"Meddle" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... answer for the minds and fancies of young women, Captain Spike. They are difficult to understand; and I would rather not meddle with ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper
... exclaimed, "I did not expect to find you so engaged. These seem to be law papers—very dangerous, indeed, madam, for unprofessional persons to meddle with such things. Permit me to look at them;" and he held out his hand towards Mr. Marlow, as if expecting to receive the papers without a word of remonstrance. But Mr. Marlow held them back, saying, in a very calm, civil tone, "Excuse me, sir! We are conversing over the matter ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various
... roared with rage. "I will seek this impudent Thrym!" he cried. "I will crush him into bits, and teach him to meddle with the ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various
... "I shall not meddle with the crew, Sennit," I overheard Powlett say, in a sort of complaining tone, as he walked away from his companion. "Really, I cannot become the master of a press-gang, though the Speedy had to be worked by her officers. You are used to this business, and I leave ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... disease of the soul. For they will fancy, says Plato, that they understand the highest truths, when the very contrary is really the case. I earnestly therefore entreat men of this description, not to meddle with any of the profound speculations of the Platonic philosophy, for it is more dangerous to urge them to such an employment, than to advise them to follow their sordid avocations with unwearied assiduity, ...
— Introduction to the Philosophy and Writings of Plato • Thomas Taylor
... well; but, Patricia, you are not to meddle with any of the office things again without permission. And now, about this ...
— Patricia • Emilia Elliott
... nothing about other subjects. I haven't come here to meddle with other subjects. I'm, as it were, a partner of Crinkett's. Any way, I am acting as his agent. I'm quite above board, Mr. Caldigate, and in what I say I mean to stick to my own business and not go beyond it. Twenty thousand pounds ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope
... was frequently in the hands of women, one of whom deposed: "I was able to live by my chirurgery, but now I am blind and cannot see a wound, much less dress it or make salves"; and Jane Hawkins of Boston, the "bosom friend" of Mrs. Hutchinson, was forbidden by the general courts "to meddle in surgery or physic, drink, plaisters or oils," as well as religion. The men who practised physic were generally homebred, making the greater part of their living at farming or agriculture. Some were ministers as well as physicians, and one of them ...
— The Fathers of New England - A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths • Charles M. Andrews
... Wasis," she replied, "and there he sits; and I warn you that if you meddle with him you ...
— The Algonquin Legends of New England • Charles Godfrey Leland
... speak roughly. "Be low-spoken to them," the master says. In the years when he was educating them he groomed and cared for them himself, with no other help except that of his two little sons. No one else was allowed to meddle with them; and, necessarily, they were kept separate from other horses. Now, wherever they are exhibiting, he always goes out the first thing in the morning to see them. He passes from one to another, and they are all expecting the little love pats and slaps on their glossy sides, ...
— Our Boys - Entertaining Stories by Popular Authors • Various
... wife, in some alarm, "you are not going to meddle with the singing, are you? It will get you into trouble. There is a musical committee in the church, and such committees are very ...
— The Crucifixion of Philip Strong • Charles M. Sheldon
... answered, 'and beware how you meddle in the play, for none will stand by you. Now the women have power, and you see they use it. They are about to die, but before they die they will do as their fathers did, for their strait is sore, and though they have been put aside, the old ...
— Montezuma's Daughter • H. Rider Haggard
... the Audiencia. As a sample, they cite an appeal made by the friars of St. Augustine from the edict, issued at the petition of the city, ordering all the Sangley shopkeepers to be collected in the Parian. Although that was a necessary measure, and the royal Audiencia had no right to meddle in a matter so manifestly belonging to the government as the residence of the Sangleys in this or in that part yet I am not doing nor did I do what they say in this matter, about preventing the report to be made—as will be seen by the acts which I enclose herewith, ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIII, 1629-30 • Various
... with his fist. "Right!" he said. "If we meddle at all we've got to go the whole distance. Either stay out altogether or go in over our heads.... But how about this ...
— Youth Challenges • Clarence B Kelland
... and even if she was, there's not the shadow of an excuse for your conduct. You're just making a mess of everything you meddle with. Getting me jilted like this! What do you suppose people will say? What'll they be thinking ...
— The Prodigal Father • J. Storer Clouston
... really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a full stop; and I began by little and little to be off my design, and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to attack the savages; and that it was not my business to meddle with them, unless they first attacked me; and this it was my business, if possible, to prevent: but that, if I were discovered and attacked by them, I knew my duty. On the other hand, I argued with myself that this really was the way ...
— Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe
... harder matter. Of course, when the schooner canted over, the boom had swung out-board, and the cap of it and a foot or two of sail hung even under water. I thought this made it still more dangerous; yet the strain was so heavy that I half feared to meddle. At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water, and since, pull as I liked, I could not budge the downhall, that was the extent ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson
... was a discreet woman,—a woman who never in her life said, "I told you so!" and, on the present occasion, though pretty well aware of the shape her husband's meditations were taking, she very prudently forbore to meddle with them, only sat very quietly in her chair, and looked quite ready to hear her liege lord's intentions, when he should think proper to ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... wild-animal species is a leap in the dark. On general principles it is dangerous to meddle with the laws of Nature, and attempt to improve upon the code of the wilderness. Our best wisdom in such matters may easily prove to be short-sighted folly. The trouble lies in the fact that concerning transplantation it is impossible for us to know beforehand all the ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday
... prince's name. 2 Watch. How, if he will not stand? Dog. Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave. Ver. If he will not stand when he is bidden he is none of the prince's subjects. Dog. True, and they are to meddle with none but the prince's subjects.—You shall also make no noise in the streets: for, for the watch to babble and talk, is most tolerable, and not to be endured. 2 Watch. We will rather sleep than talk: we know what belongs to a watch. Dog. Why, you speak ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... if it does anything," he said, with an optimism which was largely the outgrowth of his beatific mood, which in its turn was born of his nearness to Evadna and her gracious manner toward him. "We promised not to molest them on their claims. But if they get over the line to meddle with our water system, or carry any in buckets—which they can't, because they all leak like the deuce"—he grinned as he thought of the bullet holes in them—"why, I don't know but what someone might object to that, and send them back on their own ...
— Good Indian • B. M. Bower
... to follow An Ching; but Ku Nai-nai, who certainly appeared to have got out of bed the wrong side that morning (only you can't get off a kang except at one side), would not allow Nelly in the cook-house. 'No foreigners shall meddle with my food,' she said; whereat Nelly was very glad, for she had only offered to go and help on An ...
— The Little Girl Lost - A Tale for Little Girls • Eleanor Raper
... quit Calais,' a travel-writer would say, 'it would not be amiss to give some account of it.'—Now I think it very much amiss—that a man cannot go quietly through a town and let it alone, when it does not meddle with him, but that he must be turning about and drawing his pen at every kennel he crosses over, merely o' my conscience for the sake of drawing it; because, if we may judge from what has been wrote of these things, by all ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne
... One may say it is the most fundamental feature of Roman Catholicism, in my opinion at least. 'All has been given by Thee to the Pope,' they say, 'and all, therefore, is still in the Pope's hands, and there is no need for Thee to come now at all. Thou must not meddle for the time, at least.' That's how they speak and write too—the Jesuits, at any rate. I have read it myself in the works of their theologians. 'Hast Thou the right to reveal to us one of the mysteries of that world from which Thou hast come?' my old man asks Him, and answers the question for Him. ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... yonder Saxon churls," said Front-de-Boeuf, "their ransom will depend upon other terms than thine. Mind thine own concerns, Jew, I warn thee, and meddle ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott
... have it without that condition; but remember, I will root up your beans if you meddle with ...
— Emile - or, Concerning Education; Extracts • Jean Jacques Rousseau
... never be a land campaign; and on all occasions the governor attends to this, as to other things. It is also proper to adjust the jurisdictions of all [the officers], for they are all at variance, as some are trying to meddle in the affairs of others. That results in confusion and disorder; for the master-of-camp, in accordance with his title, claims that he can try causes in the first instance of all the men who are paid, both in and out of the army. The governor ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIV, 1630-34 • Various
... rejected tares in vain shall ask Admittance to the barn. I question not But he, who search'd our volume, leaf by leaf, Might still find page with this inscription on't, 'I am as I was wont.' Yet such were not From Acquasparta nor Casale, whence Of those, who come to meddle with the text, One stretches and another cramps its rule. Bonaventura's life in me behold, From Bagnororegio, one, who in discharge Of my great offices still laid aside All sinister aim. Illuminato here, And Agostino join ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante
... they have unluckily fallen, or else come to the same resolution after an unsuccessful attempt to revive faded stimulants. Dante embodied, for instance, his countrymen's rude conception of future punishment—and he did well. But our modern religious poets have never ventured to meddle with those moral aspects of the subject which have now so generally supplanted the material. They talk instead, with Pollok, of the "rocks of dark damnation," or outrage common sense by such barbarous mis-creations as he has sculptured ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. • Various
... about it," Micky maintained stolidly. "And if you take my advice, you won't either. It never does to meddle ...
— The Phantom Lover • Ruby M. Ayres
... suddain Rush of Blood to the Head, and woulde not be dissuaded from going out; but Mother was playnly smote at the Heart, and having lookt after him with some anxietie, exclaimed, "I shall neither meddle nor make more in this Businesse: your Father's suddain Seizures shall never be layd at my Doore;" and soe left me, till we met at Dinner. After the Cloth was drawne, enters Mr. Milton, who goes up to Mother, and ...
— Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary • Anne Manning
... with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more if I found it abed with my neighbor's children, and I had bound myself by a solemn contract not to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But—if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, ...
— The Lincoln Story Book • Henry L. Williams
... Mr. Giddings, "but if there is, it is nothing concerning you, sir, at least. We thank you for your attention to our machine, and wish you to take the best care of it while it is here. Don't let anybody meddle ...
— Around the World in Ten Days • Chelsea Curtis Fraser
... I am afraid that when I let my thoughts meddle with such matters I am no longer a servant. But I am so devoted to the countess; if she were my own child I couldn't love her more. That is how I come to be so bold, sir. They say ...
— The American • Henry James
... it bright as fairyland. Long rows of magnificent oaks rear their proud heads, conscious that no profaning hand will ever bring them low. In fact, the Wood has for ages been held as an almost sacred spot. Children are never allowed to meddle with its smallest twig. The ax of the woodman has never resounded there. Even war and riot have passed it reverently, pausing for a moment in their devastating way. Philip of Spain, while he ordered Dutchmen to be mowed down by hundreds, issued a mandate that not a bough of the beautiful Wood ...
— Hans Brinker - or The Silver Skates • Mary Mapes Dodge
... a member of the House. Duff Green tried hard to get something out of him for the comfort of Mr. Buchanan, but failed to extort more than commonplace generalities. To Seward he wrote that he did not wish to interfere with the present status, or to meddle with slavery as it now lawfully existed. To like purport he wrote to Alexander H. Stephens, induced thereto by the famous Union speech of that gentleman. He eschewed hostile feeling, saying: "I never have been, am not now, and probably ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I. • John T. Morse
... answered coldly, "You must take your own way, Stephen. I am an old man. I have had my say in my generation, maybe I haven't any right to meddle with yours. New men, new times." Then being conscious that he was a little ungenerous he walked off to Mrs. Sandal, and left the lovers together. Steve would have forgiven the squire a great deal more for such an opportunity, especially as a still kinder after-thought ...
— The Squire of Sandal-Side - A Pastoral Romance • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... getting off a fine flour, which they swallow eagerly, together with the oil of the seed. I have nothing further to tell you about them just at present, except to say that these are not comfortable ants to meddle with, for they sting almost ...
— Harper's Young People, September 7, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... luck to the lasso, say I. May I niver more see the swate groves o' Killarney if iver I meddle with wan again." ...
— Martin Rattler • R.M. Ballantyne
... when he heard this. And Achior, captain of the sons of Ammon, told Holofernes what the Jews were, their history, and what their God had done for them; and advised Holofernes not to meddle with them. There was then tumult in the council of the Assyrian host, and Holofernes despised the God of the people of Israel, and sent Achior to the children of Israel that were in Bethulia, in the ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various
... have thought it of you, sir. The idee, indeed, of you wanting to come and meddle here in ...
— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn
... about to overstep my limits and discuss this as a question of currency. In what form the best paper currency can be supplied to a country is a question of economical theory with which I do not meddle here. I am only narrating unquestionable history, not dealing with an argument where every step is disputed. And part of this certain history is that the best way to diffuse banking in a community is to allow the banker to issue banknotes ...
— Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market • Walter Bagehot
... and you will come out carved and embossed according to the old traditional pattern,—you as well as another. Where the material is hard, they put on more power,—where it is soft, more care; wherefore I caution you here, as I would in a mill at Lowell or Lawrence,—Don't meddle with the shafts,—don't go too near the wheel,—in short, keep clear of the machinery. And Hulia does so; for, at the last attack of Padre Doyaguez, she suddenly turns upon him and says, "Sir, you are a ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various
... and torn to pieces by a drove of peccaries, that he has been imprudent enough to attack. Indeed, this fierce creature will not often meddle with the peccaries when he sees them in large numbers. He attacks only single ones; but their "grunting," which can be heard to the distance of nearly a mile, summons the rest, and he is surrounded before he is aware of it, and seized by as many ...
— The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid
... dropped in our conversation with great dexterity all the insinuations proper to confirm me in this opinion. I knew at this time his master was not gone, so that he gave me two very risible scenes, which are frequently to be met with when some people meddle in business; I mean that of seeing a man labour with a great deal of awkward artifice to make a secret of a nothing, and that of seeing yourself taken for a bubble when you know as much of the matter as he who thinks that he ...
— Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope • Lord Bolingbroke
... measuring the tower's dimensions of height, depth, length, and breadth; soon, however, his business was rudely interrupted by the watchman, who, catching sight of this measuring stranger, shouted at him for a spy, asking by what right or by whose leave he came there to meddle with the tower of the Lord High ...
— Fleur and Blanchefleur • Mrs. Leighton
... die, win or lose, what do THEY get? English glory is too genteel to meddle with those humble fellows. She does not condescend to ask the names of the poor devils whom she kills in her service. Why was not every private man's name written upon the stones in Waterloo Church as well as every officer's? Five hundred pounds to the stone-cutters ...
— Little Travels and Roadside Sketches • William Makepeace Thackeray
... Galgenstein and Corporal Peter Brock, he is egregiously mistaken, and his knowledge of human nature is not worth a fig. If they had not been two prominent scoundrels, what earthly business should we have in detailing their histories? What would the public care for them? Who would meddle with dull virtue, humdrum sentiment, or stupid innocence, when vice, agreeable vice, is the only thing which the readers of romances ...
— Catherine: A Story • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the edge of the steep slanting roof. At the far end of this was a large basket, in front of which sat a big grey cat, that snarled as it saw them, for she wished to warn the passers- by that they were not to meddle with her family. Heidi stood still and looked at her in astonishment, for she had never seen such a monster cat before; there were whole armies of mice, however, in the old tower, so the cat had no difficulty ...
— Heidi • Johanna Spyri
... bummers with the question, 'Hello, Yank, have you got any Yankee notions about you?' and at the same time thrusting their hands into every pocket. They captured a little money and small traps, but seeing one boot was spoiled they did not meddle with the other. Next came wagons, picking up muskets and accoutrements which lay thick all over the ground. Then came ambulances and picked up the rebel wounded but left ours. Then came a citizen of the Confederacy ...
— The County Regiment • Dudley Landon Vaill
... "Providence that shapes his ends." Thus it will be seen that BURNSIDE is the very man for the situation. It may be asked, (there are cavillers who ask impertinent questions about everything,) what business BURNSIDE has to meddle with European affairs? Pshaw!—one might as well ask what business Colorado JEWETT has to meddle with everybody's affairs, or GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN, or PAUL PRY, or WIKOFF. BURNSIDE against BISMARCK for diplomacy any time. Probably he aims at the throne of France for himself, and having ...
— Punchinello Vol. II., No. 30, October 22, 1870 • Various
... you mean, Sir?" The marquis said, he hoped he should then have had the honour of presenting petitions to his Excellency. "Oh, that is it, is it!" said Sir Alexander: "my valet, Sir, brushes my clothes, and brings them to me. If he dared to meddle with matters of public business, I ...
— Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge • Coleridge
... to,' replied Mr. Bragg, with a toss of the head—'that I'll attend to,' repeated he, with an emphasis on the I'll, as much as to say, 'Don't you meddle ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees
... M. Lupot; "I shall give no more soirees. I begin to think I was foolish in wishing to leave my own sphere. When people of the same class lark and joke each other, it's all very well; but when you meddle with your superiors, and they are uncivil, it hurts your feelings. Their mockery is an insult, and you don't get over it soon. My dear Celanire, I shall decidedly try to marry ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXIX. - March, 1843, Vol. LIII. • Various
... have a disagreement with your husband, try to straighten out the tangle yourself. Don't call in outside help. You will regret it. A stranger's paws are too coarse and too unsympathetic to meddle with the delicate adjustments which constitute marital life, and after you have gotten over your disagreement and are again living harmoniously you will be ashamed to look that third party in the face, and you will probably bear a grudge ...
— Woman - Her Sex and Love Life • William J. Robinson
... could carry on a merely local quarrel, and yet at the same time avoid a war on the part of the one power against the other. He did not intend to attack the King of Spain's own dominion, so long as that sovereign did not meddle with his. ...
— A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) • Leopold von Ranke
... elfblst, causing a swelling, which is easily contracted by too nearly approaching places where they have spat, etc. They have a predilection for certain spots, but particularly for large trees, which on that account the owners do not venture to meddle with, but look on them as something sacred, on which the weal or woe of the place depends. Certain diseases among their cattle are attributed to the elves, and are, therefore, called elf-fire or elf-shot. The dark elves are often confounded with the dwarfs, with whom they, indeed, seem identical, ...
— The Younger Edda - Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda • Snorre
... this will end in some horrible tragedy. You heard him speak of killing his wife and her lover just now, as if it were a very slight matter. Very. well; I know him; he will do as he says without flinching. These ruddy-faced people are very devils, if you meddle with their family affairs! He is capable of murdering you in some corner of his park, and of burying you at the foot of some tree and then of forcing Madame de Bergenheim to eat your heart fricasseed in champagne, as they say ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... saved, for we continued to live at the humble abode of Mrs. Greenough after the dawn of our prosperity. I had saved nearly all my wages, and at the opening of my story I was worth, in my own right, about two thousand dollars, with which, however, I did not purpose to meddle. ...
— Desk and Debit - or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk • Oliver Optic
... the intellect takes upon itself to meddle with such things, a learned professor may explain that a certain musical note is composed of vibrations—so many thousand per second—which are communicated to particles of matter in suspension in the air and carried by them to the tympanum of the ear, which acts thus-and-so upon the various ...
— Heart and Soul • Victor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
... of regular troops were on their march from Boston, in order to take the province stores at Concord, ordered our militia to meet on the common in said Lexington, to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered, nor meddle or make with said regular troops (if they should approach), unless they should insult or molest us; and, upon their sudden approach, I immediately ordered our militia to disperse, and not to fire. Immediately ...
— The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775 - With Numerous Illustrative Notes • Abraham Tomlinson
... went to fetch my arsenical soap from Mbata, where I had left it en Fitiche: as long as that "bad medicine" was within Hotaloya's "ben," no one would dare to meddle with my goods. Forteune walked in very tired about sunset. He had now added streaks of red to the white chalk upon his face, arms, and breast, for he suspected, we were assured, witchcraft. I told him to get ...
— Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton
... society, but still more being what he was apart from his social position, should have made his presence felt in England, was not to be wondered at. He would speak out whenever he felt strongly, but he was the last man to meddle or to intrigue. He had no time even if he had had taste for it. But there were men in England who could never forgive him for the Jerusalem bishopric, and who resorted to the usual tactics for making a man unpopular. A cry was soon raised against his supposed influence at court, and doubts ...
— Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. • F. Max Mueller
... he used to me," cries Harry. "He told me that he did not like to meddle with other folks' affairs, but that our mother was very angry, and he begged me to obey Mr. Ward, and to ...
— Boys and girls from Thackeray • Kate Dickinson Sweetser
... once, if he thought that anybody would benefit by them; and I can bear witness to Part I. as having been already of some use. It is high time that Christians should be decided as to whether or no they may meddle with the fearful power whose existence is is impossible to ridicule any longer. DR. MAITLAND has suggested the true course of thought upon the subject, and promised to lead us along it; but it is impossible at present ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851 • Various
... are not working here. They are on top of the bluff, trying to dig down to you. They were afraid to meddle with the ice here for fear that more of it might come down and crush you and the men, too. Oh, there has been a dreadful excitement since it was found that ...
— My Terminal Moraine - 1892 • Frank E. Stockton
... love, did now appeare easie and facill: but marke I pray you diligently to what end the furious force of his inordinate desire came. On a day Lepolemus went to the chase with Thrasillus, to hunt for Goates, for his wife Charites desired him earnestly to meddle with no other beasts, which were of more fierce and wilde nature. When they were come within the chase to a great thicket fortressed about with bryers and thornes, they compassed round with their Dogs ...
— The Golden Asse • Lucius Apuleius
... think these Abolitionists have any right to meddle in our affairs. I believe they are prejudiced against us, and want to get our property. I read about them in the papers when I was at home. I don't want to hear my part of the country run down. My father says the slaves would be very well contented ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper
... fainted," Dixie said, calmly, "but we won't argue about it. I'll tell you one thing, though, Sam Pitman, if this thing goes on—I say, if Joe is overworked like this any more—a single other time—and it comes to my knowledge, I'll take you smack-dab to court. I don't meddle in things that don't concern me, as a general thing, but I'll take this in hand ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben
... left with her own consent, and that she was now where he could take no legal steps to reclaim her from any false position in which she might have placed herself. Leslie had, and knew that he had, no right whatever to meddle with the movements of the suspicious parties, except that he might have obtained some description of Columbus' right by discovery. However, the reasons being what they might, the fact was patent—they were now in full ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford
... any one at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in their dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good. But nobody else should meddle with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this privilege, for a private man to lie to them in return is to be deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of a gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses ...
— The Republic • Plato
... source, and correspond. You impress more forcibly by retaining your native manner of statement; chastened where necessary, but not defaced by an imitation, even of a self-erected, yet artificial, standard. It does not do to meddle too much with yourself. But I do resort to a weeding process in revising; a verb or an adjective, an expletive or a superlative, is dragged out and cast away. Even so, as often as not, I have to add. The words above, "as far as I can see it," have just been put in. Of course, in the interest of ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan
... who meddle in other folks' affairs, Mr. Rabbit had no time to tend to his own business. His cabbage patch grew up to weeds. His house leaked, his fences fell to pieces, and altogether his was the worst looking place on ...
— Mother West Wind's Children • Thornton W. Burgess
... doubt. Then, as I was thinking how it could be just in Thee to allow so many, who, as I said, are Thy most faithful servants, to remain without those consolations and graces which Thou hast given to me, who am what I am, Thou, O my Lord, didst answer me: Serve thou Me, and meddle ...
— The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus • Teresa of Avila
... Brutus, every bed of charity must have its toll of a bath, every loaf of bread its compensation of a private and personal inquisition. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not meddle unduly with a ...
— The Four Million • O. Henry
... Kineton), will be found at Kegan Paul's, if any wish to read it. I have always lived on kindly terms with my neighbours, though not quite of their faith; excellent are many of them, and I am glad to number such among my friends, specially as on neither side we meddle with each other's peculiar opinions. I have known nearly all their twelve apostles, men of mark and learning (especially John Tudor, a great Hebraist, and who was skilled even in Sanscrit and the arrow-headed characters), and eleven of them are ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... this election there was some question whether England should go to war with all her energy; or whether it would not be better for her to save her breath to cool her porridge, and not meddle more than could be helped with foreign quarrels. The last view of the matter was advocated by Sir Roger, and his motto of course proclaimed the merits of domestic peace and quiet. "Peace abroad ...
— Doctor Thorne • Anthony Trollope
... only mind the house, and not meddle with what does not belong to them!" exclaimed ...
— Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1 - An Illustrated Magazine • Various
... "children of the soil," lead a harmless, tranquil, and sober life, which they never suffer passing events to disturb; they have no ambition to join their more restless and enterprising countrymen, who have made themselves masters of Alorie and Raka, nor even to meddle in the private or public concerns of their near neighbours of Keeshee. Indeed, they have kept themselves apart and distinct from all; they have retained the language of their fathers, and the simplicity of ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... not state a recent instance of any ill effects having happened from handling or catching the mussel; but when I taunted him with this he very shrewdly replied that his inability to do so only arose from the fact of nobody being "wooden-headed enough" to meddle with them, and that he intended to have nothing whatever to do with them. This much he assured me was certain: that a very very long time ago some natives had eaten them, and that bad spirits had immediately killed ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 2 (of 2) • George Grey
... kenna what than! I doobt there wad be trible still, though some things micht be lichter. But that's neither here nor there; I maun live; I hae nae ch'ice; I didna mak mysel', an' I'm no gaein' to meddle wi' mysel'! I think mair o' ...
— Donal Grant • George MacDonald
... assigned to Latin towns, and of which Tiberius Gracchus had threatened to dispossess them, was left in the same state as before his legislation; that is to say, the Senate did not give the occupiers an indefeasible title, but it did not meddle with them. Moreover, it amply indemnified the Socii and Latini who had surrendered land for the colonies of Caius, while some compensation was given to poor farmers by a clause, that in future a man might only graze ten large and fifty smaller ...
— The Gracchi Marius and Sulla - Epochs Of Ancient History • A.H. Beesley
... than Providence had intended him for; that, provided a man's ears were naked, he could hear just as well as if his whole body was naked; that he did not complain of the monkeys going in their skins, and that they ought, in reason, not to meddle with his clothes; that he should be scratching himself the whole time, and thinking what a miserable figure he cut; that he would have no place to keep his tobacco; that he was apt to be deaf when he was cold; that he would be d——d ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper
... forced to sing low songs, and to dance low dances, and not to meddle with those of a higher character. It is said that when the Thebans made their celebrated campaign in Lacedaemon, they ordered the Helots whom they captured to sing them the songs of Terpander, and Alkman, and Spendon the Laconian; but they begged to be excused, for, they said, ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume I (of 4) • Plutarch
... adjutant-general's department is all that can be required. Thus is all the jealousy between military and medical authority got rid of. The Governor's authority must be supreme, like that of the commandant of a fortress, or the commander of a ship. He will not want to meddle in the doctors' professional business; and in all else he is to be paramount,—being himself responsible to the War-Office. The office, as thus declared, is equivalent to three of the nine old ones, namely, the Commandant, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 • Various
... which he was amused by Louis so long as it suited the latter's purpose. At last, when the King's preparations were complete, he threw off the mask, and insultingly told the Dutch that it was not for hucksters like them, and usurpers of authority not theirs, to meddle with ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 12 • Editor-In-Chief Rossiter Johnson
... promptly. "They have no right to meddle with us out here, and I would keep straight on without paying the slightest attention to them until they either sink ...
— Under the Great Bear • Kirk Munroe
... that I have never seen in any other part of the world on similar occasions; and serious doubts of the expediency of the high-pressure principle have beset me, whatever may be the just constructions of doctrine. With the last I pretend not to meddle; but, in a worldly point of view, it would seem wise, if you cannot make men all that they ought to be, to aim at such social regulations as shall make them as little vile as possible. But, to return to the Black Horse in St. Catherine's Lane—a place whose very name was associated ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper
... over his shoulder, with the grin of an angry bear,— "Hearkee, neighbor," said he, with significant nodding of the head, "you'd better let the buccaneers and their money alone; they're not for old men and old women to meddle with. They fought hard for their money—they gave body and soul for it; and wherever it lies buried, depend upon it he must have a tug with the devil ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne
... been oppressed? Have not our children been butchered and our gains wrung from us to fill the bottomless greed and lust of the Lagidae? Have not the temples been forsaken?—ay, have not the majesties of the Eternal Gods been set at naught by these Grecian babblers, who have dared to meddle with the immortal truths, and name the Most High by another name—by the name of Serapis—confounding the substance of the Invisible? Does not Egypt cry aloud for freedom?—and shall she cry in vain? Nay, nay, for thou, my son, art ...
— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard
... was furious at the intervention of his friend and the rudeness with which he had forced him to leave the house, gave expression to his choler. What business was it of his? By what right did he venture to meddle in his affairs? He was old ...
— The Dead Command - From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... that discharges me from being concerned for their souls, and from endeavouring, if it lies before me, that they should live in as little distance from and enmity with their Maker as possible; especially if you give me leave to meddle so far in ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe
... setting it on the grass; when it was so grateful that it would have thanked him if it could, but it could not, and so stopped there quite still while Boxer put his cold black nose up to it, and stood wagging his thick stumpy tail; for he was too generous a dog to meddle with anyone in trouble, even a hedgehog; and piggy, feeling that he was in distress, and an object of sympathy, did not even attempt to curl up, but lay quite still, waiting ...
— Featherland - How the Birds lived at Greenlawn • George Manville Fenn
... Black Doctor stormed. "I wouldn't lower myself to meddle with your kind. The charges ...
— Star Surgeon • Alan Nourse
... Of spars a score or two. What then? To-morrow They look to straddle across the strait, and hold Having aye Calais for a shelter—hold Our ships in fight. To-morrow shall give account For our to-day. They will not we pass north To meddle with Parma's flotilla; their hope Being Parma, and a convoy they would be For his flat boats that bode invasion to us; And if ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Jean Ingelow
... used to look on him as their father. But he found out what it was to trust Englishmen turned Irish. Well, the Desmonds found out on a sudden that the Dons were such desperate Paladins, that it was madness to meddle, though they were five to one; and poor Davils, seeing that there was no fight in them, goes back for help, and sleeps that night at some place called Tralee. Arthur Carter of Bideford, St. Leger's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as Davils himself, sleeps in ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... had never understood Charlie though oddly enough he had always believed in him. But to-night for the first time a curious doubt pierced his mind—a doubt that recurred again and again, banishing all sense of exultation. Why had Charlie returned like this? Why was he so eager to meddle in this affair? Why so recklessly generous? He had a strong feeling that there was something behind it all, some motive unrealized, some spur goading him, of which he, Bunny, might not approve if he came to know of it. He wished he could fathom the matter. ...
— Charles Rex • Ethel M. Dell
... what Cousin Anne says," said Maud, "and when I am with her, I think so too; and then something tiresome happens and I meddle, I meddle! Jack says I like ruling lines, but that it is no good, because people ...
— Watersprings • Arthur Christopher Benson
... They could not carry out one bit of their policy. In their platform they had declared that they had no intention to interfere with slavery in the states. Lincoln had said over and over again that Congress had no right to meddle with slavery in the states. The Southern leaders knew all these things. But they made up their minds that now the time had come to secede from the Union and to establish a Southern Confederacy. For the first time all the southernmost ...
— A Short History of the United States • Edward Channing
... for the said purpose declared in the said royal decree is that the said merchandise of China shall enter into the said Manila through the hands of the said Chinese, and at their own account and risk, as the said decree says, without any other persons being authorized to meddle in it at all, or any merchants save the said Chinese. Thus the said violation is manifest, since the said Portuguese are the ones who carry and deliver the merchandise in the said city, by means of the said commerce which they have in China. Without that it would be impossible to take ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXV, 1635-36 • Various
... other engagement? You never told me about that—how you broke it off. I don't want you to tell me unless you wish to. You know I never meddle in past matters. I'm simply ...
— The Great God Success • John Graham (David Graham Phillips)
... so different from you, but because we are so like. You say we are a licentious lot; well, so are you. We drink hard; so do you. We gamble and we swear; but what do you do, I should like to know? Why should you be so hard on us? We don't interfere with your little enjoyments: for pity's sake, don't meddle with ours. You talk about driving us out and sending for the Lutheran ministers. Gentlemen, think twice before you do it. They will not have been here two years before you will wish they were gone. If you dislike us because we are too much like you, you will detest them because they are so different ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878. • Various
... Scarecrow, with a sigh, "is a dangerous thing to meddle with. If you hadn't happened to find the piglet, Eureka would surely ...
— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz • L. Frank Baum.
