"Nill" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Katherine meanwhile is beset with suitors of the best rank and fortune; but will have nothing to say to any of them, till one day comes the formidable moment when a mediaeval father determines that his daughter shall marry a certain person, will she nill she. But if mediaeval fatherhood was arbitrary, mediaeval religion was supreme, and a demand to go on pilgrimage before an important change of life could hardly be refused. In fact, the parents, taking the proposal as a mere ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury
... the Lord, God will stir up the very stones, and make children and babes cunning, whereby there may ever be some to confute these men's lies. For God is able (not only without councils), but also, will the councils, nill the councils, to maintain and advance His own kingdom. "Full many be the thoughts of man's heart" (saith Solomon); "but the counsel of the Lord abideth steadfast:" "There is no wisdom, there is no knowledge, there is no counsel against the Lord." "Things ...
— The Apology of the Church of England • John Jewel
... therefore, the fair Scheherazade insisted upon marrying the king, and did actually marry him despite her father's excellent advice not to do any thing of the kind—when she would and did marry him, I say, will I, nill I, it was with her beautiful black eyes as thoroughly open as the nature of the case ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe
... enormous fortunes. Cabinet ministers and whole Governments become puppets in their hands, compelled to act according as matadors of the Exchange pull the wires behind the scenes. Not the State has the Exchange, but the Exchange has the State in its power. Will he, nill he, a Minister is often forced to water the upas tree, which he might prefer to tear up by the roots, but that he now must aid ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel
... kepe vnder, and tame our Woluishe natures, by greate mightie Bandogges, and Shepeherdes Curres. But nature at the firste, did so depely frame and set this his peruerse, cruell, and bloodie moulde in vs, that will thei, nill thei, our nature wil bruste out, and run to his owne course. I muse moche, wai- yng the line of our firste progenitour, from whence we came [Fol. viij.r] firste: for of a man wee came, yet men as a pestiferous poison doe exile vs, and abandon vs, ...
— A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike • Richard Rainolde
... But let any man take any subject fully within his own mind's scope, and strive to think about it steadily, with some attempt at calculation as to results. The chances are his mind will fly off, will-he-nill-he, to some utterly different matter. When he wishes to debate within himself that question of his wife's temper, he will find himself considering whether he may not judiciously give away half a dozen pairs of those old boots; or when it behoves him to decide whether it shall be manure and a green ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope
... these may be added that sentence, Loue descendeth, &c. So that you see, it is no lesse proper to a man entirely to loue his children, then for a bird to flie: that if our writers at any time haue confessed the Islanders to be men (muche lesse to be Christians,) they must, will they nill they, ascribe vnto them this loue and affection towardes their children: if not, they doe not onely take from them the title and dignitie of men, but also they debase them vnder euery brute beast, which euen by the instinct of ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt
... scrupulosity; qualms of conscience, twinge of conscience; delicacy, demur, scruple, qualm, shrinking, recoil; hesitation &c. (irresolution) 605; fastidiousness &c. 868. averseness &c. (dislike) 867[obs3]; dissent &c. 489; refusal &c. 764. V. be unwilling &c. adj.; nill; dislike &c. 867; grudge, begrudge; not be able to find it in one's heart to, not have the stomach to. demur, stick at, scruple, stickle; hang fire, run rusty; recoil, shrink, swerve; hesitate &c. 605; avoid &c. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus |
