"Lief" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... as lief as not stick a knife in me if he knew," said Lily, not as if she were afraid, but as if this was one of the normal risks of her profession. She turned to Adelaide, "O Mrs. Farron, I've heard of you from Pete Wayne. Isn't he perfectly ...
— The Happiest Time of Their Lives • Alice Duer Miller
... is worth from two to two and a half times more than any girl alive; I would as lief talk to her ...
— Penelope's Postscripts • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... to breakfast. I went to take a turn on the edge of the cliff, feeling that I would just as lief weep as laugh, looking on the adventure as both comic and deplorable and my position as ridiculous, believing her unhappy enough ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... Cubas was wont to give her Spanish lover in the dance. "So mighty free wid yer dancin', 'pears like you'll come to dance at a rope's end! W'at's de use o' talkin' to you? 'Mortal sperit, it 's my b'lief dat ar mockin'-bird in de branches hab as good ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 • Various
... diameter! What these rather diminutive ferruginous globules will do for you, we do not know; but you can see for yourself, that with your lungs full of little iron balls you must certainly be in a "parlous" state. We should say that we had quite as lief have the air full of those iron spheres, termed Cannon Balls, as it is now in France. It is true, one couldn't get many of these inside one with impunity; and equally true, that foundry men do manage to live, with all that iron in their ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 23, September 3, 1870 • Various
... goin' to scrap wid anybody," he said to Mr. Carstairs, "I'd as lief tie meself up wid dumb-bells as take to carry all this stuff on me. A man wid a baseball bat and swimmin' tights on could dance all around youse and knock spots out of one of these things. The other lad wouldn't be in it. Why, before he could lift his ...
— Van Bibber and Others • Richard Harding Davis
... pie?" asked a little boy, whose face was quite dirty. "'Cause if there's pie, I'd just as lief ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home • Laura Lee Hope
... deposited on borrowing from chests, and seem, from scattered hints, to have been a very fruitful source of litigation and dispute."[2] Most of these books were in the hands of seniors. Truly enough many a poor clerk would as lief have twenty "bokes" to his name as anything else treble the value. But he would undergo much sharp self-denial and receive much "wherewith to scoleye" ere he got together so considerable a collection of ...
— Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books • Ernest A. Savage
... 'The moment that is gone, he don't know you. Now you'll see in a few moments how he'll clear everybody out of the house except such as he thinks has money. And, 'twixt you and me, he is the d——dst scoundrel out of jail, and would as lief kill a ...
— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn
... Dotty's little life had she been in such a strait as this. She cried so loud that her voice was heard above the storm, in unearthly shrieks. She didn't want to die! O, it was so nice to be alive! She would as lief have the sore throat all the time, if she might only be alive. She said not a word, but the thoughts flew through her mind like a flock of startled swallows,—not one after another, but all together; and so fast that they almost took her ...
— Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's • Sophie May
... burglar. "Stand with your face to the wall and your hands up," he said; "and if I see you move I'd just as lief shoot you as look at you," with which warning he approached the telephone and, still keeping an eye on the other, rang up central. There was no answer. He rang again,—six, seven times he repeated the process unavailingly. He tried the private wire to the McFarlane ...
— The Burglar and the Blizzard • Alice Duer Miller
... the son-in-law replied, "if you really want me to do it, I must gratify you. But I don't propose to conceal from you that it will cause me a great deal of annoyance, and that I'd about as lief drown myself. You know what you've lost, and you don't know what you may find. I had an excellent wife, a good-looking wife, sweet and brave, good to her father and mother, good to her husband, good to her children, a good worker, in the fields or in the ...
— The Devil's Pool • George Sand
... to discover, and in search of which, yearly, the merchants of Bristol sent expeditions, even before Columbus sailed. In his northern journey, too, some vague and formless traditions may have reached his ear of the voyages of Biorn and Lief, and of the pleasant coasts of Helleland, Markland, and Vinland that lay toward the setting sun. All were hints and rumors to bid the bold mariner sail westward, and this he at length determined to do. There is also some vague and unreliable tradition as to a Portuguese pilot ...
— Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia • Various
... the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious ...
— Public Speaking • Irvah Lester Winter
... Mr. Grasper, it is all the same to me," replied Layton, indifferently. "I had as lief have your note ...
— Lessons in Life, For All Who Will Read Them • T. S. Arthur
... into our own hands, neighbour Radbury," said one, who lived a matter of thirty miles away, yet considered himself a fairly close neighbour. "The Mexicans don't care a rap for us, and I reckon they'd just as lief see the Injuns ...
— For the Liberty of Texas • Edward Stratemeyer
... surrendered. "Thar are Daggs up North anyway," he explained to the man who took his musket. "I've a pack of third cousins in them parts somewhere. I shouldn't wonder if they weren't fighting on your side this dog-goned minute! I reckon I'd as lief fight ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... Maddy answered. "I am not tired in the least. I had as lief play till morning, provided they are satisfied with my time and my stock of music ...
— Aikenside • Mary J. Holmes
... land. Lear, lore, learning. Leddy, lady. Lee-lang, live-long. Leesome, lawful. Leeze me on, dear is to me; blessings on; commend me to. Leister, a fish-spear. Len', to lend. Leugh, laugh'd. Leuk, look. Ley-crap, lea-crop. Libbet, castrated. Licks, a beating. Lien, lain. Lieve, lief. Lift, the sky. Lift, a load. Lightly, to disparage, to scorn. Lilt, to sing. Limmer, to jade; mistress. Lin, v. linn. Linn, a waterfall. Lint, flax. Lint-white, flax-colored. Lintwhite, the linnet. Lippen'd, trusted. Lippie, dim. of lip. Loan, a ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... am sore aweary of all this gear—snipping, and sewing, and fitting. If I would not as lief as forty shillings have done with broidery and peltry, then the moon is made of green cheese. Is that strange ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt
... you," I replied; "but this watch is for Catharine, and I wish to have earned it. You will pain me if you refuse the money; I would as lief ...
