"Better" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... story are obvious. The little boy has no proper place in this world, and his drowning, so far from being pathetic, was the best thing that could happen to him. For he was a freak, a monstrosity. Even those who may not accept this view must at least agree that he ought to have known better, and deserved a whipping rather than the reward of martyrdom and sentimental praise. But even if we assume that the boy is a possible creature, and that his act in begging for the money was beautiful and moving, ...
— Personality in Literature • Rolfe Arnold Scott-James
... punish, and to warn before He does. Surely that is kind. His punishments are made known beforehand that we may be sure that caprice and anger have no part in inflicting them, but that they are the settled order of an inviolable law, and constitutional procedure of a just kind. Whether is it better to live under a despot who smites as he will, or under a constitutional king whose ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren
... only time I ever knowed it, ma'am, and everybody pitied me, and many a kind thing was said to me, and many a hard word was said of him; true enough, but better be forgotten, as he is in ...
— Aunt Phillis's Cabin - Or, Southern Life As It Is • Mary H. Eastman
... true," he said, locking his hands on the table. "The persistent malice of the thing, confirms its probability. She was capable of it—capable of anything; and yet I do think the poor creature loved me. If I could but see her, and learn all the facts from her own lips. Yet the note is better evidence. Who, except us two, ever learned this cypher? How else could she have known these particulars about poor Lina? But, this is terrible. I did not think anything could shake me so! Ralph, my son Ralph, I must speak with him——No, ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens
... de Maintenon over Louis XIV. was that of a strong mind over a feeble one. The king had many very weak points in his character. He was utterly selfish, and the slave of his vices. Madame de Maintenon, with much address, strove to recall him to a better life. In these efforts she was much aided by the king's confessor, Pere la Chaise. This truly good man reminded the king that he had already passed the fortieth year of his age, that his youth had gone forever, that he would soon enter upon the evening of his days, and that, as ...
— Louis XIV., Makers of History Series • John S. C. Abbott
... accorded to them a half belief, a bare admission of their possible existence, such as prevails at other times or in some countries. In the England of Milton, the angels and devils of the Jewish Scriptures were more real beings, and better vouched, than any historical personages could be. The old chronicles were full of lies, but this was Bible truth. There might very likely have been a Henry VIII, and he might have been such as he is described, but at any rate he was dead and gone, while Satan still lived and walked the earth, the ...
— Milton • Mark Pattison
... urged for this shameful misconduct was that it was dignified with the name of 'patriotism'! All I can say is, that if rowdyism like this be an indication of the patriotism of the people, as far as I am concerned, I say, better our poor country were for ever in political slavery than attain to liberty by ...
— Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888) • William Henry Hurlbert
... one can enter into my situation but myself. I see a great many minds working in various directions and a variety of principles with multiplied bearings; I act for the best. I sincerely think that matters would not have gone better for the Church, had I never written. And if I write I have a choice of difficulties. It is easy for those who do not enter into those difficulties to say, 'He ought to say this and not say that,' but things are wonderfully linked together, and I cannot, or rather I would ...
— Apologia pro Vita Sua • John Henry Newman
... no painting here, no adjective-work. But no painting or adjectives could better suggest all that the world and the loss of the world mean to an imaginative child than this brief collection of simple things. To read The Stolen Child is to realize both that Mr. Yeats brought a new and delicate music into literature and that ...
— Old and New Masters • Robert Lynd
... how he could find an answer to it all. And yet an answer he always had; and was so ready and quick with his tongue, and so anxious to amuse her, that I wondered how it was that she did not like him better. ...
— The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle
... the best; the best, because the left hand division of the instrument is free from a preponderance of dissonant high partials, and we hear the light and shade, as well as the cantabile of that part, better than by any overstrung scale that I have yet met with. I will not, I say, offer a final judgment, because there may come a possible improvement of the overstrung or double diagonal scale, if that scale is persisted in, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 • Various
... knowledge of the different manner in which he and the others were regarded by the neighbours, domineered over his brother and sister from an early age. In their quarrels, although he was much weaker than Antoine, he always got the better of the contest, beating the other with all the authority of a master. With regard to Ursule, a poor, puny, wan little creature, she was handled with equal roughness by both the boys. Indeed, until they were fifteen or sixteen, the three children ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola
... temper in all conditions: and no lady, in high or low life, could endure them with a better grace than Phoebe. Whilst Mr. and Mrs. Hill were busied abroad, there came to see Phoebe one of the widow Smith's children. With artless expressions of gratitude to Phoebe, this little girl mixed the praises of ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... and over again because she was so happy about his goodness, and she saw the tears in his eyes, that are the kind that make people see better. She knew what the man was going to see when he ...
— Jewel's Story Book • Clara Louise Burnham
... mention certain sympathetic regrets he entertained in contemplation of the health of Mr. Dale, for whom, poor gentleman, the proffer of a bottle of the Patterne Port would be an egregious mockery. He paced about, anxious for his departure, and seeming better pleased with the society of Colonel De Craye than with that of any of the others. Colonel De Craye assiduously courted him, was anecdotal, deferential, charmingly vivacious, the very man the Rev. Doctor liked for company when plunged in the bustle of the ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... an effeminate, idle, and languishing age; some who could never have been so by other means will be made famous by their misfortunes. As I seldom read in histories the confusions of other states without regret that I was not present, the better to consider them, so does my curiosity make me in some sort please myself in seeing with my own eyes this notable spectacle of our public death, its form and symptoms; and since I cannot hinder it, I am content ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... dine, having had tea, became absolutely unbearable. Then suddenly she had stopped the nonsense and said, "I am so glad that this has happened. Being left in the Bath Road like this makes one know a man better, doesn't it? I always wanted to know you better. Oh, the compliment is ambiguous. I haven't told you yet ...
— Daisy's Aunt • E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
... not possibly make her way through these streets alone to the better section of town, especially one clad in a silvery evening dress. Her only hope was that this place had a telephone. Perhaps she could call one of Motwick's friends; she had no one on Ganymede she could call a real ...
— The Jupiter Weapon • Charles Louis Fontenay
... attitude and fundamental procedure of this new spirit are in no way a return to scepticism or a reaction against thought cannot be better demonstrated than by this resurrection of metaphysics, this renaissance of idealism, which is certainly one of the most distinctive features of our epoch. Undoubtedly philosophy in France has never known so prosperous and so pregnant a moment. Notwithstanding, it is not ...
— A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson • Edouard le Roy
... December I made my first speech, advocating a Greek Republic, and suggesting that if they must have a King, they had better look to the northern nations to supply one. I was named by Everett, the President, as one of the tellers ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn
... his purse to give the twenty francs the old man thought better of his bargain, for, said he, "I did not know the violin was so good. I ought to have at least double ...
— Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday • Henry C. Lahee
... introducing with it an expense in dress, and a dissipation of time, from which it suffers in various ways. Not the least of these is the neglect of parental instruction, which it is attempted to supply by sending the children at an improper age to school; the girls where they had better never go, and the boys where they get but little good, and perhaps are all the worse for mending. Social intercourse is not improved by parade, but quite the contrary; real friends, and the pleasantest kind of acquaintance, those who like to be social, are repulsed by it. The ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton
... geologist, in having escaped from his visit to the crater with nothing worse than a fit of the vapours, came off better than Empedocles, the Sicilian philosopher, in the days of old: for, as the story goes, this inquisitive sage, being very anxious to have a peep into the crater, and venturing too near, toppled in altogether, and nothing more was seen of him, except one of his sandals, which ...
— Wonders of Creation • Anonymous
... trade with his elder brother, to whom he was apprenticed for four years, to receive thirty-five dollars the first year, forty the second, forty-five the third, and fifty the fourth. An unconquerable desire for a better education forced him to leave this occupation for a time, and enter an academy, the expenses of which he met in part by teaching a public school in the winter season, and which left him only five dollars with which to make another start in ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin
... up a collection for the professor," said Harrow gloomily. "Better come to the club and give the tickets ...
— Iole • Robert W. Chambers
... Mrs. Peter Dunlap a deep-bosomed club woman, who starts Movements?" he asked, more to bring her out of her depression than anything else. "Bigger and Better Babies Movements, and Homes for Fallen Girls, ...
— Murder at Bridge • Anne Austin
... that James was terrified, for without this passion which occupied his whole soul he would be now singularly alone in the world. It was a fantastic, charming figure that he had made for himself, and he could worship it without danger and without reproach. Was it not better to preserve his dream from the sullen irruption of fact? But why would that perfume come perpetually entangling itself with his memory? It gave the image new substance; and when he closed his eyes, the woman seemed so near ...
— The Hero • William Somerset Maugham
... my Lord's chariot-and-six [perhaps my own by this time,] to carry me down. I have ordered it to be in readiness by four to-morrow morning. The cattle shall smoke for the delay; and by the rest they'll have in the interim, will be better able to bear it. ...
— Clarissa, Volume 6 (of 9) - The History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson
... Mr. Converse, dryly, "but we must do that 'better' carefully and slowly. In politics, gentlemen, we cannot transform the ogre into the saint merely by waving the magic wand and expecting the charm to operate instantly. Possibly we can control the next legislature. I do not know just what legislation we may be able ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day
... not believed the tale, stranger, if this token had not confirmed thy speech:—verily thou hast a better witness than a fool's tongue to thy story. That ill-omened losel may depart. See thou fall not hastily into the like offence, else shalt thou smart from Childermas to All-hallowtide. Hence! to thy place." Barnulf awaited not further dismissal, glad ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me: You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio, Than to live ...
— The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 • Ministry of Education
... of three British bishops who assisted at the council of Rimini, A.D. 359, tam pauperes fuisse ut nihil haberent. Sulpicius Severus, Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 420. Some of their brethren however, were in better circumstances.] ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon
... his little wallet with great deliberation, and even in a manner to show he found satisfaction in the delay, "I wish to offer you a small matter of trade. No great bargain, mayhap; but still the best that one, of whose hand the skill of the rifle has taken leave, and who has become no better than a miserable trapper, can offer before ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper
... at much less cost (gentlemen who have lived in India will persist in calling this vehicle a jingle, which perhaps sounds better); it is a kind of dos-a-dos conveyance, holding three in front and three behind: it has a waterproof top to it supported by four iron rods, and oilskin curtains to draw all round as a protection from ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... Pilar informed him. "And you did exactly right, Senor Waring. You see," she said to me, "on second thoughts one saw he'd better keep out of the way, for fear the Duke might begin to put two and two together, just as he was noticing that Cristobal looked rather like someone else. He caught a glimpse of Senor Waring's face yesterday, in the car, and it will be safer for him not to see us in that car until we have ...
— The Car of Destiny • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... embankment and the bank of a river. But no hobo was the man. So deep-sunk was he in the social abyss that a proper hobo would not sit by the same fire with him. A gay-cat, who is an ignorant new-comer on the "Road," might sit with such as he, but only long enough to learn better. Even low down bindle-stiffs and stew-bums, after a once-over, would have passed this man by. A genuine hobo, a couple of punks, or a bunch of tender-yeared road- kids might have gone through his rags for any stray pennies or nickels and kicked him out into ...
— The Red One • Jack London
... occurred to the speaker, he raised himself into an erect attitude, as if to get a better view. ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid
... on the head of his son Rom'ulus Momyl'lus, better known in history by the name of Augus'tulus. He was the last of the emperors; before he had enjoyed his elevation many months, he was dethroned by Odoa'cer, a leader, of the barbarian troops, and banished to a villa that ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith
... does it commit none? It does commit them, and is more conscious of them than ever, especially in the commencement of its new life. The faults committed are often more subtile and delicate than formerly. The soul knows them better, because its eyes are open; but it is not troubled by them, and can do nothing to rid itself of them. It is true that, when it has been guilty of unfaithfulness or sin, it is sensible of a certain cloud; but it passes over, without the ...
— Spiritual Torrents • Jeanne Marie Bouvires de la Mot Guyon
... kids spend more than I do. Hell, they do better than that—they spend more than I earn." He looked remotely sorry for himself, but not for long. "Every one of those kids spends like a drunken sailor, tossing his money away on ...
— The Impossibles • Gordon Randall Garrett
... pique against a person, to clench your fist and say 'Come on,' or to have recourse to the stone, the knife, or murderous calumny? The use of the fist is almost lost in England. Yet are the people better than they were when they knew how to use their fists? The writer believes not. A fisty combat is at present a great rarity, but the use of the knife, the noose, and of poison, to say nothing of calumny, are of more frequent occurrence in England than perhaps in any ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... starvation and famine were over. They were next visited by Le Borgne, better known as One-eye, the head chief of all the Minnetarees, to whom Lewis and Clark also extended an invitation to go to Washington to see the ...
— First Across the Continent • Noah Brooks
... unconsciously of a strong sense of duty and an undaunted determination to see it through. It is a tribute to the essential truthfulness of Captain BAIRNSFATHER'S conception and Mr. BOURCHIER'S acting that one comes away from The Better 'Ole feeling that there must be thousands of Old Bills at the Front fighting for ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Aug 15, 1917 • Various
... and that was where I fell, wounded in the arm pretty badly by a bit of shell. When I came to myself a brother officer told me things were going on well and that we had rolled back the German right. That was better than bandages to me. I felt very well again, in spite of ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915 • Various
... once thought I saw playing in your games, ye pure discerners! No better arts did I once dream ...
— Thus Spake Zarathustra - A Book for All and None • Friedrich Nietzsche
... this may be done. We will take, to begin with, the very simplest structure we can possibly build—a plain wall (Fig. 1).[2] Here there is no expression at all; only stones piled one on another, with sufficient care in coursing and jointing to give stability to the structure. It is better for the wall, constructively, however, that it should have a wider base, to give it more solidity of foundation, and that the coping should project beyond the face of the wall, in order to throw the rain off, and these two requirements may be treated so ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 633, February 18, 1888 • Various
... business sections,[263] requirement of construction of a sidewalk across a right of way,[264] or removal of a track crossing a thoroughfare,[265] compelling the presence of a flagman at a crossing notwithstanding that automatic device might be cheaper and better,[266] compulsory examination of employees for color blindness,[267] full crews on certain trains,[268] specification of a type of locomotive headlight,[269] safety appliance regulations,[270] and a prohibition on the heating of passenger cars ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin
... malted milk, peptonized milk, Imperial Granum, and follow the directions on the bottle. The different food waters mentioned above are to use when milk and other food preparations cannot be given. Albumen (white of an egg and water, not whipped) can be given and always cold. Cold milk also tastes better. ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... to the left, went north, and crossed the South Platte river five miles above Ogallala. We pushed rapidly after them, following them across the North Platte and on through the sand-hills towards the Niobrara; but as they were making much better time than we, the ...
— The Life of Hon. William F. Cody - Known as Buffalo Bill The Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide • William F. Cody
... conspiracy among the dictionary makers to take the heart out of the Fondue. Webster makes it seem no better than a ...
— The Complete Book of Cheese • Robert Carlton Brown
... action with regard to them; and he allowed the senators to read, each one, the articles separately, his object being that if any provision did not please them, or if they could suggest anything better, they might speak. He was very desirous of being democratic, and once, when one of the companions of his campaigns asked him to aid him in the capacity of advocate, at first he pretended to be busy and bade ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. 4 • Cassius Dio
... was too sick to eat, but the O. C. knew better than he just what he wanted. In a few minutes he returned with an assistant ...
— The Sky Pilot in No Man's Land • Ralph Connor
... think that Catherine was perfect. Oh, no, indeed! Sometimes her schoolmates would tease her because she was so quiet, and liked to read better than to play; and at such times, instead of being patient, she would flare up into a passion, and say harsh, angry words. When the storm was over she would be, however, Oh! so sorry, and would beg her schoolfellows to ...
— Catherine Booth - A Sketch • Colonel Mildred Duff
... hopes of them, and lately they have had a teacher so genial, so gifted, so well-beloved that all who listen to him must be better for the lessons of charity, good-will and cheerfulness which he brings home to them by the magic of tears and smiles. We know him, we love him, we always remember him as the year comes round, and the blithest song ...
— Kitty's Class Day And Other Stories • Louisa M. Alcott
... "We had better leave you to his company," said Gudrid, laughing; "a man i' the blues is no pleasure to a woman.—Come, Olaf, you and I shall to the dairy and see how the ...
— The Norsemen in the West • R.M. Ballantyne
... not. If he gave away his money because he thought it was an act of charity that would look well, that would make Frank and his father think better of him, he is rightly served; and I am disposed to shut him up in this room with a good book to teach him better, instead of letting him go to ...
— The Boat Club - or, The Bunkers of Rippleton • Oliver Optic
... into the next room and there's a hick sittin' at a table, toyin' with a book. He was as near nothin' as anything I ever seen, on the level! He's got a swell dress suit on, but it didn't fit him no better than mine did me and it couldn't have cost no more or he would have killed the tailor. Outside of the shoes, mine bein' classier, we was both made up the same. A guy comes in, looks him over for a minute and then he yawns. 'Bored?' he says. The simp that was sittin' ...
— Kid Scanlan • H. C. Witwer
... came applied hartshorn; but I believe that opening the wound and letting the blood flow was the most effectual remedy. The leg was terribly swollen, and for ten days we thought the little fellow in great danger, but after that he became better ...
— Letters of a Traveller - Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America • William Cullen Bryant
... with which the vulgar bowed themselves before the forms and ceremonies and rules of outward conduct which the visible Church prescribed; since they believed that so they might find the way, in this life or a better, to that higher rule of service, exemplified in the finest characters of their experience, which as Scripture said and the saints testified was perfect life and freedom. It is no wonder that they were disposed to go further still; to stake their earthly fortunes and the future of ...
— Medieval Europe • H. W. C. Davis
... one or two faded flowers had not yet forsaken their calices—a silly piece of devotion on their part! Icy little blasts, squeezing in through the crevices of the window-sash, whistled about the forlorn stalks, cutting and venomous. The poor flowers would never see another summer; better give up at once! ...
— Bressant • Julian Hawthorne
... fact, followed: "Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye" [Rom. 14:1]; which he applied to himself, and discovered to me. By this admonition was he strengthened; and by a good resolution and purpose, very much in accord with his character (wherein, for the better, he was always far different from me), without any restless delay he joined me. Thence we go to my mother. We tell her—she rejoices. We relate how it came to pass—she exults and triumphs, and she blesses Thee, who ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.
... neighbours," said Uthoug. "We're just going to have tea, so if you have nothing better to do, perhaps ...
— The Great Hunger • Johan Bojer
... taken aback that she did not even go up to her mother, but stood still like a statue in the middle of the room; while Sanin was utterly stupefied, to the point of almost bursting into tears himself! For a whole hour that inconsolable wail went on—a whole hour! Pantaleone thought it better to shut the outer door of the shop, so that no stranger should come; luckily, it was still early. The old man himself did not know what to think, and in any case, did not approve of the haste with which Gemma and Sanin had acted; he could not bring himself to blame them, and ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev
... will never do for Stella to associate with such an indecent man, who preaches French ideas from the pulpit. Why, Bertha, it will never do. You had better let Stella come and stay with me till she is married. She is a great favorite with the young people in Roseland and there are some splendid ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge
... that they were hardly fit for pigs, and that in human beings they would certainly breed leprosy. Some of the English Puritans would not eat potatoes because they are not mentioned in the Bible, and that is perhaps no better a reason than the other. When, however, it was seen that the Intendant had the hated vegetable served every day at his own table, the opposition grew more faint; men were at last brought to consent to use potatoes ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) - Turgot • John Morley
... and boys," said Marthereau, "they're no better off than we are. After breakfast I went to see a jail-bird of the 11th on the farm near the hospital. You've to clamber over a wall by a ladder that's too short—talk about a scissor-cut!" says Marthereau, who is short in the leg; "and when once you're in the ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... Senator Hanway, although he could have liked it better had he been less thoughtfully polite. Richard would have preferred the main floor, with whatever delay and formal clatter such entrance made imperative. The more delay and the more clatter, the more chance of seeing ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis
... [186] 'A better and more Christian man scarcely ever breathed than Joseph Addison. If he had not that little weakness for wine—why we could scarcely have found a fault with him, and could not have liked him as we do.' Thackery's English ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell
... some trivial but decidedly inflammable barrack-room argument was one of Corporal Dave McCullough's pet diversions. At this somewhat doubtful pastime he would exhibit a knowledge of human nature and an infinite patience worthy of a better object. From some occult reasoning of his Celtic soul the psychological moment he generally chose as being likely the most fruitful of results was either a few minutes before, or after ...
— The Luck of the Mounted - A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police • Ralph S. Kendall
... Perhaps I'd better explain a little. Dad had an old bachelor brother who—it seems—knew me when I was an infant. Somehow he and dad have kept in some sort of touch. This uncle, whom I do not remember at all, grew moderately ...
— Burned Bridges • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... transmitted to their posterity." This is Lamarckism before Lamarck, as his grandson pointed out. His central idea is that wants stimulate efforts and that these result in improvements which subsequent generations make better still. He realised something of the struggle for existence and even pointed out that this advantageously checks the rapid multiplication. "As Dr. Krause points out, Darwin just misses the connection between this struggle and ...
— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel
... they are gone, gone as thy setting blaze Goes down the west, while night is pressing on, And with them the old tale of better days, And trophies of remembered power, are gone. Yon field that gives the harvest, where the plough Strikes the white bone, is all that ...
— Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant - Household Edition • William Cullen Bryant
... might be found in Stafford, if anywhere in this degenerate age. Yet though he was, or was thought to be, all this, his friends were yet loud in declaring—and ever foremost among them Eugene Lane—that a better, simpler, or more modest man did not exist. For the weakness of humanity, it may be added that Stafford's appearance gave him fully the external aspect most suitable to the part his mind urged him to play; ...
— Father Stafford • Anthony Hope
... side can be traced up, I know not how far. The Bowdons inherited a good farm and house thereon in the Exmoor country, in the reign of Elizabeth, as I have been told; and to my knowledge they have inherited nothing better since that time. My Grandfather was in the reign of George I a considerable woollen trader in Southmolton; so that I suppose, when the time comes, I shall be allowed to pass as a "Sans-culotte" without much opposition. My Father received a better education than the rest of his family in ...
— Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. • Coleridge, ed. Turnbull
... Universities offered him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Some of his admirers advised him to present himself at the palace in that military garb in which he had repeatedly headed the sallies of his fellow townsmen. But, with a better judgment than he sometimes showed, he made his appearance at Hampton Court in the peaceful robe of his profession, was most graciously received, and was presented with an order for five thousand pounds. "And do not think, Doctor," William said, with great benignity, "that I ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... substance, is first (that I have met with) taken notice of by Baptista Porta, in his Natural Magick, as a thing known to children and Juglers, and it has been call'd by some of those last named persons, the better to cover their cheat, the Legg of an Arabian Spider, or the Legg of an inchanted Egyptian fly, and has been used by them to make a small Index, Cross, or the like, to move round upon the wetting of it with a drop of Water, and muttering ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke
... she faltered. "You have helped me to say it. I want to have the Church's side better explained,—that's why I'm here." She glanced up at him, hesitatingly, with a puzzled wonder, such a positive, dynamic representative of that teaching did he appear. "And my husband can't,—so many people I know can't, Mr. Hodder. ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... no business to think," she screamed. "What you've got to do is to mind the children, and anything else I've a mind to order you to do. Three years and better we've kep' you out of charity, and you don't earn shoe ...
— Dick Lionheart • Mary Rowles Jarvis
... all events that is better than being a slave." Mesty made no reply: anyone who knows the life of a midshipman's servant will not be ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Frederick Marryat
... already the beginning of perfection in Greek letters. Of earlier periods we can but conjecture that there must have been such, bearing a character analogous to the relics of those nations whose fabulous history is better known to us. Northern literature can hardly be said to have had an existence till within the last hundred years. Before that time we must look for all phases of progress and germs of progress in the physical and ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... to himself. "It strikes me that that young lady is likely to be of service to me. I'll find out who she is and whence she comes. And now to go off to the Comedy and see if I can get in touch with the little actress who must play her part in more dramas than one. I wonder if I had better see her at the theatre or follow her to her rooms. I'll ...
— The Slave of Silence • Fred M. White
... as you are, to take so much trouble for our poor dear little man.—And now I must begin the "awfullys" on my own account: what a capital notice you have published on the orchids! It could not have been better; but I fear that you overrate it. I am very sure that I had not the least idea that you or any one would approve of it so much. I return your last note for the chance of your publishing any notice on the subject; but after all perhaps you may not think it worth while; yet in my judgment ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II • Francis Darwin
... Judge Stiles adjourned his court, and applied to Governor Young for assistance; but got only the reply that "the boys had got their spunk up, and he would not interfere," and that, if Judge Stiles could not enforce the United States laws, the sooner he adjourned court the better.* All the records and papers of the United States court were kept in Judge Stiles's office. In his absence, Ferguson led a crowd to the office, seized and deposited in a safe belonging to Young the court papers, and, piling up the personal books and papers of ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... a great many flowers and I worked several days in the field. In all I have told about I have had no help but Jerrine. Clyde's mother spends each summer with us, and she helped me with the cooking and the babies. Many of my neighbors did better than I did, although I know many town people would doubt my doing so much, but I did it. I have tried every kind of work this ranch affords, and I can do any of it. Of course I am extra strong, but those ...
— Letters of a Woman Homesteader • Elinore Pruitt Stewart
... gentleness, modesty, kindness, and patience. But no contradiction is involved in the belief that her mind is endowed with force and ability on occasion to grasp the spokes of fortune's wheel, or produce works which need not shrink from public criticism. Deborah herself felt that it would have better become a man to fulfil the mission with which she was charged—that a cozy home had been a more seemly place for her than the camp upon Mount Tabor. She says: "Desolate were the open towns in Israel, they were desolate.... Was there a shield seen or a spear among forty thousand in Israel?... ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles
... enumerate in some detail the gains of pathological anatomy in cerebro-mental diseases, and to endeavour to apportion to those who have cultivated this field of research their respective merits; but I find it better to consider what is the practical result of these researches. I may, however, so far depart from this course as to mention the memoirs of Dr. J. B. Tuke in the Edinburgh Medical Journal of 1868 and 1869, and elsewhere, ...
— Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles • Daniel Hack Tuke
... ferry-boat of some sort," the new-comer said, indicating a whistle off to the right. "And there! D'ye hear that? Blown by mouth. Some scow schooner, most likely. Better watch out, Mr. Schooner-man. Ah, I thought so. Now ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... 'antipatia,' as his man called it, must be one which covers a wide ground, to account for his self-isolation,—and the color hypothesis seems as plausible as any. But, my dear Miss Vincent, I think you had better leave your singular and striking hypothesis in my keeping for a while, rather than let it get abroad in a community like this, where so many tongues are in active exercise. I will carefully study this paper, if you will leave it with me, and we will talk the whole matter over. ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... age you have broken the most sacred oath a man could take, and have betrayed to life-long misery an old man who trusted you, and who never did you any harm. You have confessed yourself contemptible already, but surely you have a better excuse for your own villainy than this?" He was still silent, and smoked on with the same effort after an outward seeming of tranquillity, though his white face and shaking hand belied him. "What did you get ...
— In Direst Peril • David Christie Murray
... beaten in a mowing-match or a reaping. By his help the haying had been done in not much more than two thirds the usual time; but when John Weitbreck, like a sensible fellow, said, "Now, we would better keep Alf on till harvest; there is plenty of odds-and-ends work about the farm he can help at, and we won't get his like again in a hurry," ...
— Between Whiles • Helen Hunt Jackson
... old small organ pipe, jammed a suitably chosen spectacle glass into either end, one convex the other concave, and behold, he had the half of a wretchedly bad opera glass capable of magnifying three times. It was better than the Dutchman's, however; it ...
— Pioneers of Science • Oliver Lodge
... defile of the Sierras, and he had been forced to a winter encampment, with only a rude log-cabin for shelter, on the very verge of the promised land. Unable to enter it himself, he was nevertheless able to assist the better-equipped teams that followed him with wood and water and a coarse forage gathered from a sheltered slope of wild oats. This was the beginning of a rude "supply station" which afterwards became so ...
— Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... due to their having no organic ties with their own country, no roots in the Russian soil. They hardly knew the Russian people, who appeared to them as nothing more than an historic abstraction. They were really cosmopolitan, as a poor makeshift for something better, and Turgenev, in making his hero die on a French barricade, was true to life ...
— Rudin • Ivan Turgenev
... imperial or local taxation, mainly paid by them, interests on loans, &c. In other words, these industrial undertakings are run for profit and not for use, and their employees are little, if at all, better off than those of private employers."[1124] "The modern State is but the organisation which capitalist society gives itself in order to maintain the external conditions of capitalist production against the attacks both ...
— British Socialism - An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals • J. Ellis Barker
... reckless among the reckless, for the spendthrift among spendthrifts, for the gamester above all gamesters, and for a gay man outstripping the gay—by these characteristics did the world know Lord Mount Severn. It was said his faults were those of his head; that a better heart or a more generous spirit never beat in human form; and there was much truth in this. It had been well for him had he lived and died plain William Vane. Up to his five and twentieth year, he had been industrious and steady, had kept his terms in the ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood
... better for a week and was nearly well, but, at the end of six or seven days after this, I was called to see him suddenly. He had inflammation ...
— The Unknown Guest • Maurice Maeterlinck
... refuse. The little fort thus stood isolated, in the midst of a powerful enemy and a hostile population. The villages stood on higher ground than the fort and, from all of them, a constant fusillade was kept up on the garrison, while they were engaged in the difficult work of putting the fort into a better condition of defence. ...
— Through Three Campaigns - A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti • G. A. Henty
... staring about the room, at the jumble of Greek books, boxing-gloves, and luscious prints of pretty women, a shrewd-faced, smart man entered, much better dressed than myself. ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al
... stop reinforcements for Pompeius under Scipio, Pompeius' father-in-law.) Pompeius followed Caesar, and encamped on the slope of a hill facing Caesar's position near Pharsalus. Here he offered battle, his better judgment overruled by the clamorous Senators in ...
— Helps to Latin Translation at Sight • Edmund Luce
... and while he quaffs off his portion, or his whack, as he calls it, he envies no man alive, and laughs to scorn those party philanthropists who describe his life as one of unhappy servitude. The real truth is, there is no set of men in the world, in their condition of life, who are better taken care of than the sailors and marines of the navy, or who, upon the whole, are more content and happy. There, George, what think ...
— The World of Waters - A Peaceful Progress o'er the Unpathed Sea • Mrs. David Osborne
... Etruria, and although he had never taken the trouble to espouse her before the mayor, yet he had loved her and had always treated her with great respect. She was a woman very pure and very honest. Alas, the poor soul! To-day her hair is white as the snow, and they tell me she is mad. So much the better for her if she know nothing; but I fear the mad and the imbecile know all and see all, crouching ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 26, July 1880. • Various
... another monument whose architecture, equally regular, is developed on a still grander scale: back then we are in the natal atmosphere and stand on the natal soil of the classic spirit.—At this time, the human material, more reduced and better prepared than in France, existed similarly in the requisite condition. At this date, we likewise see at ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 5 (of 6) - The Modern Regime, Volume 1 (of 2)(Napoleon I.) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... It is under constant repair. At first, during this severe winter, on account of rain and snow, accidents were frequent. The road, on both sides, was deep in mud and prolific of catastrophe; and even now, with conditions much better, there are numerous accidents. Cars all travel at frightful speed. There are no restrictions, and it is nothing to see machines upset and abandoned in the low-lying fields that border ...
— Kings, Queens And Pawns - An American Woman at the Front • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... of the window, darkened with fog, she sighed. If she had been the governess at Edith's house, she would be constantly seeing Aylmer. She knew, of course, all about Aylmer's passion. It would certainly be better than nothing to see him sometimes. But the position would have been painful. Also, she disliked Bruce. He had given her one or two looks that seemed rather to demand admiration than to express it; he had been so kind as to give her a few ...
— Love at Second Sight • Ada Leverson
... information which relates to his personal situation, his prospects and his action which it is within his captain's power to give him. A coxswain is not interchangeable with a fleet admiral. To "bigot" him (make available complete detail of a total plan) on an operation would perhaps produce no better or worse effect than a slight headache. But if he is at sea—in both senses of that term—with no knowledge of where he is going or of his chances of pulling through, and having been told of what will ...
— The Armed Forces Officer - Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2 • U. S. Department of Defense
... take dozy-pills either, but Cochrane knew better than to be more than remotely friendly with her outside of office hours. He did not want to give her any excuse to tell him anything for his own good. So he spoke pleasantly and kept company only with his own thoughts. ...
— Operation: Outer Space • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... why not? Elsa would have been better in some respects, but Hedwig—ah, yes, she, too, is a good girl a little wild perhaps—it will wear off. Have ...
— The Love of Ulrich Nebendahl • Jerome K. Jerome
... is "very wrong, of course," but "so refined," "so beautiful," "so tender"—a fallen angel, while Byron is a satyr and a devil. We boldly deny the verdict. Neither of the two are devils; as for angels, when we have seen one, we shall be better able to give an opinion; at present, Shelley is in our eyes far less like one of those old Hebrew and Miltonic angels, fallen or unfallen, than Byron is. And as for the satyr; the less that is said for Shelley, on that point, the ...
— Literary and General Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley
... with Bourlamaque at Isle-aux-Noix, but whose younger brother, also a surgeon, examined the wound and pronounced it mortal. "I am glad of it," Montcalm said quietly; and then asked how long he had to live. "Twelve hours, more or less," was the reply. "So much the better," he returned. "I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." He is reported to have said that since he had lost the battle it consoled him to have been defeated by so brave an enemy; and ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman
... robbed me," said the Regent; "I was going to propose the same thing if you had not. What do you think of it, Monsieur?" regarding M. le Duc. That Prince strongly approved the proposition I had just made, briefly praised every part of it, and added that he saw nothing better to be done than to execute this ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon
... its own way, with its fields of maguey, its scattered houses, that look like the beaux restes of better days, its market-place, parish church, church of El Carmen, with the monastery and high-walled gardens adjoining; with its narrow lanes, Indian huts, profusion of pink roses, little bridge and avenue, and scattered ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca
... doubt that he would have been the best Secretary that could have been placed at the head of the Treasury. His great financial experience and his unquestioned ability were better qualifications than those possessed by any politician in the land. Perhaps the best proof of the satisfaction which his appointment produced in the minds of the thinking men of the country is the manner in which the news affected the money market. Gold fell ...
— Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made • James D. McCabe, Jr.
... upward, and downward, and around, cast his eye first to the oak-carved ceiling, and anon fixed it upon the floor; then threw it around the room till it lighted on his child, the sight of whom suggested another and a better train of reflections than ceiling and floor had been ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott
... of that, but the how? No, dear, do not let us devise all sorts of hows when we have nothing to go upon. That would be of no use, and only perplex you when the time comes. It would be much better to "do the nexte thinge," and read ...
— Nuttie's Father • Charlotte M. Yonge
... had a perfect right to refuse to billet us, and from a military point of view we should certainly be better off at Nieppe. She was asked to do us a favour, she grants it, and her kindness is taken as a reason for her expulsion! I can't 'evacuate her to the rear,' as Forbes would say; she'd ...
— General Bramble • Andre Maurois
... judgement? What can be more anxious and miserable than such an expectation? May not their lot in such a case be compared with that of prisoners bound hand and foot, and lying in a dungeon? If such be a man's lot after death, would it not be better to be born an ass than a man? Is it not also contrary to reason to believe, that the soul can be re-clothed with its body? Is not the body eaten up by worms, mice, and fish? And can a bony skeleton that has been parched ...
— The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love • Emanuel Swedenborg
... cause of passion. At other times he would fall into sudden and grievous rages, either at trifles, or at nothing at all, abuse his best friends, and endeavour to injure himself, and then coming to a better temper, begged them to forgive him, for he did ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward
... street, Morgan had no thought of going in any direction save that which would bring him in conjunction with the men who sought him. If he began to run at that stage of his experiences, he reasoned, he would better make a streak of it that would take him out of the country as fast as his feet would carry him. If those riders of the Chisholm Trail were going to be there a week or two, he could not dodge them, and it might be ...
— Trail's End • George W. Ogden
... better hurry off now lest somebody else should come, and we might not know what to do'; and, followed by Michael, he hastily left the castle. Jack lingered behind for a few minutes to put pieces of gold, silver, and copper into his pocket, and to eat the food that his brothers had thrown down ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Andrew Lang
... meanwhile the civic authorities had been energetically engaged in making regulations for the hospital of the poor in West Smithfield, better known as St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which they had recently acquired, and in grappling with the poverty and sickness with which they were surrounded. Instead of trusting to the charity of those attending the parish churches ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe
... reflection). I am telling him that he ought to get away before the watch at the city gates are informed. The handsome Duke was a favorite of the King—they will break you on the wheel. Far better had it been had you stabbed ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various
... "Ye're better, lad," said the owner of the blue eyes in that deep musical bass voice which one meets with but rarely, and which resembles strongly, at times, the low pipes of ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne
... the hogshead in low-priced foods of various kinds, was responsible for hundreds of deaths annually, and for misery of sickness beyond calculation among the poor of the tenements and cheap boarding-houses. Yet a better husband, father and friend never lived. He, personally, wouldn't have harmed a fly; but he was a wholesale ...
— The Deluge • David Graham Phillips
... knight, said the lady, thou speakest knightly and boldly; but wit thou well the lord of this castle loveth not King Arthur, nor none of his court, for my lord hath ever been against him; and therefore thou were better not to come within this castle; for an thou come in this night, thou must come in under such form, that wheresomever thou meet my lord, by stigh or by street, thou must yield thee to him as prisoner. Madam, said ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory
... answered Dalgetty, "is precisely the question which I cannot answer you. Truly I begin to hold the opinion, Ranald, that we had better have stuck by the brown loaf and water-pitcher until Sir Duncan arrived, who, for his own honour, must have made some ...
— A Legend of Montrose • Sir Walter Scott
... be a lot of money here to-night," he said. "Make the best of your opportunities. Chinatown is foggy, yes—but it pays better than Port Said." ...
— Tales of Chinatown • Sax Rohmer
... intolerable in the fact that at least I am bound to the service of no one save God. For if disagreeablenesses have to be endured, at all events they come better from Him than ...
— Through Russia • Maxim Gorky
... genius admonished to stay at home, to put itself in communication with the internal ocean, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men. We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. How far off, how cool, how chaste the persons look, begirt each one with a precinct or sanctuary! So let us always sit. Why should we assume the faults of our friend, or wife, or father, or child, because they sit around our hearth, ...
— Essays, First Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... introducing presumptions at variance with fact and inferences at the expense of reason. A State in a condition of duress would be presumed to speak as an individual manacled and in prison might be presumed to be in the enjoyment of freedom. Far better to say to the States boldly and frankly, Congress wills ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler - Section 2 (of 3) of Volume 4: John Tyler • Compiled by James D. Richardson
... her. Olivia was reading a novel, Augusta was crossing a note to her bosom friend in Baker Street, and Netta was working diminutive coach wheels for the bottom of a petticoat. If the bishop could get the better of his wife in her present mood, he would be a man indeed. He might then consider victory his own for ever. After all, in such cases the matter between husband and wife stands much the same as it does between two boys at the same school, two cocks in the same yard, or two armies ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope
... "'I was better off under the tree,' said Daimeka to himself, and strode forth from the lodge. By the shore he launched one of the canoes; and now he felt no wish in his heart but to return to the battlefield and sit there dead, if only he could find his body again which he had ...
— Fort Amity • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... rather better health in the last ten years of his life than before, and was able to work and write constantly. For some four months before his death, but not until then, it was evident that his heart was seriously diseased. He died on April 19th, 1882, at the age of seventy-three. Almost his last words ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various
... satisfied; but by and by it got sort of lonesome, and so I went and set on the bank and listened to the current swashing along, and counted the stars and drift logs and rafts that come down, and then went to bed; there ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome; you can't stay so, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... ocean. l. 164. Denser bodies propagate vibration or sound better than rarer ones; if two stones be struck together under the water, they may be heard a mile or two by any one whose head is immersed at that distance, according to an experiment of Dr. Franklin. If the ear be applied to one end of ...
— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin
... the Southwest: A General Bibliography, by Mary Tucker, published by J. J. Augustin, New York, 1937, is better on Indians and the Spanish period than on Anglo-American culture. Southwest Heritage: A Literary History with Bibliography, by Mabel Major, Rebecca W. Smith, and T. M. Pearce, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1938, ...
— Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest • J. Frank Dobie
... informed of the necessity of taking both in case it should be deemed advisable to divide the party, which it had been thought probable we should be obliged to do if animals proved scarce, in order to give the whole the better chance of procuring subsistence, and also for the purpose of sending forward some of the best walkers to search for Indians and to get them to meet us with supplies of provision. The power of doing this was now at an ...
— The Journey to the Polar Sea • John Franklin
... the greater part of his time in this country from 1816 to 1834. He had accompanied his master on his ascending the Belgian throne, but had returned to England in a few years in order to serve him better there. Baron Stockmar was thus an old and early friend of the Princess's. In addition he had a large acquaintance with the English political world, and was therefore well qualified to advise her with the force of a disinterested adviser in her difficult position. ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1. • Sarah Tytler
... "I guess we'd better be going, Polly," suggested Mrs. Fabian, now. This told the girl that the deal over the pictures had been consummated, but she did not ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... had better tell Zeke the object of their mission. It really didn't matter much, but then he ...
— Stubble • George Looms
... friends,—Edward Irving, Southey, Sterling, Landor, Leigh Hunt, Dickens, Mill, Tennyson, Browning, and, most helpful of all, Emerson, who had visited Carlyle at Craigenputtoch in 1833. It was due largely to Emerson's influence that Carlyle's works were better appreciated, and brought better financial rewards, ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long
... during the contest between us in Whitehall and the world of journalism which were not always too cordial. The question of correspondents in the war zone naturally cropped up at a very early stage, and the decision arrived at, for better or for worse, was that none of them were to go. The wisdom of the attitude taken up by the military authorities in this matter is a question of opinion; but my view was, and still is, that the newspapers were treated injudiciously ...
— Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 • Charles Edward Callwell
... The better to deceive the enemy, General Foster made feint of rebuilding the bridge under fire. A feint was also made to cross the river; and a few of one of our Massachusetts regiments, not knowing that they were only to make a feint, actually swam across the river ...
— Kinston, Whitehall and Goldsboro (North Carolina) expedition, December, 1862 • W. W. Howe
... into impatience and disgust, by the long and fruitless warfare which he had waged under their banner, and the uniform ill success with which they had blasted all his struggles for wealth and power. Nor was he in any better temper with his associates in the cause,—having found that the ascendancy, which he had formerly exercised over them, and which, in some degree, consoled him for the want of official dominion, was of ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2 • Thomas Moore
... operation does not take long and the patient soon recovers from its effects. The result of an operation, especially in young children, is usually very satisfactory. Breathing through the nose is re-established, the face expression is changed for the better. The symptoms as before described disappear to ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter |
