"Boast" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... who come from the sunny land cannot boast all these qualifications, Mr. De Luca, baritone of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, can do so. Gifted with a naturally fine organ, he has cultivated it arduously and to excellent purpose. He began to study in early youth, became a student of Saint Cecilia in Rome when fifteen years ...
— Vocal Mastery - Talks with Master Singers and Teachers • Harriette Brower
... their subtle minds can bring a certain awe of profound marvelling." He has given to her such a glorious exaltation that after Rachel and Eve she of all women is enthroned in the glowing Rose of Heaven next to the Virgin Mother, "our tainted nature's solitary boast," and so enthroned, Beatrice is at once his beloved and the symbol of revelation, the heavenly light that discloses to mankind both the true end of our being and ...
— Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" • John T. Slattery
... in the club in relation to the Maud. Donald had confidently asserted his belief, weeks before, that she would outsail the Skylark, not as a mere boast, but as a matter of business. His father had made an improvement upon the model of the Sea Foam, which he was reasonably certain would give her the advantage. The young boat-builder had also remedied a slight defect in the arrangement of the centre-board in the Maud, had added ...
— The Yacht Club - or The Young Boat-Builder • Oliver Optic
... then, things left doe please us most, Who a sure building can from vertue boast, To him the smoke of's father's Hall Doth never hurt his eyes at all. Vertue oft-times, rich in a rustick ease Confines her selfe to her owne private blisse; And in the guiltlesse straw, her throne With great ...
— The Odes of Casimire, Translated by G. Hils • Mathias Casimire Sarbiewski
... Will stoutly; 'you do not understand my meaning. As to whether I have ever loved you or not, I must leave that to others. But for one thing, my feeling is not changed; and for another, you may make it your boast that you have made my whole life and character something different from what they were. I mean what I say; no less. I do not think getting married is worth while. I would rather you went on living with your father, so that I could walk over and see you ...
— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson
... daughter. All your vexations were but trials of your love, and you have nobly stood the test. Then as my gift, which your true love has worthily purchased, take my daughter, and do not smile that I boast she is above all praise." He then, telling them that he had business which required his presence, desired they would sit down and talk together till he returned; and this command Miranda seemed not at ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
... of eyes were fixed upon his face, none could boast that they had perceived any change in its somewhat severe impassiveness as he now advanced towards ...
— "Unto Caesar" • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... their intelligence, and their heart and their soul, and their wits. They emerge thence, and decamp from their families. All newspapers are pests; all, even the Drapeau Blanc! At bottom, Martainville was a Jacobin. Ah! just Heaven! you may boast of having driven your grandfather to ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... When slaves of the desk and counting-house are looking forward for an all too brief vacation and seek the mountains or seashore to store up energy for another year's work, they should know how to swim. Poor, indeed, is the region which can not boast of a piece of water in which to ...
— Swimming Scientifically Taught - A Practical Manual for Young and Old • Frank Eugen Dalton and Louis C. Dalton
... glory; the poet does not forget the group, already formed in his day, of the braggarts who boast of ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand
... house and store their choicest furniture. Opposite, a great many foreigners were crowding in; and down below, Houston Street and Avenue A. were filling up with them. We felt so large and grand then, with our great stretches of unoccupied land, that we invited the oppressed from everywhere. It was our boast that,— ...
— A Little Girl of Long Ago • Amanda Millie Douglas
... there no more, but weariness of state, Or could you, like great Scipio, retire, Call Rome ungrateful, and sit down with that; Such inward gallantry would gain you more Than all the sullied conquests you can boast: But oh, you want that Roman mastery; You have too much of the tumultuous times, And I must mourn ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden
... thoughts" which Mrs Howitt finds it the greatest delight of her literary life to translate? One is a little curious to know how far this beauty has been increased or diminished by their admiring translator; but unfortunately we can boast no Scandinavian scholarship. This novel, however, is not without some striking passages, whether of description of natural scenery, or of human life. Of these, the little episode of the fate of Steffen-Margaret recurs most vividly ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various
... cannot be asserted, as there are still many thousands freely available to anyone, but which are not taken. The conveniences of life are pretty evenly distributed throughout Freeland, and no town can boast of attractions which are not balanced by attractions of other kinds in other towns. Eden Vale, for instance, possesses the most splendid buildings, and is distinguished by incomparable natural beauty; hence it is less adapted ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka
... with imprudent warmth, "it is not the character of the aristocracy of this country to keep people down. They make way amongst themselves for any man, whatever his birth, who has the talent and energy to aspire to their level. That's the especial boast ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 • Various
... two arms stretching far out on either side, it does not appear to be as large as it really is,—being about sixteen miles long, and four wide, affording sufficient elbow room, however, for its eight thousand inhabitants. The soil is sandy, but is cultivated to some extent; and though they can boast of no extensive forests, yet you may occasionally meet with an old friend in the way of a noble elm, or the pensive weeping willow. The culture of fruit trees, also, is receiving much attention of later years, and ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale
... taught to say 'Thanky' when folks got me out of scrapes. But you never had much bringing up, though you do 'live in a house with a gambrel roof,'" retorted Ben, sarcastically quoting Sam's frequent boast; then he walked off, much disgusted ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 • Various
... short Butch's boast of the way they had scared young Keith. Both Hahn and Parsons felt a coil of embarrassment at the silence, almost the serenity, of their captive. They had expected her to act far differently, to rage, threaten, cry ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn
... both were furiously in love; and, as I said, every one, even a married man, one of my messmates, fell down and worshipped the lovely (and lovely they were, and no mistake) Spanish girls of Buenos Ayres, whose type of beauty is that which only the blue blood of Spain can boast of. Now, reader, don't be shocked, I fell in love myself, and my love affair proved of a more serious nature, at least in its results, than that of the others, because, while the daughter (she was sixteen, ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha
... you will open my breast you will find an old man's broken heart, and across the rent your name will be written in the ragged edges. How handsome you are to-night! How fair a lad you were! Such face and form and high-strung soul, the heart of an ancient knight come back to earth, I used to boast! God's grace is wonderful, His ways past finding out. When we seem forsaken, He is but preparing larger blessings on some grander plan whose end we do not see. He is my shepherd; I shall not want. He leadeth me—I ...
— The One Woman • Thomas Dixon
... hate:— My clansman's blood demands revenge. Not yet prepared?—By heaven, I change My thought, and hold thy valour light As that of some vain carpet knight, Who ill deserved my courteous care, And whose best boast is but to wear A braid of his fair lady's hair."— "I thank thee, Roderick, for the word! It nerves my heart, it steels my sword; For I have sworn this braid to stain In the best blood that warms thy vein. Now, truce, farewell! ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various
... dangerous days, for dangerous they truly are— like those of the Scribes and Pharisees of old; days in which bigotry and hardness of heart, hypocrisy and lip-profession stalk triumphant; days, in which men, like the Scribes and Pharisees of old, boast of the Bible, worship the Bible, think they have eternal life in the Bible, spend vast sums every year in spreading the Bible; and yet will neither read the Bible honestly, nor obey its plain commands—In such days as these, what prophet shall we fall back upon? ...
— Town and Country Sermons • Charles Kingsley
... had several encounters with them with various success. In 1549, he rebuilt the city of Serena in a more commodious situation, and the inhabitants have ever since considered him as the founder of their city, many of the most distinguished inhabitants of which still boast ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr
... the origin of heresies; the battles of the Pope and Christendom against them; words of Roman historians on the value of unity; the rareness of the gift of interpreting languages, of which he himself could not boast; in short, every thing but that which was demanded. Yet even here Zwingli never suffered him to wait for an answer, but just as often as the Vicar, with unwearied volubility renewed his digressions, he brought him ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... childhood. How would it have cheered the spirit of the youthful bard, when, wandering forth in disgrace upon a doubtful world, he cast a heavy look upon his pastoral home, could he have foreseen that, before many years, he should return to it covered with renown; that his name should become the boast and glory of his native place; that his ashes should be religiously guarded as its most precious treasure; and that its lessening spire, on which his eyes were fixed in tearful contemplation, should one day become the beacon, towering amidst the gentle landscape, to guide ...
— The Illustrated London Reading Book • Various
... vile!— Would make his heart her boast: In the growing glamour of her smile He forgot the lovely ghost: Forgot her for bitterness wrapt in wile, For the lady was false as a crocodile, And her heart ...
— Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Vol. 2 • George MacDonald
... was sayin', at that very moment I spied a black fellow stealin' away in the direction of my 'oss. He saw me too, but thought I didn't see 'im. Up I jumps, an' run for the 'oss. Up 'e jumps an' run likewise. But I was nearer than 'im, an' a deal faster—though I don't mean to boast—" ...
— The Settler and the Savage • R.M. Ballantyne
... make an affecting picture," he said mockingly to his men. He was feverishly excited, and must boast to some one. "No pliant damsel to rush into his longing arms! He is to be embraced though, my masters, if ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough
... and tiptoed about and gave little half-giggles and thrilled with success. He did catch Sam presently, and the boy did not enjoy it a bit. Not that he minded being blindfolded, but he should have liked to boast that grandfather could not ...
— A Little Girl in Old Boston • Amanda Millie Douglas
... smile for such unfortunates. Now, at the time at which we write, that is, about the middle of the month of April, three hundred thousand miserable beings, dying from cold and hunger, groaned in Paris alone—in that Paris where, in spite of the boast that scarcely another city contained so many rich people, nothing had been prepared to prevent the poor from perishing of ...
— The Queen's Necklace • Alexandre Dumas pere
... my own case: I am in my eighty-fourth year. I could wish that I had been able to make the same boast as Cyrus; but, after all, I can say this: I am not indeed as vigorous as I was as a private soldier in the Punic war, or as quaestor in the same war, or as consul in Spain, and four years later when as a military tribune ...
— Treatises on Friendship and Old Age • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... son of Uthecar Hornskin of Ulster. "Is it of him ye boast, whom I myself slew and cut off ...
— The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland • T. W. Rolleston
... Christmas dinner, whenever I like, with the Bishop of Saskabasquia, whom I count as perhaps the finest specimen of healthy Christian manhood I have ever met, and although I can still laugh at the fun of "The Private Secretary" I can say that even among her clergy England can boast of heroes in these latter days as noble and disinterested as in years ...
— Crowded Out! and Other Sketches • Susie F. Harrison
... secretly rejoiced that she would not need to practice. In her heart she had not liked her music lessons at all, but she had never dreamed of not accepting them from Aunt Frances as she accepted everything else. Also she had liked to hear Aunt Frances boast about how much better she could play than other children of ...
— Understood Betsy • Dorothy Canfield
... oil-painting reached Venice through Antonello da Messina, who had learned the art in the Netherlands. But that cannot be true. It came to Venice from Verona or Padua long after Florence could boast many fine masters, the delay being due to the circumstance that the Venetians thought more of architecture than the sister art. The first painters to make any success in Venice were the Vivarini of Murano. The next ...
— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas
... with pins and needles. It is said that when Odin was near his death he ordered himself to be marked with a spear; and Niort, one of his successors, followed the example of his predecessor. Shakespeare speaks of "such as boast and show their scars." In the olden times it was not uncommon for a noble soldier to make public exhibition of his scars with the greatest pride; in fact, on the battlefield they invited the reception ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... banish gloomy looks, 'My grey old steward shuts his books. 'Let not a thought of winter's rent 'Destroy one evening's merriment; 'I ask not gold, but tribute found 'Abundant on Parnassian ground. 'Choose, ye who boast the gift, your themes 'Of joy or pathos, tales or dreams, 'Choose each a theme;—but, harkye, bring 'No stupid ghost, no vulgar thing; 'Fairies, indeed, may wind their way, 'And sparkle through the brightest ...
— May Day With The Muses • Robert Bloomfield
... my seeking?" he asked. "It is your brother I am awaiting. Name of a name, Citoyenne, do you think my patience inexhaustible? The ci-devant Vicomte promised to attend me here. It was the boast of your order that whatever sins you might be guilty of you never broke your word. Have you lost even that virtue, which served you as a cloak for untold vices? And is your brother fled into the woods whilst you, his sister, come here to intercede with me for his wretched ...
— The Trampling of the Lilies • Rafael Sabatini
... whole, however, the youths were attached to their master, and he, a good-natured, though an absent and whimsical man, was scarce less so to them; and when a little warmed with wine at an occasional junketing, he used to boast, in his northern dialect, of his "twa bonnie lads, and the looks that the court ladies threw at them, when visiting his shop in their caroches, when on a frolic into the city." But David Ramsay never failed, at the same time, to draw up his own tall, thin, lathy skeleton, ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott
... be wondered whether any girl who was ever born into the world could boast a stranger or a happier upbringing than Miriam. She was, it is true, motherless, but by way of compensation Fate endowed her with several hundred fathers, each of whom loved her as the apple of his eye. She did not call them "Father" indeed, a term which under the circumstances ...
— Pearl-Maiden • H. Rider Haggard
... Democratic Party always carried everything. The ruler of the district was therefore the Democratic boss, a little Irishman named Mike Scully. Scully held an important party office in the state, and bossed even the mayor of the city, it was said; it was his boast that he carried the stockyards in his pocket. He was an enormously rich man—he had a hand in all the big graft in the neighborhood. It was Scully, for instance, who owned that dump which Jurgis and Ona had ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair
... fellows, ambitious to win From me some plume, that thy success may show Destruction to the rest. This pause between (Unanswered lest thou boast) to let ...
— Among My Books • James Russell Lowell
... arrest. I'll roast the dab; I'll arrest the rascal.—Also to jeer, ridicule, or banter. He stood the roast; he was the butt.—Roast meat clothes; Sunday or holiday-clothes. To cry roast meat; to boast of one's situation. To rule the roast; to be master ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.
... Schenectady had been an important depot of the Mohawk River boat trade to the westward, but after the completion of the canal it suffered a decline. The modern manufacturing era, beginning about 1880, brought Schenectady growth and prosperity. To-day the city can boast that its products "light and haul the world." As we enter the town we pass on the left the main establishment of the General Electric Co., the largest electrical manufacturing plant in the world, with 200 buildings ...
— The Greatest Highway in the World • Anonymous
... I would drive him to the boat when he was sent to England. "It'll seem odd to be going off on a stretcher, Miss," he said sadly, "just like one of the boys, and not even so much as a scratch to boast of." I pointed out that there were many men in England half his age who had done nothing but secure cushy jobs ...
— Fanny Goes to War • Pat Beauchamp
... a philosopher nor a banker, or perhaps being both, and seeing there was nothing to be got out of a king's attorney, died of grief or anger at finding, after an absence of nine months, that you had been enceinte six. I am brutal,—I not only allow it, but boast of it; it is one of the reasons of my success in commercial business. Why did he kill himself instead of you? Because he had no cash to save. My life belongs to my cash. M. Debray has made me lose 700,000 francs; let him bear his share of the loss, and we will go on as before; if not, let him become ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... not sit here gassing any longer. Tod, chase over and ask your dad where that wrench is—unless you've got a notion I can twist this thing off with my hands." He gave a playful tug as if to carry out his boast. ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island • Gordon Stuart
... Exchange has long since conceded a special 'market'; and it has even conferred upon these stocks a nickname—the surest indication of importance and popularity. And that 'Kangaroos,' as they were fondly called, could boast of importance and popularity nobody would dare ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... high Titles.] This People are very Ambitious of their Titles having but little else that they can boast in; and of Names and Titles of respect they have great plenty in their Language; instances whereof ...
— An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon In The East Indies • Robert Knox
... go, then!" cried Arroyo, yielding reluctantly to the authority that had awed him; "but if you ever boast of the arrogant language you have used to me, Carajo!" and the brigand hissed out the infamous oath. "As for General Morelos," he added, "you may say to him, that each of us fights according to his own way; and, notwithstanding his threats, I ...
— The Tiger Hunter • Mayne Reid
... fruit farm in—of all places—Rhodesia. No capital. Not a penny coming to him. No chance of his income increasing for at least four years. As for looks and all that sort of thing, he was completely out of the running. He couldn't even boast of top-hole health, for the East Africa business had knocked him out so thoroughly that he'd had to take six months' leave. He was still fearfully pale—worse even than usual this afternoon, he thought, bending forward and peering into the mirror. ...
— The Garden Party • Katherine Mansfield
... Singe his workes' land and high renown; For in his time of strength he bare the flow'r. He slew and reft the skin of the lion He of the Centaurs laid the boast adown; He Harpies slew, the cruel birdes fell; He golden apples reft from the dragon He drew out ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer
... War days and early Reconstruction, was simple as compared to present day togs. Cloth woven from homespun thread was the only kind Negroes had. Every house of any note could boast of a spinning wheel and loom. Cotton, picked by slaves, was cleared of the seed and spun into thread and woven into cloth by them. It was common to know how to spin and weave. Some of the cloth was dyed afterwards with dye made from indigo ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Florida Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... one has lived in China one remains in a condition of mental suspense unable to decide which is the filthiest city of the Republic. The residents of Foochow boast that for offensiveness to the senses no town can compare with theirs, and although Amoy and several other places dispute this questionable title, we were inclined to grant it unreservedly to Foochow. It is like a medieval city with its narrow, ill-paved streets wandering ...
— Camps and Trails in China - A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China • Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews
... defeat Pebble by a neck in the Troy Stakes. This season he has only run twice. His fourth in the Two Thousand was by no means a bad performance, considering that he was palpably backward; and his victory of last week is too recent to need further allusion. Porter, his trainer, can boast of several other successes in the great race at Epsom; but Charles Wood had never previously ridden a Derby winner. St. Blaise was unfortunately omitted from the entries for the St. Leger, but has several valuable engagements at ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883 • Various
... crippled and disabled; beside, Tom Aldis always felt a nervous dread in being where people were ill and suffering. He thought once or twice how little compassion for Nancy these country neighbors expressed. Even her father seemed inclined to boast of her, rather than to pity the poor life that was so hindered. Business affairs and conference were appointed for that afternoon, so that by the middle of the morning he found himself walking up the yard to the Gales' ...
— The Life of Nancy • Sarah Orne Jewett
... test of the victory—the test of the man's power and the creature's intelligence. The horse was to go to the man, at the man's bidding alone, without force or coercion. "The better they are the sooner you learn 'em that," was one of Jack's pet theories, while his proudest boast—his only boast—perhaps was that he'd "never been beaten ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn
... with laughter and ridicule. His cowhide boots in particular were made matter of mirth. But he kept on cheerfully and bravely, day after day, never shunning observation, driving the widow's cow and wearing his thick boots. He never explained why he drove the cow; for he was not inclined to make a boast of his charitable motives. It was by mere accident that his kindness and self-denial were ...
— Stories Worth Rereading • Various
... that life-germ planted by Adam Smith, earned, not from the lips of Napoleon as is commonly supposed, but from one of the Revolutionary party—Bertrand Barrere in the National Assembly in 1794, when the tide of feeling had been turned by events the well-known taunt—"let Pitt then boast of his victory to a nation of shop-keepers." The instinct for persistent methodical plodding work which extracted this taunt, afterwards vanquished Napoleon at Waterloo, and enabled the English to pass what, when you come to gauge ...
— Fragments of Two Centuries - Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King • Alfred Kingston
... the more slaves one owns, the greater and more influential is he reckoned. The people are divided into three classes. The Datos, who correspond to knights, are the most important; the Tigamas [S: Timaguas] are the freemen; and the Orispes are the slaves. The Datos boast of their old lineage. These people rob and enslave one another, although of the same island and even kindred. They are cruel among themselves. They do not often dare to kill one another, except by treachery or at great odds; and him who ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 - Volume III, 1569-1576 • E.H. Blair
... Sexwolf, showing the whole of his teeth through his forest of beard, "love boast and big talk; and, on my troth, thou mayest have thy belly full of them yet; for we are still in the track of Harold, and Harold never leaves behind him a foe. Thou art as safe here, as if ...
— Harold, Complete - The Last Of The Saxon Kings • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey
... entertainment as on the Rummage Sale. It was something entirely new and unique, and the whole neighborhood entered into it with great enthusiasm. Between the little village by the sea, which numbered about two thousand, and the radius known as District No. 5, which could not boast half that number, there was a kind of rivalry, the district claiming that it excelled the village in the quality of its inhabitants, if not in quantity. Its people were mostly well educated and intelligent, and they had Col. Crompton, with his ...
— The Cromptons • Mary J. Holmes
... boast of Waring's. Worthless as he was in so many respects, he was remarkably skilful with the axe, as he now proved by the rapid manner in which he severed the trunk of the large elm on which he was at work. He inquired of Ben where he should "lay the tree," and when it came clattering down, it fell ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper
... severely pressing. Pelznickel, Nick, Nickel - St. Nicolas, muffled in fur, is one of the few riders in the army of the saints, but, unlike St. George and St. Martin, he oftener rides a donkey than a horse, more especially in that part of the German land which can boast of having given birth to the illustrious Hans. St. Nicolas is supposed, on the night preceding his name-day, the sixth of December, to pass over the house-tops on his long-eared steed, and having baskets ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland
... are there more wicked wretches than some outside the prison, who have "put on the livery of heaven to serve the devil in?" What meaner men inhabit God's earth than some who have succeeded in working themselves into the church, and can boast of coming to the communion regularly? How many profess and fall away on every hand, yes, sink deeper in corruption than before! The fact is, this pretended argument to the disadvantage of the prisoner is all ...
— The Prison Chaplaincy, And Its Experiences • Hosea Quinby
... When one of his little boys clapped his hands at the thought of the approaching holidays, the Doctor gently checked him, and repeated the story of his own early childhood; how his own father had made him read aloud a sermon on the text 'Boast not thyself of tomorrow"; and how, within the week, his father was dead. On the title page of his MS. volume of sermons, he was always careful to write the date of its commencement, leaving a blank ...
— Eminent Victorians • Lytton Strachey
... however, though somewhat crestfallen at the non- fulfilment of his boast, was still confident in the powers of the ship; but the weather, he explained, had been rather against them that day, the wind had been just a trifle too strong for the Cloud to put out her best paces, whilst it had been all in favour of the other and more powerful ship. But the wind ...
— The Missing Merchantman • Harry Collingwood
... can boast nothing but an extreme and unquenchable love for the art to which my humble aspirations are confined, my lyre has been a solace when every thing else has failed; soothing when agitated, and when at peace furnishing that exercise ...
— Zophiel - A Poem • Maria Gowen Brooks
... yellow-haired Saxon, no better than a savage of some cannibal island of the South Sea—a fellow who tore his roast meat with unwashed fingers, and never knew the luxury of a clean shirt. Make a family for yourself, I say; and let the hundredth generation down, if the world last so long, boast that the head of the house was a gentleman, and wore gold lace on ...
— The King's Highway • G. P. R. James
... parents boast that their children are "great readers," just as if their intelligence should, in their opinion, be measured by the number of books and papers which they had read! Need I say, that, on the contrary, they are ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... the direction. "No woman has ever been our guest, but I invite you to visit it and lunch there. Or, if you prefer, remain here and in a few minutes I will bring such food as we can offer. At best it's not much to boast of. We chamois hunters are ...
— The Princess Virginia • C. N. Williamson
... Oxford, he withdrew with his followers and prepared for resistance. "Though all men quit me," he cried, "I will remain with my four sons and fight for the good cause which I have sworn to defend—the honour of Holy Church and the good of the realm." This was no mere boast. The more his associates fell away, the more the Montfort family took the lead. While Leicester organised resistance in the south, he sent his elder sons, Simon and Henry, to head the revolt in the midlands ...
— The History of England - From the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377) • T.F. Tout
... great Kentish family which at one time could boast of having twelve members bearing the order of Knighthood. [Footnote: Kent. Arch. XXI, 212.] A Thomas Culpeper was Member of Parliament for Kent in 1361 and ...
— Chaucer's Official Life • James Root Hulbert
... little, a voluntary wallflower, for she looked radiant in tussore silk, and there was an air of refinement about the slight, pretty girl that attracted the beaux of the Club. But she only gave a duty dance to Sam, and a waltz to Daniel Hyams, who had been brought by his sister, though he did not boast a swallow-tail to match her flowing draperies. Hannah caught a rather unamiable glance from pretty Bessie Sugarman, whom poor Daniel was trying hard not ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... transaction. The danger is averted, but the glory of the achievement also is lost. Mahto-Tatonka proceeded after a more gallant and dashing fashion. Out of several dozen squaws whom he had stolen, he could boast that he had never paid for one, but snapping his fingers in the face of the injured husband, had defied the extremity of his indignation, and no one had yet dared to lay the hand of violence upon him. He was following close in the footsteps of his father. The young ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck
... ten for a minute to find myself light-headed and altogether off my legs; went to sleep again, and woke this morning fairly fit. I have crippled on to p. 101, but I haven't read it yet, so do not boast. What kills me is the frame of mind of one of the characters; I cannot get it through. Of course that does not interfere with my total inability to write; so that yesterday I was a living half-hour upon a single clause and have a gallery of variants ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... ramifications and its remarkable effects. Every caste, down to the lowest, is endlessly sub-divided. There are Brahmans who would as soon eat, drink, and intermarry with people of low caste, as with many who like themselves boast of Brahmanical blood. In books the Sudras are described as the fourth, the low, servile caste; but in fact a vast number in Northern India, who are loosely reckoned Hindus, are far below the Sudras, and ...
— Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 • James Kennedy
... merchants still maintained their opposition to the construction of the fort. "If we fortify Quebec," they said, "the garrisons will be the masters of the ground, and our trade will be over." Guillaume de Caen supported the opposition by saying that the Spaniards would take possession of New France, if a boast were made of its resources. The king, finally, had to undertake the defence of the ...
— The Makers of Canada: Champlain • N. E. Dionne
... little maternal tenderness, and repelled all exhibition of affection on my part, she has treated me very differently from her other children, and with much greater consideration. I can make slight boast of education, but the best the village could afford has been given me; and I have derived much religious culture from good Doctor Ormerod. The kind ladies of the vicarage proposed, as you have done, that I should live ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... is not to acquire; to decorate is not to make; and the man, who had nothing to do but to read the ancient authors, who mention the Roman affairs, and reduce them to common places, ought not to boast himself as a great ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... To him an heir was afterward born, a son in his halls, whom heaven sent to favor the folk, feeling their woe that erst they had lacked an earl for leader so long a while; the Lord endowed him, the Wielder of Wonder, with world's renown. Famed was this Beowulf: {0a} far flew the boast of him, son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands. So becomes it a youth to quit him well with his father's friends, by fee and gift, that to aid him, aged, in after days, come warriors willing, should war draw nigh, liegemen ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... a time when the two felt almost a part of the deep—two mortals admitted into all the hidden evils that lurk thereon. Their lot to witness the inception of mighty tempests; to hear great gray waves boast of the harm they had done and the winds to plan their rending deeds. Perhaps they themselves would be called to the work, to deal to some proud vessel the death blow as ...
— Dan Merrithew • Lawrence Perry
... true,' he answered simply. He made no boast or brag on his own account, I noticed; and it came home to me that he was a faithful fellow, such as I love. I questioned him discreetly, and learned that he and Clon and an older man who lived over the stables were ...
— Under the Red Robe • Stanley Weyman
... thou glory in thy choice. Thy choice of his good fortune boast; I 'll neither grieve nor yet rejoice, To see him gain what I have lost; The height of my disdain shall be, To laugh at him, to blush for thee; To love thee still, but go no more A begging to ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various
... peace with me, for now I have drawn the sword Dainsleif, which was smithied by the dwarfs, and must be the death of a man whenever it is drawn; its blows never miss the mark, and the wounds made by it never heal. Said Hedin: You boast the sword, but not the victory. That I call a good sword that is always faithful to its master. Then they began the battle which is called the Hjadninga-vig (the slaying of the Hedinians); they ...
— The Younger Edda - Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda • Snorre
... calculate as can be,' he unhesitatingly answered, 'and that is my own interest. I don't make no boast of my loyalty, as you say, to be sure, Mr. Grantham, but I've an eye like a hawk for the rhino, and I han't giv' you this piece of news without expectin' a promise that I shall git a purty considerable ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson
... only to go into the streets of any great city in England to see how we, with all our boast of civilisation, are yet but one step removed from barbarism. Is that a hard word? Only there are the barbarians round us at every street corner—grown barbarians, it may be, now all but past saving, but bringing into the world young barbarians whom we may yet save, for God wishes us ...
— Daily Thoughts - selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife • Charles Kingsley
... poor Madam Peniston was well and sharply answered; but it was not in my Aunt Gainor not to boast a little of how we were the elder branch, and of what might chance in the fairy future. When Mrs. Peniston saw the deed, and was told of the search my aunt was making for letters to support our claims, she was too excited ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell
... and aggravating gait. The more impatient people were for their letters, the more tedious was he in his delivery. Benjafield had been a fisherman in his day, and had a very sharp, withered old face. He had a blind eye, too, and walked by the aid of a crutch but it was his boast that, notwithstanding his one eye and his lameness, no one had ever yet got the better ...
— The Honorable Miss - A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town • L. T. Meade
... conscience—happier, perhaps, in this than if he had enjoyed the ecclesiastical preferment which King William seemed so anxious to give him. Amongst the clergy, Dr. Burnet was, with the single exception of Dean Swift, the greatest Freethinker of whom we can boast, who held an influential position in the Church. This position is sometimes claimed for Bishop Berkeley, a man of vast talents, a sincere Christian, ...
— Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers - Reprinted From an English Work, Entitled "Half-Hours With - The Freethinkers." • Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts
... concession on his part. He wore no orders. An order of the third or fourth class held no allurement. Nothing less than the Golden Fleece would have interested him, and the grand duke himself could not boast of this rare and distinguished order. In truth, Carmichael coveted nothing but a medal for valor, and his own country had not yet come to recognize the ...
— The Goose Girl • Harold MacGrath
... extensively in spiceries; but it is uncertain, whether they brought them directly from the Mediterranean: they likewise traded to the east country or Baltic countries. About a century afterwards, that is in 1453, France could boast of her wealthy merchant, as well as Florence and England. His name was Jacques Coeur: he is said to have employed 300 factors, and to have traded with the Turks and Persians; his exports were chiefly woollen cloth, linen, and paper; and his imports consisted ...
— Robert Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 • William Stevenson
... of that homely rustic metaphor! You use it at 'banquets' and directors' meetings, and boast of your climb from a ...
— Main Street • Sinclair Lewis
... You make a boast of loving your husband so much; I see now how much your love's worth. Any other good wife, on seeing her husband off, would wail for a good hour and a half, lying on the steps; but one can see ...
— The Storm • Aleksandr Nicolaevich Ostrovsky
... wild commotion in your ridiculous little court. I've been there. It's a kingdom of crazy patriots who grant freedom of marital choice to their princes to freshen and strengthen the royal blood; and they boast an ancient line of queens wiser than Catherine of Russia. A hidden paper purporting to be a deathbed statement of Prince Theodomir's—this little daughter of Nanca and the artist—and, Lord! what complications we could have ...
— Diane of the Green Van • Leona Dalrymple
... if she has not a word the moment the scene is over. Why? You don't understand! You don't reflect! I will tell you, Leo, if you are so simple. You think she does not know that the public can see she talks to you? She knows it well; and that is why she talks. It is to boast of her friendship with you, her alliance with you. She says to the ladies in the stalls, 'See here, I can talk to him when I please—you are away—you are outside.' It is her vanity. She says to them, 'You can buy his portrait ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black
... pet lambs, two or three pigs, about twenty fowls, eight children which seemed a dozen, and Mrs M'Swat bundled out through the back door at our approach. Those children, not through poverty—M'Swat made a boast of his substantial banking account—but on account of ignorance and slatternliness, were the dirtiest urchins I have ever seen, and were so ragged that those parts of them which should have been covered ...
— My Brilliant Career • Miles Franklin
... visit. But if not, king and people would be very severely punished for the insult offered to their potent visitors, "and," continued the professor, "in order that Lualamba might see for himself that, in making this threat, they were indulging in no mere empty boast, he would give the chief and his followers a single ...
— The Log of the Flying Fish - A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... rests, therefore, on that great debate. Judge Douglas had long been famous as an experienced politician and an exceptionally skilful debater. As lawyers both ranked high in their State at a time when the bar of Illinois could boast of exceptionally brilliant and ...
— Fifty Years of Public Service • Shelby M. Cullom
... sole cause of this wretchedness; for although, in such circumstances, the unfortunate debtor had been willing to relinquish all his possessions; to surrender his land, his cattle, his stock, and every thing else of which he could boast of the possession; nothing short of payment in money could satisfy; and the ill-fated was doomed to experience the accumulated horrors of personal suffering, in addition to that which must arise from the idea that his sorrows extended themselves, ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann
... a plain little creature, with no color to boast of, while all my cousins have gorgeously colored gowns. Oh, how I do wish he would give me two feathers from his tail that I might have them made into ...