— The Conscript - A Story of the French war of 1813 • Emile Erckmann
... did manage to make a cast correctly: the fly went over the fish's nose; he rose; I hooked him, and he was a great silly brute of a grayling. The grayling is the deadest-hearted and the foolishest-headed fish that swims. I would as lief catch a perch or an eel as a grayling. This is the worst of it—this ambition of the duffer's, this desire for perfection, as if the golfing imbecile should match himself against Mr. Horace Hutchinson, or as the sow of the Greek proverb challenged ...
— Angling Sketches • Andrew Lang
... we are here.'—'Well,' said I, 'and the worst fall, I can lodge ye in Newgate: you know what acquaintance I have there, and the keeper's door is without the gate.'—'That were a bad shift!' said he; 'I had almost as lief die in the streets; yet I will rather wander again to the Court.' Howbeit, I did persuade them to try at Newgate; and there found we my friend Newman to be constable of the watch, which saith, 'Mr Underhill! what news, that you walk so late?' So ...
— Robin Tremain - A Story of the Marian Persecution • Emily Sarah Holt
... of those quiet, conservative, old Carolina towns where, loyal to the customs and traditions of their fathers, they would as lief white-wash what they firmly believe to be the true and natural character of General William Tecumseh Sherman as they would their own front fences. Occasionally somebody will give a backyard henhouse a needed coat or two; but a front fence? Never! It isn't the thing. Nobody does it. All normal ...
— Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man • Marie Conway Oemler
... foot, ere I leave, and then set the tap in the midst of the house, and then turn a good turn on the toe on it, let me be counted nobody, a pingler,[281]—nay, let me be[282] bound to drink nothing but small-beer seven years after—and I had as lief be hanged. ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) • Various
... once, or mad, or a man, as have cropped hair during all the days of her youth.' I had a fellow-feeling, you see! I have magnificent hair myself, child, as Clayton well knows, for it is her chief trouble on earth, and I would almost as lief ...
— Sea and Shore - A Sequel to "Miriam's Memoirs" • Mrs. Catharine A. Warfield
... the purpose of finding how the drug which he has administered works, with a view to future operations on Edwin. Durdles is now in such a state that "he deems the ground so far below on a level with the tower, and would as lief walk off the tower into the air ...
— The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot • Andrew Lang
... concerned," pursued Abe, "I hain't got nothin' agin the poorhouse fer neither man ner woman. I'd as lief let yew go thar 'stid o' me; fer I know very well that's what yew're a-layin' out fer ter do. Yes, yes, Mother, yew can't fool me. But think what folks would say! Think what they would say! They 'd crow, 'Thar's Abe a-takin' his comfort in the Old Men's Hum, an' ...
— Old Lady Number 31 • Louise Forsslund
... Dotty's black eyes flashed. "I'd just as lief live in Berwick, to be sure; but I do love to visit in New York and see all the ...
— Two Little Women on a Holiday • Carolyn Wells
... Parlin. "I can spend but one day with you, and I would as lief spend it nutting as in any ...
— Dotty Dimple Out West • Sophie May
... A: 'He insisted on people praying with him, and I'd as lief pray with Kit Smart as ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell
... would be no excuse for me that I did not do my part toward effecting a reform that I think the community requires, because I did not see that the whole world was going with me. I do not wait for that. I am frequently in minorities. I would as lief be there as anywhere else, provided I see that I am right; and I do not wait for the majority to go with me when I think a proposition is right. Therefore I shall vote for this amendment if nobody else votes for it, trusting ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... living. It's been a great strain and labour for me. I think I'd as lief be with God as with men. And you see, I were fond on him ever sin' he were a little lad, and told me what hard times he had at school, he did, just as if I were his brother! I loved him next to Molly Greaves. Dear! and I shall see her ...
— A Dark Night's Work • Elizabeth Gaskell
... merchant dumb for some moments. He would quite as lief have been confronted with a robber, ...
— True Riches - Or, Wealth Without Wings • T.S. Arthur
... mind. I'd just as lief. Fact, I'd admire, only if I put on my best dress to go callin' in the morning what'll I have left to wear to the Party? And Ma Babcock says them Montaignes won't have folks around that ain't dressed up;" said the girl, so frankly ...
— Dorothy's House Party • Evelyn Raymond
... hero spirit, whom they have not eyes to see nor hearts to understand. Jean Valjean misjudged, and by Marius and Cossette! Impossible! Javert may do that; Fantine, not knowing him, may do that, but once knowing him she had as lief distrusted day to bring the light as to have distrusted him. Misjudged, and by those he loved most, suffered for, more than died for! Poor Valjean! This wakes our pity and our tears. Before, we have watched him, and have felt the tug of battle on him; now the mists fall, and we put our hands ...
— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle
... when my glass tells me youth is gone, and beauty is waning? Not when there is no one in this wide world who cares a straw whether I am handsome or hideous? I would as lief be dead ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon
... Jack hurriedly, as a depressing vision of the fifty or sixty scholars rose before his eyes, "but I'd rather not. I mean, you know, I'd just as lief stay here ALONE. I wouldn't have called anyway, don't you see, only I had a day off,—and—and—I wanted to talk with my niece on family matters." He did not say that he had received a somewhat distressful letter from her asking him to come; a new ...
— A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... worse for your outing, then, Miss Tennant," she observed, adding shrewdly: "I'd as lief think you were the better ...
