"Alas" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... said, "only too well, alas! For all this luxury so well carried out, this realization of pleasant dreams, the elegance that satisfies all the romantic fancies of youth, appeals to me so strongly that I cannot but feel that it is my rightful possession, but I cannot accept it from you, ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac
... with his pig and his wife Cichuil. They (the wife and the pig) are his proper instruments on the night that ye destroy Conaire King of Erin. Alas for the guest who will run between them! Fer caille with his pig ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various
... make their orderly flight,—the glorious autumnal season deserving of laudation,—my thoughts wander far away to you, Teacher Talmage, whose noble presence is worthy to be saluted with bow profound, and whose dignified manners invite to close intimacy. Alas, that our acquaintance should have been formed at this late day!—and that, too, when, by wafting and by the plying of oars, having arrived at 'the stream of the fragrant grain fields' (poetic name for the region ...
— Forty Years in South China - The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D.D. • Rev. John Gerardus Fagg
... beneath its shade. I will refresh myself with its fruit. Allah has reared it to such a height, that it may encourage the wandering, and bless and sustain the faint and weary." But when he reached it, alas! it had grown too high to shade the weary man at its foot. On it he saw no clustering dates, and its one draught of wine was far beyond his reach. He saw at once that it was so. A child, a bird, a monkey, might have climbed to reach it. A rude hand might have felled the whole tree; but the full-grown ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. I • Margaret Fuller Ossoli
... Lindsay, sent with a copy of the Flowers of Zion, which the poet had privately printed, is clear evidence of the terms on which Lindsay lived with his friends and fellow book-lovers. The original letter is preserved in the Muniment Room at Haigh, but the identical copy of Drummond's work has, alas! been ...
— English Book Collectors • William Younger Fletcher
... "Alas, my God," replied the marquise, "after what you tell me, now that I know the executioner's hand was necessary to my salvation, what should I have become had I died at Liege? Where should I have been now? And even ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... One weeping woman, wearing the little black woollen cap which all the women wear, told me that she and her family had to fly from their little farm at Lombaertzyde because it was being shelled by the Germans, but afterwards, when all seemed quiet, they went back to their home to save the cows. Alas, the Germans were there! They made this woman (who was expecting a baby) and all her family stand in a row, and one girl of twenty, the eldest daughter, was shot before their eyes. When the poor mother begged for the body of her child it ...
— My War Experiences in Two Continents • Sarah Macnaughtan
... Italy, and the sweet singer of high romance broke off abruptly with a prophetic note of warning in his last accents—"While I am singing, I see all Italy set on fire by these Gauls, coming to ravage I know not how many fresh lands, alas!" ...
— Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 • Julia Mary Cartwright
... stumbled into a damp hollow place where a band of golden irises stood among their tall shafts of green like royal ladies surrounded by warriors. Hetty caught sight of the yellow wing-like petals of the flag-lilies and grasped them with both hands. Alas! they were not alive, but pinned to the earth by their strong stems. The butterflies were gone, the flowers were not living. The little girl plucked the lilies and tried to make them fly, but their heads fell ...
— Hetty Gray - Nobody's Bairn • Rosa Mulholland
... chose to remain in it). The sky was blue in those days, or only flecked with summer clouds, just as Arthur and Angela's perfect companionship was flecked and shaded with the deeper hues of dawning passion. Alas, the sky in this terrestrial clime is never ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... turned into charcoal!" "Oh, nonsense," said the Maharaja. "Come and see, Maharaja," said the treasurer, who was in a great fright. The Maharaja went into his treasury, and was quite sad at the sight of the charcoal. "Alas!" he said, "God has made me very poor, but still I must give this fakir his money." So he went to the fakir and said, "All my gold and silver and jewels are turned into charcoal; but I will sell my wife, and my boy, and myself, and then ...
— Indian Fairy Tales • Anonymous
... an archway. The shorn Samson went out 'to shake himself as at other times,' and knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. Who among us is not exposed to the assaults of that pestilence that walketh in darkness? and, alas! who among us can say that he has repelled the contagion? Subtly it creeps over us all, the stealthy intangible vapour, unfelt till it has quenched the lamp which alone lights the darkness of the mine, and clogged to ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren
... least that I have hit none of our own men," he answered with a touch of humor. "I confess I am more handy with a quill than a musket. I have friends in London, sir, who will not believe me when I relate my adventures in this barbarous country. But, alas! I may not live to see ...
— The Cryptogram - A Story of Northwest Canada • William Murray Graydon
... the people managed for a while to keep alive on roots and herbs; then, half-crazed by starvation, they fell to cannibalism. Gaunt, desperate, de-humanized, they crouched about the kettle that held their own dead. A Bible fed the flames, cast in by a poor wretch as he cried, "Alas! ...
— Virginia: The Old Dominion • Frank W. Hutchins and Cortelle Hutchins
... when he heard of the great battle at Corinth where so many distinguished men fell, and where though many of the enemy perished the Spartan loss was very small, he showed no signs of exultation, but sighed heavily, and said, "Alas for Greece, that she should by her own fault have lost so many men, who if they were alive could conquer all the barbarians in ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch
... Maintenon—- Alas! Heaven knows I was far otherwise: a thousand times did I wish for my dear Scarron again. He was a very ugly fellow, it is true, and had but little money: but the most easy, entertaining companion in the world: we danced, laughed, and sung; ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner
... swells, Joins with the wind and fills the empty skies And dies away, like echo of old age Sighing and dying in the heart that fails. Ah! the cruel beauty ... how it creeps Into my home, into my waiting heart! Who am I that I wait to-night?... Alas, Where is the old content of maidenhood, The calmness and the laughter and the song, The patient hands unshaken as the needle Plied to the gentle rhythm that my lips Murmured, untroubled ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various
... "Alas!" said the girl, divining the ultimate truth, "you love him blindly and wholly; you would sacrifice me, yourself and everything to him, and because he has always had everything his own way, he would ...
— Miss Lou • E. P. Roe
... now the effects of public favor, lest it should kindle that pride of heart and self-sufficiency which dwells in my own as well as in others' breasts, and which, alas! is so ready to be inflamed by the slightest spark of praise. I do indeed feel gratified, and it is right I should rejoice, but I rejoice with fear, and I desire that a sense of dependence upon and increased obligation to the Giver of every good and perfect gift ...
— Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - In Two Volumes, Volume II • Samuel F. B. Morse
... now name me immortal, Rei? How then can I be in danger, who am immortal, and not to be harmed of men? Death hath no part in me. Speak not to me of dangers, who, alas! can never die till everything is done; but tell me of that faithless Wanderer, whom I must love with all the womanhood that shuts my spirit in, and all my spirit that is clothed in womanhood. For, Rei, the Gods, withholding Death, have in ...
— The World's Desire • H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang
... never danced longer than two days and two nights without stopping, and the festivals, the gay fete days, not more than one a week! But it was not Auguste's way. A man when he should have been a boy, and then, alas! a boy when he should have been ...
— The Shades of the Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler
... air which he breathed, the water he drank, and the miraculous bread with which he supported life. What did he do? say the inhabitants of this busy world, who think they could not live without being in a perpetual hurry of restless projects; what was his employment all this while? Alas! ought we not rather to put this question to them; what are you doing while you are not taken up in doing the will of God, which occupies the heavens and the earth in all their motions? Do you call that doing nothing ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... ye, that sic as you and I, [such] Wha drudge and drive thro' wet an' dry, Wi' never-ceasing toil; Think ye, are we less blest than they, Wha scarcely tent us in their way, [note] As hardly worth their while? Alas! how oft in haughty mood, God's creatures they oppress! Or else, neglecting a' that's guid, They riot in excess! Baith careless, and fearless, Of either heav'n or hell! Esteeming, and deeming It's ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson
... (for 1858, let us say) from some good-natured friend in England—that is a thing not to be forgotten! I little dreamed then that I should come to London again, and meet John Leech and become his friend; that I should be, alas! the last man to shake hands with him before his death (as I believe I was), and find myself among the officially invited mourners by his grave; and, finally, that I should inherit, and fill for so many years (however indifferently), ...
— Social Pictorial Satire • George du Maurier
... whole country will be inundated." Not only Ch'i, but all the adjacent kingdoms were flooded; all sustained grievous damage except Ch'i, where the necessary precautions had been taken. This caused Duke Ching to exclaim: "Alas! how few listen to the ...
— Myths and Legends of China • E. T. C. Werner
... folds which Indian girls alone know how to make. Her trousers of byssus, which the Phoenicians called syndon were confined at the ankles by anklets adorned with gold and silver bells, and completed this toilet so fantastically rich and wholly opposed to Greek taste. But, alas! a saffron-coloured flammeum pitilessly masked the face of Nyssia, who seemed embarrassed, veiled though she was, at finding so many eyes fixed upon her, and frequently signed to a slave behind her to lower the parasol of ostrich plumes, and thus conceal her yet more from the ...
— King Candaules • Theophile Gautier
... cheeks of the first European that visited this country, on being gazed at, admired, caressed, and almost worshipped as a god; joined to the delightful consciousness of his own immeasurable superiority, will in the present, at least, never be experienced by any other. "Alas!" says Richard Lander, "what a misfortune; the eager curiosity of the natives has been glutted by satiety, a European is shamefully considered no more than a man, and hereafter, he will no doubt be treated entirely as such; so that on coming to this ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... Jack felt that the Indian visitor was trying to tell him something about Otto. Those swinging arms, swaying head and apoplectic grunting carried a message within themselves, which, if translated would be found of great importance; but alas! the ...
— Camp-fire and Wigwam • Edward Sylvester Ellis
... so evident, that Gilbert, perplexed and bewildered as her words left him, felt that he dared not press her further. He could not doubt the truth of her first assertion; but, alas! it availed only for his own private consciousness,—it took no stain from him, in the eyes of the world. Yet, now that the painful theme had been opened,—not less painful, it seemed, since the suspected ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor
... the course of the war with painful interest. "This is a terrible season of mourning and sorrow," she wrote; "how many mothers, wives, sisters, and children are bereaved at this moment. Alas! It is that awful accompaniment of war, disease, which is so much more to be dreaded than the fighting itself." And again, after a visit to Chatham: "Four hundred and fifty of my dear, brave, noble heroes I saw, and, thank God, upon the whole, all in a very satisfactory state ...
— Queen Victoria • E. Gordon Browne
... AEn. Alas sweet boy, thou must be still a while, Till we haue fire to dresse the meate we kild: Gentle Achates, reach the Tinder boxe, That we may make a fire to warme vs with, And rost our new found victuals ...
— The Tragedy of Dido Queene of Carthage • Christopher Marlowe
... money, Burton and his company had, to use Mrs. Burton's expression, "returned triumphantly," with twenty-five tons of minerals and numerous objects of archaeological interest. The yield of the argentiferous and cupriferous ores, proved, alas! to be but poor. They went in search of gold, and found graffiti! But was Burton really disappointed? Hardly. In reading about every one of his expeditions in anticipation of mineral wealth, the thought forces itself upon us that it was adventure rather than gold, sulphur, diamonds ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright
... step's in the bark on the dark heaving waters, That now should have been on the floor of a throne; And, alas for auld Scotland, her sons and her daughters! Thy wish was their welfare, thy cause was their own. But 'lorn may we sigh where the hill-winds awaken, And weep in the glen where the cataracts foam, And sleep where the dew-drops are deep on the bracken; Thy foot has the land of ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... fervently; then added, almost immediately, 'You say my wife. Alas! alas! that I dare not call ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... Alas! The whole misfortune of the present Filipinos consists in that they have become only half-way brutes. The Filipino is convinced that to get happiness it is necessary for him to lay aside his dignity as a rational creature, to attend mass, to believe what ...
— The Indolence of the Filipino • Jose Rizal
... is perhaps the best known, and in some ways the most remarkable. It has had a curious history. Founded almost at the same time as Merton, it is by its own members held to be the oldest of all the colleges. But alas! the front that it presents, though respectable enough, is quite modern, and cannot be included among the things that help to make Oxford lovely. Then, again, for hundreds of years it remained an obscure ...
— Oxford • Frederick Douglas How
... a still more stormy epoch, was essentially warlike. In the eyes of his contemporaries, his administration was brilliant and successful, and he undoubtedly raised England to a high pitch of military glory; but glory, alas! most dearly purchased, since it led to the imposition of taxes beyond a parallel, and the vast ...
— A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon - For the Use of Schools and Colleges • John Lord
... parliament ruled us, the landlords would not have had their tyrannies sanctioned and increased in license till the suffering people were reduced down to the lumper potato for a wretched, and, alas! a fatally precarious subsistence. Our manufactures would yet exist, giving comfort to our skilful artizans, and offering refuge to the peasant, unable to obtain a maintenance upon the land. In every village neighbourhood, the money raised by the ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... "Alas! my kind young gentleman, This sharing cannot be; 'Tis written in the testament That Brentford spoke to me, 'I do forbid Prince Ned to ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... may seem uncalled for, but they have been suggested by personal observation of their necessity. People of good breeding would never err in any of these ways; but alas, not all people are well bred, and innate selfishness often crops ...
— Carving and Serving • Mrs. D. A. Lincoln
... "Brother") into eternal bondage! Thus modern history explains the old; and the cheap bait of a republican bribe can seduce American dissenters, as the wealthy lure of royal gifts once drew British churchmen into the same pit of infamy. Alas, hypocrisy is of no ...
— The Trial of Theodore Parker • Theodore Parker
... stagger as he walked; that was the common thing. As a young man he had been the leader among his chums, and people thought he would make his mark in the world. He had excelled most of his companions, but alas! it was not in the things that make men noble and great. As people said, "The drink was getting him." He was a familiar figure in each of the three saloons in A—. He was popular, for he was good-natured and jolly. He was still the leader of ...
— Heart Talks • Charles Wesley Naylor
... voice was lost, except in sighs, Until too late for useful conversation; The tears were gushing from her gentle eyes, I wish indeed they had not had occasion, But who, alas! can love, and then be wise? Not that remorse did not oppose temptation; A little still she strove, and much repented And whispering 'I will ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron
... head, and blushed exceedingly: when he was somewhat recovered of his bashfulness, "Jesus," said he, "what, I to raise the dead! can you believe these things of such a wretch as I am?" After which, modestly smiling, he went on, "Alas, poor sinner that I am! they set before me a child, whom they reported to be dead, and who perhaps was not; I commanded him, in the name of God, to arise; he arose indeed, and ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden
... Rod—and Etta—and the people of Sutherland—and all the rest who passed through her life and out? What does it matter? Some went up, some down—not without reason, but, alas! not for reason of desert. For the judgments of fate are, for the most part, not unlike blows from a lunatic striking out in the dark; if they land where they should, it is rarely and by sheer chance. Ruth's parents are dead; she is married to Sam Wright. He lost his father's money in wheat ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips
... "For alas! alas! with me The light of life is o'er; No more—no more—no more (Such language holds the solemn sea To the sands upon the shore) Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree, ...
— Eric • Frederic William Farrar
... ready money." "I know it," replied the other "Look here, here are four hundred." He went with me towards the wide balustrade of the bridge. and counted out the money. There were four hundred; they sparkled magnificently in the moonlight; their glitter rejoiced my heart. Alas, I did not anticipate that this would be its last joy. I put the money into my pocket, and was desirous of thoroughly looking at my kind and unknown stranger; but he wore a mask, through which dark ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: German (V.2) • Various
... and it was nearly a month before I was able to go out again. And depend upon it, when I did go out, I didn't walk to the Zoological Gardens, for I can't bear the name of the place.' Maurice doubtless thought that he had made a good hit, but alas! it only fell on one ...
— Aunt Mary • Mrs. Perring
... which showed off well, and was a proper source of envy to the neighboring villages and the country around. The studiously remote and painfully inaccessible locations chosen for the site of many fine, roomy churches must astonish any observing traveller on the byroads of New England. Too often, alas! these churches are deserted, falling down, unopened from year to year, destitute alike of minister and congregation. Sometimes, too, on high hilltops, or on lonesome roads leading through a tall second growth of woods, deserted and neglected ...
— Sabbath in Puritan New England • Alice Morse Earle
... and secured my degree. The course was as useful from the standpoint of practical agriculture as any that could have been devised at the time. But when I graduated, what did I find? The same old problem of getting a living still confronted me as I had expected that it would; and alas! I had got my education in a profession that demanded capital. I was a landless farmer. Times were hard and work of all kinds was very scarce. The farmers of those days were inclined to scoff at scientific agriculture. I could have worked for my board and a little ...
— Craftsmanship in Teaching • William Chandler Bagley
... higher, to the first floor. That was a good position; there were plenty of footsteps, and I could tell they were the footsteps of clients. A few came a little higher still, and then my hopes rose with the footsteps. Now some one had come up to the third floor: he stopped! Alas! there was the knock, one single hard knock: it was a junior clerk. The sound came all too soon for me, and I turned from my own door to my little den and looked out of my window up into the sky, from whence it seemed I might ...
— The Reminiscences Of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton) • Henry Hawkins Brampton
... imperfectly, as I am forced by my distracting fears and apprehensions; and O join with me, my dear parents!—But, alas! how can you know, how can I reveal to you, the dreadful situation of your poor daughter! The unhappy Pamela may be undone (which God forbid, and sooner deprive me of life!) before you ...
— Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded • Samuel Richardson
... was the order of the evening, and solemn silence and good behaviour. No smoking, no songs, no conviviality of any sort. I would fain have shown my appreciation of their courtesy by talking to them; but alas, I was one vast ache all over! Although the road had been a dead level, sixteen hours of jolting and bumping had reduced me to a limp, black-and-blue creature, with out a word or a smile. Of course ...
— Station Amusements • Lady Barker
... moving around searching for my treasures. He did not find them, however, and I am going to give them to you, as in a few moments I will be dead, and then I do not know what will become of this Land of Sunne. Alas! Alas!" ...
— The Enchanted Island • Fannie Louise Apjohn
... Alas, I had to do as I was bid; this lady, to whom I already felt myself drawn with the strongest cords of sympathy, I dismissed with insult; and thenceforward, through all that day I sat in silence, gazing on the bare plains and swallowing my tears. Let that suffice: ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... silent a moment, as if looking back into the past. "It is the sequel, rather than the story itself, that is singular," she said. "The first part is like only too many other stories, alas! Your Great-aunt Phoebe—your Great-great-aunt, I should say—was betrothed to a brave young officer, Lieutenant Hetherington. It was just at the breaking out of the War of 1812, and the engagement was made just as he was going into active service. She was a beautiful girl, with large dark ...
— Three Margarets • Laura E. Richards
... Alas! In a brief fortnight Philemon Henry lay dead in the house, and Bessy was so stunned that she, too, seemed half bereft of life. She had loved him sincerely, and for months they had forgotten their unfortunate difference ...
— A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... religion, friendship, prudence died At once with him, and all that's good beside, And we, death's refuse, nature's dregs, confined To loathsome life, alas! are left behind. Where we (so once we used) shall now no more, To fetch day, press about his chamber-door, No more shall hear that powerful language charm, Whose force oft spared the labor of his arm, No more shall follow where ...
— Among My Books - First Series • James Russell Lowell
... deckt (small ioy to him, alas!) With manie garlands for his victories, And with rich spoyles, which late he did purchas Through brave atcheivements from his enemies: 655 Fainting at last through long infirmities, He smote his steed, ...
— The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 • Edmund Spenser
... "Alas, monsieur, in spite of our fine courtesies, the conception of justice by one race must always seem outlandish ...
— The Sleuth of St. James's Square • Melville Davisson Post
... Abandon; and departing, he besought The two Ajaces and Meriones: "Ye two Ajaces, leaders of the Greeks, And thou, Meriones, remember now Our lost Patroclus' gentle courtesy, How kind and genial was his soul to all, While yet he liv'd—now sunk, alas! ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... immediately behind them; and on coming up to them, two of the most pitiable creatures imaginable were sitting down. One had sufficient strength to get up; the other appeared to be like a man in the very last stage of consumption. Alas! alas! they were the only two left of the eight, the remainder having died from starvation. Whilst here we were considering what was best to be done, when natives in great numbers were descried watching our movements. Jackey said, "Doctor," calling me aside, "now I tell you exactly what to do, you ...
— Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Vol. 2 (of 2) • John MacGillivray
... "Alas, my own eyes will not permit me to know much of those of others! But I remember now that the adjutant-general said that he had such an eye as you describe, and added that the jury was so foolish as to be visibly discomposed when it was turned ...
— The Green Flag • Arthur Conan Doyle
... the assembled Senators for their care of him, but he is carried off so violently by his anger that he devotes a considerable portion of his speech to these indignant utterances. The reader does not regret it. Abuse makes better reading than praise, has a stronger vitality, and seems, alas, to come more thoroughly from the heart! Those who think that genuine invective has its charms would ill ...
— The Life of Cicero - Volume II. • Anthony Trollope
... climbed the ascent, the outlines of the house became visible; a stately, typical southern mansion, like hundreds, which formerly opened hospitably their broad mahogany doors, and which, alas! are becoming traditional to this generation—obsolete as the brave chivalric, warm-hearted, open-handed, noble-souled, refined southern gentlemen who built and owned them. No Mansard roof here, no pseudo "Queen Anne" ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson
... "'Alas! my friend, that it should be necessary for me to tell a lie on my death-bed,' said the Doctor. 'But now, at last, I tell it proudly and promptly. I have not read ...
— 'Charge It' - Keeping Up With Harry • Irving Bacheller
... the place to be still occupied by the old servant and his wife—this scrap of information my father had thrown to me—but, alas! I knew not the location, and there were so many chateaux of the kind in the province! How could I ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
... the Count. "My man Mario could make her travel, but he's a fool, and has left me in a fit of temper. He was an Italian, and we Italians are, alas! hot-headed," and he laughed again. "Would ...
— The Count's Chauffeur • William Le Queux
... Alas! the hour when he made his morning toilet was no longer a happy one for Baron Robert. He dreaded the inexorable mirror, and yet self-torturing curiosity impelled him to inspect his face with the keen observation of a Holbein. Not even ...
— How Women Love - (Soul Analysis) • Max Simon Nordau
... a nothing—what none understand, Be-mitred, be-crowned, but without heart or hand; There's Jack in the Green too, and Noodles, alas! "Who doodle John Bull of gold, silver, ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... of eighty, afflicted with the palsy, was arrested during the reign of terror, under suspicion of being an agitator. Being asked what he had to say to the accusation, "Alas, gentlemen, it is very true, I am agitated enough, God knows, for I have not been able to keep a limb ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 342, November 22, 1828 • Various
... and nurses, and when even a parent's advice is received with a little impatience, then the NOTHING-TO-DO complaint, if it seizes them at all, is a serious disease, and often very difficult to cure; and, if not cured, alas! then follows the melancholy spectacle of grown-up men and women, who are a plague to their friends, and a weariness to themselves; because, living under the notion that there is NOTHING for them TO DO, they want everybody else to ...
— Aunt Judy's Tales • Mrs Alfred Gatty
... full-length mirror with pink cheeks and quick breath. Her eyes shone like faint stars. She was beautiful. Alas! she was beautiful. ...
— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry
... always regarded Florette's room as his, too. He felt that the new papa was an intruder in their home. Alas! It soon became all too apparent that it was Freddy who was de trop, or, as he would have ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 • Various
... his congregation had their own little peccadilloes to worry over, Mr Cargrim's sermon made them quite uneasy, and created a decided sensation, much to his own gratification. If Bishop Pendle had only been seated on his throne to hear that sermon, Cargrim would have been thoroughly satisfied. But, alas! the bishop—worthy man—was confirming innocent sinners at Southberry, and thus lost any chance he might have had of profiting by his ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... if he had died Ethel would have had him buried here, so near the gardens where he often ran and played. So Scamp must be living still. But other sorrowing mistresses have lost their little companions, and the inscriptions show a world of tenderness. We read, 'Alas, poor Zoe! as deeply mourned as ever dog was mourned,' and 'Darling Vic,' 'Snow, a dear friend,' 'Loving little Charlie,' 'Our faithful little friend Wobbles,' 'Jack, most loving and most fondly loved,' and many another. It must have ...