... of tea alone; and sat alone through the long evening and mused. For still it was rather musing than thinking; going over things past and things present; things future she cared not much to meddle with. It was not a good time, she said, for taking up her religious wants and duties; and in part that was true, severely as she felt them; for her mind was in such a slow fever that none of its pulses were healthful. Fear, and foreboding, for her father and for herself, ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner
... ideas of discipline were not very rigid either, and as by this time there had been introduced into my brigade some better methods than those obtaining when it first fell to my command, I feared the effect should he, have any control over it, or meddle with its internal affairs. However, there was nothing to do but to move to the place designated, but General Granger, who still commanded the cavalry division to which the brigade belonged, so arranged matters with General Rosecrans, who had succeeded to the command ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan
... the animal no inconvenience it is best not to meddle with it; when it does the animal ought to be fattened for beef, the meat being perfectly ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture
... government, or any restraints of their masters, as to their morals and religion; but masters also seem to have given up all family government, and all care or concern for the morals and manners, as well as for the religion of their servants, thinking themselves under no obligation to meddle with those things, or to think any thing about them, so that their business be but done, and their shop or warehouse ...
— The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) • Daniel Defoe
... effectual than any hitherto attempted. He contracted to empty some thousand acres—began his work, succeeded for a time, and failed at last, from having falsely calculated his expenses, and for lack of means to carry out his plans. There were few public matters in which Mr Planner did not meddle. He wrote pamphlets, and "hints," and "original views" by dozens. His articles on the currency and corn-laws were full of racy hits and striking points—his criticisms on the existing state of art worthy of the artist's best attention. The temper of Mr Planner was such as might be expected ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 • Various
... example of 17th-cent. imitative Gothic. Its builder was Sir R. Hext, whose political sentiments may be inferred from the motto with which he has adorned the chancel-screen, "My son, fear the Lord, and meddle not with them that are given to change." At the end of the N. aisle are effigies of the founder and his wife, and at the corresponding end of the S. aisle is a marble tablet to the memory of Lord Stawell, ...
— Somerset • G.W. Wade and J.H. Wade
... the old man came back—"business is business, and beggars must not be choosers. I don't want to meddle with your practice; I know the rules of the profession: but if you'll let me sit here and mix your medicines for you, you'll have the more time to visit your patients, that's clear,"—and, perhaps (thought he), to drink your brandy-and-water,—"and when any of them are poisoned by me, it will be ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume I • Charles Kingsley
... country, men and victuals.' Later, letters were sent demanding that a large sum should be raised 'to set a fleet at sea ... we having but six or seven days to raise the money, and to return it to London; but our county refused to meddle therein.' John Northcote was Sheriff just at this time, and was most probably held responsible for the ...
— Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts • Rosalind Northcote
... captain shall meddle with the punishing of any land soldiers, but shall leave them to their commanders; neither shall the land commanders meddle with the punishing of ...
— Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 - Publications Of The Navy Records Society Vol. XXIX. • Julian S. Corbett
... into his apartment an instant too late. We found eight madmen and a near-corpse. We're not sure what happened, and we're not sure we want to know. Anything that can drive eight reasonably stable men off the deep end in less than an hour is nothing to meddle ...
— Suite Mentale • Gordon Randall Garrett
... manipulate and soothe down the Prussian Majesty, as surely would be easy; to continue his galvanic operations on the Double-Match, or produce a rotation in the purposes of the royal breast. Which he diligently strove to do, when once admitted to speech again;—Grumkow steadily declining to meddle, and only Queen Sophie, as we can fancy, auguring joyfully of it. Seckendorf, admitted to speech the third day after that explosive Session, snuffles his softest, his cunningest;—continues to ride diligently, the concluding portion ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. IX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... he pray for the present Congress, He must speak in an undertone; If he pray for President Johnson, He NEEDS 'em, why let him go on. He must touch upon doctrines so lightly, That no one can take an offence, Mustn't meddle with predestination— In ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn
... antelope and buffalo. The wild turkey, too—grandest of all game birds—is on the professional hunter's list for the larder; the lynx and panther he will kill for their pelts; but squirrels, racoons, rabbits, and other such "varmints," he disdains to meddle with, leaving them to the amateur ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... afraid to tell me I'm meddling with what doesn't concern me,' said his hostess. 'Of course I know I'm meddling; I sent for you here to meddle. Who wouldn't, for that creature? She ...
— A London Life; The Patagonia; The Liar; Mrs. Temperly • Henry James
... in a Puritan household of the straitest sect. His mother was an earnest, severe, and intolerant Calvinist, deep in the interests and cause of her party, bitterly resenting all attempts to keep in order its pretensions. She was a masterful woman, claiming to meddle with her brother-in-law's policy, and though a most affectionate mother she was a woman of violent and ungovernable temper. Her letters to her son Antony, whom she loved passionately, but whom she suspected of keeping dangerous and papistical company, show us the imperious spirit in which ...
— Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley • Richard William Church
... Christophe's flirtation with Grazia; flirtation was her element, and she was delighted, and asked nothing better than to encourage it. But that was precisely what she was not required to do; she was only desired not to meddle with things that did not concern her. It was enough for her to appear or to make an (indiscreet) discreet allusion to their friendship to one of them, to make Christophe and Grazia freeze and turn ...
— Jean-Christophe Journey's End • Romain Rolland
... alone remained, and gained the fort alone, the sole survivor, as he believed and reported, of the seventeen thousand fugitives. The Afghan chiefs had boasted that they would allow only one man to live, to warn the British to meddle no more with Afghanistan. Their boast seemed literally fulfilled. Only one man had traversed in safety that "valley of the ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... the worsted at the same price or do they charge a profit upon it?-I cannot say much about that; only I know that all that worsted and hosiery is a bad spec. to meddle with. If it lies any time it gets spoiled, and it is very difficult to get a market even for the best quality of it in ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie
... that the church in dealing with this question, would consent to meddle less with its details, and leave them more where they properly belong, with the individual conscience. No one man can decide these things for another. No man has a right to insist that his standard of expediency shall be his ...
— Amusement: A Force in Christian Training • Rev. Marvin R. Vincent.
... accomplished by himself. Nor has he any other or more excellent righteousness, of which the law taketh notice, or that it requireth, than this: for as for the righteousness of his Godhead, the law is not concerned with that; for as he is such, the law is his creature, and servant, and may not meddle with him. ...
— The Pharisee And The Publican • John Bunyan
... occurred. There were no more storms, no attempt was made to meddle with Tom's powder, and in due season the ship arrived at Colon, and after much labor the great gun, its carriage, the shells and the powder were taken to the barbette at the Gatun locks, designed to admit vessels from the Caribbean ...
— Tom Swift and his Giant Cannon - or, The Longest Shots on Record • Victor Appleton
... him She said: 'thou whoresonne knave and theef, How durst thou waken me, with a mischeef!' From that day forward she never ceased. Her boistrous bable greeved him sore: The devil he met, and him entreated To make her tungles, as she was before; 'Not so,' said the devil, 'I will meddle no more. A devil a woman to speak may constrain, But all that in hel be, cannot let ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown
... thing he had come to say. As he looked out into the garden he felt that he would never get it out. There was something in the way the mint bed burned and floated that made one a fatalist,—afraid to meddle. But after he was far away, he would regret; uncertainty would tease him like a splinter ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather
... till you have heard it all. If he believes these things, he is right not to wish to meddle. He is very hard, and always believes evil. But he is not a coward. If she were here, living with him as my sister, he would take her part, ...
— The Claverings • Anthony Trollope
... the responsibility for breaking the truce upon the other man, for fear it might be thought that he himself was taking the initiative. Accordingly, he sent back to him the ships and the captives, while he urged him to accept peace and exhorted him besides not to meddle with the sea. (Mai, ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio
... Monk by my profession, In Berry, call'd John Lydgate by my name, And wear a habit of perfection; (Although my life agree not with the same) That meddle should with things spiritual, As I must needs confess ...
— The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) • William Winstanley
... here nor there," rejoined Galen Albret, "the point is that I intend to keep it. I've had you sent out, but you have been too stupid or too obstinate to take the hint. Now I have to warn you in person. I shall send you out once more, but this time you must promise me not to meddle with ...
— Conjuror's House - A Romance of the Free Forest • Stewart Edward White
... was nearly exhausted. Almost every prominent national figure for the three hundred years before the founding of the Tudor dynasty had been put upon the stage; and to come down to more recent times was to meddle with matters of controversy, the ashes of which were not yet cold. The reign of Henry VIII was not touched till after the death of Elizabeth, and the nature of the treatment given to the court of her father by Shakespeare and Fletcher corroborates our view. Further, the growing mastery of technic ...
— The Facts About Shakespeare • William Allan Nielson
... without cause or reason, and interfering in all the details of service—even going so far as to inspect their quarters, and send them to the public prison, for very trivial affairs, against all military precedents. If affairs are going in an orderly and concerted way, it is when the auditors do not meddle with them; for all this concerns primarily the chief commander and officers provided therefor. Judging by the state in which things are in the Filipinas today, and in the opinion of right-thinking men, soldiers ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, - Volume XIII., 1604-1605 • Ed. by Blair and Robertson
... is with me, but I know that some things have been washed out of my heart—leaving little of the bitterness—nothing now of anger. It has all been too sad for such things—a tragedy too deep for the lesser passions to meddle with. . . . Let us forgive each other. . . . She ...
— Ailsa Paige • Robert W. Chambers
... Mayor who came in the year after said that we had as much authority as "a committee of bootblacks" about the City Hall, no more. So that it seems as if there is a something that governs those things which survives the accidents of politics, and which mere citizens are not supposed to understand or meddle with. Anyway, it was best so. Colonel Waring, splendid fellow that he was, when he grew tired of the much talk, made a little speech of ten words that was not on the programme, and after that the politicians went home, leaving the park to the children. There it was in the right ...
— The Making of an American • Jacob A. Riis
... house; that the bishop told him that he could excommunicate even a governor, if he chose; that the missionaries in Indian villages say that they are equals of Onontio, and tell their converts that all will go wrong till the priests have the government of Canada; that directly or indirectly they meddle in all civil affairs; that they trade even with the English of New York; that, what with Jesuits, Sulpitians, the bishop, and the seminary of Quebec, they hold two-thirds of the good lands of Canada; that, in view of the poverty of the country, their revenues are enormous; that, in ...
— Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV • Francis Parkman
... certain mulishness in him characteristic of the unfathomable stupid sex. Once a week, for example, when his room was 'done out,' there was invariably a skirmish between them, because Edwin really did hate anybody to 'meddle among his things.' The derangement of even a brush on the dressing-table would rankle in his mind. Also he was very 'crotchety about his meals,' and on the subject of fresh air. Unless he was sitting in a perceptible draught, he thought he was being poisoned ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett
... abhorred; but he was ready to die for fear.... But this I took notice of, that this valley was as quiet when he went through it as ever I knew it before or since. I suppose these enemies had a special check from our Lord, and a commandment not to meddle until Mr. Fearing was passed over it.... When he was come to the river, where was no bridge, he was again in a heavy case. And here, also, I took notice of what was very remarkable: the water of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw ...
— Memoranda Sacra • J. Rendel Harris
... (December 31, 1622) orders the Dominicans in the Philippines not to meddle in affairs of government. Another of the same date confirms and enforces a previous decree (1603) of Felipe II, ordering that all religious who are missionaries to the Indians be examined as to their competency for such work, especially in their knowledge ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XX, 1621-1624 • Various
... Kamraviona: there was no harm done, for Bana's men were not hurt. "Well, then," said the king, "if they were not injured, and you only did as you were ordered, no fault rests with you; but begone out of my sight, for I cannot bear to see you, and the Kamraviona shall be taught a lesson not to meddle with my guests again until I give him authority to ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke
... behind for a piece of nature for the general good,—a real Union Park; a place for children to play in, and grown folks to rest and walk and take tea in, if they choose; but for nobody to change or meddle with any further. And these twenty houses to be let to respectable persons of small means, at rents that will give him seven per cent, for his whole outlay. Don't you see? Young people, and people like Miss Waite herself, who don't want much ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... king to further his efforts and supply him (from Mexico) with troops and money. The Council of State act thereon, seconding these recommendations, and advising that the archbishop and the Audiencia of Manila be warned not to meddle with affairs of war. ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XIV., 1606-1609 • Various
... evening walks. But his talk was all of business. It seemed to Ethel that purposely Nourse shut her out of the conversation. His manner to her, though not unkind, was like that of the cook and the nurse. "The less you meddle here," it said, "the better it will be for Joe. Leave ...
— His Second Wife • Ernest Poole
... a most certain expedient to prevent many afflictions, and to be delivered from them: meddle as little with the world, and the honors, places and advantages of them, as thou canst. And extricate thyself from them as much, ...
— Many Thoughts of Many Minds - A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age • Various
... name of all natural things," said they, "we will prove to thee our certain obedience; but do not ask us to make ourselves unclean, or to meddle with such ...
— Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers • Various
... "This is what comes of letting a woman meddle in business," he said bitterly. "We ought to have taken things in our own hands years ago. But she liked to run things, and we humored her. We thought you had good sense, Alexandra. We never thought you'd do ...
— O Pioneers! • Willa Cather
... by that it is very culpable to be facetious in obscene and smutty matters. Such things are not to be discoursed on either in jest or in earnest; they must not, as St. Paul saith, be so much as named among Christians. To meddle with them is not to disport, but to defile one's self and others. There is indeed no more certain sign of a mind utterly debauched from piety and virtue than by affecting such talk. ...
— Sermons on Evil-Speaking • Isaac Barrow
... contrary, pleased to think that De la Roche was breaking the ice, and hopeful that some burst from Warwick would give him more excuse than he felt at present for a rupture, said sternly, "Hush, my lord, and meddle not!" ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... face; thus he lay till the rest of the company came from drinking, who, as they came home, found the priest lying as aforesaid, and they thought to get him away, but do what they could, he would not rise, but said, 'Do not meddle with me, for I lie very well, and will not stir hence before morning, but I pray lay some more cloathes on my feet, and blow out ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... Eleanor his wife, under the powers of their settlement. Luckily they had not been employed in the matter, and possessed not so much as a draft or a letter of instructions; and now it was no concern of theirs to make, or meddle, or even move. Neither did they know that any question could arise about it; for they were a highly antiquated firm, of most rigid respectability, being legal advisers to the Chapter of York, and clerks of the Prerogative Court, and able to charge twice as much as almost any other firm, and nearly ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... what he likes? This is between you and me, Nan; no one shall meddle between us two." But what imprudent speech Dick was about to add was suddenly quenched in light-pealing laughter. At this critical moment they were met and surrounded; before them was the red glow ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey
... enquiry. The glorious queen Elizabeth herself made no scruple to direct her parliaments to abstain from discoursing of matters of state[b]; and it was the constant language of this favorite princess and her ministers, that even that august assembly "ought not to deal, to judge, or to meddle, with her majesty's prerogative royal[c]." And her successor, king James the first, who had imbibed high notions of the divinity of regal sway, more than once laid it down in his speeches, that ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone
... pretty good assurance that once I put it over, the Corps will have to recognize me as the legal government of Petreac. They won't meddle in ...
— Gambler's World • John Keith Laumer
... eagerly forward, hoping to hear something, and he did hear a man saying in a coarse voice: "What! I leave an interesting game, and lose precious time in coming to offer you my services, and you receive me like this! Zounds! madame, this will teach me not to meddle with what doesn't concern me, in future. So, good-bye, my dear lady. You'll learn some day, to your cost, the real nature of this villain of a Coralth whom ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau
... the king's consent, gave O'Neill authority for martial law, 'to be executed upon any offenders that shall live under him, the better to keep them in obedience.' It was ordered that the king's garrisons should not meddle with him or his people. The king also invested O'Donel with all the lands and rights of ancient time belonging to his house, excepting abbeys and other spiritual livings, the castle and town of Ballyshannon, and 1,000 acres ...
— The Land-War In Ireland (1870) - A History For The Times • James Godkin
... subscribed to a large Tariff Reform fund for election-campaign purposes, they commanded a large Conservative vote; but when for platform tariff propaganda, dealing in imaginative generalities and eclectic statistics, there are substituted definite proposals to meddle with specified interests, the real troubles of the tariffist begin. You might say that they began as soon as he met the Free Trader in argument; but that difficulty did not arise with his usual audiences. It is when he undertakes to protect ...
— Essays in Liberalism - Being the Lectures and Papers Which Were Delivered at the - Liberal Summer School at Oxford, 1922 • Various
... the man in office; and as an experimentalist in several out-of-the-way provinces of life, I may say it has but to be felt to be appreciated. Well, this golden age of which we are speaking will be the golden age of officials. In all our concerns it will be their beloved duty to meddle, with what tact, with what obliging words, analogy will aid us to imagine. It is likely these gentlemen will be periodically elected; they will therefore have their turn of being underneath, which does not always sweeten men's conditions. The laws they will have to administer ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... fool, John Trevna, to meddle with him any more. Iff the man iss dead, he iss just as well ...
— A Maid of the Silver Sea • John Oxenham
... that face the most beautiful in all the world—until he fell in love. Now he sees his mother as she is; a wrinkled old woman, perverse, unreasonable, and inclined to meddle with his domestic affairs. The hands that soothed his childish fretting are no longer lovely. Inattention to small details of dress, which he never noticed before, are painfully evident. The eyes ...
— The Spinster Book • Myrtle Reed
... this gentleman, who was no more than a distant relative of his grandmother, should meddle in the affairs of the house, pretending to oversee him as though he were his father. But it irritated him still more to see him in a good humor and trying to be funny. It made him furious to hear his mother called "Penelope" and himself "the young Telemachus."... ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... Indian, mee wont come, dammee. Upon which the lieutenant sent some of the barge crew to bring him forward which the brave Indian perceiving, he caught hold of a handspike, and put himself in a posture of defence, crying out to the barge crew who came up towards him, dammee, ye meddle wit mee, mee dash your brains out. The crew, finding him resolute, did not think proper to attack him: upon which the lieutenant asked him, if he would serve king George. Dam king George, mee know ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew • Unknown
... Helen, "would hold herself quite above the manuscripts. With her it is the merest sectarianism and radicalism to meddle with the text as appointed to be read in churches. What was good enough for the dean, must be far more than good enough for an ...
— Paul Faber, Surgeon • George MacDonald
... person ever does) its fundamental assumption that there can be no companionship between men and women because the woman has a "sphere" of her own, that of housekeeping, in which the man must not meddle, whilst he has all the rest of human activity for his sphere: the only point at which the two spheres touch being that of replenishing the population. On this assumption the man naturally asks for a guarantee that ...
— Getting Married • George Bernard Shaw
... husband, muttering an imprecation with slow emphasis, "will break your neck if you meddle ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens
... to expect a severe censure from Great Britain do not appear to be so anxious for the event as the friends and well-wishers to the authority of the Government." The Patriots intended no rebellion, and they experienced no apprehension. They put forth no absurd claims to meddle with things that were common and national, and they asked simply to be let alone as to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various
... for you, my child, but I refer you to my agent, Dr. Flynch. I do not like to meddle with these things, as I have given him the whole care of my houses. You will find him a very good man, and one who will be willing to consider your case. He will extend to you all ...
— Poor and Proud - or The Fortunes of Katy Redburn • Oliver Optic
... and sits with his old sword beside the fire. But Notting Hill is the tyrant, your Majesty. Its Council and its crowds have been so intoxicated by the spreading over the whole city of Wayne's old ways and visions, that they try to meddle with every one, and rule every one, and civilise every one, and tell every one what is good for him. I do not deny the great impulse which his old war, wild as it seemed, gave to the civic life of our ...
— The Napoleon of Notting Hill • Gilbert K. Chesterton |