— The Hermit of Far End • Margaret Pedler
... grave for two,' he shouted. 'You try me too far—your infernal officiousness—go! It is useless to oppose my wishes here.' Which was obvious. The foresters, lithe and strong as panthers, waited only the orders of their master. They needed but a word, and would as lief have buried two dead men as one in the grave under the torn pines. You may find the same type in the mountains of Austria, where a poaching affray means a vendetta, and the game laws are ...
— A Modern Mercenary • Kate Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard
... nature and thy name, Not rendering true answer, as beseem'd Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight: For surer sign had follow'd, either hand, Or voice, or else a motion of the mere. This is a shameful thing for men to lie. Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again [6] As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word." Then went Sir Bedivere the second time Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere, [7] Counting the dewy pebbles, fix'd in thought; But when he ...
— The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson • Tennyson
... satisfactory it must be, he thought, to really know what she was doing and not to have to take it on hearsay. He took up his glass with a sigh. "I seem to need a good deal of cooling off to-night. I'd just as lief forget the Reform ...
— Song of the Lark • Willa Cather
... —I would as lief use that as any other dictionary, but I don't want it. When a word comes up fit to end a line with I can feel all the rhymes in the language that are fit to go with it without naming them. I have tried them all so many times, I know all the polygamous words and all the monogamous ones, and all the ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... "I would as lief fight with a troop of wild cats," exclaimed Osgod—who, as soon as he saw that there was no movement down on the plain, had run up with half his little garrison to join in the defence of the wall,—as he tried to staunch ...
— Wulf the Saxon - A Story of the Norman Conquest • G. A. Henty
... would lief you could truly call me such, but when young Miss came here first I took her for one of that flighty sort that it is wise not to meddle with more than needful. I have kept my place here these thirty years by never ...
— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge
... much it told of a certain woman whom no man that saw her could forbear to love: of her it told that erewhile she dwelt lonely in the wildwood (though how she came there was not said) and how a king's son found her there and brought her to his father's kingdom and wedded her, whether others were lief or loth: and in a little while, when the fame of her had spread, he was put out of his kingdom and his father's house for the love of her, because other kings and lords hankered after her; whereof befel long and grievous war which she abode not to the end, but sought to her old place in ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris
... since eleven this mornin, and will be pretty nigh til the stage is wanted for to-night," said the janitor. "I'd as lief youd wait here as go up, if you dont mind, sir. The guvnor is above; and he aint in the best o' tempers. I'll send ...
— The Irrational Knot - Being the Second Novel of His Nonage • George Bernard Shaw
... it had good in it was pretty much cleaned out of it when I was there, and I know it can't get better, seeing that gold is not like trees, to grow out every year. Well, as I say, George Dexter, who would just as lief do wrong as right, and a great deal rather, got tired, as well as all his boys, of working for the fun of the thing only; and so, hearing as I say of our good luck, what did they do but last night come quietly down upon our trace, and when Jones, the old man we kept there as a ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... More especially as I had as lief go without my breakfast as without my newspaper; but, then, I can tell you, that there were things all the time happening there on the frontier, that many a newspaper editor would have given his scissors and easy chair to have got hold of, ...
— Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends • Fanny Fern
... thy name, Not rendering true answer, as beseemed Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight: For surer sign had followed, either hand, Or voice, or else a motion of the mere. This is a shameful thing for men to lie. Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again, As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing I bade thee, watch, and lightly ...
— Idylls of the King • Alfred, Lord Tennyson
... I had quite as lief, in my present state of mind, touch a yard-long wriggling ground-worm, or a fat wood-louse, as paper that his fingers have pressed; but I overcome my ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton
... presence, on which detour, he might encounter new adventures. To reach his troop's cabin he would have to pass the cooking shack where a doughnut might be speared with a stick. All was for the best. He would as lief go to troop cabin as ...
— Tom Slade's Double Dare • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... all the same, good fellow that he is! But Pierre had as lief commit suicide as not commit matrimony; and who would not? Look here, Pierre Philibert," continued the old soldier, addressing him, with good-humored freedom. "Matrimony is clearly your duty, Pierre; but I need not tell you so: it is written on your face plain as the way between Peronne and St. ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... horses; bad roads in spring, snow-drifts in winter, heats in summer; could not get the horses out of a walk. But we found out that the air and earth were full of electricity; and it was always going our way,—just the way we wanted to send. Would he take a message? Just as lief as not; had nothing else to do; would carry it in no time. Only one doubt occurred, one staggering objection,—he had no carpet-bag, no visible pockets, no hands, not so much as a mouth, to carry a letter. But, after much thought and many experiments, we managed ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54, April, 1862 • Various
... cheerful resignation. She would as lief report that reply of his as another. Even more than a man whom she could entangle in his speech she liked a man who could slip through the toils with unfailing ease. Her talk with such a man was the last consolation which remained to her from a ...
— Indian Summer • William D. Howells
... b'lief,' said the old man, 'that Tom was arter somethink else besides that air jewelled cross. I'm eighty-five year old come next Dullingham fair, and I regleck as well as if it wur yisterdy when resur-rectionin' o' carpuses wur carried on in the old churchyard jes' like ...
— Aylwin • Theodore Watts-Dunton
... as lief her throat were cut! She almost ripped my bowels up, I vow, Running amuck with horns well set to butt: Nathless I've locked her in the stall below: She's blown with grass, ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... up further. The river the higher grew worse and worse. Then hee went on shoare with his guide, and left Robinson and Emmery, and twoe of our Men, in the cannow; which were presently slayne by the Indians, Pamaonke's men, and hee himself taken prysoner, and, by the means of his guide, his lief was saved; and Pamaonche, haveing him prisoner, carryed him to his neybors wyroances, to see if any of them knew him for one of those which had bene, some two or three eeres before us, in a river amongst them Northward, and taken awaie some Indians from them by force. At last ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... to me to sing. I'd just as lief do it as not; only it seems foolish for me to sing when there are so many older people with better voices ...
— Patty in Paris • Carolyn Wells
... general spirit. For he began to worry, and almost at once it influenced his playing. He found himself growing watchful of his comrades and fearful of what they might be doing. He caught himself being ashamed of his suspicions. He would as lief have cut off his hand as break his promise to the coach. Perhaps, however, he exaggerated his feeling and sense of duty. He remembered the scene in Dale's room the night he refused to smoke and drink; how Dale had commended ...
— The Young Pitcher • Zane Grey
... don't I mark it? Ah, many say so, But I think I'd as lief, with your leaves, let it go: It do seem that nice when I fall on it sudden— ...
— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various
... with a wink, 'but the tap for me, if you please. That's my place, and I'd like to see if I can get any news of the whereabouts of the lads as are sticking up all round, because, if they're one way, I'd as lief be another.' 'All right,' says he. So in I goes, and sits down. There was nobody there but one man, drunk under the bench. And I has two noblers of brandy, and one of Old Tom; no, two Old Toms it was, and a brandy; ...
— The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn • Henry Kingsley
... it the "tangle" and some of it did look like that. And he claimed to be shocked by the flagrant way women opened up little silver boxes and applied the paints, oils, and putty in full view of the audience. He said he'd just as lief see a woman take out a manicure set and do her nails in public, and I assured him he probably would see it if he come down again next year, the way things was going—him talking that way that had had his white tie done in the open lobby; but men are such. Jake Berger ...
— Somewhere in Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson
... the governor would believe—and after what you and me have seen these two days! A nice tenderhearted crew to tell him, "If you please, we've come for a poor little three-year-old." Why, he'd as lief as not believe we meant to ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... mate, was a snaky, dusky fellow, with huge rings of gold in his ears and a smile that showed altogether too many teeth to be pleasant—a regular alligator smile. As far as I could see, I would just as lief have Pedro's ill feeling as his friendship. Yet Tugg trusted him implicitly. But I—I locked my stateroom door whenever I lay down to sleep; and I kept the Winchester and the Colts revolver loaded all the time. Perhaps I was ...
— Swept Out to Sea - Clint Webb Among the Whalers • W. Bertram Foster
... other, I'm related to most folks in town, and I ought to know them all pretty well by this time. Except on Sundays, I expect they're all pretty much so. It wouldn't do to tell round, but there are some of the world's people, that I'd full as lief do business with, as with most of the professors. Now that's ...
— Janet's Love and Service • Margaret M Robertson
... that fella's anticks when his mother, an' Lord Ronald, ain't by. He'd raise the hair offn your head, if you hadn't a spear of it there to begin with. He speaks to the help as if they was dirt under his feet, an' he'd as lief lie as look at you, an' always up to some new devilment. It'd take your time to think fast enough to keep up with'm. But he ain't all bad—I don't believe no child is, not on your life, an' my idea is, he'd turn out O.K. if only he'd the right sort o' handlin'. ...
— Martha By-the-Day • Julie M. Lippmann
... lief join a circus," she observed, meditatively, after they had traveled a mile or more. "Maybe I could learn in New York how to do some of them tricks. I could git the hang of that business up on them swings in no time, only I don't like the ...
— Anything Once • Douglas Grant
... concern us. They may fully merit the hunting and deserve whatever fate they meet with. I am not in love with the patriots I have encountered, nor do I like the aristocrats I have seen any better. For my part I would as lief sail back to Virginia and let them fight out their own quarrel. A dog of breed has no cause to interfere in ...
— The Light That Lures • Percy Brebner
... vnto yow the discretion of spirittes, and so reull yow in all your actlonis and interprisis that in yow GOD may be glorified, His church edified, and ye your self as a livelie member of the sam[e] may be an exempill and mirroure of vertew and of godlie Lief till others. ...
— The First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous regiment - of Women • John Knox
... "I had just as lief." Cornelia laughed; she could not help it; that girl seemed so odd; she did not know whether she ...
— The Coast of Bohemia • William Dean Howells
... when at last the hay cart disappeared from view, and the noise and dust had somewhat subsided. Then as she saw the tears in Mary's eyes, she added, "Oh, I wouldn't care if they did teaze me about Billy Bender. I'd as lief be teazed ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes
... two friends, Ingolf and Lief, repaired to Iceland, and were so much satisfied with its appearance, that they formed a resolution of attempting to make a settlement in the country; induced, doubtless, by a desire to withdraw from the continual wars and revolutions which then harassed the north of Europe, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr
... was as if I had first been told about refraction and then had been shown a rainbow. For presently Calliope herself said something to me of her having been twenty. One would as lief have broken the reticence of a rainbow as that of Calliope, but rainbows are not always reticent. I have known them suggest ...
— Friendship Village • Zona Gale
... notion, an orthodox bishop, Dmitri of Rostof, wrote a treatise on the image and likeness of God. A Raskolnik told this prelate, "We would as lief lose our heads as our beard."—"Will your heads grow ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88 • Various
... me, Tom! She's a-dyin'... an' I'm near drunk. She was took bad this mornin', an' has been callin' for the teacher an' Lita— an' I'd as lief go to hell as to ask a damned Kanaka mission'ry to come an' talk Gospel an' Heaven to a child o' mine—not in my own house, anyway. It ain't right or proper. But she kep' on a-pesterin' me, an' at ...
