is a mistake to attempt it. One only stretches himself out inviting evisceration ...
— Hunting with the Bow and Arrow • Saxton Pope
... water; and we are taught that it is to undergo another, by fire, preparatory to a new and glorified state of existence of man; but this is all we are permitted to know, and as this state is to be entirely different from the present one of misery and probation, any knowledge respecting it would be useless and indeed almost impossible. ...
— Consolations in Travel - or, the Last Days of a Philosopher • Humphrey Davy
... examination system in their place. The examinations were to supply both scholars and practical statesmen, and they were periodically held throughout the later dynasties until the introduction of the modern educational regime. Useless and stereotyped as they were in later days, they once served some useful purpose. Besides, the ethical background of Chinese education had already been so firmly established, that, in spite of the emphasis laid by these examinations on ...
— The Problem of China • Bertrand Russell
... of Art is as serious as that of other beautiful things—of the blue sky, and the green grass, and the clouds, and the dew. They are either useless, or they are of much deeper ...
— Music As A Language - Lectures to Music Students • Ethel Home
... Lizzie. I will not fight him,—that is, with pistols; nor will I attempt to thrash him. It would be useless to argue whether public opinion is right or wrong; but public opinion is now so much opposed to that kind of thing, that it is out of the question. I should injure your position and destroy my own. If you mean to quarrel with me on that score, you ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... Brainerd and I held one of our long, and, in the past, ofttimes useless and mistaken, symposiums. But this time we were in perfect accord. We had spread upon the table before us our old memoranda from the very beginning of our campaign, and also some few letters and other documents. ...
— Against Odds - A Detective Story • Lawrence L. Lynch
... Clearly, not on that amount. No, her income would not suffice; she would be obliged to draw on the principal until Carmen could be married off to some millionaire, or until her own father died. Oh? if he would only terminate his useless existence soon! ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking
... old man lifted up his right hand—his hand on which the forefinger and thumb were maimed and useless—partly in denunciation, and partly as a witness of what he had endured to escape from the service, abhorred because it was forced. His face became a totally different countenance with the expression of settled and unrelenting indignation, which ...
— Sylvia's Lovers — Complete • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... it with an oath; upon which I instantly gave him a tract. If I had presented a pistol at his head, this abandoned wretch could hardly have exhibited greater consternation. He jumped up on his box, and, with profane exclamations of dismay, drove off furiously. Quite useless, I am happy to say! I sowed the good seed, in spite of him, by throwing a second tract in at the window ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins
... useless to try to read her mind, or to translate the glitter of her beady eyes into thoughts intelligible to any but an Oriental. It was quite clear, though, that she wished not to be noticed, that she feared the occupants of the caravansary, and that she had returned for ...
— Rung Ho! • Talbot Mundy
... It is useless to relate the activity with which Josette, Jacquelin, Mariette, Moreau, and his agents went about their functions. It was like the busyness of ants about their eggs. All that daily care had already rendered ...
— The Jealousies of a Country Town • Honore de Balzac
... and snow-like drift, Forceful, formless, fierce, and swift! Hair-like vapours madly riven! Waters smitten into dust! Lightning through the turmoil driven, Aimless, useless, ...
— The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume I • George MacDonald
... are in the habit of saying to every new fact, 'What is its use?' Dr. Franklin says to such, 'What is the use of an infant?' The answer of the experimentalist is, 'Endeavour to make it useful.' When Scheele discovered this substance, it appeared to have no use; it was in its infancy and useless state, but having grown up to maturity, witness its powers, and see what endeavours to make ...
— Little Masterpieces of Science: - Invention and Discovery • Various
... stories that are about," she continued quietly; "and I was saying to your friend that, since we had been so happy as to be spared, it seemed useless to dwell ...
— Coming Home - 1916 • Edith Wharton
... futile before, it was doubly so now. The fort was out of repair, the guns useless from lack of ammunition, there was no provision to sustain a siege. A small boat with a flag of truce rounded the point, and with a heavy heart Champlain displayed his on ...
— A Little Girl in Old Quebec • Amanda Millie Douglas
... inflicts, and which is reserved at the assizes for confirmed rogues. The law of imprisonment for debt is a relic of the days of barbarism, which combines with its stupidity the rare merit of being useless, inasmuch as it never ...
— Scenes from a Courtesan's Life • Honore de Balzac
... still preserved his composure, and finished the playful warfare of badinage which he was at the moment carrying on with a lady opposite; and, a short time after, was missed from the circle. In his room, alone, he opened and read the letter, now worse than idle and useless to be read. It was from her, giving a long account of a persecution to which she had been exposed by her guardian's family, to lead her to unite herself with their son: and she related how, for a long time, his letters had ceased to arrive; how she had written time and again, till she became ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... for it but to wait with what patience he could muster till the afternoon; and it was characteristic of Nancy's legal friend that he said nothing of his mysterious appointment to either the Burtons or to Mrs. Dampier. It was useless to raise hopes which might ...
— The End of Her Honeymoon • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... then disengage and make your first Motion without his Sword, to stand a Thought on it to try whether he will answer you, by offering to proceed to the Parade; if he do not answer, it is useless, but if he do, then presently make your second Motion within his Sword, and your third Motion without it, by giving the Thrust; both these Motions must be done with admirable quickness; at every Motion give a beat with your Foot, and disengage; ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett
... under whose weight you feel that endeavors to rise are useless. Illness and other worries may ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... made their way against a blown rain which all but blinded them and streamed from their hats and rendered their storm jackets quite useless. Tom wore khaki trousers and a pongee shirt which clung to him like wet tissue paper. If one cannot be thoroughly dry the next best thing is to be ...
— Tom Slade's Double Dare • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... taking the hand of Harrigan, he turned it palm up. "This chap has been brutally treated. He's been at work that fairly tore the skin from the palms of his hands. One hour's work with a shovel, captain, would make Harrigan useless at any sort of a job for ...
— Harrigan • Max Brand
... dying, who remembered the day when he was lost, and the search made for him, yet now there was no room for the old man. The gap had filled up, life had flowed on. They had grieved for him, but they did not want him back. He disturbed their arrangements; he was another useless mouth to feed. ...
— The Altar Fire • Arthur Christopher Benson
... unnecessary. A table, and a chair or two, and kitchen things, and a good bed, and such-like. Why, I've seen the day when I shouldn't ha' known myself if I'd lain on sacking i'stead o' the floor. We get a deal o' useless things about us, only because we've got the ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot
... think that! He wrote quietly, as before—not a word of my having broken with him. Then I knew it was useless, and so I ...
— The Lady From The Sea • Henrik Ibsen
... answered that Tom was busy with the fence, and, ceasing from argument which he felt to be useless with Rachel, suggested doubtfully that he had better ...
— The Ghost Kings • H. Rider Haggard
... we often incur real suffering. "The man," said Epicurus, "who is not content with little is content with nothing." How often do we "labor for that which satisfieth not." More than we use is more than we need, and only a burden to the bearer. [16] We most of us give ourselves an immense amount of useless trouble; encumber ourselves, as it were, on the journey of life with a dead weight of unnecessary baggage; and as "a man maketh his train longer, he makes his wings shorter." [17] In that delightful fairy tale, Alice ...
— The Pleasures of Life • Sir John Lubbock
... I have thought, in a day, or two days or three, all this shall be changed, and the women shall be, some anxious and wearied with waiting, some casting all hope away; and the men, some shall come back to the garth no more, and some shall come back maimed and useless, and there shall be loss of friends and fellows, and mirth departed, and dull days and empty hours, and the children wandering about marvelling at the sorrow of the house. All this I saw before ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris
... was heavily overcast, and at the very beginning of the battle a driving storm with rain and sleet came beating down in the faces of the Danes, thus blinding them. Their cavalry, too, was almost useless; for the ground was covered with melting snow, which formed in great cakes under the horses' hoofs, and soon sent horses and riders sprawling on the ground. The patriots, however, being without cavalry or muskets, suffered ...
— The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa • Paul Barron Watson
... only to submit. To appeal to the King or to their Bishop would have been quite useless; they could only do as the Pope commanded, and elect the Mother Matilda, consoling themselves with the reflection that she was not likely to trouble herself about them, and their old Prioress would ...
— Grisly Grisell • Charlotte M. Yonge
... renewal of attention on the part of Emily, and expressed her gratitude to both ladies for their kindness in seeking her out in her solitude. She presented her more matronly companion to them, by the name of Donna Lorenza; and as nothing but good feeling prevailed, and useless ceremony was banished, the little party were soon on terms of friendly intercourse. The young widow (for such her dress indicated her to be), did the honors of her house with graceful ease, and conduct ed her visiters into her little grounds, which; together ...
— Precaution • James Fenimore Cooper
... genial placidity with which he would do and say a thing like this. It was as impossible to be angry with him in behalf of the unfortunate giver of cheap silver as to take offense at a tree or mountain. And it was useless to argue the matter—nay it was folly, for he would immediately become polysyllabic ...
— The Bibliotaph - and Other People • Leon H. Vincent
... system of tallies was discontinued in 1824; and the destruction of the old Houses of Parliament, in the night of October 16th, 1834, is thought to have been occasioned by the overheating of the flues, when the furnaces were employed to consume the tallies rendered useless by the alteration in the mode of keeping ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... girl that you are, were born that you might be the wife of a strong man and the mother of his sturdy children. The world was made for you and for your offspring; and in time your children will occupy this world and make the laws for us irrelevant folk that scribble and paint and design all useless and beautiful things, and thus muddle away our precious lives. No, you may not wisely mate with us, for you are a shade too terribly at ease in the universe, ...
— The Cords of Vanity • James Branch Cabell et al
... exploits of a different nature, I fell back under his odious sway. I was by no means fitted for lying and fraud. I displayed not only aversion but also incapacity for this new industry. Consequently my uncle looked upon me as useless, and began to maltreat me again. They would have driven me away had they not been afraid that I might make my peace with society, and become a dangerous enemy to themselves. While they were in doubt as to whether ...
— Mauprat • George Sand
... through a friend who happened to cross the Andes at the same point. The blow had been so severe that he never returned to claim his property; and there it lay for many a day on the wild mountain pass—perchance there it lies still—far from the abodes of men, and utterly useless, save as a ponderous monument and memorial of the terrible catastrophe which had robbed its owner of home, kindred, wealth, and ...
— Lost in the Forest - Wandering Will's Adventures in South America • R.M. Ballantyne
... Pass on! it is useless to linger While others are calling your care; There is need for your delicate finger, For your womanly sympathy there. There are sick ones athirst for caressing, There are dying ones raving at home, There are wounds to be bound with a blessing, And shrouds ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... theories were engrafted upon the literature of his nation, the learned and sagacious Schlosser conclusively proves in his History of the Eighteenth Century. Says this ripe scholar and deep thinker, 'All that Bolingbroke ridicules as tedious and without talent, all that he laughs at as useless and without taste, all that which, urged by his labors and those of his like-minded associates, had for eighty years disappeared from ancient history, is again brought back in our day. So short is the ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various
... an ode to Greece, commencing with 'The Isles of Greece! the Isles of Greece!' a very feeble line, as any one will see, for it contained a useless and ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper
... useless 'Uncle,' rather," put in Grandmamma, laying a peculiar stress upon the word "UNCLE." "What else is ...
— Boyhood • Leo Tolstoy
... as if I were trifling?' he said earnestly. 'Miss Thorn, you have the making of me in your hands. I have led a useless kind of life up to the present, and I have for a long time been dissatisfied and restless about it. I see you have what I have not, and I want your help. I do want a good woman as my wife—I feel she could raise my life to a higher ...
— Dwell Deep - or Hilda Thorn's Life Story • Amy Le Feuvre
... with a delightful garden, all stand together on a small plot of ground. The Teivi has another singular particularity, being the only river in Wales, or even in England, which has beavers; {136} in Scotland they are said to be found in one river, but are very scarce. I think it not a useless labour, to insert a few remarks respecting the nature of these animals - the manner in which they bring their materials from the woods to the water, and with what skill they connect them in the construction ...
— The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales • Giraldus Cambrensis
... but he was not aware that the leader of his pursuers was Sally Salisbury and that she knew perfectly well why he was running towards the bridge. She sprang from the now useless coach and called upon the crowd to follow her. Meanwhile ...
— Madame Flirt - A Romance of 'The Beggar's Opera' • Charles E. Pearce
... and it is to be hoped that these feelings may not soon be changed. But in all communities opinions sometimes run into extremes; and there are not a few among us who, dazzled by the beneficial results of a long peace, have adopted the opinion that war in any case is not only useless, but actually immoral; nay, more, that to engage in war is wicked in the highest ...
— Elements of Military Art and Science • Henry Wager Halleck
... animal anatomy. That chaotic and breathless cramming of terms misunderstood, tabulated statements, formulated "tips," and lists of names, in which so many students, in spite of advice, waste their youth is, I sincerely hope, as impossible with this book as it is useless for the purposes of a London candidate. On the other hand, our chief endeavour has been to render the matter of the book clear, connected, progressive, and easily assimilable. In the second part Plants, Unicellular Organisms, and Invertebrata ...
— Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata • H. G. Wells
... not a little remarkable, that a writer of reputation upon the Public Law, described, many years ago, not inaccurately, the character of this alliance. I allude to Puffendorf. "It seems useless," says he, "to frame any pacts or leagues, barely for the defence and support of universal peace; for by such a league nothing is superadded to the obligation of natural law, and no agreement is made for the performance of any thing which the parties were ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster
... eagerness and carrying him down to the floor with a force that shook the cabin. As they fell Hollis felt a sharp, agonizing pain in his left wrist, from which the splints had been only recently removed, and the hand hung limp at his side, entirely useless. ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer
... but the king's retreat upon the Lombard capital, after the good fight at Volta, was known. According to the king's proclamation the Piedmontese army was to defend Milan, and hope was not dead. Vittoria succeeded in repressing all useless signs of grief in the presence of the venerable lady, who herself showed none, but simply recommended her accepted daughter to pray daily. "I can neither confess nor pray," Vittoria said to the priest, a comfortable, irritable ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... in their coasting trips repelled the attacks of British cruisers, which dared not come into shallow waters, it did not follow that they would have the same success in mid-Channel, far away from coast defences and amidst choppy waves that must render the guns of keelless boats wellnigh useless.[320] ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose
... hair over certain portions of the body, is not without interest. Over the body we find but a scanty covering, which is thick only on the head, in the armpits, and on some other parts of the body. The short hairs on the greater part of the body are entirely useless, and are the last scanty remains of the hairy covering of our ape ancestors. Both on the upper and lower arm the hairs are directed toward the elbow, where they meet at an obtuse angle—this striking arrangement ...
— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott
... things: it is useless to try to set them in a world apart. They exist in books only by accident, and for one written there are a thousand, infinitely more powerful, spoken. They are deeds: the man who brings word of a lost battle can work no comparable effect with the muscles of his arm; Iago's breath is as truly laden ...
— Style • Walter Raleigh
... apartments were full of heavy baggage and the sloop a good deal lumbered aloft with heavy and some useless articles, which we might soon get rid of or get into the hold after we had consumed some of our provisions, I still entertained hopes that she would bear all her additional works, and suspended giving any other opinion until a full trial had been made of her, foreseeing what would be the consequence ...
— The Life of Captain James Cook • Arthur Kitson
... grew, and lingered over the trellises to drink the fragrance of the flowers that peeped out from their leafy beds. And upon Madison's face crept slowly the anguish that was in his soul—until it was mirrored there—until unconsciously it answered her where words would have been useless things. Like some white-robed, sorrowing angel, she seemed, as she stood there before him—the brown eyes full of shadow, troubled; the sweet face tear-splashed; the little figure in its simple muslin frock, pitiful in its brave defiance. And pure—just ...
— The Miracle Man • Frank L. Packard
... Moscow to her Saratov estate, with a vague consciousness that she was not Bonaparte's servant, was really, simply, and truly carrying out the great work which saved Russia. But Count Rostopchin, who now taunted those who left Moscow and now had the government offices removed; now distributed quite useless weapons to the drunken rabble; now had processions displaying the icons, and now forbade Father Augustin to remove icons or the relics of saints; now seized all the private carts in Moscow and on one hundred and thirty-six of them removed the balloon that was ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... an indifferent Christian, but I intend to strive never to yield to temptation, but to work hard, and to till my land with the sweat of my brow, and to engage only in honourable pursuits, and to influence my fellows in the same direction. For, after all, am I so very useless? At least I could maintain a household, for I am frugal and active and intelligent and steadfast. The only thing is to make up my ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... else, that it was built for speed. The mainsail was so large that it was more like that of a racing-yacht, and it carried the points for no less than three reefs in case of rough weather. Aloft and on deck everything was in place—nothing was untidy or useless. From running-gear to standing rigging, everything bore evidence of thorough order and ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London
... letter—another sent a lock of hair by the chaplain. But Emilio made no sign, sent no word. My mother felt as though he had turned his back on us. She used to sit for hours, saying again and again, 'Why was he the only one to forget his mother?' I tried to comfort her, but it was useless: she had suffered too much. Now I never reason with her; I listen, and let her ease her poor heart. Do you know, she still asks me sometimes if I think he may have left a letter—if there is no way of finding out if he left one? She forgets that ...
— The Descent of Man and Other Stories • Edith Wharton
... so positive that they knew it would be useless to protest. The woman was not unpleasant to look at; her face was not cruel; her voice was big but gracious in tone; but her words showed that she possessed a merciless heart and no pleadings ...
— The Tin Woodman of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... and other gifts, it is asked that they consent to apply these on the building of the seminary intended and ordered by his Majesty. In case that they do not agree to that, the just price of whatever can be useful for this desirable end shall be paid to them; and what is useless shall be restored to its owners, except such buildings as may not be necessary, which ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various
... and I tell you that you will go, Crystal,' he returned, severely, but his sternness was only assumed to hide his pain. 'Nay, my child,' as he saw my face, 'do not make it too hard for me, by a resistance that will be useless. Think how the months will fly by, and how the change will benefit you, and how good it is of our dear Mrs. Grey to give up her peaceful home and her work just for your sake ...
— Wee Wifie • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... of the contest was marked by the extraordinary battle of New Orleans. It was a perfectly useless shedding of blood, since peace had already been declared. There is hardly another contest of modern times where the defeated side suffered such frightful carnage, while the victors came off almost scatheless. It is quite in accordance ...
— The Naval War of 1812 • Theodore Roosevelt
... They dug a great number of small pits close to each other, about the size of a horses foot, in every place around their camp where they thought the cavalry might come to attack them. But all their arts and labour were useless, as Benalcazar was never off his guard, and was not to be deceived by any of their contrivances, so that they were at last driven all the way to the city of Quito. It is reported of Ruminagui, that ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... much useless learning about the realm of Torelore. It is somewhere between Kor and Laputa. The custom of the Couvade was dimly known to the poet. The feigned lying-in of the father may have been either a recognition ...
— Aucassin and Nicolete • Andrew Lang
... That portion of the citizens, who belong to the religious society of Friends, appeared equally cordial and happy in an opportunity to assure him of their esteem. It is not consistent with their principles to make a great parade, or to prepare expensive and useless ceremonies. They did not all approve of the plan of illumination. In the wish to have it general, some ardent citizens censured the friends for declining to do it—But this was a mistaken zeal. ...
— Memoirs of General Lafayette • Lafayette
... literature, which draw nourishment from the corn and choke it. The time, money and attention of the public, which rightfully belong to good books and their noble aims, they take for themselves: they are written for the mere purpose of making money or procuring places. So they are not only useless; they do positive mischief. Nine-tenths of the whole of our present literature has no other aim than to get a few shillings out of the pockets of the public; and to this end author, publisher ...
— The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Religion, A Dialogue, Etc. • Arthur Schopenhauer
... than the queen, but larger than the working bees, and when on the wing they make a greater noise. Their office is to impregnate the eggs of the queen after they are deposited in the cells; but when this is effected, as they become useless to the hive, they are destroyed by the working bees and thrown out; and having no sting, they are without the power of resistance. After the season of the encrease of the bees is past, and when they attend to the collection of winter stores, every vestige of the drones is destroyed ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton
... began packin' up their things, grandmother took up this rose and put it in an iron kittle and laid plenty of good rich earth around the roots. Grandfather said the load they had to carry was heavy enough without puttin' in any useless things. But grandmother says, says she: 'If you leave this rose behind, you can leave me, too.' So the kittle and the rose went. Four weeks they was on their way, and every time they come to a ...
— Aunt Jane of Kentucky • Eliza Calvert Hall
... Viceroy, Kwan Wen, was as friendly personally as he was obstinate officially. He did not desire to see the new system enforced. Again and again he politely told Robert Hart that he was wasting his time—that it was quite useless ...
— Sir Robert Hart - The Romance of a Great Career, 2nd Edition • Juliet Bredon
... terrace of the tower that the Chinese astronomers had set their instruments, and though few in number they occupied the whole area. But Father Verbiest, the Director of the Observatory, considering them useless for astronomical observation, persuaded the Emperor to let them be removed, to make way for several instruments of his own construction. The instruments set aside by the European astronomers are still in a hall adjoining the tower, buried in dust and oblivion; and ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... lisp her notes begun! While pensive memory traces back the round Which fills the varied interval between; Much pleasure, more of sorrow, marks the scene.— Sweet native stream! those skies and suns so pure No more return, to cheer my evening road! Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure Nor useless, all my vacant days have flow'd From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature, Nor ...
— Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution • William Hazlitt
... of opinion that Prefaces are very useless things in cases like the present, where the Author must talk of himself, with little amusement to his readers. I have hesitated whether I should say any thing or nothing; but as it is the fashion to say something, ...
— May Day With The Muses • Robert Bloomfield
... I forgot. Josiah gave me a letter for Uncle Jim. I enclose it. I did not give it to Aunt Ann; perhaps I ought to have done so. But it would have been useless because it is sealed, and you know the rule at ...
— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell
... the negro, almost bursting with fright. With this he commenced pulling and jerking at my legs, until, finding his efforts useless, he hastened down stairs and spread the alarm. Major Smooth was in an alarming situation!—'most dying!—would breathe his last!—warn't no help fo'h him!—must die, sartin!! Such a ringing and dinging ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton
... fad involving the expenditure of sums of money for useless "frills" but is a practical means of getting better results with money that must be expended in such changes as disposition of lands, the location of roads, the furnishing of playgrounds, forests, and school grounds, etc. How these changes may be wisely directed ...
— The Farmer and His Community • Dwight Sanderson
... material be safely used? Indiscriminately employed, it is worse than useless—it can be confusing or actually misleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should do thus and so in human society. On this point sociology—especially ...
— Taboo and Genetics • Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard
... the baby, the poor little mite didn't live many hours after its mother, and we buried 'em together. Reuben and I knew what Lovey would have liked. She gave her life for the baby's, and it was a useless sacrifice, after all. No, it wa'n't neither; it couldn't have been! You needn't tell me God'll let such sacrifices as that come out useless! But anyhow, we had one coffin for 'em both, and I opened Lovey's arms and laid the baby in 'em. When ...
— The Village Watch-Tower • (AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin
... Offemont was exactly the place for a crime of this nature. In the middle of the forest of Aigue, three or four miles from Compiegne, it would be impossible to get efficient help before the rapid action of the poison had made it useless. ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... dwell on these details, and tell us that we may learn from the condition of this unfortunate country how useless are democratic forms among a people incapable of liberty, and that very weak governments can commit all sorts of crimes with impunity, from the fact that they have no official existence which foreign powers can recognize; and various other weighty moral lessons, which must be highly ...
— Anahuac • Edward Burnett Tylor
... than the article which she had known it to be when she was making her purchase. Nor was she even angry with her sister. "I will do the best I can, Hermy; you may be sure of that. But there are some things which it is useless to ...
— The Claverings • Anthony Trollope
... portraits had been removed from the studio, there it was, peering grimly out from amongst his early productions. Tchartkoff remembered that, in a certain sense, this hideous portrait had been the origin of the useless life he had so long led and now so deeply deplored; that the hoard of gold discovered in its frame had developed and fostered in him those worldly passions, that sensuality and love of luxury, which had been the bane of his genius. Calling his servants, he ordered the hateful picture to ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various
... soon brought him round. On coming to himself, he learnt with surprise of the scavenger's victory over the ogre, with which all the town was ringing. He understood how the wicked wretch had stepped in and defrauded him, and having no witness but his own word, saw it would be useless to dispute the point; therefore he gladly accepted the potters' offer of ...
— Tales Of The Punjab • Flora Annie Steel |