— The Children's Book of London • Geraldine Edith Mitton
... forty-five glorious years of Elizabeth were to Ireland years of unremitting wretchedness." Nobody could complain that Froude spared the English Government. If he had been writing history, or rather when he was writing it, the mutual treachery of the Irish could not be passed over. "Alas and shame for Ireland," said Froude in New York. "Not then only, but many times before and after, the same plan [offer of pardon to murderous traitors] was tried, and was never known to fail. Brother brought in the dripping head of brother, son of father, comrade of comrade. ...
— The Life of Froude • Herbert Paul
... sigh. 'Alas,' said I, 'man was made in vain! how is he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life, and swallowed up in death!' The genius, being moved with compassion towards me, bade me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. 'Look no more,' said he, 'on man in the first stage of his existence, ...
— Essays and Tales • Joseph Addison
... alas for you! A thousand times alas! Your relief is to know that the Lord has no need of you—does not require you to part with your money, does not offer you himself instead! You do not indeed sell him for thirty pieces of silver, but you ...
— Unspoken Sermons - Series I., II., and II. • George MacDonald
... there were sundry other things that worried me not a little. But I consoled myself with the reflection that when I became Mrs. Smith all these little matters would vanish like frost in the sunshine. I was, alas! doomed to be mistaken. But let me give my experience for the benefit of those who are to ...
— Married Life; Its Shadows and Sunshine • T. S. Arthur
... Guy. Alas, they lived too sure; I heard them roar. All turned their sides, and to each other spoke; I saw their words break out in fire and smoke. Sure 'tis their voice, that thunders from on high, Or these the younger brothers of the sky. Deaf with the noise, I took my hasty flight; ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott
... to see M'sieur after so long a time," said he, "for, alas, there are so many others of our old clients who will ...
— Punch, Volume 153, July 11, 1917 - Or the London Charivari. • Various
... conspiracy that when informed at Ettenheim of the affair he doubted it, declaring that if it were true his father and grandfather would have made him acquainted with it. Would so long an interval have been suffered to elapse before he was arrested? Alas! cruel experience has shown that that step would have been taken in ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... worse for her misadventure. Next day he drove her very carefully over to Pyecrafts, hoping to drug his uneasiness with the pretence of a grand passion and the praises of "The Silent Places," that beautiful work of art that was so free from any taint of application, and alas! he found Mrs. Harrowdean in an evil mood. He had been away from her for ten days—ten whole days. No doubt Edith had manoeuvred to keep him. She hadn't! Hadn't she? How was he, poor simple soul! to tell that she hadn't? That was the prelude to ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells
... gentlemen both from the metropolis and the provinces. It was proposed by William Smith O'Brien, seconded by Henry Grattan, and put to the meeting from the chair by the eldest son of Daniel O'Connell. The cheer that hailed its adoption was a shout not of approval, but defiance. But alas! many voices mingled in the chorus which have since been attuned to the meanest whine of mendicancy. That they vilely belied their solemn promise were of little moment. Nay, more, it is bootless to consider whether they were more false-tongued and false-hearted ...
— The Felon's Track • Michael Doheny
... refer to, the Canadian Pacific Railway has shown that it lays claim to both the body and soul of its employees. In the history of this country did you ever hear of anything more shameful? It makes one's blood boil. And the men who commit these acts can boast of knighthood. Alas!'" ...
— The Story of a Dark Plot - or Tyranny on the Frontier • A.L.O. C. and W.W. Smith
... cried Haw, leaning back in his chair, and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. "You have put your finger upon my trouble. If I were a millionaire I might be happy, but, alas, ...
— The Doings Of Raffles Haw • Arthur Conan Doyle
... returning from Ethiopia, saw him, and his wrath grew hot against the hero. He raised up his head and said to himself: "Alas! the gods have strangely changed their minds about Odysseus during my absence in Africa. Behold! in a little while he will be in the land of the Phaeacians, where he will find an end to his troubles. Nevertheless, it is in my power to ...
— Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca - Adapted from the Third Book of the Primary Schools of Athens, Greece • Homer
... at Fort Enterprise—that pleasant little Eden of the far north, invaded, alas! by the serpent—the beginning of the trouble I say was exactly coincident with the ...
— The Fur Bringers - A Story of the Canadian Northwest • Hulbert Footner
... names, Renaldo, fetching a deep sigh, "Alas! my friend," said he, "the Count is no more; and, what aggravates my affliction for the loss of such a father, it was my misfortune to be under his displeasure at the time of his death. Had I been present on that melancholy occasion, so well ...
— The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete • Tobias Smollett
... Alas! it's no thy neibor sweet, The bonny lark, companion meet, Bending thee' mang the dewy weet, Wi' spreckled[8-3] breast, When upward springing, blithe, to greet ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester
... attributed to the example of their superiors. But how severely are those superiors punished? Why this general indifference about home; why are the household gods, why is the sacred hearth so wantonly abandoned? Alas! the charm of home is destroyed, since our children, educated in distant seminaries, are strangers in the paternal mansion; and our servants, like mere machines, move on their mercenary track without feeling or exciting one ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various
... out." The list was produced—the names called over, and only forty-five monks presented themselves. By order of the viceroy, the five who had broken through the rules, were never again admitted into the convent. Alas! could his Excellency have lived in these our degenerate days, and beheld certain monks of a certain order drinking pulque and otherwise disporting themselves! nay, seen one, as we but just now did from the window, strolling along the street by lamplight, with an Yntida ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca
... are at the worst, it often happens that some unexpected success breaks on his path like a bright sunbeam. Alas! it often happens, also, that when his hopes are high and his prospects brightest, a dark cloud overspreads him like a funeral pall. We might learn a lesson from this—the lesson of dependence on that Saviour ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... But Mother, alas! proved a stumbling-block. "That would be very nice," she said, "very nice indeed; but Elliott Cameron has plenty of relatives. They will make some arrangement among them. I should hardly feel at liberty ...
— The Camerons of Highboro • Beth B. Gilchrist
... exterior. Yes, no doubt she was immediately responsible for some, and she knew just which they were from the outside without any need to open them. She took up one of them: "Rose and Storey, importers of French millinery, flowers, feathers, ribbons, etcetera. Mantle and jacket show-rooms." Alas, alas! how frail is human nature! Even in the midst of her misfortunes, even in the eclipse of old age, such words stirred Miss Joliffe's interest—flowers, feathers, ribbons, mantles, and jackets; she saw the delightful show-room 19, 20, 21, and ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... war—perhaps to-morrow. We of the Navy, coalless and probably by that time rumless as well, will rush blindly from our harbours, our masts decked with Jolly Rogers and our sailors convulsed with hornpipe, to seek the enemy. But, alas, before the ocean spray has wetted our ruby nostrils we shall find ourselves descended upon from above and bombed promiscuously in the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, September 29th, 1920 • Various
... any doubt on the matter. Alas, that I should have to say so, it is too self-evident. You persuade this poor creature to go out alone with you into the Pineta at an extraordinary hour of the morning, knowing then,—or according to your own showing, becoming aware soon after you started—that it was your uncle's ...
— A Siren • Thomas Adolphus Trollope
... Alas! regardless of their doom, The little victims play; No sense have they of ills to come, No care beyond to-day: Yet see how all around 'em wait 55 The ministers of human fate, And black Misfortune's baleful train! Ah, show them where in ambush stand ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray
... To-day they sell for considerable prices, although the government has not yet acquired any work by Monticelli for the public galleries. The mysterious power alone of these paintings secures him a fame which is, alas! posthumous. Many Monticellis have been sold by dealers as Diaz's; now they are more eagerly looked for than Diaz, and collectors have made fortunes with these small canvases bought formerly, to use a colloquial expression which is here only ...
— The French Impressionists (1860-1900) • Camille Mauclair
... Alas! that friends should prove untrue And disappoint you so. Because you don't know what to do, And hardly where ...
— Turn About Eleanor • Ethel M. Kelley
... pronounce what the proper Genius of a Youth is. Every one who will be fiddling, has not presently a Genius for Musick. The Idle Boy draws Birds and Men, when he should be getting his Lesson or writing his Copy; This Boy, says the Father, must be a Painter; when alas! this is no more the Boy's Genius than the Parhelion is the true Sun. But those who have the Care of Children, should take some Pains to know what their true Genius is. For here the Foundation must be laid for improving it. If a Mistake ...
— 'Of Genius', in The Occasional Paper, and Preface to The Creation • Aaron Hill
... the training camp traveled regularly, and South Harniss damsels looked and longed in vain. He saw them, he bowed to them, he even addressed them pleasantly and charmingly, but to him they were merely incidents in his walks to and from the post-office. In his mind's eye he saw but one, and she, alas, was not present ...
— The Portygee • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... and what desolation, my very dear friend! [Eduard Liszt, then member of the provincial Court of Justice in the Civil Senate, had lost his wife from cholera.] Alas! in trials such as these even the sympathy felt by those who are nearest to us can do but little to alleviate the overwhelming weight of the cross which we have to bear. And yet I wish to tell you that in these days of sorrow my heart is near to ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris to Rome: - Years of Travel as a Virtuoso" • Franz Liszt; Letters assembled by La Mara and translated
... "Alas! alas!" It was a murmur rather than a cry, and she trembled so the bed shook visibly under her. But she made no response to the entreaty in his look and gesture, and he was compelled to draw ...
— That Affair Next Door • Anna Katharine Green
... would imagine that Mr. Hastings would at least ostensibly have taken some part in endeavoring to bring these corruptions before the public, or that he would at least have acted with some little management in his opposition. But, alas! it was not in his power; there was not one, I think, but I am sure very few, of these general articles of corruption, in which the most eminent figure in the crowd, the principal figure as it were in the piece, was not Mr. Hastings himself. There were a great ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... and Thorny took turns to tell the few tragical facts which were not shrouded in the deepest mystery. If the interesting sufferer could only have spoken, what thrilling adventures and hair-breadth escapes he might have related. But, alas! he was dumb, and the secrets of that memorable month ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. V, August, 1878, No 10. - Scribner's Illustrated • Various
... "Alas! I am blind," returned Madge, clinging closely to me, and shrinking from her cousin's terrible jest. I could not think of anything sufficiently holy and sacred upon which to vow my vengeance against this fellow, if the time should ever come when I ...
— Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall • Charles Major
... hours rest, and having taken the ship in tow, we again proceeded, and at about seven o'clock on the morning of the 2d of July passed the "Sophia," and shortly afterwards, the "Lady Franklin." Alas! poor Penny, he had a light contrary wind ...
— Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; • Sherard Osborn
... he said. "We catch sight of the gate of heaven, and set out for it. It comes nearer and nearer. All at once a something they call a reality of life comes between, and the shining gate is millions of miles away! Then cry some of its pilgrims, 'Alas, we are fooled! There is no such thing as the gate of heaven! Let us eat and drink and do what good we can, for to-morrow we die!' But is there no gate because we find none on the edge of the wood where it seemed to lie? There it is, before us yet, though a long way farther back. What has space or ...
— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald
... and leading even the most indifferent minds to the plane of experiments. Minoret, buried in Nemours, was ignorant of this movement of minds, strong in the north of Europe but still weak in France where, however, many facts called marvelous by superficial observers, were happening, but falling, alas! like stones to the bottom of the sea, in ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac
... 'Alas!' said Lord Cadurcis, 'no one can form an idea of the attachment that subsisted between Plantagenet and Venetia. They were not common feelings, or the feelings of common ...
— Venetia • Benjamin Disraeli
... broods. Here he that shook the frighted world arose. 'Twas here he gained the strength the wing to plume, To swoop upon the Arno's classic plains, And drink the noblest blood of Europe's veins— His eye but glanced and nations felt their doom! Alas! "how art thou fall'n, oh Lucifer, Son of the morning!" thou who wast the scourge And glory of the earth—whose nod could urge. Proud armies deathward at the trump of war! And did'st thou die on lone Helena's isle? And art thou nought ...
— A Williams Anthology - A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College, 1798-1910 • Compiled by Edwin Partridge Lehman and Julian Park
... eagerly, "do not go yet. I have no sister, no near relative; none but you to whom I can speak my last words and give my last injunction. You were my husband's friend while he lived, and to you has he committed the care of his widow and orphan. I am called, alas, too soon! to follow him; and now, in the sight of God, and in the presence of his spirit—for I feel that he is near us now—I commit to you the care of this dear child. Oh, sir! be to her as a father. Love her tenderly, ...
— True Riches - Or, Wealth Without Wings • T.S. Arthur
... died away in the distance, the widow wrung her hands and exclaimed, "Yonder ride Apelles and his men of war to Modin, to do the bidding of the tyrant; and they bear the accursed thing with them, to be set up on high and worshipped. Alas! they will compel all the Hebrews at Modin to bow down to their idol ...
— Hebrew Heroes - A Tale Founded on Jewish History • AKA A.L.O.E. A.L.O.E., Charlotte Maria Tucker
... a hundred times of that day's business, and the last brutal outrage on poor Charlie had called up even in his seared breast a fleeting feeling of indescribable shame. It was, alas! ...
— The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch • Talbot Baines Reed
... independent, outspoken boys and girls is easy if the teacher will only lay hold of the heart instead of the coat collar, but, alas, the latter method takes less time. The world holds nothing truer and sweeter than the love of a child at this age, free as it is from all affectation and policy, and it is there in every heart, awaiting the touch of the teacher who can find the hidden spring. The contact on Sunday ...
— The Unfolding Life • Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux
... the rival chief saw a chance of regaining his lost power. This consideration was not, however, lost upon Abdullah. He accepted the offer with apparent delight, but he professed himself unable to spare any rifles for the army which Ali-Wad-Helu aspired to lead. 'Alas!' he cried, 'there are none. But that will make no difference to so famous a warrior.' Ali-Wad-Helu, however, considered that it would make a great deal of difference, and declined the command. Osman Sheikh-ed-Din offered to lead the army, if he might ...
— The River War • Winston S. Churchill
... "Alas! my father, whose name do you now pronounce? Pray for me, or at least do not sink me to Gehenna with ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - ALI PACHA • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... YORK. Alas, what joy shall noble Talbot have, To bid his young son welcome to his grave? Away! vexation almost stops my breath, That sunder'd friends greet in the hour of death. Lucy, farewell: no more my fortune can, But curse ...
— King Henry VI, First Part • William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]
... But, alas for Lena! Bessie could see no way out of the difficulty more than Lena could herself. In spite of her ardent wish to do this, her upright little soul could by no means advise or justify for this ...
— Bessie Bradford's Prize • Joanna H. Mathews
... turned cruel; Yet three filled zodiacs had he been The stage's jewel; And did act, what now we moan, Old men so duly; As, sooth, the Parcae thought him one He played so truly. So, by error to his fate They all consented; But viewing him since, alas, too late! They have repented; And have sought to give new birth, In baths to steep him; But, being so much too good for earth, Heaven vows to ...
— Discoveries and Some Poems • Ben Jonson |