— Ridan The Devil And Other Stories - 1899 • Louis Becke
... Kay Shuttleworth to return to London without me. It was arranged that we were to stay at several of their friends' and relatives' houses on the way; a week or more would have been taken up on the journey. I cannot say that I regret having missed this ordeal; I would as lief have walked among red-hot plough-shares; but I do regret one great treat, which I shall now miss. Next Wednesday is the anniversary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund Society, held in Freemasons' Hall. Octavian Blewitt, the secretary, offered me a ticket ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... implicitly, and, with their quick-working wits, they reason so straight-forwardly, that the application when voiced comes at times with a bang sufficient to take one's breath away. Given this and that, however, an application is unavoidable. As lief set fire behind powder in a gun and expect there will be no report. A mite of five, thus, will on occasion utter a syllogism that would not discredit a professor of logic, or will put a question to which a whole ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford
... they were encouraged to ask from God whatever they wanted, and were never reproved, however strange or incongruous their supplications might be. Saunders simply told them that if what they asked was not for their good they would not get it—a fact which, he said, "they had as lief learn sune as syne." ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett
... we heard him talking to the girl, Like he was complaining to her: "Say! Can't you change the stuffing? I am sick of ham! Have a heart! I'd just as lief eat hay!" Did we all jump on him? You can bet we did: "Who gave you the right to kick, you steer, Over what she brings us? She's a first-rate pal; Talk some more and get ...
— With the Colors - Songs of the American Service • Everard Jack Appleton
... injustice during the Revolution, with the consequent increase of debts, to a rigid enforcement of debtors' claims afterward. At this period men were imprisoned for debt, and all prisons were frightful holes, which one would as lief die as enter. Meetings were held to air the popular ...
— History of the United States, Volume 2 (of 6) • E. Benjamin Andrews
... thee! [FN403] There was in the palace a horse-groom which was a Gobbo with a bunch to his breast and a hunch to his back; and the Sultan sent for him and married him to the daughter of the Wazir, lief or loath, and hath ordered a pompous marriage procession for him and that he go in to his bride this very night. I have now just flown hither from Cairo, where I left the Hunchback at the door of the Hammam-bath amidst the Sultan's white slaves who were waving lighted flambeaux about ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton
... off," said Florence. "He'll take after him the minute he lays eyes on him, and scare him to death—and then he'll get lost, and he won't be anybody's dog! I should think you'd just as lief he'd be my dog as have him chased all over town till a street car hits ...
— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington
... achieve in middle-earth of fame under heaven than he himself. — "Art thou that Beowulf, Breca's rival, who emulous swam on the open sea, when for pride the pair of you proved the floods, and wantonly dared in waters deep to risk your lives? No living man, or lief or loath, from your labor dire could you dissuade, from swimming the main. Ocean-tides with your arms ye covered, with strenuous hands the sea-streets measured, swam o'er the waters. Winter's storm rolled the rough waves. In realm of sea a ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... come, and hath kindlie offered to help pack the Trunks, (which are to be sent off by the Waggon to London,) that I may have the more Time to devote to Mr. Milton. Nay, but he will soon have all my Time devoted to himself, and I would as lief spend what little remains in mine accustomed Haunts, after mine accustomed Fashion. I had purposed a Ride on Clover this Morning, with Robin; but the poor Boy must I trow ...
— Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary • Anne Manning
... and Goldsmith's heart! In such a case, methinks the millennium were already come. Books are a finer world within the world. With books are connected all my desires and aspirations. When I go to my long sleep, on a book will my head be pillowed. I care for no other fashion of greatness. I'd as lief not be remembered at all as remembered in connection with anything else. I would rather be Charles Lamb than Charles XII. I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory. I would rather build a fine sonnet than have built St. Paul's. I would rather be ...
— Dreamthorp - A Book of Essays Written in the Country • Alexander Smith
... of age, though mighty small, are tangible. I have heard a great deal of them since I came into the world, and now that I begin to taste of them - Well! But this is one, that people do get cured of the excess of sensibility; and I had as lief these people were shot at as myself - or almost, for then I should have some of the ...
— Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 2 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... "I would as lief go there as anywhere else, my lady. Indeed, men say that it is a fine city, and as I have never seen a bigger town than Southampton, I doubt not that I shall find plenty to interest me at times when you may ...
— At Agincourt • G. A. Henty
... Noe, I had as lief thou had slept, for all thy frankishfare,[28] For I will not do ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous
... praying; but for fasting, why, 'tis so contrary to my nature that I had rather suffer a short hanging than a long fasting. Mark me, the words be these, 'Thou shalt take no manner of food for so many days'. I had as lief he should have said, 'Thou shalt hang thyself for so many days'. And yet, in faith, I need not find fault with the proclamation, for I have a buttery and a pantry and a kitchen about me; for proof, ecce signum! This right slop (leg of his garments) is my pantry—behold ...
— The Growth of English Drama • Arnold Wynne
... expect to find many roses in this big city," answered Ernst; "but yet I would lief get more learning than ...
— The Golden Grasshopper - A story of the days of Sir Thomas Gresham • W.H.G. Kingston
... cannot tell: but I had as lief take her dowrie with this condition; To be whipt at the ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... do you think that devil Garcia did? He pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket and began playing games with El Dancaire by the light of a fire they kindled. Meanwhile I was lying down, staring at the stars, thinking of El Remendado, and telling myself I would just as lief be in his place. Carmen was squatting down near me, and every now and then she would rattle her castanets and hum a tune. Then, drawing close to me, as if she would have whispered in my ear, she kissed me two or three times over ...
— Carmen • Prosper Merimee
... TEEtotally disbelieve in a God. The God-idea was begotten in ignorance, fear, and a general lack of any knowledge of Nature. If I were to die now, being in a healthy condition for my age, both mentally and physically, I would just as lief, yes, rather, die with a hearty enjoyment of music, sport, or any other rational pastime. As a timepiece stops, we die—there being no ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James
... Remember that you stand, you and your fancy, Now in his house; and since we are together, See for yourself and tell me what you see. Tell me the best you see. Make a slight noise Of recognition when you find a book That you would not as lief read upside down As otherwise, for example. If there you fail, Observe the walls and lead me to the place, Where you are led. If there you meet a picture That holds you near it for a longer time Than you are sorry, you may call ...
— The Three Taverns • Edwin Arlington Robinson
... her beautiful, proud face towards the stranger, and did not notice Richard at all. "Thank you, sir," said she, inclining her long neck; "but I care not to dance—I'd as lief lilt." ...
— Madelon - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... for a skirt and a pair of scissors. "But you know I'm no good at putting together again. And about making the world over, I don't know but that might be as easy as making over all its clothes, I'd as lief ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... boy, and you shall write them down," said the old woman; "for it's a good drink, and none the worse, it may be, for not making you live forever. I sometimes think I had as lief go to heaven as keep on ...
— Septimius Felton - or, The Elixir of Life • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... stomach, and the other in the government Bureaux at Washington. The worm that feeds on the cold meat of humanity, although the most insignificant of reptiles, has one attribute of Diety. It is no respecter of persons, and would as lief pick a bone in a royal vault as in POTTER'S Field. All flesh is the same to it—unless saturated with carbolic acid. It is said that all living things are propagated—that the process of creation ceased ages ago; yet it is quite certain that the worms known as maggots may be created by a blow. ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 16, July 16, 1870 • Various
... cannot be seated in this crisis. I would as lief be seated in an onset of the savages. I must up and lay about me. We have heretofore been too lax in this dreadful business; the powers of darkness be almost over our palisades. I tell thee there ...
— Giles Corey, Yeoman - A Play • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... of this sort, and was determined to make a kind of war upon the doctrine which seemed to underlie it. He said in effect that if he could not be restored to the pristine condition which he felt to be slipping from him he would as lief stop living. ...
— On Nothing & Kindred Subjects • Hilaire Belloc
... politics for my own purpose. No such thing! I don't like the sitting members; I'm all for progressing, but they go too much ahead for me; and since the Government is disposed to move a little, why, I'd as lief support them as not. But, in common gratitude, you see," added the mayor, coaxingly, "I ought to be knighted! I can keep up the dignity, and do credit to ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... to be believed by many of the neighbors. Mrs. Jaynes, it was noticed, would never contradict the story, though, to be sure, Laura herself always did, whenever she had a chance to do so. Indeed, she was often heard to declare, with great vehemence and apparent sincerity, that she would as lief be buried alive as marry that living skeleton,—by which scandalous epithet she designated the lean and reverend youth from East Windsor. Some people who heard these protestations let them go for naught, giving ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... couldn't get back to my uncle's place to-night, and then he'd worry about me. Otherwise I would just as lief go to your place as not. Now that I've told you everything I'd like to see the whole matter cleaned up, ...
— The Rover Boys at Big Horn Ranch - The Cowboys' Double Round-Up • Edward Stratemeyer
... to some end of Fate, unseen, unguessed, Are these wild throbbings of my heart and breast? Yea, of some doom they tell? Each pulse, a knell. Lief, lief I were, that all To unfulfilment's hidden ...
— The House of Atreus • AEschylus
... "I would just as lief be at home with my Aunt Harry," said Dolly, looking lovingly at the book-case. But ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner
... ye'd as lief be in this snug room as on the fell to-neet, Ralph?" There was a twinkle in the old man's eye; he had ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine
... with a sort of tact and wisdom that are akin to craft.... But on the whole, I liked this sallow, queer, sagacious visage, with the homely human sympathies that warmed it; and, for my small share in the matter, would as lief have Uncle Abe for a ruler as any man whom it would have been practicable to put in his place." [Footnote: "Yesterdays ...
— The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne • Frank Preston Stearns
... as lief tell you what, Norton; only it is something you don't care about, and it would give you ...
— Trading • Susan Warner
... with thee must share my chamber, Poodle, now, remember, No more howling, No more growling! I had as lief a bull should bellow, As have for a chum such a noisy fellow. Stop that yell, now, One of us must quit this cell now! 'Tis hard to retract hospitality, But the door is open, thy way is free. But what ails the creature? Is this in the course of nature? ...
— Faust • Goethe
... as lief be before Mrs. Ericson as behind her. She does beat all! Nearly seventy, and never lets another soul touch that car. Puts it into commission herself every morning, and keeps it tuned up by the hitch-bar all ...
— The Troll Garden and Selected Stories • Willa Cather
... know as this is the best for twinges o' rheumatiz," he muttered, as he turned up his collar and drew his old hat lower to keep the splashing drops from his face. "I don't jest rightly s'pose I should go; but I'm free to admit I'd as lief be dead as not to answer when I get a call, an' the fact is, I'm CALLED down ...
— The Song of the Cardinal • Gene Stratton-Porter
... on this job, boys," Webb told his men. "I'd just as lief lie up here for a few days while Uncle Sam is roundin' up his pets camped out there. Old man Roubideau says we're welcome to stick around. The feed's good. Our cattle are some gaunted with the drive. It won't hurt a mite to let 'em stay ...
— A Man Four-Square • William MacLeod Raine
... "I would as lief have them in a gayer strain. My fondest memories are of reels I've danced to their playing," I said, and by now we ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I'd as lief be hanged, sir, as to go; and yet for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for my own part, ...
