"Gainful" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the voyages to the South Sea being mentioned;—JOHNSON. 'Sir, if you talk of it as a subject of commerce, it will be gainful[725]; if as a book that is to increase human knowledge, I believe there will not be much of that. Hawkesworth can tell only what the voyagers have told him; and they have found very little, only one new animal, I think.' BOSWELL. 'But many insects, Sir.' JOHNSON. 'Why, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... hearing hereof, being utterly dismayed, desired to know "What cause there might be, to move him to sink so good a bark of his own, new and strong; and that, by his means, who had been in two so rich and gainful voyages in her with himself heretofore: If his brother, the Master, and the rest of the company [numbering 26] should know of such his fact, he thought verily ...
— Sir Francis Drake Revived • Philip Nichols
... to the resolution to keep company with him for this night at least; and to learn, if possible, who he really was, and to what party in the estate he was attached. The boldness and freedom of his talk seemed almost inconsistent with his following the perilous, though at that time the gainful trade of an informer. No doubt, such persons assumed every appearance which could insinuate them into the confidence of their destined victims; but Julian thought he discovered in this man's manner, a wild ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott
... not the useless lie Of boasting pride or laughing vanity: It was the gainful, the persuading ...
— Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... George I., statutes were passed "authorizing transportation as a commutation punishment for clergyable felonies." These convicts were transported by private shippers, and then sold into the colony; and thus it became a gainful enterprise. From 1700 until 1760 this nefarious and pestiferous traffic greatly increased. At length it became, as already indicated, the subject of a special impost tax. Three or four hundred convicts were imported into ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams
... places, when they wanted to keep up a beehive that was in any danger of dwindling or growing unprofitable. I read it somewhere in a book of popular beliefs and customs about bees and other interesting animals. An old woman once went to her friend, and asked her what she did to make her hive so gainful. And this was what the old wife said; it sounds rather strange to us, but if there is anything irreverent in it, it is the word and not the meaning; 'I go,' she said, 'to the priest, and get a little round Godamighty, and put it in the hive, and then all goes well; the bees thrive, and ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... subject of girls' work outside the home or work in the home for financial return must begin with a general survey of the field of industry, discovering what women have done and are doing, together with the effects of gainful occupation upon the character and ...
— Vocational Guidance for Girls • Marguerite Stockman Dickson
... trade and commerce of these kingdoms is that navigation-act, the rudiments of which were first framed in 1650[e], with a narrow partial view: being intended to mortify the sugar islands, which were disaffected to the parliament and still held out for Charles II, by stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the Dutch[f]; and at the same time to clip the wings of those our opulent and aspiring neighbours. This prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading with any English plantations without licence from the council of state. In 1651[g] ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone
... (be better for) 658. render useful &c (use) 677. Adj. useful; of use &c n.; serviceable, proficuous^, good for; subservient &c (instrumental) 631; conducive &c (tending) 176; subsidiary &c (helping) 707. advantageous &c (beneficial) 648; profitable, gainful, remunerative, worth one's salt; valuable; prolific &c (productive) 168. adequate; efficient, efficacious; effective, effectual; expedient &c 646. applicable, available, ready, handy, at hand, tangible; commodious, adaptable; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... the inferiority of his force; he dreaded also that his adherents, being for the most part tradesmen and artisans, would become impatient of this interruption of their gainful occupations and disheartened by these continual scenes of carnage. He sent missives, therefore, in all haste to Don Fadrique de Toledo, who commanded the Christian forces on the frontier, entreating ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving
... pay their debts: and though they could send them to other markets and remit the money to London, yet they find it necessary to give their English merchant the benefit of the consignment of the tobacco (which is enormously gainful), in order to induce him to continue his ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson
... with the the Phoenician merchants, who, after the discovery of the island, exported every year great quantities of tin, with which they drove a very gainful trade with ...
— A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies - A Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses • Unknown
... know What miserable servitude they prove, What ruin, and what death, that fall in love. Errors, dreams, paleness waiteth on his chair, False fancies o'er the door, and on the stair Are slippery hopes, unprofitable gain, And gainful loss; such steps it doth contain, As who descend, may boast their fortune best; Who most ascend, most fall: a wearied rest, And resting trouble, glorious disgrace; A duskish and obscure illustriousness; Unfaithful loyalty, and cozening faith, That ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... acuteness in detecting the foibles of others, made him a formidable opponent. Further, his marriage with the sister of Bischoffswerder, until lately the King's favourite adviser, added to his influence, which, as was natural with a foreigner, inclined towards the attractive and gainful course. Long afterwards the saviour of Prussia, Baron vom Stein, classed him among the narrow, selfish, insincere men who had been the ruin of nations.[342] Certainly he helped to ruin Poland; and now his conduct at Vienna clogged the efforts of Morton Eden ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose
... praiseful Poet Sense may come: For *Amiell, Amiell, who cannot endite [Sidenote: See his, p. 28.] Of his Thin Value won't disdain to write? The very Him with Gown and Mace did rule The Sanedrim, when guided by a Fool. The Him that did both Sense and Reason shift, That he to gainful Place himself might lift. The very Him that did adjust the Seed Of such as did their Votes for Money breed. The Mighty Him that frothy Notions vents, In hope to turn them into Presidents. The Him of Hims, although in Judgment small, That fain ...
— Anti-Achitophel (1682) - Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden • Elkanah Settle et al.
... which Providence has placed him.' That's modern Christianity. You say—'We did not knock him into the ditch.' How do you know what you have done, or are doing? That's just what we have all got to know, and what we shall never know, until the question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful thing, but how to do the just thing; nor until we are at least so far on the way to being Christian, as to have understood that maxim of the poor half-way Mahometan, 'One hour in the execution of justice is worth seventy ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... furnish them with those articles, would be to aid in bringing on another frontier war, and to lend themselves to the commission of those horrid murders, by which those wars were always distinguished. Remonstrance was fruitless. The gainful traffick which could be then carried on with the Indians, banished every other consideration; and seventy horses, packed with goods, were directed ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers
... be so hopeful as to call it a comfort yet," she said, "too vague is its shape for that. It is a faint plan which I have built on my knowledge of Gilli's nature. As well as I, you know that he cares for nothing but what is gainful for him. Now if I could manage to make myself so ugly that no chief would care to make offers for me... is it not likely that my father would cease to value me and be even glad to get rid of me, to ...
— The Thrall of Leif the Lucky • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... "of a temper to pity the miseries of others. My story is short and simple: I loved the most amiable of women; I was beloved. The avarice of our parents, who both had more gainful views for us, prevented an union on which our happiness depended. My Louisa, who was threatened with an immediate marriage with a man she detested, proposed to me to fly the tyranny of our friends: she had an uncle at Quebec, to whom ...
— The History of Emily Montague • Frances Brooke
... Devil thought he had, 'Mid the misery and confusion Of an unjust war, just made A fortune by the gainful trade Of giving soldiers rations bad— 125 The world is full ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... A gainful trade, but yet make me great trouble Every body leads, and nobody follows Lady Castlemayne's nose out of joynt Make a man wonder at the good fortune of such a fool Mr. William Pen a Quaker again Run over their beads ...
— Widger's Quotations from The Diary of Samuel Pepys • David Widger
... wherabouts, ye shall not find it in these parts. Men say that it is beyond the Dry Tree; and that is afar, God wot! But now, lord Ralph, I rede thee go back again this evening with Andrew, my nephew, for company: forsooth, he will do little less gainful than riding with thee to Upmeads than if he abide in Wulstead; for he is idle. But, my lord, take it not amiss that I spake about the mayor and the tipstaves; for it was but a jest, as thou ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris
... I cannot promise you that you shall fare so well, because they are still desirous of war that hope that it may be profitable to them; and the strongest security you can give of peace, is to make it gainful. Otherwise men will rather choose that whereby they may break your laws, than that whereby your laws may break them. Which I speak not so much in relation to the nobility or such as would be holding, as to the people or them that would be getting; the passion in these being ...
— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington
... now a very popular word for a nouveau-riche, it is a schieber, one who exchanges. Getting your money changed is one of the most wasteful processes for you and one of the most gainful for him. ...
— Europe—Whither Bound? - Being Letters of Travel from the Capitals of Europe in the Year 1921 • Stephen Graham
... are no people easier to train, none so susceptible of carefulness in these same matters. One needs only to point out to them that the pursuit is gainful, ...
— The Economist • Xenophon
... letter was written in Arabic, of which language I have no knowledge. I was in twenty minds to destroy it, professing that I had lost it en route, but having calculated that honesty was the more gainful part to play, I put my trust in my patron saint and boldly presented it. By so doing I came into possession of an important secret, for on reading the letter Monna Afra exclaimed: "My son informs me that you are an unprincipled rogue whose life he holds in his hands, on account ...
— Romance of Roman Villas - (The Renaissance) • Elizabeth W. (Elizbeth Williams) Champney
... whipped, and scourged, and crucified, neither have I shed my blood for those whom Thou seest with me; I do not promise them a kingdom of heaven, and yet these men have wholly consecrated themselves to me and my service. Indeed, if the devil could make such gainful covenants with us, and bestow such glorious mercies upon us as are contained within the covenant, our serving of Satan and sin might have some excuse. But, whereas his covenant is a covenant of bondage, death, hell, and ...
— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various
... the age of fourteen years the German youth is no longer under the control of the compulsory school law, the value of the system of continuation schools is realized. Of necessity the great mass of boys are at this age, forced to enter some gainful pursuit. It was clearly evident to the German people that boys should not be cut off from school education at this early age. Dr. James H. Russell in his German ...
— The Condition and Tendencies of Technical Education in Germany • Arthur Henry Chamberlain
... thirty-five millions, to place it on an equal rateable footing with colonial, should be, not three millions and an eighth, but upwards of five millions, or the colonial trade of sixteen millions, if no more gainful than foreign, should be, not L.2,300,000, but about one million less. And here the question naturally recurs, assuming the principle of Mr Cobden to be correct—as so, for his satisfaction, it has been reasoned hitherto—at what rate of charge nationally ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 • Various
... case. Let us put an extreme case of a contrary kind. Suppose that the wealthy people of any country, not relishing an idle life, and having a strong taste for gainful labour, were generally indisposed to accept of a smaller income in order to be relieved from the labour and anxiety of business. Every producer in flourishing circumstances would be eager to borrow, ...
— Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill
... Invention of a Godlike Mind Excels the Works of Nature, and Mankind; Yet a well-languag'd Version will require An equal Genius, and as strong a Fire. These claim at once our Study and our Praise, Fam'd for the Dignity of Sense and Phrase. These gainful to the Stationer, shall stand At Paul's or Cornhill, Fleetstreet or the Strand. Shall wander far and near, and cross the Seas, An ...
— Discourse on Criticism and of Poetry (1707) - From Poems On Several Occasions (1707) • Samuel Cobb
... opportunity to strike at Clinton, Congress was busy making up its accounts. One circumstance told for them. There was no longer the same dearth of gold and silver which had embarrassed them so much at the beginning of the war. A gainful commerce was now opened with the West Indies. The French army and the French fleet were here, and hard money with them. Louis-d'ors and livres and Spanish dollars,—how welcome must their pleasant ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 • Various
... in the sunbeams. But that life in which there is any evil cannot be happy. Then a corn-field full of thick and heavy ears of corn is not a corn-field if you see any tares anywhere; nor is traffic gainful if, amid the greatest gains, you incur the most trifling loss. Do we ever act on different principles in any circumstances of life; and will you not judge of the whole from its greatest part? or is there any doubt that virtue is so ...
— The Academic Questions • M. T. Cicero
... gainful kind of writing[56], and, in his eighteenth year, offered to the stage a comedy, borrowed from a Spanish plot, which was refused by the players, and was, therefore, given by him to Mr. Bullock, who, having more interest, made some slight alterations, and brought it upon the stage, ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson
... Alice Snowton, who was now a fine young woman of fifteen or thereby, to be her guest at the same time. Alice was not so stout in proportion to her years as my Waller; but there was a certain gracefulness about her when she moved, and a sweet smile when she spoke, which was very gainful on the affections, as Charles could testify; for he loved her, and made no secret thereof, better than any of his sisters, and also, I really and unfeignedly believe, better than that excellent woman his mother. And so great was the impression made on ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various
... of new religious orders, chiefly the Dominicans and Franciscans, who proceeded with all the zeal and success that attend novelties; were better qualified to gain the populace than the old orders, now become rich and indolent; maintained a perpetual rivalship with each other in promoting their gainful superstitions; and acquired a great dominion over the minds, and, consequently, over the purses of men, by pretending a desire of poverty and a contempt for riches. The quarrels which arose between ...
— The History of England, Volume I • David Hume
... England, or even his own ministers. He may thus drag England into a war, and of course this country, against their will. But it is certain they will do everything they can to prevent it; and that in this at least they agree. Though such a war might be gainful to us, yet it is much to be deprecated by us at this time. In all probability, France would be unequal to such a war by sea and by land, and it is not our interest, or even safe for us, that she should be weakened. The great improvements in their constitution, effected by the Assemblee des Notables, ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson
... of enterprise, not private gain, but fine workmanship and public service have become the major motives. If one says that a sharp line of distinction is to be drawn between what we call professions and what we call business, he does not know history. Nursing, as a gainful calling, a hundred years ago was a mercenary affair into which undesirable people went for what they could get out of it. If nursing to-day is a great profession, where pride of workmanship and love of service ...
— Christianity and Progress • Harry Emerson Fosdick
... this: the other assertion of Thrasymachus is far more important—that the unjust life is more gainful than the just. Now, as you and I, Glaucon, are not convinced by him, we must reply to him; but if we try to compare their respective gains we shall want a judge to decide for us; we had better therefore proceed by making mutual admissions of ...
— The Republic • Plato
... slaving of late Years; but be their Gain much or little, I am persuaded that if fewer Slaves were imported to Virginia, it would be better for the Virginia Planters and Merchants; and with humble Submission I am of Opinion that the African Traders might prosecute more gainful Adventures than too ...
— The Present State of Virginia • Hugh Jones
... already straitened by the costs of instruction of his eldest son Henry, and had intended to bring his second son up to a trade; but the mother would listen to no such thing; as usual, her influence prevailed, and Oliver, instead of being instructed in some humble but cheerful and gainful handicraft, was devoted to poverty and ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving
... age, females pursuing gainful occupations are to males as one to three; in the second, one to six; and in the third, one to twelve. The actual increase over the numbers given in the census for 1860 is 1,551,288. The reasons ...
— Women Wage-Earners - Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future • Helen Campbell
... Quitting your job at the end of the first week, going off explosively, as I did, doesn't endear the Honest Working Girl to the management. It simply isn't done. She was so frigid that I decided to scratch domestic labor from my list. I shall join the gainful army ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell
... like a gibbet better than a wheel; Hiss'd from the stage, or hooted from the court, Their air, their dress, their politicks, import; [p]Obsequious, artful, voluble and gay, On Britain's fond credulity they prey. No gainful trade their industry can 'scape, [q]They sing, they dance, clean shoes, or cure a clap: All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows, And, bid him go to hell, to hell he goes. [r]Ah! what avails it, that, from slav'ry far, I drew the breath of life in English air; Was early taught a ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... "Alas! how much thy age deceives thy wit," he said; "As if sweet honey by the touch of gold were sweeter made. Even in good Saturn's day, 'twas hard to find a heart all pure, From the infection of base gain, and gainful lust secure. Small at the birth, it grew apace the thirst of yellow ore, Till heap on heap ye pile so high, that ye can pile no more. Not so the measure was of wealth in Rome's primeval time, When all was poor that now is rich, and ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various
... some one member of the family a great deal of thought, much personal effort and constant attention. For most families in average condition that person is naturally the housemother. If the husband and father is the chief or only wage-earner in "gainful occupations," then his health and strength are of primary concern to all the family and must be secured by adequate and healthful provision of food and clothing, and the home must give him what he vitally ...
— The Family and it's Members • Anna Garlin Spencer
... status in the business pursuits and gainful occupations at that time? The year 1863 is as far back as we desire to go for this enquiry, when the entire race, with but a few exceptions, were servants, restricted to menial employment ...
— Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence - The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of - Slavery to the Present Time • Various
... expense of food and raiment in rearing a child may be stated at about 8, 9, or 10 dollars; and the age at which it begins to be gainful to its owner ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 • Various
... Philippines, the absence of European Enterprise, the absence of European Capital. A few European capitalist settlers, a few giant estates, a few central factories, a few colossal money-making combinations of organized labour and gainful produce, and all the equable balance of property and production, of ownership and labour that now leaves to the poorest cottager enough, and yet to the total colony abundance to spare, would be disorganized, displaced, ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 • Emma Helen Blair
... assuring me, that they believ'd what I said to be true. No Man living will ever be able to make these Heathens sensible of the Happiness of a future State, except he now and then mentions some lively carnal Representation, which may quicken their Apprehensions, and make them thirst after such a gainful Exchange; for, were the best Lecture that ever was preach'd by Man, given to an ignorant sort of People, in a more learned Style, than their mean Capacities are able to understand, the Intent would prove ineffectual, and the Hearers ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson
... a meeting-place in the hills beyond Drumcliff, at a certain mountain named Clochaun, or the Stone. Now, whether you think my craft evil or good, master, it is yet gainful to us." ...
— Nuala O'Malley • H. Bedford-Jones
... that reach me," said the Judge, "I might suppose that you"—he hesitated a moment, then continued, in an attempt at a bantering manner, "that you refer to your luxuries as preliminary to—ah— matrimony, which is said to be the only gainful occupation that my sex leaves almost exclusively to yours, and in which fine clothing is undoubtedly an adjuvant. But observation leads me to think that it is a business less profitable than is ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark
... was their gainful trade: We inward bled, whilst they prolong'd our pain; He fought to end our fighting, and essay'd To staunch the blood by ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden
... intimate still as in the dandelion, the sun-flower and the marigold. These and their fellow composites each seem an individual; a penknife discloses each of them to be an aggregate of blossoms. So gainful has this kind of co-operation proved that composites are now dominant among plants in every quarter of the globe. As to how composites grew before they learned that union is strength, a hint is dropped in the "sport" of the ...
— Little Masterpieces of Science: - The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer • Various
... their devils, they say, We really hold with you, and only mock at those people: God shall mock at them, and continue them in their impiety; they shall wander in confusion. These are the men who have purchased error at the price of true direction: but their traffic hath not been gainful, neither have they been rightly directed. They are like unto one who kindleth a fire, and when it hath enlightened all around him, God taketh away their light and leaveth them in darkness, they shall not see; they are deaf, dumb, and blind, therefore will they not repent. ...
— Sacred Books of the East • Various
... and an humble mien, In every action of his life were seen. Through all the different stages that he went, He still appeared both wise and diligent: Firm to his word, and punctual to his trust, Sagacious, frugal, arable, and just. No gainful views his bounded hopes could sway, No wanton thought led his chaste soul astray. In short, his thoughts and actions both declare, Nature designed him her philosopher; That all mankind, by his example taught, Might learn to live, and manage every thought. Oh! could my muse the wondrous ...
— Dickory Cronke - The Dumb Philosopher, or, Great Britain's Wonder • Daniel Defoe
... him, as through a pipe, I have called Edmund off; and as with a broken pipe I shall part with him when I am done,—and think it no falseness either, since I know for certain that it is the fate he has in store for me, as soon as I cease to be gainful for him." The worst of the young chief's nature showed for an instant in the smile that widened his nostrils. Then it gave way to another flash of temper. "Nor am I a pipe for your plaything, either. What! Am ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... hair was as mine, if you could recollect, like me, the days that are gone by, the days when it needed no bride to prove we were princes,"the glorious days when we led captivity captive; I was thinking, I say, my son, what a gainful heritage it is to be born after the joys ...
— Alroy - The Prince Of The Captivity • Benjamin Disraeli |
