"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... did it but to hold up a jest, and help my sister to a husband, but, brother Thorello, and sister, you have a spice of the jealous yet, both of you, (in your hose, I mean,) come, do not dwell upon your anger so much, let's all be smooth foreheaded ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson
... While there a magpie flew across the meadow, and as I watched it Mrs. Luckett advised me to turn my back and not to look too long in that direction. 'For,' said she, 'one magpie is good luck, but two mean sorrow; and if you should ...
— Round About a Great Estate • Richard Jefferies
... heaven, and the souls of the wicked go straight to hell, is against the plain teaching of the Bible. But the Bible not only contradicts this popular and careless fancy. It asserts what is directly contrary to it: it asserts positively, I mean, that there is an age-long period between death and the final state of happiness or misery, during which period the soul is separate from the body and remains separate. We are, according to the Bible, ...
— The Life of the Waiting Soul - in the Intermediate State • R. E. Sanderson
... "I mean exactly what I say. You showed by your expression and your manner that our inspection of the picture and our questions and comments ...
— The Common Law • Robert W. Chambers
... "I mean that and more, but I ought not to have said it now. It isn't fair. You have just escaped from a great danger and have got a notion that you are in debt to me and you don't know much ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller
... off that wretched habit entirely, when we came to be so closely connected. I gave an inventory to the father, who carry'd it to a merchant; the things were sent for, the secret was to be kept till they should arrive, and in the mean time I was to get work, if I could, at the other printing-house. But I found no vacancy there, and so remain'd idle a few days, when Keimer, on a prospect of being employ'd to print some paper money in New Jersey, which would require cuts and various types that I ...
— The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin
... Well—he is not one of us—of our kind of people, I mean. He does not look at things as we do. I don't dislike him, mamma, but I don't ...
— The Inglises - How the Way Opened • Margaret Murray Robertson
... flights of logic, I have sought to set some little alightings of what may be poetry. They are tributes to Beauty, unworthy to stand alone; yet perversely, in my mind, now at the end, I know not whether I mean the Thought for the Fancy—or the Fancy for the Thought, or why the book trails off to playing, rather than standing strong on unanswering fact. But this is alway—is it ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois
... didn't have none at all what belong to him. I spec' he just rented him a shirt and a pair o' breeches and wore 'em next to his hide 'thout no undershirt at all. He was drea'ful poor and had a miser'ble time and old mean Mr. Per'dventure took him up on a high mountain and left him, so when he come down some bad little childern say, 'Go 'long back, bald head!' and they make pockmocks on him. Seems like everybody treat him bad, so he cuss 'em, so I never see anybody ...
— Miss Minerva and William Green Hill • Frances Boyd Calhoun
... great joy in recording our conviction that "Great Expectations" is a masterpiece. We have never sympathized in the mean delight which some critics seem to experience in detecting the signs which subtly indicate the decay of power in creative intellects. We sympathize still less in the stupid and ungenerous judgments of those who find a still meaner delight in wilfully asserting that the last book of a popular writer ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 47, September, 1861 • Various
... wildly, as he jumped from his horse, "I would give my last gold piece that the work of this evening should be undone! How came it? What does it mean? Hither, my Lord Bishop, for surely it smacks of ...
— Sir Nigel • Arthur Conan Doyle
... What do you mean?" he demanded, and there was something in his voice that no one present ...
— At the Time Appointed • A. Maynard Barbour
... not be mean enough to offer you only a dollar, Ralph. A man isn't pulled from a watery grave, as the ...
— The Young Bridge-Tender - or, Ralph Nelson's Upward Struggle • Arthur M. Winfield
... "Do you mean to tell me," screamed Carson, "that there are actually robbers here, and that they have taken possession ...
— The Call of the Beaver Patrol - or, A Break in the Glacier • V. T. Sherman
... "but he has got to catch us yet. Who's old Jarks? Here, I know: they mean the Frenchman: Jacks—Jacques, ...
— Cormorant Crag - A Tale of the Smuggling Days • George Manville Fenn
... shoulders, "you cannot mean what you say, darling; three letters a day, that may do for sentimental common people. A musketeer on duty, a young girl in a convent, may exchange letters with their lovers once a day, perhaps, from the top of a ladder, or ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas
... mean Sir Geoffrey Peveril," said Bridgenorth, "I smile not on his ruin. It is well he is abased; but if it lies with me, I may humble his pride, but will never ruin ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott
... Doctor, Lawyer, Merchant, Chief, Learns he nothing, even of grief? Must it still be all his wonder Some men soar, while some go under? He has heard, and he has seen: Make him know the thing you mean. He has prayed since time began,— He's so curious of the Plan! He will pray you till he die, For the Whence and for the Why; Mad for wisdom—when 'tis cheaper! 'Why should my way lead me deeper? Am I, then, ...
— The Singing Man • Josephine Preston Peabody
... said, with those variations of intonation which mean an effort to be delicate, "is—is there any likelihood that the factory will ...
— Christmas - A Story • Zona Gale
... to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat, ...
— From Isolation to Leadership, Revised - A Review of American Foreign Policy • John Holladay Latane
... increase of people, and in a greater proportion, her part of it will be extremely valuable. That the supply we at present want, is clothing and arms for twenty five thousand men with a suitable quantity of ammunition, and one hundred field pieces. That we mean to pay for the same by remittances to France or through Spain, Portugal, or the French Islands, as soon as our navigation can be protected by ourselves or friends; and that we besides want great quantities of linens ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. I • Various
... through a sparsely inhabited, wildly broken country, with half a dozen mean-looking villages at considerable distances from each other and an occasional hut or wayside inn between. Although it was July and quite warm for the north of Scotland, the snow still lingered on many of the low mountains, and in some places it seemed that we might reach it by a few minutes' walk. ...
— British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car - Being A Record Of A Five Thousand Mile Tour In England, - Wales And Scotland • Thomas D. Murphy
... of letters, like that of faces, is as people opine, ... All the Romans excel what we have in England, in my opinion, and I hope, being well wrought, I mean cast, will gain the approbation of very handsome letters. The Italic I do not look upon to be unhandsome, though the Dutch are ...
— A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 • Henry R. Plomer
... right. Danny Meadow Mouse is timid. Ask Peter Rabbit. Ask Sammy Jay. Ask Striped Chipmunk. They will all tell you the same thing. Sammy Jay might even tell you that Danny is afraid of his own shadow, or that he tries to run away from his own tail. Of course this isn't true. Sammy Jay likes to say mean things. It isn't fair to Danny Meadow Mouse to ...
— The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse • Thornton W. Burgess
... two instances proved to be the same, I have concluded, that whatever this impediment may procede from, it is not caused by any material injury which her works have sustained, and that when she is in motion, her error on mean time above stated, may be depended on as accurate. In consequence of the chronometer's having thus accedentally stoped, I determined to come too at the first convenient place and make such observations as were necessary to ascertain ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al
... one of the delights of Arden that one does not need to put his whole thought into words there; half the need of language vanishes when we say only what we mean, and what we say is heard with sympathy and intelligence. Rosalind and I were thinking the same thought. Yesterday we had discovered that an open mind, freedom from work and care and turmoil, make it possible ...
— Under the Trees and Elsewhere • Hamilton Wright Mabie
... of nurse's carpetbag. He got back, now, often, in the daytime, to his old nursery quarters, where his father liked to hear his chatter and play, for a short time together—though he still slept, with Mahala, upstairs. "Does that mean 'Miss Sampson'?" ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... didn't mean to hurt him," began Knut in a piping voice; "It was only to get rid of the books. We ...
— Soap-Bubble Stories - For Children • Fanny Barry
... Malthus meant to him, restraint from marriage only, chiefly because of the inability to support a family. It implied marriage delayed until there was reasonable hope that the normal family, four in number, could be comfortably supported, continence in the mean time being assumed. Bonar interpreting Malthus says (p. 53) that impure celibacy falls under the head of "vice," and not of ...
— The Fertility of the Unfit • William Allan Chapple
... forgotten. I've heard that you bore yourself with great judgment and address. Nevertheless, if your modesty forbids the subject we'll come back to another more pressing. What did you mean when you said Captain Colden's delay was due to the solution of a ...
— The Shadow of the North - A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign • Joseph A. Altsheler
... deeds of bravery I do not mean to insinuate that all British soldiers were cowards any more than I mean to imply that all Boers were brave, but any man who has been with armies will acknowledge that bravery is not the exclusive property ...
— With the Boer Forces • Howard C. Hillegas
... the Presbyter said in his own hearing. But whether he heard them or only heard about them, it is evident that he had reached manhood before they were dead. It is also certain that he calls them "disciples of the Lord." He must mean by this that they had been personally in contact with Christ, like the apostles whom he has just mentioned. We therefore can only draw the conclusion that Papias believed that these two men had known the Lord in their boyhood, ...
— The Books of the New Testament • Leighton Pullan
... you more than she loves her own life, but she is blinded by her infatuation for that smooth-tongued scoundrel. It is the nature of her sex to feel and act thus; but, as I said, it does not mean that her love for you ...
— A Waif of the Mountains • Edward S. Ellis
... mean to say that we are to leave this side of the island altogether, and all our comfortable arrangements?" ...
— Masterman Ready - The Wreck of the "Pacific" • Captain Frederick Marryat
... wus mean to us, an' we ain't had nothin' to eat nor wear half of de time. We wus beat fer ever' little thing. He owned I reckin two er three hundret slaves an' he had four overseers. De overseers wus mean an' dey often ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration
... a witch! That is, I can put two and two together, and read men, though I don't read the alphabet. Well, one reading is a good deal rarer than the other. So you mean to disobey the Hawk to-night? I like you for that. But listen here—did you ever hear ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... allow that the Scotch is a patois in the ordinary sense of the word. For had not Scotland a living literature, and that a high one, when England could produce none, or next to none—I mean in the fifteenth century? But old age, and the introduction of a more polished form of utterance, have given to the Scotch all the other advantages of a patois, in addition to its ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald
... mean? Kate shouldn't give herself airs. Money's never dirty, you know. But perhaps it's all for the best. There's a sweet girl here to whom he is violently attached, and who I hope will become Mrs Cheesacre. But as I was saying, ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... He frowned so at the face in the window that it immediately disappeared. "Yew don't mean ter tell me he's sot ag'in' yew gals? He must be crazy! Sech a handsome, clever set o' women I never ...
— Old Lady Number 31 • Louise Forsslund
... Maku suddenly put his hand in his pocket. He drew it out empty. On his face was an expression which may mean "surprise," among the Japanese. He then fumbled in his other pockets, but apparently he did not find what he was looking for. Orme wondered ...
— The Girl and The Bill - An American Story of Mystery, Romance and Adventure • Bannister Merwin
... have been much scandalized at the manner in which the victors are said to have conducted themselves towards the prisoners at Drumclog. But the principle of these poor fanatics, (I mean the high-flying, or Cameronian party,) was to obtain not merely toleration for their church, but the same supremacy which Presbytery had acquired in Scotland after the treaty of Rippon, betwixt Charles I. and his ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... selection as an active Power or Deity; but who objects to an author speaking of the attraction of gravity as ruling the movements of the planets? It is difficult to avoid personifying the word Nature; but I mean by Nature only the aggregate action and product of many natural laws, and by laws the sequence of ...
— The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 - Science • Various
... to the broken ship and tried to decide what to do. They couldn't get in touch with their home because the radio part of the ship was all broken up. And the giants were horrible and wanted everything for themselves and were cruel and mean and probably would have hurt the poor ship-wrecked people if they ...
— Foundling on Venus • John de Courcy
... his head after a while that us two mean business, Mac, an' he'll get sensible an' fire them outsiders. I'm lookin' for him to make ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne
... know what you mean, I am sure!" he said with that tense note of satire. Then he paused with a vague wonder at himself thus to trench on the emotional phases between them that must be buried forever. Remembering her own allusion ...
— The Ordeal - A Mountain Romance of Tennessee • Charles Egbert Craddock
... speak ill of our neighbours, Miss Pemberton," answered the dame. "I know that; but if our neighbours do ill we may warn others against them. The man I mean is Miles Gaffin, the miller, as he calls himself. Now, I cannot say exactly what ill he does, except that I never heard of his doing any good or saying even a kind word, though he says many a bad one: but Adam, ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston
... the poet. "You can hear in them the far-off echo of a heavenly song. But my life, dear Ernest, has not corresponded with my thought. I have had grand dreams, but they have been only dreams, because I have lived—and that, too, by my own choice—among poor and mean realities. Sometimes even—shall I dare to say it?—I lack faith in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness, which my own works are said to have made more evident in nature and in human life. Why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou hope to find ...
— Bible Stories and Religious Classics • Philip P. Wells
... some word; but no word was audible, nor was any necessary. "I have no doubt," continued the attorney, "that we shall pull through this little difficulty without any ultimate damage whatsoever. In the mean time it is of course disagreeable to a lady of your distinction." And then he made another bow. "We are peculiarly happy in having such a tower of strength as Mr. Furnival," and then he ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... consideration. Sow thinly, that the plants may have room to become stout while yet in the seed-bed, and from the very outset endeavour to impart a hardy constitution by giving air freely whenever the weather is suitable. This does not mean that they are to be subjected to some cutting blast that will cripple the plants beyond redemption, but that no opportunity should be lost of partial or entire exposure whenever the atmosphere is sufficiently genial to benefit them. If a cold frame on a spent hot-bed can be spared, it may be utilised ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons
... did his destiny hinge. In those days women worked with thread, and used thread-papers. Now paper was, at that time, dear: dainty matrons liked tasty thread-papers. A pretty set of thread-papers, with birds or flowers painted on each, was no mean present for a friend. Chatterton, a quiet child, one day noticed that his mother's thread-papers were of no ordinary materials. They were made of parchment, and on this parchment was some of the black-letter characters by which his ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 2 • Grace & Philip Wharton
... power? He might send some of us out to the far-off foreign mission field. He might send some down to the less enchanted field of the city slums to do salvage service night after night among the awful social wreckage[C] thrown upon the strand there; or possibly it would mean an isolated post out on the frontier, or down in the equally heroic field of the mountains of the South. He might leave some of you just where you are, in a commonplace, humdrum spot, as you think, ...
— Quiet Talks on Power • S.D. Gordon
... you, my friend," said the mother; "you are saying what you do not mean. You are just as sorrowful as ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen
... expected to suffer death, giving him letters for my friends in Scotland; there are none other to whom the dog is familiar. But then my own person is well known—my very speech will betray me, in a camp where I have played no mean part ...
— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott
... closer to Jan. "Does it mean there's danger to the ship?" she asked in a low voice in ...
— Wide Courses • James Brendan Connolly
... particularity. He went right past the door, and then, with his hands in his pockets, and making an infantile attempt to whistle, strolled right along beyond the end of the wall. There he recalls a number of mean, dirty shops, and particularly that of a plumber and decorator, with a dusty disorder of earthenware pipes, sheet lead ball taps, pattern books of wall paper, and tins of enamel. He stood pretending to examine these things, and coveting, ...
— The Door in the Wall And Other Stories • H. G. Wells
... Pizarro that his associate had come with no purpose of cooperating with him, but with the intention to establish an independent government. Both of the Spanish captains seem to have been surrounded by mean and turbulent spirits, who sought to embroil them with each other, trusting, doubtless, to find their own account in the rupture. For once, however, their malicious ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott
... childless, to overthrow the wealthy bully, the slayer of his only son. Some were treacherous, as Halgerda the Fair. Three husbands she had, and was the death of every man of them. Her last lord was Gunnar of Lithend, the bravest and most peaceful of men. Once she did a mean thing, and he slapped her face. She never forgave him. At last enemies besieged him in his house. The doors were locked—all was quiet within. One of the enemies climbed up to a window slit, and Gunnar thrust him ...
— Essays in Little • Andrew Lang
... them have it, of course, and the majority of those who give the specifically professional courses, but the greater number of all teachers in the higher institutions are lacking in this respect. That doesn't mean that all university teachers are poor teachers. Many of them have learned how to teach in the crude and expensive school of experience. They have, at last, the professional equipment, but gained at high cost. Perhaps this lack ...
— On the Firing Line in Education • Adoniram Judson Ladd
... will do when his cue is masonry,—in the Coliseum. What the execution of that drawing is you may judge by looking with a magnifying glass at the ivy and battlements in this, when, also, his cue is masonry. What then can he mean by not so much as indicating one pebble or joint in ...
— Lectures on Landscape - Delivered at Oxford in Lent Term, 1871 • John Ruskin
... misty horizon, I waited till it was quite dark, then I selected a star which I calculated was just over where I had last seen the peak, and once more rode on for what must have been three hours; but then, concluding that to ride farther might possibly mean going astray, I walked my horse till a tolerably suitable spot offered itself for a halting-place till daylight, where I off-saddled Sandho, turned him loose to graze, and settled myself down in a patch of thorny bush to pass the night ...
— Charge! - A Story of Briton and Boer • George Manville Fenn
... argument, forcible as it appears at first sight, is really at fault both in its premiss and in its conclusion. By which I mean that, in the first place the premiss is not true, and, in the next place, that even if it were, the conclusion would not necessarily follow. The premiss is, "that every modification of structure must have been functionless ...
— Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) • George John Romanes
... I cannot tell you just yet. Now you must pardon what I am going to say: do you think he was serious in his intentions regarding Phyllis—I mean your daughter?" ...
— A Bid for Fortune - or Dr. Nikola's Vendetta • Guy Boothby
... to you? What do you mean? I told you the truth, and I would have told you more, if you hadn't turned against me as though I had been the devil himself. Do you suppose you are the only person who came to grief because of that ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... the case of ordinary heliotropic movements, it is hardly credible that they result directly from the action of the light, without any special adaptation. We may illustrate what we mean by the hygroscopic movements of plants: if the tissues on one side of an organ permit of rapid evaporation, they will dry quickly and contract, causing the part to bend to this side. Now the wonderfully complex movements of the pollinia of Orchis ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin
... to mean "glory of the sun," the Egyptian "Khu-en-Aten." The explanation throws light on a difficult passage in a letter from Elishah (B. M. 5). If "Khu-en-Aten" (Amenophis IV) is intended, he may have been commander while still only a prince, since the ...
— Egyptian Literature
... the best of his profession in those days, and ought to be remembered for the encouragement he gave to a servant of his, that has since made the greatest figure that ever yet any gardener did, I mean Mr. London. Mr. Rose may be well ranked amongst the greatest virtuosos of that time, (now dead) who were all well pleased to accept of his company ...
— On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, • Samuel Felton
... you have passed through some agitating scene. Are you able now to tell me all about it, and what you mean by another wife?" ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... it to mean Mary, sir,' I answered, growing somewhat red, convinced as I was in my own mind that I was on the threshold of ...
— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson
... "from all I have seen, is a remarkably nice person, and I am certain you will meet with only the fair and legitimate opposition of an opposing candidate in him,—no mean or ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever
... "I mean that Ichim, Omsk, Tomsk, to speak only of the more important towns of the two Siberias, have been successively occupied by the soldiers ...
— Michael Strogoff - or, The Courier of the Czar • Jules Verne
... to the merchant for his commerce, to the husbandman for the fruit of his toil. Corn, as we have seen, sank to the extraordinarily low price of twelve shillings a quarter. But this low price did not mean, as it might in our country, the depression of the agricultural interest, through the rivalry of the foreign producer. On the contrary, the great economic symptom of Theodoric's reign—and under the circumstances a most healthy symptom—was that Italy, from a corn-importing ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin
... appealed to in the mean time, and have concluded that it is impossible to get the right kind of time ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... own idea in his own way" does not mean that his work is to be undirected or that poor results are to be accepted. It does mean that when an idea and a means of expressing it have been suggested to him, he shall be allowed to do the best he can by himself, and that when he ...
— Primary Handwork • Ella Victoria Dobbs
... point known as Burley's Fork, and Halloway went there, alone—and for the first time in the canvass thought it necessary to interfere. Absalom, stung by the taunts of some of his friends, and having stimulated himself with mean whiskey, launched out in a furious tirade against the whites generally, and me in particular; and called on the negroes to go to the polls next day prepared to 'wade in blood to their lips.' For himself, he said, he ...
— The Spectre In The Cart - 1908 • Thomas Nelson Page
... stones have been regarded, in all parts of the world, as living, as psychologically anthropomorphic (that is, as having soul, emotion, will), and, in some cases, as possessing superhuman powers.[520] The term 'sacred,' as applied to them, may mean either that they are in themselves endowed with peculiar powers, or that they have special relations with divine beings; the first meaning is the earlier, the second belongs to a period when the lesser revered objects have been subordinated to ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy
... was silent, but the voice of reproach and menace issued from the mouth of his imperious wife. Accused by credible witnesses, and the evidence of his own subscription, the successor of St. Peter was despoiled of his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk, and embarked, without delay, for a distant exile in the East. [9011] At the emperor's command, the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of a new bishop; and after a solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost, ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... friend, the professor, there—are about to become abductors and pirates, on behalf of your father—since there seems to be no help for it. But do not let that very trivial circumstance distress you in the least; we mean to deliver your father; and when we make up our minds to do a thing, we generally do it. And now, Professor, as to details. If I understand your scheme aright, our first step must be to kidnap your very estimable friend, ...
— With Airship and Submarine - A Tale of Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... his clear statements and demonstrations of facts, and his profound earnestness. Webster said concerning him that he had "the indisputable basis of high character, unspotted integrity, and honor unimpeached. Nothing grovelling, low, or mean, or selfish came near his ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson
... servants; particularly the black nurse who had him in charge. Why did Mr. Peyton ask him about it? Why, if it were so important to strangers, had not his mother told him more of it? And why was she not like this good woman with the gentle voice who was so kind to—to Susy? And what did they mean by making HIM so miserable? Something rose in his throat, but with an effort he choked it back, and, creeping from the lounge, went softly to the window, opened it to see if it "would work," and looked out. The shrouded ...
— A Waif of the Plains • Bret Harte
... he, taking off his hat, and speaking in a nice American voice, as nice for a man as Sally Woodburn's is for a woman. "Please don't suppose I mean to be rude or intrusive, but I wanted to tell you that I think you won't be annoyed again; and—just one thing more. May I thank you for your goodness on shipboard? It brightened what would otherwise ...
— Lady Betty Across the Water • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson
... practised in London, when a hosier had caused several young people to be prosecuted to death for passing forged bank-notes, the wrath of the people showed itself in marking the shop for vengeance upon any favorable occasion offering through fire or riots, and in the mean time in deserting it. These things had been going on for some time when I awoke from my long delirium; but the effect they had produced upon a weak and obstinate and haughty government, or at least upon the weak and obstinate and haughty ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey
... Mrs. Grose assented: "it was the way he liked everyone!" She had no sooner spoken indeed than she caught herself up. "I mean that's ...
— The Turn of the Screw • Henry James
... strong English squadron of six ships-of-the-line under Admiral Hughes. The absence of any similar French force gave the entire control of the sea to the English until the arrival of Suffren, nearly three years later. In the mean while Holland had been drawn into the war, and her stations, Negapatam on the Coromandel coast, and the very important harbor of Trincomalee in Ceylon, were both captured, the latter in January, 1782, by the ...
— The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 • A. T. Mahan
... Desire? What do you mean about sending him warning?" cried Mrs. Edwards amazedly. Desire made ...
— The Duke of Stockbridge • Edward Bellamy
... his hand over his head then, and asked news of him, and if he was of the noble or of the mean blood of the great world. He answered that he had no knowledge who he came from, but only that he was a man of the Fomor, travelling in search of wages to the kings of the earth, "and I heard," he ...
— Gods and Fighting Men • Lady I. A. Gregory
... mean dress for dinner," spluttered Harry as he was telling Frank. "It's certain they'll go directly from dinner ...
— Frank Merriwell at Yale • Burt L. Standish
... sure I have been greeting (Old English: weeping) like a bairn, twenty times a day, ever since I knew I was to be married, whenever I called to mind you and my dear father. You will be very good to him while I am away? But I need not ask you that. Six months, he says—I mean Captain Bruce—will, according to the Edinburg doctor's advice, set up his health entirely, if he travels about in a warm climate; and, therefore, by June, your birthday, we are sure to be back in dear old ...
— A Noble Life • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
... there is a vice opposed to a virtue by way of excess, so is there a vice opposed to it by way of deficiency, which latter is opposed both to the virtue which is the mean, and to the vice which is in excess. Now the same vice pertaining to deficiency is opposed to both cruelty and savagery, namely remission or laxity. For Gregory says (Moral. xx, 5): "Let there be love, but not that which enervates, let there be ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas
... do we fight and fret each other? Why do I, who adore you so, let you vex me and stir me to say what I do not mean at all. Always remember, Euan—always, always—that whatever I am unkind enough to say or do to vex you, in my secret mind I know that no other man on earth is comparable to you—and that you reign first in my heart—first, ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... weighed leaden on Allan's heart. As for Beatrice, though in the dark she hid her tears, she felt that grief could plumb no blacker depths save utter loss. Only the thought of the new world and all that it must mean ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England
... that downright mean and disobliging," Sadie returned, with an injured air, but flushing uncomfortably and forgetting for the moment the many other acts of kindness Katherine had shown her. "Of course, I don't expect you to do it every day, but ...
— Katherine's Sheaves • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... potato to it, for size; but then there are worlds in other systems that Jupiter isn't even a mustard-seed to—like the planet Goobra, for instance, which you couldn't squeeze inside the orbit of Halley's comet without straining the rivets. Tourists from Goobra (I mean parties that lived and died there—natives) come here, now and then, and inquire about our world, and when they find out it is so little that a streak of lightning can flash clear around it in the eighth of a second, ...
— Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven • Mark Twain
... him. "I should be a mean coward," he cried, "were I to give in to you in all things. Order other people about, not me, for I shall obey no longer. Furthermore I say—and lay my saying to your heart—I shall fight neither you ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... that is to say, well—taken literally, I suppose—that the phrase 'In their entirety' could be held to mean without cuts; but surely, regarding this particular cut—I may say that I spoke to Sir Owen about it, and he agreed with me that it was impossible to get people into the theatre in London ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore
... other society has the least concern in this matter. The simple fact is that Mr. Vaux, and two or three of his friends, have been so much pleased with your past conduct in relation to Slavery, and have so deep a sense of their duty to resist the extension of that system, that they mean to volunteer in assisting you, without any connections with any set of men, and without any motives which the most honorable might not be ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 • Various
... heard of Solomon. He speaks of the foolish son of a wise father. He was himself the father of a fool, that rent the kingdom,—Rehoboam I mean,—and he kept concubines, too; so I suppose he waxed fruitful in fools. I have but one fool, therefore I am thankful;—but then he is a thorough fool, a most unmitigated, and unmitigatable fool; the fool of fools, a finished fool, the pink of fools; a ...
— The Advocate • Charles Heavysege
... a mistake in bringing me to this room. I did not mean to trouble Mademoiselle; my business is with M. de Clericy. I am applying for the ...
— Dross • Henry Seton Merriman
... age he escaped from this mean employment is not known. The claim set up for him by his descendants, that he served with his father in Italy, hardly deserves consideration. He was about twenty-one years old when all Spain began to ring with the discoveries of Columbus ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1 of 8 • Various
... now," remarked Julia, as we went slowly up the steep street, "and nobody visits them; not one of my uncle's old friends. They have plenty to live upon, but it is all her money. I do not mean to let them got upon visiting terms with me—at least, not Kate Daltrey. You ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton
... of all honorable men of the twentieth century to see that in the future competition of races the survival of the fittest shall mean the triumph of the good, the beautiful, and the true; that we may be able to preserve for future civilization all that is really fine and noble and strong, and not continue to put a premium on greed and impudence ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois
... modern sciences, especially biology, and psychology and sociology, and try to get a glimpse of the fundamental human needs underlying such phenomena as the labour and woman's movements. God knows I've just begun to get my glimpse, and I've floundered around ever since I left college.... I don't mean to say we can ever see the whole, but we can get a clew, an idea, and pass it on to our children. You have ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... their rugs—are covered with ice; the animals are standing deep in snow, the sledges are almost covered, and huge drifts above the tents. We have had breakfast, rebuilt the walls, and are now again in our bags. One cannot see the next tent, let alone the land. What on earth does such weather mean at this time of year? It is more than our share of ill-fortune, I think, but the luck ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard
... hep-hep-hurrah, feeling that he, though small, is something; how might all Angle-land once follow a hero-martyr and great true Son of Heaven! It is the very joy of man's heart to admire, where he can; nothing so lifts him from all his mean imprisonments, were it but for moments, as true admiration. Thus it has been said, 'all men, especially all women, are born worshippers;' and will worship, if it be but possible. Possible to worship a Something, even a small one; not so possible a mere loud-blaring ...
— Past and Present - Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII. • Thomas Carlyle
... means, putting off at least as long as might be the evil day. The spirit of liberalism, once disseminated throughout the conglomerate Empire, might be expected to prompt the various nationalities to demand constitutions; constitutions would mean autonomy; and autonomy might well mean the end of the Empire itself. Austria entered upon the post-Napoleonic period handicapped by the fact that the principle upon which Europe during the nineteenth century was to solve many of her problems—the principle of nationality—contained ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg
... then coming into the room—and OUTSIDE, darkly outlined, two forms stood just beneath the window. Instinctively, quick as a flash, Jimmie Dale crouched below the sill. Who were they? What did it mean? Questions swept in swift sequence through his brain. Had they seen him? It would be very dark against the background of the portieres, but yet if they were watching—he drew a breath of relief. He had not been seen. Their voices reached him ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... "I mean nothing; I know nothing," interrupted Isabella hastily. "I can give your Grace no reason, save my own feelings. Is there no way to prevent this public exposure, and yet ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar
... conclusion that it's worth while playing that sort of game? If you have, I can't tell you how utterly wrong I think you are. Make him happy—oh, I know—but what extraordinary cheek on your part! I as near as possible gave you away—I did really. Besides, what did he mean by saying you'd advised him to buy the things—praised them in the Gem, and all that? You can't have gone ...
— The Lee Shore • Rose Macaulay
... you mean?" growled Singh Rajah. "There is no king in this jungle but me!" "Ah, sire," answered the jackal, "in truth one would think so, for you are very dreadful. Your very voice is death. But it is as we say, for we, with our own eyes, have seen ...
— Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories - The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1 • Various
... is of Goethe's which falls into neither of the classes here noticed; we mean the Hermann and Dorothea, a narrative poem, in hexameter verse. This appears to have given more pleasure to readers not critical, than any other work of its author; and it is remarkable that it traverses ...
— Biographical Essays • Thomas de Quincey
... sea-breezes that began to blow. I saw two hands striving with the oars. I saw the owner of the hair and of the hands, a young girl, sitting in that boat, coming right across the way where I ought to be going. "'Does she mean to stay me?' I said, and even then ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various
... and what other rites remain," said the Queen, "may be finished to-morrow in the chapel; for we intend Sir Richard Varney a companion in his honours. And as we must not be partial in conferring such distinction, we mean on this matter to confer with our cousin ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott
... this is absurd. If I found anything it would only be one of those little aggravating seams of coal which doesn't mean anything, and—" ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... I do not mean you to infer that I was a devil of a fellow, the mention of whose name spread a hush over godly families. God wot! I did little harm. I only ate what Murger calls "the Blessed bread of gaiety," the food of youth. Remember, too, it was the first time in my life that I ...
— The Beloved Vagabond • William J. Locke
... 'I don't mean that we are to go and be hermits in a wilderness. Our friends must visit us—our real friends, no one else; just the people we really care about, and those won't be many. If I give up a public career—as of course I shall—there's no need to give ...
— The Whirlpool • George Gissing
... mean him as was killed in your play," says the landlord, "I'll answer for it he's not far off; for, to my knowledge, he was in the house drinking with a man while you were a-dancing of your antics like a fool. And I only hope you may be as honest ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett
... PLEASURE," but yet reminding us that he would do it "WITH FEELIN'S," - even then, I say, the triumphant master felt humbled in his triumph, felt that he ruled on sufferance only, that he was taking a mean advantage of the other's low estate, and that the whole scene had been one of those "slights that patient ...
— Memories and Portraits • Robert Louis Stevenson
... would naturally mean Harry Heathcote, of whom, as he lay asleep, the young wife thought that he was the very perfection of patriarchal pastoral manliness; but she knew enough of human nature to be aware that the "him" of the moment to her sister was no longer her own husband. "I think he has got his arm broken ...
— Harry Heathcote of Gangoil • Anthony Trollope
... you have just uttered words of such gravity that you are bound to confirm them by indisputable evidence. Do you mean to persist on ...
— Messengers of Evil - Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... afraid," he said at last, "that Giannoli is not quite well—not quite well, mentally, I mean," he added after a slight pause. "At the same time, it is quite possible that there is some truth in what he suspects. Spies have always been abundant in our party and Giannoli is a very likely victim. He has ...
— A Girl Among the Anarchists • Isabel Meredith
... declared to be so when made under the authority of the United States. It is open to question whether the authority of the United States means more than the formal acts prescribed to make the convention. We do not mean to imply that there are no qualifications to the treaty-making power; but they must be ascertained in a different way. It is obvious that there may be matters of the sharpest exigency for the national well being that an act of Congress could not deal with but that a treaty followed ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin
... slightest doubt in this." While Vrikodara, O monarch, was uttering these words in a loud voice, thy fearless son of true prowess answered him, saying, "What use of such elaborate bragging? Fight me, O Vrikodara! O wretch of thy race, today I shall destroy thy desire of battle! Mean vermin as thou art, know that Duryodhana is not capable, like an ordinary person, of being terrified by a person like thee! For a long time have I cherished this desire! For a long time hath this wish ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown
... What does that mean: we can't do enough for him? We have recorded the facts in the case. His suspicions fell upon his washerwoman and we have searched her house. What more does he want? The man ought to keep quiet. But, as I said, to-morrow I'm at the service ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... may be of value to us?" Jil-Lee asked slowly. "Will it bring food to our mouths, shelter for our bodies—mean ...
— The Defiant Agents • Andre Alice Norton
... in all natural objects, size is the measure of power. By the term "other things" in relation to the brain, we mean temperament, quality and health. This simple principle explains why a great many people who carry large heads are endowed with but little intellectual power. Their heads are filled with "sawdust," in other words, a brain of ...
— How to Become Rich - A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and Matrimony • William Windsor
... waste my time listening to this senseless conversation!" interrupted the Captain, with some petulance. "Mr. Pardoe, you will kindly explain to him that in future all the fowls on board are to be white in the summer, and blue... 'er, I mean black, in the winter. I will have them in the proper dress of the day like the ship's company, do ...
— Stand By! - Naval Sketches and Stories • Henry Taprell Dorling
... is strictly a work of art—high and delicate art —and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous story—understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print —was created in America, and has remained ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... As a mean of effectuating, in some degree, a design so virtuous and laudable, we recommend to you to appoint a committee, annually, or for any other more convenient period, to execute such plans, for the improvement of the condition and moral character of the free ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 • Various
... they have breakfasted, start again for the beach. When it is low tide they go shrimp-fishing or walk about in the shallow water looking for shells and sea-weed. When it is high tide, all sit at the door of their tents sewing, reading, or talking—I mean, ...
— Chateau and Country Life in France • Mary King Waddington
... get at us, it seems to me that we cannot get at them. Messengers have been sent off to order all the contingents to assemble at that spot. Six thousand men are to remain behind to guard the city, but as we mean to beat them I do not think there can be much occasion for that; for you think we shall ...
— The Cat of Bubastes - A Tale of Ancient Egypt • G. A. Henty |
