"Woe" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... patterns, enormous buttons, and a flower in his mouth. His lady as handsome as a star, though a little hollow-eyed and passee. She looked like a tragedy queen, with her magnificent figure, and long black hair, and fierce flashing eyes, and woe-begone expression, and the black velvet ribbon with its diamond cross, which she always wore round her neck. Ah me! what stories that diamond-cross could tell, if all be true that we hear of Lady Scapegrace! A girl sold for money, to become a rebellious wife to an unfeeling husband. ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville
... were characterized by that practical good sense, without which the most brilliant parts may work more to the woe than to the weal of mankind. Though engaged all her life in reforms, she had none of the failings so common in reformers. Her plans, though vast, were never visionary. The best proof of this is, that she lived to see most of ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott
... Grace's woe-be-gone face brightened at Emma's nonsense. "You always succeed in making me smile when I am the bluest of the blue," ...
— Grace Harlowe's Problem • Jessie Graham Flower
... Back to Ravenna? But she clings to me, At the least hint of parting. Ah! 'tis sweet, Sweeter than slumber to the lids of pain, To fancy that a shadow of true love May fall on this God-stricken mould of woe, From so serene a nature. Beautiful Is the first vision of a desert brook, Shining beneath its palmy garniture, To one who travels on his easy way; What is it to the blood-shot, aching eye Of some poor wight who ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini • George Henry Boker
... with cow dung. But there is a time in every man's life when he shall come to evoke sympathy from his fellows. "He's coming!" they said, "Here he is!" they shouted, and as I passed along the ranks I was the object of universal sympathy in my woe-bestricken condition. ...
— Adventures and Recollections • Bill o'th' Hoylus End
... do not forget that many a woman who would otherwise have been worth little, has for her sorrow found such consolation that she has become rich before God; these words hold nevertheless: "It must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald
... appearance with the magic arrow, and so left it "reaching upward to the sunlight." After many days he returned to the spot-drawn by an irresistible longing, and covered the fatal arrow, which had brought him so much woe, with earth and leaves to hide it from his sight. The earth and leaves furnished the necessary nourishment to the tiny vine, which reached out with strength and vigor, and finding friendly bushes upon which to climb, it soon made a sheltering ...
— The White Doe - The Fate of Virginia Dare • Sallie Southall Cotten
... two months have witnessed, following and thronging one another in such rapid succession, are no work of man. Woe to him that does not discern the Lord's voice in this blast that agitates, uproots, and rends the cedar and the oak. Woe to the pride of man if he shall refer, these marvellous changes to any human merit or any human fault; if instead of adoring ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17 • Charles Francis Horne
... over his foe with a rude club. The operation is greatly refined to-day. The technique of war changes with the ages, but human nature remains the same. Whether with grenade or gas, from submarine or aeroplane, a man after all possible woe and suffering is no more than killed. Human nature will submit to losses in battle up to a certain point, after that the frailties are asserted. The instinct of self-preservation dominates. Organization and discipline and reason are dissipated. A ...
— The Plattsburg Manual - A Handbook for Military Training • O.O. Ellis and E.B. Garey
... see about that. Woe to Hogarth, and to his advisers, if he dare slight O'Hara, my son! What! after preparing myself with toilsome zeal for this post? and after two promises from Hogarth's ...
— The Lord of the Sea • M. P. Shiel
... fingers she pointed to the following words traced upon it during the night: "Simon Ford, you have robbed me of the last vein in our old pit. Harry, your son, has robbed me of Nell. Woe betide you! Woe betide you all! Woe betide ...
— The Underground City • Jules Verne
... Naturally slow of pulse and speech, she had been long coming to a conclusion; but, having satisfied herself of its justice, she was likely to be immovable in it. She gave John her hand frankly and lovingly, and promised, in poverty or wealth, in weal or woe, to stand truly by his side. It was not a very hopeful troth-plighting, but they were both sure of the foundations of their love, and both regarded ...
— Scottish sketches • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... Tony says, "Aye! they may feed 'en on food of a better quality like, after the rate, but he won't get done like he is at home." Several times daily he wants to know how long they will keep Tommy there, and when Mrs Widger replies, six weeks, he asks in a woe-begone voice: "Do 'ee think 'er'll know his dad ...
— A Poor Man's House • Stephen Sydney Reynolds
... few more members to the kingdom of the dead. The reason is that the Thugs were forbidden to shed human blood. The sacrifice could only be accomplished through death by strangling. It might often be easy enough to fall upon solitary travellers, but woe to the Thug who in any way brought about the shedding of blood! Consequently they had to have recourse to all sorts of ingenious methods for allaying suspicion, so that their victims might be hastened into the next world according to the rites ...
— Modern Saints and Seers • Jean Finot
... of woe was on Peterborough's countenance when we descended at the palace portals: he had forgotten ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... themselves from the generations that had endured, they, too, endured. Theirs was the simple, elemental economy. A little food equipped them with prodigious energy. Nothing was lost. A man of soft civilization, sitting at a desk, would have grown lean and woe-begone on the fare that kept Kama and Daylight at the top-notch of physical efficiency. They knew, as the man at the desk never knows, what it is to be normally hungry all the time, so that they could eat any time. Their appetites were always with them and on edge, so that they ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... her!—There is no cause for woe; But rather nerve the spirit that it walk Unshrinking o'er the thorny paths below, And from earth's low defilements keep thee back: So, when a few, fleet, severing years have flown, She'll meet thee at heaven's gate—and lead thee on! Weep ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir
... land of liberty, how many thoughts crowd my mind? I ask myself—is it indeed finished? And are there none to lament the downfall of time-honored, hoary-headed slavery? Where are the mourners? Where are the prognosticators of ruin, desolation, and woe? Where are the riots and disorders, the bloodshed and the burnings? The prophets and their prophecies are alike empty, vain, and unfounded, and are ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... were left upon my stem In mimicry of life, But ah! the children will not know, Till time has withered them, The woe ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau
... Paradise: the scoffer, the liar, the hypocrite, and the backbiter.—Beat the gods, and the priests will tremble.—Contrition is better than many flagellations.—When the pitcher falls upon the stone, woe unto the pitcher; when the stone falls upon the pitcher, woe unto the pitcher; whatever betides, woe unto the pitcher.—The place does not honor the man, the man honors the place.—He who humbles himself will be exalted; he who exalts himself will be humbled,—Whosoever pursues greatness, ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles
... which engirdle this island," the Ambassador said thoughtfully, "have brought the English great weal, as they may bring to her much woe. The too-nimble brain of the diplomat has its parallel of insincerity in the people whose interests he seems to guard. I believe in the honesty of the English politicians, I have placed that belief on record in the ...
— The Great Impersonation • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... many hardships, but this was an experience beyond everything else. He was still weak. He needed nourishing food, but he must eat the corn-meal or starve. Everywhere he saw only sickening sights,—pale, woe-begone wretches, clothed in filthy rags, covered with vermin. Some were picking up crumbs of bread which had been swept out from the bakery. Others were sucking the bones which had been thrown out from the cook-house. Some sat gazing into ...
— Winning His Way • Charles Carleton Coffin
... a window that looked over the garden and into the street. Leonard passed. She turned quickly away, only sighing again, "Oh!—ho—ho!" Her thought might have been kinder had she known he was stabbing himself at every step with blame of all this woe. ...
— Bylow Hill • George Washington Cable
... keeping unison; this procession, headed by a mere musician, who none the less was a poet, a great man, crossed the field of Louisburg as it lay dotted with the heaps of slain, and dotted also with the groups of those who sought their slain; crossed that field of woe, meeting only hatred and despair, yet leaving behind only tears and grief. Tears and grief, it is true, yet grief that knew of sympathy, and tears that recked ...
— The Girl at the Halfway House • Emerson Hough
... by their works!" the priest retorted. "Now, now," he continued, abruptly raising his voice, and lifting his hand in a kind of exaltation, real or feigned, "is the appointed time! And now is the day of salvation! and woe, Mirepoix, woe! woe! to the backslider, and to him that putteth his hand to the plough ...
— The House of the Wolf - A Romance • Stanley Weyman
... Sir Simon's eye As he wrung the warrior's hand— "Betide me weal, betide me woe, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI. • Various
... him. The hero of a novel attracts in part by his physiognomy, his manner, or even his dress; his character is qualified by circumstances and society; his impulses vary according to the impressions of outward things; he is the sport of fortune, dependent for weal or woe on the acquisition of some external blessing which the development of the plot may or may not bestow on him. As circumstances make his life what it is, so the particular combination of circumstances, called happiness, ...
— An Estimate of the Value and Influence of Works of Fiction in Modern Times • Thomas Hill Green
... When his feet slipped among the yawning crevasses of the glaciers, the smallest wilful negligence would have buried him in their blue depths. The common impulse to cast himself down the precipices along whose margin he crept had only to be yielded to, and all his earthly woe would be over. Even to give way to the weary drowsiness that overtook him at times as the sun went down, and the night fell upon him far away from shelter, might have soothed him into the slumber from which there is no awaking. But he dared not. He was willing enough to die, ...
— Cobwebs and Cables • Hesba Stretton
... what woe is this ye suffer, shrouded in night are your heads and your faces and knees, and kindled is the voice of wailing and the path is full of phantoms and full is the court, the shadows of men hasting hellwards beneath the gloom, and the sun is perished out of heaven, ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch
... the June baby's falling in and being brought back looking like a green and speckled frog herself, revealed where it was they had persuaded Seraphine to let them spend their mornings. Then there was woe and lamentation, for I was sure they would all have typhoid fever, and I put them mercilessly to bed, and dosed them, as a preliminary, with castor oil—that oil of sorrow, as Carlyle calls it. It was no use sending for the doctor because there is no doctor within ...
— The Solitary Summer • Elizabeth von Arnim
... man is heavily burdened with the necessities of the body in this world. Wherefore the prophet devoutly prayeth to be freed from them, saying, Deliver me from my necessities, O Lord.(1) But woe to those who know not their own misery, and yet greater woe to those who love this miserable and corruptible life. For to such a degree do some cling to it (even though by labouring or begging they scarce procure what is necessary for ...
— The Imitation of Christ • Thomas a Kempis
... mast, a young baron, named Godfrey de l'Aigle, and a butcher of Rouen. Fitzstephen, however, swam up, and called out to ask if the King's son had got off safe. When he heard their answer, he cried aloud, "Woe is me!" and sank like a stone. It was a cold night, and, after some hours, young Godfrey became benumbed, lost his hold, and likewise sank; but the butcher, in his sheepskin coat, held on till daylight, when he was picked up by some fishermen, ...
— Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward II • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... praise or woe, Were character'd on tablets Time had swept; And deep were half their letters hid below The thick small dust of those they once ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown
... with? Not one, I think. All bear within them the seeds of grief or joy. Sacred seeds, both carrying in their bosoms the germs of eternity. Even when this life is gone from us we still face weal or woe." ...
— April's Lady - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
... like a pall on heart and brain; we dare not look heavenward, dreading another blow; our anchor drags, we drift out into a hideous Dead Sea, where our idol has gone down forever—and boasted faith and trust and patience are swept like straws from our grasp in the tempest of woe; while our human love cries wolfishly for its lost darling. Ah! we build grand and gloomy mausoleums for our precious dead hopes, but, like Artemisia, we refuse to sepulchre—we devour the bitter ashes of the lost, and grimly and audaciously challenge Jehovah ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans
... crowd that followed them, torn by the cannon-fire of the Russians, and precipitated into the river by the breaking of one of the bridges, has made the passage of the Beresina a synonym for the utmost degree of human woe. ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe
... had done an hellish thing, And it would work 'em woe: For all averr'd, I had kill'd the bird That made the breeze to blow. Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, That made ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy
... breathless, wrapped in her rusty black shawl, with her shadow flitting far out over the level bog amid the slanted beams, she looked a not inappropriate messenger of woe, symbolically impotent and insignificant; a little dark speck in the wide westering light; a feeble stir of life creeping on the verge of a vast silent solitude; and full, withal, of baseless fears and futile plots, ...
— Strangers at Lisconnel • Barlow Jane
... a strain, with all o'er-pouring measure, Might melodise with each tumultuous sound Each voice of fear or triumph, woe or pleasure, That rings Mondego's ravaged shores around; The thundering cry of hosts with conquest crowned, The female shriek, the ruined peasant's moan, The shout of captives from their chains unbound, The foiled oppressor's deep and sullen groan, A Nation's ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott
... our hazardous attempt prove vain; We feel the worst, secured from greater pain: Perhaps we may provoke the conquering foe To make us nothing; yet, even then, we know, That not to be, is not to be in woe. ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume 5 (of 18) - Amboyna; The state of Innocence; Aureng-Zebe; All for Love • John Dryden
... the Dakotas the men think it undignified for them to steal, so they send their wives thus unlawfully to procure what they want—and woe be to them if they are ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck
... never be none. Word is comen to Edinborough to Jamy the Scottish king, That doughty Douglas, lieutenant of the Marches, he lay slain Cheviot within. His hand-es did he weal and wring; he said, "Alas! and woe is me: Such another captain Scotland within," he said, "yea faith should never be." Word is comen to lovely London, to the fourth Harry our king, That Lord Perc-y, lieutenant of the Marches, he lay slain Cheviot within. ...
— A Bundle of Ballads • Various
... down by weight of woe, To weakest hope will cling, To tho't and impulse while they flow, That can no comfort bring, that can, that can no comfort bring, With those exciting scenes will blend, O'er pleasure's pathway thrown; But mem'ry ...
— Operas Every Child Should Know - Descriptions of the Text and Music of Some of the Most Famous Masterpieces • Mary Schell Hoke Bacon
... from Eden now to go, Bound in his sins, with shame and woe, And there to feed on things below— His former situation: For he was taken from the earth, And blest with a superior birth, But, dead in sin, he's driven forth From his ...
— The Communistic Societies of the United States • Charles Nordhoff
... together toward this effect by some trick that had never yet been exposed. It was at the same time remarkable that—at least in the bosom of her family—she rarely wore an appearance of gaiety less qualified than at the present juncture; she suggested for the most part the luxury, the novelty of woe, the excitement of strange sorrows and the cultivation of fine indifferences. This was her special sign—an innocence dimly tragic. It gave immense effect to her other resources. She opened the secretary with ...
— The Awkward Age • Henry James
... horses too, And chariots bought. Now have I nought to do, If I would even to Tarentum ride, But mount my bobtailed mule, my wallets tied Across his flanks, which, napping as we go, With my ungainly ankles to and fro, Work his unhappy sides a world of weary woe." ...
— Horace • Theodore Martin
... From nodding pole and belting zone. He heard a voice none else could hear From centred and from errant sphere. The quaking earth did quake in rhyme, Seas ebbed and flowed in epic chime. In dens of passion, and pits of woe, He saw strong Eros struggling through, To sun the dark and solve the curse, And beam to the bounds of the universe. While thus to love he gave his days In loyal worship, scorning praise, How spread their lures for him in vain Thieving ...
— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... after the seventh day, and then, if our patient is normal, visitors may call, but should not stay longer than five minutes. The convalescing mother will improve faster without the neighborhood gossip, or the tales of woe so often carried by well-meaning, ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler
... is somewhere in infinite space a world that does not roll within the precincts of mercy, and as it is reasonable, and even scriptural, to suppose that there is music in Heaven, in those dismal regions perhaps the reverse of it is found; tones so dismal, as to make woe itself more insupportable, and to acuminate[113] even despair. But my paper admonishes me in good time to draw the reins, and to check the descent of my fancy into deeps, with which she ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury
... deceive your own consciences now, though ye offer violence to them, do ye think so to carry it above? Nay, persuade yourselves you must one day appear, and none to speak for you, God your Judge, your conscience your accuser, and Satan, your tormentor, standing by, and then woe to him that is alone, when the Advocate becomes Judge. In that day blessed are all those that have trusted in him, and used him formerly as an Advocate against sin and Satan, but woe to those for ever, who would never suffer this cause ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... is in his own home," he replies angrily, "goes out as he likes and when he likes. I have only to say the word and all the doors will open before me. This place is mine. Count d'Artigas gave it to me with everything it contains. Woe to those who attempt to attack it. I have here the wherewithal to annihilate them, Simon Hart!" The inventor waves the phial feverishly as ...
— Facing the Flag • Jules Verne
... born under what most people would consider lucky stars. He inherited an honourable name, a competent fortune, and abilities far above the average. But his father died when he was a child, and as soon as he struck twenty-one he was "Lord of himself, that heritage of woe." ...
— Prime Ministers and Some Others - A Book of Reminiscences • George W. E. Russell
... xxxix.-xl., lxiii.-lxxiv.). Over against these passages stand others of a hopelessly pessimistic character, wherein, alike as to Israel's [v.03 p.0455] present and future destiny on earth, there is written nothing save "lamentation, and mourning, and woe." The world is a scene of corruption, its evils are irremediable, its end is nigh, and the advent of the new and spiritual world at hand. The first to draw attention to the composite elements in this book was Kabisch (Jahrbuecher ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various
... had reigned the most terrible wrongs, where had been stifled the higher aspirations of manhood, where genius had been crushed, nay, more, where attempts had been made to annihilate even all human instincts,—from this accursing region, this charnel-house of human woe, came the latter-day children of Israel, the ...
— Music and Some Highly Musical People • James M. Trotter
... was the dim reverberating tinkle as of some far-off bell hung who should say where?—in the depths of the house, of the past, of that mystical other world that might have flourished for him had he not, for weal or woe, abandoned it. On this impression he did ever the same thing; he put his stick noiselessly away in a corner—feeling the place once more in the likeness of some great glass bowl, all precious concave crystal, set delicately ...
— The Jolly Corner • Henry James
... to obtain it. Prometheus stole this heavenly fire, for which act he was chained to the mountain and made to suffer. The Greeks mark this event as the beginning of human civilization. All arts are traced to Prometheus, and all earthly woe likewise. As past history is surveyed it appears natural to think of scientific men who have become martyrs to the quest of hidden secrets. They have made great sacrifices for the future benefit of civilization and not a few of them have endured persecution even in recent times. The Greeks recognized ...
— Artificial Light - Its Influence upon Civilization • M. Luckiesh
... judges, the preparations for an offensive and defensive war have been pushed, I cannot see anything, in the condition of finances, industry, husbandry, and, above all, public morals, which is not threatening, if not absolutely disheartening. No traveller comes back from Germany without a tale of woe. Savior armis Luxuria incubuit, victamque ulciscitur Galliam. And while the rancour and the thirst for vengeance are still, in France, what they were in 1871, the whole of power, riches, and fashion in Germany crowding to Paris, give it a sort of transient popularity, and suffers itself to ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton
... thanksgiving. The Portland meeting felt and expressed it. Letters of congratulation came to us from all parts of the country. But there is something about prosperity that almost inevitably fosters decline. A woe seems to be attached to institutions as well as individuals of which all men speak well. We need $25,000 a month to pay necessary bills. We ought to have $30,000 a month to properly prosecute the work at ...
— The American Missionary - Volume 42, No. 1, January 1888 • Various
... and talked the night away; Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done, Shouldered his crutch, and showed how fields were won. Pleased with his guests, the good man learned to glow, And quite forgot their vices in their woe; Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His ...
— The Evolution of Expression Vol. I • Charles Wesley Emerson
... list to the weary sigh—a whole tale in one breath— A widowed life, and a mother's love, and the fear of an early death. While there at her feet a pale boy sits, And weeps for his mother's woe. ...
— The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 354, October 9, 1886 • Various
... him from his dungeon for an hour. Whether his long confinement, and the ignominious estimation in which he was held, combined with despair of pardon for his heinous offense, and a natural ferocity of character, had rendered him reckless of "weal or woe," or other impulse directed his movements, I know not, but never did I see such a demoniacal visage as was presented by this miscreant; and when the trembling culprit was delivered over to his hand, ...
— The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes • Fedor Jagor; Tomas de Comyn; Chas. Wilkes; Rudolf Virchow.
... Mordred, that hath caused all this mischief. Then was King Arthur ware where Sir Mordred leaned upon his sword among a great heap of dead men. Now give me my spear, said Arthur unto Sir Lucan, for yonder I have espied the traitor that all this woe hath wrought. Sir, let him be, said Sir Lucan, for he is unhappy; and if ye pass this unhappy day, ye shall be right well revenged upon him. Good lord, remember ye of your night's dream, and what the spirit of Sir Gawaine told you ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... autumn's woe rejoice,— Rejoice in calm, rejoice in storm; In either hear God's tender voice, For both his ...
— The Mountain Spring And Other Poems • Nannie R. Glass
... poor dove," cried the widow. "Woe is me that I have been, as it were, constrained to expose you to this cruel snare. But you will break through it," she added, with more animation, "my bird will rise above earth with her silver wings unsullied and bright! Various are the temptations which the soul's enemy employs to draw away God's ...
— Hebrew Heroes - A Tale Founded on Jewish History • AKA A.L.O.E. A.L.O.E., Charlotte Maria Tucker
... came in courting manner to her, With all the louing courage could be thought: So powerfull in perswasions force to woe her, That to his will constrained she was brought: Although her heart did firme deniall vow, Yet she was forc'd to yeeld and knew ...
— The Bride • Samuel Rowlands et al
... better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not ...
— Friendship • Hugh Black
... your lights around him shine. And there shall flow, bubbling with woe or mirth, From these new bottles your familiar wine, As ancient as man's rule ...
— Mr. Faust • Arthur Davison Ficke
... of disheartened woe, but it was not her nature to give way to tears. She felt absolutely dismayed and utterly cast down, as if under a depression that would not lift, but she gave no physical sign of this except by her tense, drawn face and ...
— Two Little Women • Carolyn Wells
... yet arrived, and the whole army was already in motion for Woronowo; Broussier was sent in the direction of Fominskoe, and Poniatowski toward Medyn. The Emperor himself quitted Moscow before daylight on the 19th of October. "Let us march upon Kalouga," said he, "and woe be to those whom I meet with ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur
... and the Moor. But now there was no longer battle. Granada had asked and been granted seventy days in which to envisage and accept her fate. These were nearing the end. Lost and beaten, haggard with woe and hunger and pestilence, the city stood over against us, above the naked plain, all her outer gardens stripped away, bare light striking the red Alhambra and the Citadel. When the wind swept over her and on to Santa Fe it seemed to ...
— 1492 • Mary Johnston
... good and indulgent mother, always gives to the creatures who are exposed to any danger. Nature has put a bell on the neck of the Minotaur, as on the tail of that frightful snake which is the terror of travelers. And then appear in your wife what we will call the first symptoms, and woe to him who does not know how to contend with them. Those who in reading our book will remember that they saw those symptoms in their own domestic life can pass to the conclusion of this work, where they will find how they ...
— Analytical Studies • Honore de Balzac
... don't in the least know what I am going to do—more likely to die on the last plank, than to get into port with my ensign mast-high. I must think it out and let you know the result. Come what may, one thing only is sure, and that is that, in weal or woe, I remain, ever, ...
— The Stark Munro Letters • J. Stark Munro
... the civilized world over, from his having been the victim of one of the most painful tragedies in the records of the criminal law. I tried the experiment of calling upon him; and, having drawn him away from the cheerful fire, sofa, and curtains of a luxurious parlor, I told him the simple tale of woe, of one of his tenants, unknown to him even by name. He did not hesitate; and I well remember how, in that biting, eager air, at a late hour, he drew his cloak about his thin and bent form, and walked off ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... cold spy-glass begin to touch his gums, he clenched his hands and thought: "This is the moment to prove that I, too, can die for a good cause. If I am not man enough to bear for my country so small a woe I can never again look ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... sympathetic rendering of emotional charm and tenderness and the pathos of passion. The tragedy of ROMEO AND JULIET, with all its burning fervours and swooning griefs, remains for us a picture of the luxury of woe: it is truly said of it that it is not fundamentally unhappy. But in JULIUS CAESAR we have touched a further depth of sadness. For the moving tragedy of circumstance, of lovers sundered by fate only to be swiftly joined in exultant death, ...
— Montaigne and Shakspere • John M. Robertson
... and Lawry were stunned by the heavy blow. The light of earthly joys seemed suddenly to have gone out, and left them in the gloom and woe of disgrace. There was nothing to be said at such a time, and they sobbed in silence, until the sound of the ferry-horn roused Lawry from his lethargy of grief. Some one wished to cross the lake, and had given the usual signal with the tin horn, ...
— Haste and Waste • Oliver Optic
... "Woe's me!" said Jeanie, "she never spoke to me on the subject, but grat sorely when I spoke to her about her altered looks, and the change on ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... The Tyrolese placed the portraits of Leopold's two sons on this triumphal arch, and surrounded them by candles kept constantly burning; every one then bent his knee, and exclaimed: "Long live the Emperor Francis! Long live our dear Archduke John!" Woe unto him who should have dared to pass these portraits without taking off his hat! the Tyrolese would have compelled him to do it, and to bend ...
— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach
... forever. O, it was a night of agony, of terror and dismay! The fireman's risk of life is not poetry, nor a romance of zeal, or picture wrought by the imagination. It is an earnest, solemn, terrible thing, as they could witness who stood around those blackened corses on that midnight of woe. ...
— The Sea-Witch - or, The African Quadroon A Story of the Slave Coast • Maturin Murray
... over our heads, ready to be hurled down upon us by some unseen hand, and to crush our little handful of men. On we went, at a snail's pace, till about ten o'clock, P.M., when our joy was again turned to woe, for here too the dogs of Jeff Davis had been doing their work, and had burnt another bridge. We waited until morning, and then, after some hard swearing, were once more transformed into 'greasy mechanics,' ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various
... out on the horse's tail. His alarm had, therefore, become overwhelming. No fondness for the nice warm fur of the bunnies, no faith in the larger boy in front, could suffice to drive from his tiny face the look of woe unutterable, expressed by his eyes and ...
— Bruvver Jim's Baby • Philip Verrill Mighels
... that the young will not learn from the experience of those who have gone before them! Could they only do so, how much suffering and woe could be avoided in this world. Unfortunately, however, there are few men so constituted that they are willing to be guided by the experience of those who have preceded them, and there is but a faint possibility, ...
— Health on the Farm - A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene • H. F. Harris
... of her nurse, and had been very forlorn, so that her cousin's attention was a great boon to her. Hope was incited to come out; but Jenny Bowles kept a jealous watch over her, and treated every one else as an enemy; and before Aurelia's hat was on, came the terrible woe of Amoret's awakening. Her sobs and wailings for her mammy were entirely beyond the reach of Aurelia's soothings and caresses, and were only silenced by Molly's asseveration that the black man was at the door ready to take her into the dark room. That this was no phantom was known to the poor ...
— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge
... usual ponderous, somewhat heavy mode of progress, wandered from one room to another until at last the sound of voices guided her to the pretty little boudoir, where Annie Forest and Nora had taken shelter, and where Nan was now standing, pouring out her tale of woe. A slight creak which the door made caused the girls to turn their heads, and there stood Susy, shedding articles of her wardrobe, as usual, as she walked. Her flaxen hair was partly unpinned and lay in a rough coil on her fat neck. ...
— Red Rose and Tiger Lily - or, In a Wider World • L. T. Meade
... arms, uttering these cries. The grave was a year old at least, but the grief seemed of yesterday or of that morning. At times the friend that stood beside the prostrate woman stooped and spoke a soothing word to her, while she wailed out her woe; and in the midst some little ribald Irish boys came scuffling and quarreling up the pathway, singing snatches of an obscene song; and when both the wailing and the singing had died away, an old woman, decently clad, ...
— Suburban Sketches • W.D. Howells
... husband and her children too, God has took from pain and woe. May she reform and mend her ways, That she ...
— The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories • Mark Twain
... who has witnessed the heroism of America's daughters in the field should fail to pay a passing tribute to their worth. I do not speak alone of those trained Sisters of Charity, who in scenes of misery and woe seem Heaven's chosen messengers on earth; but I would speak also of those fair daughters who come forth from the comfortable firesides of New England and other States, little trained to scenes of suffering, ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... this morning from all the country round that the people are with us, and before long tens of thousands of the men of Kent will be in arms. Our course is resolved upon. We and the men of Essex will march on London, and woe be to those who try to bar our way. All shall be done orderly and with discretion. We war only against the government, and to obtain our rights. Already our demands have been drawn up, and unless these are granted we will not be content. These are what we ask: first, the total abolition of slavery ...
— A March on London • G. A. Henty
... the ruby-colour'd portal open'd, Which to his speech did honey passage yield, 452 Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd Wrack to the seaman, tempest to the field, Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and ...
— Venus and Adonis • William Shakespeare
... friendship and calls loudly after him, risking discovery and capture in his generous emotion. The pathetic conversation which ensued is eminently characteristic of both men, so tragically connected and born to work woe to one another. David's remonstrance (1 Sam. xxiv. 9-15) is full of nobleness, of wounded affection surviving still, of conscious rectitude, of solemn devout appeal to the judgment of God. He has no words of reproach ...
— The Life of David - As Reflected in His Psalms • Alexander Maclaren
... of inertia; here also—and more especially in German schools—the scholasticism of the Middle Ages exhibits a power of inertia, against which any rational reform of education must laboriously contest every inch of ground. In this important department also, a department on which hangs the weal or woe of future generations, matters will not improve till the monistic doctrine of nature is accepted as ...
— Monism as Connecting Religion and Science • Ernst Haeckel
... not pay them; others feign various diseases, or make artificial wounds and disfigurations to excite pity, or take a religious garb, or drag chains to show that they had escaped from galleys, or have other plausible tales of woe and {559} of adventure. All contemporaries testify to the alarming numbers of these men and women; how many they really were it is hard to say. It has been estimated that in 1500 20 per cent. of the population of Hamburg and 15 per cent. of the population of Augsburg were paupers. Under Elizabeth ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith
... thy tragedies thou hast the majestic grace which in the Attic ages belonged to Sophocles alone; thou hast the stately march and music of Aeschylus, without in thy themes his ceaseless iteration of predestined woe which ranks his heroes outside humanity; yet the sombre hand of fate hath not more inflexibly driven the gentle Iphigenia to her doom than it hath followed Macbeth to his foreshadowed crime and end. ...
— Shakespeare's Insomnia, And the Causes Thereof • Franklin H. Head
... that they did," answered I, "for whenever that stone, which English hands never raised, is by English hands thrown down, woe to the English race. Spare it, English. Hengist ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books - Vol. II: Fiction • Arthur Mee, J. A. Hammerton, Eds.
... Presto! begone; with t'other hop He's powdering in a barber's shop; Now at the antichamber thrusting His nose, to get the circle just in; And damns his blood that in the rear He sees a single Tory there: Then woe be to my lord-lieutenant, Again he'll tell him, ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... another was following; Jarvey stopped him, with—"I guess there aint no room up here for you; the mail's a-coming here." The door opened,—the three damp bodkins in line commenced their assault,—the last came between my companion and myself, I could not see much of him, it was so dark; but—woe is me!—there are other senses besides sight, and my unfortunate nostrils drank in a most foetid polecatty odour, ever increasing as he drew nearer and nearer. Room to sit there was none; but, at the blast of the tube, the rattle over the pitty pavement soon ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray
... grown light-headed with the lonely grief of the night, That I babble of this babble? Woe's me, how little and light Is this beginning of trouble to all that yet shall be borne - At worst but as the shower that lays but a yard of the corn Before the hailstorm cometh and flattens the ...
— The Pilgrims of Hope • William Morris
... expressed itself at that moment in a moan, as he rose from the table with a woe-begone countenance, and went out ...
— Capt'n Davy's Honeymoon - 1893 • Hall Caine
... clear. Imperceptibly, our fine sun darkens; the atmosphere becomes sad and dull, there is an anticipation of universal death. For five long months our world is plunged in a kind of penumbra; all nature is saddened in the general woe. ...
— Astronomy for Amateurs • Camille Flammarion
... reiterate that many of its more eloquent agents are probably quite innocent instruments, there are some, even among Eugenists, who by this time know what they are doing. To them we shall not say, "What is Eugenics?" or "Where on earth are you going?" but only "Woe unto you, hypocrites, that devour widows' houses and for ...
— Eugenics and Other Evils • G. K. Chesterton
... the Virgin in particular is regarded as a masterpiece, so far exceeding in delicacy of execution every other work of Marc Antonio, that some have thought that Raphael himself took the burin from his hand, and touched himself that face of quiet woe. ...
— Legends of the Madonna • Mrs. Jameson
... O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 255 That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, 260 Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue, A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; Domestic fury and fierce civil strife Shall cumber ...
— The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar • William Shakespeare
... exclamations that would move the very stones in the streets, were uttered by the Prince; and after repeating them again and again, and wailing bitterly, full of sorrow and woe, never shutting an eye to sleep, nor opening his mouth to eat, he gave such way to grief, that his face, which was before of oriental vermilion, became of gold paint, and the ham of his lips ...
— Stories from Pentamerone • Giambattista Basile
... obey his lessons. He had hardly passed from the stage of life, when his merit began to be acknowledged. When the duke Ai heard of his death, he pronounced his eulogy in the words, 'Heaven has not left to me the aged man. There is none now to assist me on the throne. Woe is me! Alas! O venerable Ni [1]!' Tsze-kung complained of the inconsistency of this lamentation from one who could not use the master when he was alive, but the prince was probably sincere in his grief. He caused a temple to be erected, ...
— THE CHINESE CLASSICS (PROLEGOMENA) Unicode Version • James Legge
... God grant we may not hear of shame and sorrow fallen upon an ancient and honorable house of Devon. My brother Stukely is woe enough to ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... experienced upon our first glance at Quebec was greatly damped by the sad conviction that the cholera-plague raged within her walls, while the almost ceaseless tolling of bells proclaimed a mournful tale of woe and death. Scarcely a person visited the vessel who was not in black, or who spoke not in tones of subdued grief. They advised us not to go on shore if we valued our lives, as strangers most commonly fell the ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie
... I know, and I know they buy them for proper use. But a woman will slip in here and slyly ask for a revolver, and I am wondering if she is going to commit murder or suicide. Many a time a man looks so woe begone as he buys a pistol that I make some excuse to keep him from loading it here for fear he will blow out his ...
— A Man of Samples • Wm. H. Maher
... openly pulled the beam, so that the Romans became angry. But at this Brennus insolently took off his sword and belt, and flung them into the scale; and when Sulpicius asked, "What is this?" "What should it be," replied the Gaul; "but woe to the vanquished!" At this some of the Romans were angry and thought that they ought to take back their gold into the Capitol, and again endure the siege; while others said that they must put up with insults, ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume I (of 4) • Plutarch
... the Pedee River and was pushing southward. During its march a circumstance occurred which gave great amusement to the trim soldiery. There joined the army a volunteer detachment of about twenty men, such a heterogeneous and woe-begone corps that Falstaff himself might have hesitated before enlisting them. They were a mosaic of whites and blacks, men and boys, their clothes tatters, their equipments burlesques on military array, their horses—for they were all mounted—parodies ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 1 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... orders, but knew his own rights too, and soon no one dared to take his seat at the table. Gerasim was altogether of a strict and serious temper, he liked order in everything; even the cocks did not dare to fight in his presence, or woe betide them! Directly he caught sight of them, he would seize them by the legs, swing them ten times round in the air like a wheel, and throw them in different directions. There were geese, too, kept in the yard; but the goose, as is well known, is a dignified ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian • Various
... friends of Ion and the Oaks. Mr. Travilla's was a type of the American character; he would bear long with his injuries, vexations, encroachments upon his rights, but when once the end of his forbearance was reached, woe to the aggressor; for he would find himself opposed by a man of great resources, unconquerable determination and ...
— Elsie's Motherhood • Martha Finley
... of influence which our form of government was intended to secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should courageously face these grave questions, and not leave them as a heritage of woe to the next. The consultation should proceed with candor, calmness, and great patience, upon the lines of justice and humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty. No question in our country can be at rest except upon the firm base of justice and ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... to the room of woe. The arrival of the physicians was there grievously awaited, for Dr. Heberden and Sir George would now decide upon nothing till Dr. Warren came. The poor queen wanted something very positive to pass, relative to her keeping away, ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay
... Richards' eyes filled with tears. Stanton at first said he would not turn back without me, but finally agreed with me that it was best he should. Pete urged me to let him go on. Later he stole quietly into the tent, where I was alone writing, and without a word sat opposite me, looking very woe- begone. After awhile he spoke: "To-day I feel very sad. I forget to smoke. My pipe go out and I do not light it. I think all time of you. Very lonely, me. ...
— The Long Labrador Trail • Dillon Wallace
... Woe to the person who undertakes to divert the lightning from meeting thunder-clouds; unless he be well insulated, he is sure to fall victim to his own well ...
— Flint - His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes • Maud Wilder Goodwin
... one who believes himself clever must become a hypocrite, and so conceal all knowledge of his self-complacency, if he wishes to avoid being unpopular; for woe be to him who lets the world see he thinks highly of himself, however his abilities may ...
— The Idler in France • Marguerite Gardiner
... the Middle Ages devoted to them were written on English ground, and especially the most charming of all, dedicated to that Tristan,[185] whom Dante places by Helen of Troy in the group of lovers: "I beheld Helen, who caused such years of woe, and I saw great Achilles ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand
... denounced him to the spy, iii. 42 His love on him took pity and wept for his dismay, ii. 210. How long, O Fate, wilt thou oppress and baffle me? ii. 69. How long shall I thus question my heart that's drowned in woe? iii. 42. How long will ye admonished be, without avail or heed? iii. 40. How many, in Yemameh, ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne
... angered with me now. Woe me! that never may I counsel thee for thine own glory as my heart prompts me, but I must ...
— The Sea-Hawk • Raphael Sabatini
... with folded arms and a heart whose emotions cannot be portrayed, and looked at the picture of woe before him, his beautiful wife frantic and despairing and his little son already feeling in his youthful spirit the all pervading gloom that creeps through the ...
— The Hindered Hand - or, The Reign of the Repressionist • Sutton E. Griggs
... low, faint, tremulous whistle reached his ears. It was the most welcome of all sounds, and raised him from the depths of woe to blissful happiness, for it was the familiar signal of Fred Greenwood that had been employed many times in their ...
— Two Boys in Wyoming - A Tale of Adventure (Northwest Series, No. 3) • Edward S. Ellis
... the Saviour," said the old man approvingly, "and he surely then was thinking of us. I said just now our load is not light, but how much heavier was the burden he took upon him of his own free will to release us from woe. Every one must work, nay even Caesar himself, but he who could dwell in the glory of his Father let himself be mocked and scorned and spit in the face, let the crown of thorns be pressed on his suffering head, bore his heavy cross, sinking under its weight, and endured a death of torment, ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... unanimous action of their august body, which could not fail to restore her confidence and quiet her fears. But now he could not find the words he sought, for never had he looked into eyes so full of a comprehending woe. ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull
... soon or late, Our course is run and our goal is reach'd, We may meet our fate as steady and straight As he whose bones in yon desert bleach'd; No tears are needed—our cheeks are dry, We have none to waste upon living woe; Shall we sigh for one who has ceased to sigh, Having gone, my friends, where we all ...
— Poems • Adam Lindsay Gordon
... sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, Did the English fight the French—woe to France! And the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue, Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue, Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance, With the ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck
... a trite saying, that every man has that in his heart, which, if known, would make all his fellow-creatures hate him. Was it this evil spirit which now struggled in Captain Rothesay's breast, and darkened his face with storms of passion, remorse, or woe? He gave no utterance to them in words. If any secret there were, he would not trust it even to the air. But, at times, his mute lips writhed; his cheeks burned, and grew ghastly. Sometimes, too, he wore a cowed and humble look, as on the night when his daughter had stood like a pure angel ...
— Olive - A Novel • Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock) |
