"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the butcher's cleaver as it hacks off the knightly spurs, but failure and success come strangely and stealthily, determined by trifles, and devoid of dignity. Here was the crisis of Frank's young life, in this mean front room, amongst the almanacs and ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle
... did at first. We used to meet at dinner every day; but then she fell in love with an acrobat—I suppose you would call him an acrobat—I mean one of those gutta-percha men who tie their legs in a knot over their heads. The child was deformed. I was awfully cut up about it at the time, ...
— A Mummer's Wife • George Moore
... natural," rejoined Sarah stubbornly. "It's a man's natur to be mean about money matters whar his wife is concerned, an' when he begins to be different it's a sign that thar's a screw loose somewhar inside of him. My Abner was sech a spendthrift that he'd throw away a day's market prices down at the or'nary, but he used ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... do not mean rhyme, nor metre, nor regularity. It has nothing necessarily to do with poetic measures nor with precision of rhymes. Let me attempt to convey what I mean by saying that the rhythm of a song is, as Irving Berlin said, the swing. To the swing of a song everything in it contributes. Perhaps ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page
... he said uncomprehendingly. "The King's arm? What does that mean?" Then, by the very repetition of the phrase, enlightenment dawned in part and he shrank back, his fingers closing in upon his palms. "Not that! For God's sake, Monsieur de Commines, say it is not that! Not that the father—— Oh! ...
— The Justice of the King • Hamilton Drummond
... compromise, and here he was caught between two obstacles. Bulgaria absolutely refused to recede one inch from her demand; and, on the other hand, the Greek governing clique suddenly refused to consider any proposal that would mean the cession of any territory at all to the hated Bulgars. What probably stiffened the opposition of the other members of the Greek Government to the Turkish campaign was the growing suspicion on their part that the Allies were also negotiating with Italy for her support. Now it was obvious ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... retained his ideals and his faith in them. It was thus exemplified in him because in addition to his wisdom, his gentleness, his patience, his hope, and his faith, he had that other great American quality of humor, which saved him in every situation, and by American humor I mean that instinctive sense of human values that enables one to see all things or most things in their proper relations, and so becomes an integral part of the ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer
... excitement, Susan fluttered like an impaled butterfly. "Oh, dear me! I mean of course I will, Persis. But what do you want ...
— Other People's Business - The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale • Harriet L. Smith
... imputed unto them as a Crime? It is an easie thing, for us to fall into the Fault of, Adding Affliction to the Afflicted, and of, Talking to the Grief of those that are already wounded. Nor can it be wisdom to slight the Dangers of such a Fault. In the mean time, We have no Bowels in us, if we do not Compassionate the Distressed County of Essex, now crying to all these Colonies, Have pity on me, O ye my Friends, Have pity on me, for the Hand of the Lord has Touched ...
— The Wonders of the Invisible World • Cotton Mather
... expensive midwife? You can pay afterwards; I won't charge you much and I answer for my success; you won't die in my hands, I've seen worse cases than yours. And I can send the baby to a foundling asylum to-morrow, if you like, and then to be brought up in the country, and that's all it will mean. And meantime you'll grow strong again, take up some rational work, and in a very short time you'll repay Shatov for sheltering you and for the expense, which will not ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... my troops to James River, I will throw to Port Royal Island all our means of transportation I can, and collect the rest near Fort McAllister, covered by the Ogeeehee River and intrenchments to be erected, and for which Captain Poe, my chief-engineer, is now reconnoitring the ground, but in the mean time will act as I have begun, as though the city of Savannah were my objective: namely, the troops will continue to invest Savannah closely, making attacks and feints wherever we have fair ground to stand upon, and I will place some thirty-pound Parrotts, which I have got from General ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman
... watch I noticed it was three hours slow. That must mean the Pacific coast, or near it. Therefore you've just got in from the Far West and haven't thought to rectify your time. At a venture I'd say you were a mining man from down around the Ray-Kelvin copper district in Arizona. That ...
— Average Jones • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... one who draws a brief should take pains to frame all his statements in as concise a form as he can. If he is able to state an idea in six words, he should not use seven. This principle does not mean that small words like a, an, and the should be left out, or that an obvious subject may be omitted; it does not mean that the "diary" style of writing is permissible. It means simply that one should always state his ideas as briefly as possible without violating ...
— Practical Argumentation • George K. Pattee
... indebted to you than I should feel were you to assist in restoring the property of which your family deprived my father. Indeed, I cannot understand how you can be instrumental in doing that. In the mean time I can make no promise with regard ...
— The Missing Ship - The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley • W. H. G. Kingston
... the period may be taken, on the mean of five valuations cited in a footnote at p. 87 of vol. i., as equal in modern silver value to ... ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... time to continue the conversation then, for I too was fatigued and the people after the defeat gathered in the woods. But now, tell me, how is it? Do you mean to ...
— The Knights of the Cross • Henryk Sienkiewicz
... The world is not yet with them, so they often seem in the midst of the world's affairs to be preposterous. Yet they are impregnators of the world, vivifiers and animaters of potentialities of goodness which but for them would lie forever dormant. It is not possible to be quite as mean as we naturally are, when they have passed before us. One fire kindles another; and without that over-trust in human worth which they show, the rest of us ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James
... 'I mean to take up Mr. Weston instead of Mr. Hatfield,' said my companion, after a short pause, resuming something of her usual cheerfulness. 'The ball at Ashby Park takes place on Tuesday, you know; and mamma thinks it very likely that Sir Thomas will propose to me then: such things are often ...
— Agnes Grey • Anne Bronte
... proclaimed himself Lord Paramount, and was accepted as such by the twelve candidates for the Crown (June 3). The great nobles thus, to serve their ambitions, betrayed their country: the communitas (whatever that term may here mean) made a ...
— A Short History of Scotland • Andrew Lang
... did, now. They wrote their minds. Benefit for many if I put down my religious thinks for a second New Testament. What say you, Eylwin Jones? Lots of says very clever I can give you—'is he sticking?' A biggish paper was the black pasting about Walham Green Music Hall. What do you mean for that? And the posters for my between season's sale were waiting ...
— My Neighbors - Stories of the Welsh People • Caradoc Evans
... "You mean people, as distinct from those biped beasts we've found so far? I doubt it," Loudons replied, finishing his caffchoc and wiping his mustache on the back of his hand. "I think the whole eastern half of the country is nothing but forest ...
— The Return • H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire
... have served the purpose, for—it is no trivial matter to desecrate a Mexican graveyard. My country, too, has a government. An officer of the State of Texas, under arms, has crossed the Rio Grande. What does that mean?" ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach
... reason that a leaf goes over Niagara. It is because the opposing forces are overpowering. The same high officer of the government to whom I have alluded said to me as we drove upon the Heights of Washington, "Do you mean that I ought not to appoint my subordinates for whom I am responsible?" I answered: "I mean that you do not appoint them now; I mean that if, when we return to the capital, you hear that your chief ...
— American Eloquence, Volume IV. (of 4) - Studies In American Political History (1897) • Various
... cart I like nor loath; Extremes are counted worst of all; The golden mean between them both Doth surest sit and fears no fall. This is my choice: for why? I find No wealth is like ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various
... reply. What do they mean? That they are neither afraid nor ashamed to own what was the one subject of their souls' pursuit-the truth. Understand hereby, that the whole world, which lieth in wickedness, is deceived by a lie, and is under the delusion of the father of lies. In opposition ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... last gave way. Brutus, surrounded by the most valiant of his officers, fought long with amazing valour. The son of Cato, and the brother of Cassius, fell fighting by his side. At last, he was obliged to yield to necessity, and fled. 20. In the mean time, the two Triumviri, assured of victory, expressly ordered that the general should by no means be suffered to escape. Thus the whole body of the enemy being intent on the person of Brutus alone, his capture seemed inevitable. 21. In this deplorable exigence, Lucil'ius, ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith
... This is what I mean by bringing one Description within another; and 'tis the greatest of Faults. We lose all thoughts of the general Description, and are so engaged in Under-ones, that we have forgot what he at first propos'd ...
— A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral (1717) • Thomas Purney
... most good, and will obtain whatever he wants from his parishioners. The greedy and avaricious, he who does what common and vile men do, will, notwithstanding the habit in which he is clad, notwithstanding the sermons he preaches, be considered as mean, if he does not end by being despised and abhorred. Nevertheless, I can affirm that the religious who trade are very few, and among the Dominicans, not any. And this, and their anxiety for saving their stipends and for making money, proceeds ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various
... away, stately and sad, professing that "our wull was his pleesure," but yet reminding us that he would do it "with feelin's,"—even then, I say, the triumphant master felt humbled in his triumph, felt that he ruled on sufferance only, that he was taking a mean advantage of the other's low estate, and that the whole scene had been one of those "slights that patient ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Eveleigh, coming into Elizabeth's room and bringing a whiff of cold air with her. "It's a mean month," she continued. "There's nothing but disagreeable things about it. The leaves are all gone, and the snow hasn't come. You can't even go out riding with any comfort, the ground is so frozen you are jolted to pieces." And with step emphasizing the petulance of her voice, the speaker ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3 • Various
... "I mean it—every word of it!" Cicily repeated, hotly. But the impetuosity of her mood was checked as she beheld the general consternation consequent on her attack; for now all the others were on their feet, ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan
... trotting in red heels—for Valerie dressed the man as beseemed his income, his cross, and his appointment—horrified Crevel, who could not meet the colorless eyes of the Government clerk. Marneffe was an incubus to the Mayor. And the mean rascal, aware of the strange power conferred on him by Lisbeth and his wife, was amused by it; he played on it as on an instrument; and cards being the last resource of a mind as completely played out as the body, he plucked Crevel again and again, the Mayor thinking himself ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... never stay with him again. But all that, Mr. Tregear, is of no matter. I do not mean to say a word against him;—not a word. But if you wish to interest any one as being the Duke's friend, then I can assure you I am the last person in London to whom you should come. I know no one to whom the Duke is likely to entertain feelings so little kind as towards ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope
... "We didn't mean any harm. A friend of ours was drowned yesterday, we think. We're looking for him—or his body. All we want is to know if you've seen ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island • Gordon Stuart
... too, son. Tell the truth for once. They were a man's his father killed for me. I mean a man he killed instead of me. The least I could do was to help dig their grave. We were about it one night in the cellar. Son knows the story: but 'twas not for him To tell the truth, suppose the time had come. Son looks surprised to see ...
— American Poetry, 1922 - A Miscellany • Edna St. Vincent Millay
... stated what is meant by a permanent color. There is no color which is not to be influenced in some way. The most sound of pigments will change if the conditions favor the change. When we speak of a permanent color, we mean only one which under the usual conditions will stand for an indefinite time. By which is meant ordinary diffused daylight, not direct sunlight, and the ordinary air under normal conditions. If there be direct sunlight, you may expect your picture to change sooner or later. But one does not hang ...
— The Painter in Oil - A complete treatise on the principles and technique - necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors • Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst
... foot of the mast precisely over that hole. I mean to let it drop from this height, and its weight will sink it 25 or 30 feet into the snow. That, with 9 feet of ice, will hold it for centuries. We will fill the space in the ice shaft about the foot of the mast with the ice chips that we have taken out, ram them down good and solid, ...
— Doctor Jones' Picnic • S. E. Chapman
... letter to Gibbs (Bureau of Ethnology), states that "Coos in the Rogue River dialect is said to mean lake, lagoon ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various
... "What do you mean, man? I know nothing of this. Is she gone?" He wheeled on the de Moches. "This is some of your work. If anything happens to that girl—there isn't an Indian feud can equal the vengeance ...
— The Gold of the Gods • Arthur B. Reeve
... rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing him with a six-foot man, we reckon this trail, ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles. Belt records a leaf-cutter's trail half a mile long, which would mean that every ant that went out, cut his tiny bit of leaf, and returned, would traverse a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This was an extreme; but our Atta may take it for granted, speaking antly, that once ...
— Edge of the Jungle • William Beebe
... chair with the piece of sweet-cake in his hand, and going close up to Mordecai, who had been totally silent hitherto, said, "What does that mean—putting my nose ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot
... "I mean this: that the romantic genius of Britain is beginning to see the contour of Gallipoli invested with a mist of sadness, and presenting an appearance like a mirage of ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond
... actual experience, with the notable reservation that all the recorded attempts made to produce this magic fluid had failed from their very start. He had in his younger days joined a society of Rosicrucians, by which I do not mean the Masonic Order of that name, but persons who sought to penetrate into the Forbidden Domain. Some forty years ago a very interesting series of articles appeared in Vanity Fair (the weekly newspaper, not Thackeray's masterpiece), under the title of "The Black Art." In ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton
... Testimonials.—These may mean anything or nothing; generally the latter. They are usually genuine, but, as Mr. Adams observes, "they represent, not the average evidence, but the most glowing opinions which the nostrum-vender can obtain, and generally they are the expression of a low order ...
— The Home Medical Library, Volume II (of VI) • Various
... not necessarily imply independence of foreign support. We have met native Christians who assured us in one breath that they were members of a self-supporting Church and that their Church did not receive its fair share of mission funds. Self-support does not necessarily mean independence of external ...
— Missionary Survey As An Aid To Intelligent Co-Operation In Foreign Missions • Roland Allen
... subject. The Zauberfloete will ever remain his greatest work, for in this he showed himself the true German composer." Of Cherubini's Requiem he said, "as regards his conception of it, my ideas are in perfect accord with his and sometime I mean to compose a Requiem in that style." (Later in life his opinion of Cherubini was greatly modified). He seldom spoke of Haydn, and had nothing of that ...
— Beethoven • George Alexander Fischer
... mean, Colonel?" Judith Montmarte leaned a little eagerly toward him. In the ordinary way, alone with a man of his type she would have played the coquette. To-day she thought nothing of such trifling. There was something so different ...
— The Mark of the Beast • Sidney Watson
... officious Mr. Merton relieved the monotony of the rectory. These gifts Caroline could not refuse without paining her young friend. She took them reluctantly, for, to do her justice, Caroline, though ambitious, was not mean. ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... prejudiced against it, so I do not take it. It is really no deprivation to me, while it would mean great anxiety to her ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford
... the uniform expansion of mercury and its great sensitiveness to heat, it is the fluid most commonly used in the construction of thermometers. In all thermometers the freezing point and the boiling point of water, under mean or average atmospheric pressure at sea level, are assumed as two fixed points, but the division of the scale between these two points varies in different countries. The freezing point is determined by the use of melting ice and for this reason is often called the melting point. There are ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.
... sacred chain, and turn Back on thyself thy love and care; Be thou thine own mean idol, burn Faith, Hope, ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
... It is your Southern States that make the charm, the aplomb, without the—what you call—the—the freshness. Is it not so? But I do not mean the freshness of the cheek; and yet, in the argot do you not say freshness is cheek? Ah, I am bewildered; I am mixup with your strange words; but I will learn them! They shall not conquer me! And you will help me; is ...
— Patty in Paris • Carolyn Wells
... creator of the national poetry of his country, died in 1321, leaving behind him Petrarch, who was crowned in the Capitol in 1341, and Boccaccio, who—though, as Byron said of Scott, he spoiled his poetry by writing better prose—was nevertheless a poet of no mean merit, and the probable inventor of the ottava rima. Two centuries after the last of these parents of modern literature had nearly elapsed, ere he who has been styled the Dante of the arts, Michael Angelo, and his contemporaries, among whom were Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, appeared upon ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... investigate this thing thoroughly, but I am convinced that this is an environmental effect. Dr. W. A. Taylor has suggested that the fact that the Jordan flowers before any other variety comes out may mean that the California nuts are the result of self fertilization and this self fertilization may be the cause of their different shape and texture. Either that or the bud wood which I brought over from Spain was not representative of the Jordan variety ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eleventh Annual Meeting - Washington, D. C. October 7 AND 8, 1920 • Various
... say then that little children should rest, we are referring to one side only of the question of work. We mean that they should rest from that external visible work to which the little child through his weakness and incapacity cannot make any contribution useful either to himself or ...
— Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook • Maria Montessori
... Schilsky entered a musicshop, and remained inside, leaning over the counter, for a quarter of an hour. Finally, however, the corner was reached. He appeared to hesitate: for a moment it seemed as if he were going straight on, which would mean fresh uncertainty. Then, with a sudden outward fling of the hands, he went off to the left, in the direction ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... catch my eye. The name being familiar, I took the liberty of reading the text. And—and—I'm very loth to step out of my place, sir, but, if you are seeking the whereabouts of a footman called Lyveden, sir, Anthony Lyveden, I hardly think there can be two of that name. I mean ..." ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates
... but also to be our spiritual food and sustenance in that holy Sacrament. Which being so divine and comfortable a thing to them who receive it worthily, and so dangerous to them that will presume to receive it unworthily; my duty is to exhort you in the mean season to consider the dignity of that holy mystery, and the great peril of the unworthy receiving thereof; and so to search and examine your own consciences, (and that not lightly, and after the manner of dissemblers with God; but ...
— The Book of Common Prayer - and The Scottish Liturgy • Church of England
... ta, I don't mean that at all! I mean I want to congratulate you on what you have been able to do for her ...
— The Halo • Bettina von Hutten
... of your people are, unfortunately, tried men. Hence, the people, knowing them as well as they know the contents of their own breeches' pockets, may not be gulled so long as if governed by those whose tricks—I mean, whose capabilities—have not been so strongly marked. With new men we have always the benefit of hope; and with hope much swindling ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari. Vol. 1, July 31, 1841 • Various
... account, not as we understand it, even in our noblest affections, but in saying to ourselves: Let us eat and drink to all that is eternal, for to-morrow we die to all that is of earth. We acquire an increase of love in that moment when we renounce our mean and ...
— Letters of a Soldier - 1914-1915 • Anonymous
... of better pay at $6 a week, however, which so few people would consider "making out good," she had suffered an especially mean exploitation. ...
— Making Both Ends Meet • Sue Ainslie Clark and Edith Wyatt
... way,—"I wish you and your mother would come over and see what Dorris will want, and help me a little about that room of hers. I told Miss Waite not to bother; just to let the old things stand,—I knew Dorris would like them,—and anything else I would get for her myself. I mean Dolly shall take a long vacation this year; from June right through to September; and its 'no end of jolly,' as those English fellows say, that ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... it hung perhaps at the very end of my life among the coloured leaves, the strokes of sunset—that then it would be known! or if earlier, distant from this strange imperative Now. But we have our personal freedom now, and I have learnt from minutes what I did mean to seek from years, and from our forest what I hoped that change of scene, travel, experience, would teach me. Yet I was right in my intention. It was a discreet and a just meaning I had. For things will not ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... cost of board for two. The time of mating is past with him, and that young woman can see it "as quick as a flash of lightning." He may be the man she could love if she "let go of herself," but his slippery words do not mean "marry," and she "passes him around." He loves to go to picnics and church sociables, for he must be amused, and he hopes to find that pleasure in next Tuesday's donation party which he did not get at last ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern
... him down the tickets Well the knyghte their import knew— "Take this gold, and win thy armour From the unbelieving Jew. Though in garments mean and lowly Thou wouldst roam the world with me, Only as a belted warrior, Stranger, will ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun
... Pacific coast, but for the whole country. One of the most noteworthy things in the history of American university education thus far is the fact that the university buildings erected by boards of trustees in all parts of the country have, almost without exception, proved to be mere jumbles of mean materials in incongruous styles; but to this rule there have been, mainly, two noble exceptions: one in the buildings of the University of Virginia, planned and executed under the eye of Thomas Jefferson, and the other in these buildings at Palo Alto, ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II • Andrew Dickson White
... "I mean that as true as God hears me I meant no wrong. I've done things that girls should not do. I see that now. But I believed that you understood. I thought that, in a way, you were like me—you were so fine and happy. I still have faith that when ...
— The Shield of Silence • Harriet T. Comstock
... "Why, sir, I mean that we have enemies—that it is possible the fort may be attacked; and that, if you are not very vigilant, it may be captured by treachery, if not by ...
— The Ferryman of Brill - and other stories • William H. G. Kingston
... of the scene were still sharp. Captain Donnell had been conducting check-off, making sure all members of the Crew had reported back and were aboard. This was a vital procedure; in case anyone were accidentally left behind, it would mean permanent separation from his friends ...
— Starman's Quest • Robert Silverberg
... to Mrs. Humdrum, in Hanky's hearing, "is a little alarmed at my having asked you to join our secret conclave. He is not married, and does not know how well a woman can hold her tongue when she chooses. I should have told you all that passed, for I mean to follow your advice, so I thought you had ...
— Erewhon Revisited • Samuel Butler
... who want places under the Government regardless of merit and efficiency, nor by those who insist that the selection of such places should rest upon a proper credential showing active partisan work. They mean to public officers, if not their lives, the only opportunity afforded them to attend to public business, and they mean to the good people of the country the better performance of ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... must know that I did not trust to others exclusively. I trusted also to myself—to what I saw. I saw the Stoics going through the world after a seemly manner, neatly clad, never in excess, always collected, ever faithful to the mean ...
— Marius the Epicurean, Volume Two • Walter Horatio Pater
... stones. This is, of course, doubtful; but it is sure to mean an infinity of discoveries about the country and its ...
— Old Gold - The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig • George Manville Fenn
... Paris joys, [With some bitterness.] And so, when arguments like this could move me, I heard them not; and get them only now When their weight dully falls. But I have said 'Tis not for me, but France—Good-bye an hour. [Kissing her.] I must dictate some letters. This new move Of England on Madrid may mean some trouble. Come, dwell not gloomily on this cold need Of waiving private joy for policy. We are but thistle-globes on Heaven's high gales, And whither blown, or when, or how, or why, Can choose us not at all!... I'll ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy
... we mean the work of those usually classed as song-writers and lyrists, leaving out the big guns, if we have had any of the latter tribe since Milton, who was himself strongest in short poems. Most modern poets have made their debut in the periodical press, and those who did ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various
... scoundrels!" exclaimed the captain, taking a step toward Maka, who bounced backward a couple of yards. "What do you mean by talking about Miss Markham and me in that way? I'll—" But there he paused. It would not be convenient to knock the heads off these men at this time. "Cheditafa must be a very great fool," said he, speaking more quietly. "Does he suppose I could call anybody my wife just for the sake of giving ...
— The Adventures of Captain Horn • Frank Richard Stockton
... "Reckon they mean business," thought the young hunter, setting his teeth hard. "They want either the buffalo or me! And they shan't have ...
— On the Trail of Pontiac • Edward Stratemeyer
... A mongrel's milk is far stronger, heartier food than the milk of so highly-bred a great lady as dear old Tara. Tara gives the most aristocratic blood in the world; but when you come to food, the nourishment that is to build up bone and muscle, and hardy health—that's different. Also, I only mean to give the foster this one pup, though I dare say she is capable of rearing two or three. Therefore that one pup ought to do exceedingly well with her. Now Finn, as you see him, is the biggest pup I ever knew, ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson
... shame at all to want these formalities for him that wanteth not the substance,) but, sir, I say, since you give that reason for your refusal, I believe you, and shall correct that mistake in myself, and endeavour to rectify it in others, if any, upon this occasion, have misunderstood you. In the mean time I shall desire your charitable opinion of myself, which I shall be willing to deserve upon any opportunity that is offered me to do you service, ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle
... do, sometimes; but that doesn't mean that all this cheap musical comedy music is as good as opera, and so on, if we had ...
— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis
... is. Yes, go back to him. I'm a fool. I'm nobody. No, don't, Viviette; forgive me," he cried, catching her as she turned away somewhat haughtily. "I didn't mean it, but things are getting beyond ...
— Viviette • William J. Locke
... message only less startling than his "too-proud-to-fight" dictum, in which he announced that the warring world must plan for a "peace without victory" if it would hope to end the war at all. "Peace without victory" would mean, of course, a peace favorable to Germany. But the Germans, with characteristic stupidity, instead of using even a specious courtesy towards the President who had been long-suffering in their favor, immediately sent out their "Once-a-week-to-Falmouth" ...
— Theodore Roosevelt; An Intimate Biography, • William Roscoe Thayer
... Allured by doctrine false and vain, Praise from the good can never gain. Their lives the true and boaster show, Pure and impure, and high and low, Else were no mark to judge between Stainless and stained and high and mean; They to whose lot fair signs may fall Were but as they who lack them all, And those to virtuous thoughts inclined Were but as men of evil mind. If in the sacred name of right I do this wrong in duty's spite; The path of virtue meanly quit, ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI
... knew what. My ideas of morality were so terrible that I left it alone, on one side, for a time, and charged full tilt at art. I shouted that I thought music a disease, and musicians crushed me. I did not mean that; but I could get no nearer to what I did mean in any other phrase. I told hard, practical business men that they were dreamers and visionaries; and they are ...
— An Ocean Tramp • William McFee
... for the indemnity, Sergeant Ring," said Dudley, with an air of dignity. "I take upon myself the keeping of this stranger, and will see that he be borne, properly and in fitting season, before the authorities. In the mean time, duty hath caused us to overlook matters of moment in thy household, which it may be seemly to communicate. Abundance hath not been neglectful of thy interests, ...
— The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish • James Fenimore Cooper
... to be off if we mean to get on board the Pearl to see you once more outside, and bid you good-by ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume VIII. • Guy de Maupassant
... new marriage of Vannozza's was not childless. In this epistle, the Bishop of Mantua asks his agent in Rome to act as godfather in his stead, Carlo Canale having chosen him for this honor. The letter gives no further particulars, but it can mean nothing else.[11] ...
— Lucretia Borgia - According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day • Ferdinand Gregorovius
... that meeting, any woman possessing like qualifications can exercise like privileges there. To substantiate this, it is only necessary to read the school law. Section 145 of the Primary School law: "The words 'qualified voter' shall be taken and construed to mean and include all taxable persons residing in the district of the age of twenty-one years, and who have resided therein three months next preceding ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various
... mean when he made this acknowledgment? It has been held that all which he, a heathen, could imply was that Jesus was a son of God in the sense in which the Greeks and Romans believed Hercules, Castor and other heroes ...
— The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ - A Devotional History of our Lord's Passion • James Stalker
... which they thus revived, a subtle something which differentiates it from—which, to our perhaps blind sight, seems to be wanting in—mediaeval literature itself. It is constantly complained (and some of those who cannot go all the way with the complainants can see what they mean) that the graceful and labyrinthine stories, the sweet snatches of song, the quaint drama and legend of the Middle Ages lack—to us—life; that they are shadowy, unreal, tapestry on the wall, not alive even as living pageants are. By the strong touch of modernness which these ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century • Henry A. Beers
... your pardon," Hazel said gently; "but it didn't seem to me to be an ordinary case of fright. I didn't mean to intrude, but he's such a dear little boy ...
— Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes - The Quest of a Summer Vacation • Stella M. Francis
... the exile's usual tenderness. She was going to take her place in the world to which she felt reasonably certain he had once belonged, while he swung the ax or plied the shovel beside some western railroad track; though she did not mean for him to do the latter if she could help it, of which, however, she ...
— The Gold Trail • Harold Bindloss
... yards and a quarter of good lead piping, and a brass tap that only wanted a washer, and a whole handful of screws to do what we liked with. We screwed the back door up with the screws, I remember, one night when Eliza was out without leave. There was an awful row. We did not mean to get her into trouble. We only thought it would be amusing for her to find the door screwed up when she came down to take in the milk in the morning. But I must not say any more about the Lewisham house. It is only the pleasures of memory, and nothing to do with ...
— The Wouldbegoods • E. Nesbit
... individual states. The most prominent place in the platform, however, was given to the question of the public debt. Part of the bonds issued during the war had, by acts of Congress, been made payable in "dollars," a word which might mean either paper dollars or gold dollars. Paper, however, was much less valuable than gold, times were hard, and many people held the opinion that the debt could properly be paid in paper. Such was the "Ohio idea," which was made part of the ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley
... he said deliberately, "to ask you a question which sounds impertinent, but which I think you will understand is not really so. Will you tell me how you regard Mrs. Elgar? I mean, is it your wish to be still as friendly with her as you once were? Or do you, for whatever reason, hold aloof ...
— The Emancipated • George Gissing
... blessing! It is better that we pray than that we discuss politics or talk "shop," or gossip or jest. If we preachers and evangelists at camps and conventions would pray more instead of getting in groups and talking about a world of nothings, our sermons would mean full as much to ...
— The Heart-Cry of Jesus • Byron J. Rees
... never saw that before," said Joe, as they approached, while yet some forty paces distant. "What does it mean?" ...
— Wild Western Scenes • John Beauchamp Jones
... you mean," said Alicia. She had a little flush, and an excited hand among the wineglasses. "No, I don't want any; please don't bother me!" to the man at her elbow with something in aspic. "It's much ...
— The Path of a Star • Mrs. Everard Cotes (AKA Sara Jeannette Duncan)
... I mean, in my narrative, to make candour and veracity my guides, and not to conceal my failings; I wish my work may remain a moral lesson to the world. Yet it is an innate satisfaction that I am conscious of never having acted with dishonour, even to the last ...
— The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Vol. 1 (of 2) • Baron Trenck
... "Well, and I mean it too, but it takes money to live as I want to. Now, when I get this increase, I can come pretty near fixing things all right, and I'll do it. Now, don't ...
— Sister Carrie • Theodore Dreiser
... a letter, dated October 4, 1520 (Gotti, i. 4), addressing the master as "honoured kinsman," but the relationship cannot now be proved. The ancestors of Michael Angelo have been traced to one Bernardo who died before the year 1228, and they played their part as citizens of Florence, no mean city, for more than two hundred years—a noble pedigree even for ...
— Michael Angelo Buonarroti • Charles Holroyd
... In the mean time, equal decision, though tempered by some circumstances of deep personal interest, was displayed by those who had been left in front of the church. As soon as the band of Meek had got to such a distance as to promise ...
— The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish • James Fenimore Cooper
... "I mean everything," he answered. "You have money, youth, good looks, and social success; and yet you can hardly see ...
— Paul Patoff • F. Marion Crawford
... I don't mean altogether dead, you know," acknowledged Tod. "But he'd have had a mortal night of it! All his clothes gummed ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood
... some time through such dismal streets, we deboucher on the grande place; and before us lies the palace dedicated to all the glories of France. In the midst of the great lonely plain this famous residence of King Louis looks low and mean—Honored pile! Time was when tall musketeers and gilded body-guards allowed none to pass the gate. Fifty years ago, ten thousand drunken women from Paris broke through the charm; and now a tattered commissioner will conduct ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 • Various
... religion is the relation of absolute truth to absolute Being," and as absolute truth is apprehended by the reason alone, reason "is the veridical and religious part of the nature of man."[66] By "reason," however, as we shall see presently, Cousin does not mean the discursive or reflective reason, but the spontaneous or intuitive reason. That act of the mind by which we attain to religious knowledge is not a process of reasoning, but a pure appreciation, an instinctive and involuntary movement of ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... in my room, talking about compost, he said, "I shall get some good stuff out of Michael, I know; and Harry and I see our way to road scrapings if we can't get sand; and we mean to take precious good care John doesn't have all the old leaves to himself. It's the top spit that puzzles us, and loam is the most important thing ...
— Last Words - A Final Collection of Stories • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... I have told all I know," said Pearl, more seriously than she was wont to speak. "Ask yonder old man whom thou hast been talking with,—it may be he can tell. But in good earnest now, mother dear, what does this scarlet letter mean?—and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?—and why does the minister keep his hand over ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... it was really all my fault, you know. We wanted to make a seat up high in the peach tree, and we couldn't find a board the right shape. So she discovered—I mean, I did—that by pulling out two tiny nails we could get the bottom off the chair, and it was just fine. It's a perfectly adorable seat," brightening, but sobering again as she realized the gravity of the occasion. "And we put the cushion in the chair so that it wouldn't ...
— Prudence of the Parsonage • Ethel Hueston
... women would feel about intercourse as they sometimes do. Again, in their ignorance of anatomy, women often look upon the vagina and womb as part of the bowel and its exit of discharge, and sometimes say, for instance, 'inflammation of the bowel', when they mean womb. Again, many, perhaps most, women believe that they pass water through the vagina, and are ignorant of the existence of the separate urethral orifice. Again, women associate the vulva with the anus, and so feel ashamed of it; even when speaking ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... joint and boot-legs on the side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him buffaloed. They say he killed a feller—beat him to death—in a fight over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle Butte. I don't like the filthy cuss. He's mean!" ...
— The Ramblin' Kid • Earl Wayland Bowman
... set in the House, is to a mountain grown; Not that which brought forth the mouse, but thousands the year of his own. The purchase that I mean, where else but at Taunton Dean; Five thousand pounds per annum, a sum not known to his grannam. Sing hi, the Good old Cause, (91) 'tis old enough not true You got more by that then the laws, so a good old cause to you. Sing hi ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay
... of knowing Greek and Roman antiquity, for instance, which is the knowledge people have called the humanities, I for my part mean a knowledge which is something more than a superficial humanism, mainly decorative. "I call all teaching scientific" says Wolf, the critic of Homer, "which is systematically laid out and followed up to its original sources. For example: a knowledge of classical antiquity ...
— Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold
... out, so lonely! This fresh blow would be too much for her. What would become of her without him?... But what would become of him if he stayed and were condemned and put in prison for years? Would not that even more certainly mean destitution and misery for her? If he were free, though far away, he could always help her, or she could come to him.—He had not time to see clearly in his mind. Lorchen took his hands—she stood near him and looked at him; their faces were almost touching; she threw her ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland
... Friends, was not Brutus (I mean that Brutus, who, in open senate, Stabbed the first Caesar that usurped the world), A ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Thomas Otway
... any justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the realm and mean duly to observe it. ...
— Civil Government in the United States Considered with - Some Reference to Its Origins • John Fiske
... well in these little rooms, somehow! I've been in two or three of them like this, more or less, since I came to New York—people I used to know that I've been hunting up—and, by George, I began to feel as if I was getting red in the face, if you see what I mean." ...
— Julia The Apostate • Josephine Daskam
... heard that Edward Conway had come to the sorest need—even to where he would place his daughters in the mill. None knew better than Hillard Watts what this would mean socially for the ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore
... the distance c between the marks; then the area is nearly cl, where l QT. A nearer approximation is obtained by repeating the operation after turning QT through 180 deg. from the original position, and using the mean of the two values of c thus obtained. The greatest dimension of the area should not exceed 1/2l, otherwise the area must be divided into parts which are determined separately. This condition being fulfilled, the instrument gives very satisfactory results, ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... instantly appeared, and applied their tomahawks to the door. An old rusty gun-barrel, without a lock, lay in a corner, which the mother put through a small crevice, and the savages, perceiving it, fled. In the mean time, the alarm spread through the neighborhood; the armed men collected immediately, and pursued the ravagers into the wilderness. Thus Providence, by the means of this negro, saved the whole of the poor family from destruction. From that time until the happy ...
— The Adventures of Daniel Boone: the Kentucky rifleman • Uncle Philip
... to hell. I am quarrelling and losing my temper, and using bad language.—Or—I am cheating my neighbour. Or—I am living in adultery and drunkenness: I must repent before it is too late.' But what do they mean by repenting? Coming as often as they can to church or chapel, and reading all the religious books which they can get hold of: till they come, from often reading and hearing about the Gospel promises, to some confused notion that their sins are washed away in Christ's ...
— The Good News of God • Charles Kingsley
... said Derec mournfully. "You didn't mean to do murder. But it's only luck that you killed only ...
— The Pirates of Ersatz • Murray Leinster
... alleged, as denying or intending to deny that the legislation of said thirty-ninth Congress was valid or obligatory upon this respondent, except so far as this respondent saw fit to approve the same; and as to the allegation in said article, that be did thereby intend or mean to be understood that the said Congress had not power to propose amendments to the Constitution, this respondent says that in said address he said nothing in reference to the subject of amendments of the Constitution. nor ...
— History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, • Edumud G. Ross
... just the glimmerings of a scheme," he told her. "It will be something entirely unexpected, and it will mean a certain amount ...
— The Profiteers • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... all the women of the family were the property of the men of the family, who had the right to shoot at sight any man tampering with a wife or daughter of a family group. A blood vengeance so started might mean twenty lives. The risks were not to be lightly taken. The emancipation of women and the restriction of ...
— Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle • Durham M. Edith
... intend to stay here in this 'ere God forsaken hole, that these yaller-bellies calls a city; the Lord forgive their ignorance; if they could only see Lunnon, once—well, as I was a sayin', you can't stay here, and you can't take your little girl back into the mining kentry, very well; so what do you mean to do? let old Ned know, and don't go round, keepin' as close as an ister, and never sayin' nothin' to nobody." Thus admonished, I forgot my reserve, and fully explained to him my dilemma. He listened in silence until I had finished, ...
— Seven and Nine years Among the Camanches and Apaches - An Autobiography • Edwin Eastman
... his own. He killed in cold blood two more men who had innocently provoked his enmity, "as if increase of appetite did grow by that it fed on," until he rightly became the most dreaded and hated man in all England, a man to whom a glance, a gesture, or a harmless word might mean death. ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall
... on his front stoop all night.... Forgive me if I sound flippant; but I mean it." Snow was in the air, and I considered it a great sacrifice on my part to sit on a cold stone in the small morning hours. It looks flippant in print, too, but I honestly meant it. "I am sorry. You are in great ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) • Various
... Man (says Seneca) struggling with Misfortunes, is such a Spectacle as Gods might look upon with Pleasure: [1] And such a Pleasure it is which one meets with in the Representation of a well-written Tragedy. Diversions of this kind wear out of our Thoughts every thing that is mean and little. They cherish and cultivate that Humanity which is the Ornament of our Nature. They soften Insolence, sooth Affliction, and subdue the Mind to the ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... that stopped you," said Berry, "because I had all the goats. There was a great rally of goats at St. Calais this afternoon. It was a wonderful smell—I mean sight." ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates
... which I mean the Brussels public—is the one most like our own. In Belgium I never feel that I am in a strange country. Our language is the language of the country; the horses and carriages are always in perfect taste; the fashionable women resemble our own fashionable women; cocottes abound; the hotels ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt
... mean nothing," said the other, "save what I've read in books. What should I know about such matters? I have seen no woman save you and little Beatrix, and the parson's wife and my late mistress, and your ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray
... finished, its translation by the Carpenter being satisfactory to me, I began to make arrangements to depart, having expressed through him, my gratitude to the Alcalde and his family, for the kind treatment I had received at their hands, which I shall ever review as the mean of preserving my life. But the Carpenter supposing from what I had suffered that I should be unable to perform the journey to Matanzas, endeavored to persuade me to remain, giving me the strongest assurances that I should be ...
— Narrative of the shipwreck of the brig Betsey, of Wiscasset, Maine, and murder of five of her crew, by pirates, • Daniel Collins
... really rather an Apologia pro Vita Sua. Davis argues that since the African Slave Trade was prohibited, there could be no increase in the number of slaves save by the ordinary process of propagation. The opening of Kansas to Slavery would not therefore mean that there would be more slaves. It would merely mean that men already and in any case slaves would be living in Kansas instead of in Tennessee; and, it is further suggested, that the taking of a Negro slave from Tennessee, ...
— A History of the United States • Cecil Chesterton
... bequest, with the deep blue eyes, to her son. Peter would have understood the love; the thing he would not have understood was the feeling that had flung her on the tide of reaction at Mr. Margerison's feet. Mr. Margerison was a hard liver and a tremendous giver. Both these things had come to mean a great deal to Sylvia Urquhart—much more than they had meant ...
— The Lee Shore • Rose Macaulay
... elevate our thoughts of our duties in the world to the height of this great metaphor. The metaphor of the Christian life as being a 'warfare' is familiar enough, but that is not exactly the point which I wish to dwell upon now. When we speak about 'fighting the good fight of faith,' we generally mean our wrestle and struggle with our own evils and with the things that hinder us from developing a Christlike character, and 'growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' But it is another sort of warfare about ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren
... that unhappiness on Mars is almost unknown. It is only the presence of ill health that causes unhappiness. If the body can be kept in a condition of absolutely perfect health—and by that I mean something far beyond what is considered perfect health on Earth—then unhappiness is impossible. Its causes, sorrow, jealousy, envy, hatred, and discontent, are eliminated, and a normal condition of perfect immunity from wrong-doing ...
— Zarlah the Martian • R. Norman Grisewood
... what these sounds may mean; For louder swells the tumult round the ships. But sit thou here, and drink the ruddy wine, Till fair-hair'd Hecamede shall prepare The gentle bath, and wash thy gory wounds; While I go forth, and ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... few which, more than my visit to the Jews' Quarter of Prague, have left upon my mind so vivid and lasting an impression. Let the reader imagine to himself, if he can, the effect of a sudden transition from the pomp and splendour of a great capital into a suburb of mean and narrow streets, choked up with the litter of old rags, broken furniture, and cast-off clothes hung out for sale; where are aged women asleep in their chairs,—young ones nursing infants, or, it may be, perfecting ...
— Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II • G. R. Gleig
... gave it a shove a thousand years ago, and it's been rolling along ever since. What I want you to do is the picturesque stunts. Get a yacht and catch rare fishes. Whoop it up. Entertain swell guys when they come here. Have a Court—see what I mean?—same as over in England. Go around in aeroplanes and that style of thing. Don't worry about money. That'll be all right. You draw your steady hundred thousand a year and a good chunk more besides, when we begin ...
— The Prince and Betty - (American edition) • P. G. Wodehouse
... and adorn a tale, and in many cases it is in agreement with the Hellenistic school. To take a few typical examples: An early interpretation explains the story of the Brazen Serpent, as Philo does,[302] to mean that as long as Israel are looking upward to the Father in Heaven they will live, but when they cease to do so they will die. Another, like him again, finds the motive of the command to bore the ear of the slave who will not ...
— Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria • Norman Bentwich |