— Practice Book • Leland Powers
... have been great fun—once. Nowadays one would as lief be a Strasburg goose. When you and I went to school it was not quite so bad. True, neither of us could now extract a cube root with a stump puller, and it is sad to reflect how little call life has made for duodecimals. ...
— The Desire of the Moth; and The Come On • Eugene Manlove Rhodes
... Beowulf with Breca did struggle, On the wide sea-currents at swimming contended, Where to humor your pride the ocean ye tried, 10 From vainest vaunting adventured your bodies In care of the waters? And no one was able Nor lief nor loth one, in the least to dissuade you Your difficult voyage; then ye ventured a-swimming, Where your arms outstretching the streams ye did cover, 15 The mere-ways measured, mixing and stirring ...
— The Translations of Beowulf - A Critical Biography • Chauncey Brewster Tinker
... slight difference in his mind between her and a bona fide intelligent child was proved by that fact that he would just as lief that Philip had not interrupted them just then: though the interruption was done with all ...
— The Wishing-Ring Man • Margaret Widdemer
... burgomaster, like a full-fed mastiff, dozes quietly at the house-door, always at home, and always at hand to watch over its safety; but as to electing a lean, meddling candidate to the office, as has now and then been done, I would as lief put a greyhound to watch the house, or a racehorse ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving
... Constance murmured the exclamation. She resented his future ownership of her shop. She thought he was come to play the landlord, and she determined to let him see that her mood was independent and free, that she would as lief give up the business as keep it. In particular she meant to accuse him of having deliberately deceived her as to his intentions ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett
... you: He has the very hardest heart on earth; I had as lief turn to the Friar's school And knock ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight
... good terbacker. Mighty few nice bits would the old man git wasn't it for you and Miss Eulie. Then I watch the good people goin' to church. 'Mazin' few out wet Sundays. But no doubt they've all got the 'sperit' to go. They would jist as lief be sawn in two pieces 'in sperit' as not, if they can only sleep late in the mornin' and have a good dinner and save their Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes from gettin' wet. It must be so, for the Lord gets ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe
... I could not write so well on the Conservative side just now, because they are 'in,' and it is more blessed to abuse than to be abused, and ever so much easier. But as far as any prejudice on the subject is concerned, I have none. I had as lief defend a party that robs India 'for her own good,' as support those who would rob her with a more cynical frankness and unblushingly transfer the proceeds to their own pockets. I do not care a rush whether they rob Peter to pay Paul, or fraudulently ...
— Mr. Isaacs • F. Marion Crawford
... "I'd as lief scrap 'side these scalliwags as ag'in 'em," he replied, indicating his companions with ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum
... He released his arm from her nervous clasp, and placed it gently about her shoulders. "It's Jeff setting the gait," he said. "I'd say he's crazy to get home." Then he added as though to himself: "Guess I'd as lief seen ...
— The Forfeit • Ridgwell Cullum
... sir, but I'd as lief stand on my own bottom. I dunnot stomach the notion of having favour curried for me, by one as doesn't know the ins and outs of the quarrel. Meddling 'twixt master and man is liker meddling 'twixt husband and wife than aught else: it takes a deal o' wisdom for to do ony good. I'll ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... them from doing us wrong. But I don't care about the Indians, little Daisy. I would just as lief fight the Yankees." ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell
... soldier's wife. She might have had the pick of all the young Quakers in Philadelphia; but you should have seen her turn up her pretty nose at them. "'A Quaker indeed!' quoth the little puss; 'I'd as lief marry a broomstick with a turnip for a head! Give me a man who is a man, not a puling ...
— French and English - A Story of the Struggle in America • Evelyn Everett-Green
... lief speak to 'ee here, in the passage. Indeed I'd rather," said Mrs Penhaligon as he emerged, trowel in hand. "Well, ...
— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)
... in your Lordship's behalfe that the Countesse is a sharpe and bitter shrewe, and therefore licke enough to shorten your lief, if shee should kepe yow company, Indeede, my good Lord, I have heard some say so; but if shrewdnesse or sharpnesse may be a juste cause of separation between a man and wiefe, I thinck fewe men in Englande would keepe their ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... to make it up with Carlisle. I have refused every body else, but I can't deny her any thing;—so I must e'en do it, though I had as lief 'drink up Eisel—eat a crocodile.' Let me see—Ward, the Hollands, the Lambs, Rogers, &c. &c.—every body, more or less, have been trying for the last two years to accommodate this couplet quarrel to no purpose. I shall laugh ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore
... his secretary he maintained I was entitled to berth with the officers, and after my rescue from the inhospitable shores of Terra Australis I continued to occupy my former place at the captain's table, although I would as lief have messed with the men sooner than have been the ...
— Adventures in Southern Seas - A Tale of the Sixteenth Century • George Forbes
... the world, to stand being put upon and not join the others. T' other chaps scarce speak to me, and the gals turn their backs as oi pass them. Oi be willing vor to be guided by you as far as oi can; but it bain't in nature to stand this. Oi'd as lief go and hang myself. Oi would go and list tomorrow, only oi don't know what regiment you ...
— Through the Fray - A Tale of the Luddite Riots • G. A. Henty
... majority crowded the landing at the head of the main companionway close by the leeward door. Bolder spirits marched off to the smoking room—Crane starting this movement with the declaration that, for his part, he would as lief drown like a rat in a trap as battling to keep up in the frigid inferno of those raging seas. A handful of miserables, too seasick to care whether the ship swam or sank, mutinously ...
— The False Faces • Vance, Louis Joseph
... clothed with I don't know what bags and pouches, with long scrolls in their clutches, made us sit down upon a cricket (such as criminals sit on when tried in France). Quoth Panurge to 'em, Good my lords, I'm very well as I am; I'd as lief stand, an't please you. Besides, this same stool is somewhat of the lowest for a man that has new breeches and a short doublet. Sit you down, said Gripe-men-all again, and look that you don't make the court bid you twice. Now, continued he, the earth shall immediately open its jaws and swallow ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais
... Montfort's tower until they lost all hope of relief from their friends without; then, being in fear of starvation, they were forced to surrender, and came forth, praying that their lives might be spared. I, as you may suppose, would as lief have spared the life of a wolf, and the halters were already round their necks, when your dark-visaged Squire prayed me to attempt to gain a confession from them; and, sure enough, they told a marvellous tale:—that Clarenham had placed them here to deliver you up to the enemy, ...
— The Lances of Lynwood • Charlotte M. Yonge
... sight. They had a prosperous voyage throughout, and no trouble in picking up the Island of Sweet Dew, the river and the lake. There, in a glade of the forest and in full view of the lake, they saw the booths still standing, which Lief and his men had set up. They were intact, the bolts seemingly not drawn, and not much the matter with the goods within, but what fresh air and sunlight could amend it. They spent the better part of six weeks in and about those shores, but then, leaving a garrison at the booths, ...
— Gudrid the Fair - A Tale of the Discovery of America • Maurice Hewlett
... find our train I'd take it right in," said Sile, as they hoisted the buck to his own saddle. "I'd just as lief walk." ...
— Two Arrows - A Story of Red and White • William O. Stoddard
... confess Him and do my part in the church, before Lizzie's mother died. But when a man gets on in years it isn't easy for him to come out before the world and do as he ought. I hope it will be all right, and as I told Jacob the other day, when the time does come for me to be judged I'd full as lief be standing on the same platform with old David Fleming as with most any of ...
— David Fleming's Forgiveness • Margaret Murray Robertson
... the neighbors' business, I know," added Mrs. Green, a little tartly; "but I can't look on and see such meanness without speaking of it. It don't make no difference who I say it to, neither; I had just as lief say it to Captain Littleton, as say it to you and your mother. That is just what I think, and I may just as well speak it ...
— Little By Little - or, The Cruise of the Flyaway • William Taylor Adams
... P'raps he might ha' stood it better— though o' course you acted for the best, an' thankin' you kindly. I'd as lief take her home now, naybours, if 'tis ...
— Noughts and Crosses • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... had he to be afraid of?' exclaimed her brother, 'I should just as lief go as not.' Yet, notwithstanding the little boy's vaunt there was a slight tremor on his lip, and his large blue eyes grew larger still and darker where they were dark, while the whites ...
— Effie Maurice - Or What do I Love Best • Fanny Forester
... the man, 'I am Sir Eliot of the March Tower, and I have ill tidings for my master, King Uriens, and his friends, but it seems my news is no worse than their fate. If my great lord is to die, I would lief die with him. Therefore, lord, despatch me now, or let me go stand beside my ...
— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert
... came for the most part; and yet had I never reward nor bounte of her the days of my life, and yet have I been her knight guerdonless. And therefore, Sir Tristram, as for any death I dread not, for I had as lief die as to live. And if I were armed as thou art, I should lightly do battle with thee. Well have ye uttered your treason, said Tristram. I have done to you no treason, said Palomides, for love is free for all men, and though I have loved your lady, she ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory
... long before spied the doctor aboard. He landed in fine fettle—clear-eyed, smiling, quick to extend his strong, warm hand: having cheery words for the folk ashore, and eager, homesick glances for the bleak hills of our harbour. Ecod! but he was splendidly glad to be home. I had as lief fall into the arms of a black bear as ever again to be greeted in a way so careless of my breath and bones! But, at last, with a joyous little laugh, he left me to gasp myself to life again, and went bounding ...
— Doctor Luke of the Labrador • Norman Duncan
... he said, as I jumped up off the stone. He still called me that sometimes. "It is a close night, I declare," he continued. "I had about as lief be out here in the cool myself, as in the house abed. But the mosquitoes bite a little, ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens
... "Waal, I'd about as lief do that, as do anything else. Good jobs is scarce, out here in the wilderness, and when a body lights of one, he ought to profit by it. I come up here thinkin' to meet you, for I heer'n tell from a voyager that you was a-beeing it, out in the ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper
... might know that I should never give my consent to that. I should almost as lief bury you. And how can you want to leave your good home, and all your friends, to live in a ship, exposed to storms and death all ...
— The Printer Boy. - Or How Benjamin Franklin Made His Mark. An Example for Youth. • William M. Thayer
... of plans now. We'll talk it all over in the morning when I am back. You'll be safe here. Nat would as lief shoot Hebby or anyone else who trailed you. Supper's on the ...
— Penny of Top Hill Trail • Belle Kanaris Maniates
... is preserved at Somerset House,[388] an interesting will in many ways. His eldest son and heir was John, Esquire of the Body to Henry VII., who was to pay 20 marks for his funeral. "Item. I will that my sonne Thomas have during his lief x marc, which I have given him; and that my sonne Martyn have the manor of Nafford during his lief, accordyng as I thereof made him astate yf it canne be recorded, and yf not, thenne I will that the same Martyn and every of my other sonnes, Robert, Henry and William ...
— Shakespeare's Family • Mrs. C. C. Stopes
... far off, before the instructer could come to the door, that he could not tell who we are. Here is a snow-ball just as hard as ice, and George had as lief throw it ...
— The Child at Home - The Principles of Filial Duty, Familiarly Illustrated • John S.C. Abbott |