— Sandman's Goodnight Stories • Abbie Phillips Walker
... up town, as he jolted about in his seat, he angrily regretted the meeting with Plank, even in spite of the cheque. What demon had possessed him to boast—to display his hand when there had been no necessity? Plank was still ready to give him aid at a crisis—had always been ready. Time enough when Plank turned stingy to use persuasion; time enough when Plank attempted to dodge him to employ a club. And now, for ...
— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers
... and of wisdom, as they are acts of judgment and selection, exercised not on good and just and expedient only, but also on wicked, unjust, and inexpedient objects, do not give their commendations to the mere innocence whose boast is its inexperience of evil, and whose truer name is, by their award, suppleness and ignorance of what all men who live aright should know. The ancient Spartans, at their festivals, used to force their Helots to swallow large quantities of raw wine, and then to expose them at the public ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... this time as angry against the Pretender as any of her relations could be, and used to boast, as I have heard, that she not only brought back my Lord to the Church of England, but procured the English peerage for him, which the JUNIOR BRANCH of our family at present enjoys. She was a great friend ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray
... undecided: She now puts off her vengeance till to-morrow. Her projects all appear to slay each other. "Some knowledge I have gained of this boy's fate," So did I say; "now of his ancestry They have begun to boast: from time to time Joad shows him to the factious, holds him up, As if another Moses, to the Jews, And lying oracles support his speech." These words did cause the blood to mount her brow: Ne'er lucky fable had such prompt effect. "Must I drag on in this uncertainty? Let us escape," ...
— Athaliah • J. Donkersley
... perhaps, great strategic insight—Tromp and de Ruyter were his superiors there, as was also Nelson—but he, more than any other, won for England her mastery of the sea, and no other can boast his record of great victories. These he won partly by skill and forethought but chiefly by intrepidity. We can do no better than leave his fame in the words of the Royalist historian, Clarendon—a political enemy—who says: "He quickly made himself signal there (on the sea) and was the first ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott
... set composed of filibusters with varied decorations, all noble, all titled, all unknown at the embassies, with the exception of those who are spies. All talk of their honor without the slightest occasion for doing so, boast of their ancestors, tell you about their lives, braggarts, liars, sharpers, as dangerous as the false cards they have up their sleeves, as delusive as their name—in short, the aristocracy of ...
— The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5 (of 8) - Une Vie and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893
... woman has no such hope. Though she believes that the soul will live forever in the "city of spirits," yet the infant she has nursed at her bosom, the child she loved and tended, the young man whose strength and beauty were her boast, will soon be ashes ...
— Dahcotah - Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling • Mary Eastman
... evil there was a set of cynics who sneered at all things, the incapacity of the Town Guard, its Officers, etc. For a long time the favourite boast of these gentlemen was that they had refused commissions in the Town Guard. It was true; and it is worth recalling why. At the beginning of the Siege little coteries were formed, "rings" were established, private meetings held—at which gatherings it was settled who was to be ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... interested in astronomy amongst us, he should turn round to the tablet at the extreme west end, which commemorates young Benjamin Horrocks, the first observer of the transit of Venus in 1639, who was praised by Sir John Herschel as the pride and boast of modern {31} astronomy. Herschel's own bust is on the north wall; he lies side by side with Charles Darwin, near the iron gate. We now leave the west end and progress up the centre of the nave, noticing on our way eastward the old wooden pulpit, ...
— Westminster Abbey • Mrs. A. Murray Smith
... while the boatswain was speaking. He even smiled when he replied—"How can you ask me to give my word of honour? What honour has a pirate to boast of, think you?" ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne
... Sherley, frowning; "because I'd give something to know it. We've tried our level best, and for two years now only picked up a few crumbs of comfort, while the feast's been spread for Riverport. And yet Mechanicsburg has just as good athletes as you can boast. We manage to win now and then, sometimes by sheer hard work, and again by a fluke. But they seem to be only the minor events; all the big ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... quaint little village at the top, having enjoyed our drive exceedingly, and having bought some pretty, quaintly shaped straw baskets from the peasant women en route. After passing into the Cathedral—there is no town or village in Italy too small to boast of its Duomo, or Cathedral—we mounted still higher to the little chapel on the site of an old monastery, and here we had a magnificent view of the valley of the Arno, for nearly half its extent. Florence, with her ...
— Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo • W. Cope Devereux
... they play at chess through the post-office,) that Kate does the trick, that she gets down to the other side; that the soldiers do not: and that the horse, if preserved at all, is preserved in a way that will leave him very little to boast of. ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey |
