"Level best" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Satterlee's—she shapes her backs like the top of a coffin, or sometimes they remind me more of a kite; and Sallie Ann Hodd's—she makes 'em square; and old Mrs. Tucker's—you can always tell hers by the way the armholes draw; she makes the minister's wife's. But they'd every one of 'em done their level best and I was proud ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VI. (of X.) • Various
... expectancy. In the Allied chancelleries anxious groups were gathered. They realized that the fate of the Allies hung in the balance. In Petrograd alone three hundred thousand workers went out on strike that day, and the police agents did their level best to provoke violence. The large bodies of troops massed at various points throughout the city, and the police with their machine-guns, testified to the thoroughness with which the government had prepared to crush any revolutionary manifestations. Thanks to the excellent discipline of the workers, ...
— Bolshevism - The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy • John Spargo
... author put the case to you before creation, saying: "I am going to make a world not certain to be saved, a world the perfection of which shall be conditional merely, the condition being that each several agent does its own 'level best.' I offer you the chance of taking part in such a world. Its safety, you see, is unwarranted. It is a real adventure, with real danger, yet it may win through. It is a social scheme of co-operative ...
— Pragmatism - A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking • William James
... his pocket a handkerchief and knotted it nervously in his fingers: "He told me to get up," he went on. "I did my level best a way farther. It was no use. I quit again. He was easy with me. But I couldn't get up and I told ...
— Laramie Holds the Range • Frank H. Spearman
... suit has made me feel vastly more attached to him. As a rule, and especially in oratorical efforts, people do not run well in double harness in their striving for glory, but he and I were not in any sense rivals and there was no jealousy between us, as we both did our level best, not for our own hand, but for the common cause, which was of such a serious character and of such public importance that it seemed to demand from us that we should not over-elaborate each single pleading. We were afraid that time would fail us, and that our voices ...
— The Letters of the Younger Pliny - Title: The Letters of Pliny the Younger - - Series 1, Volume 1 • Pliny the Younger
... be the man that Perkins expects; but he's doing his level best, and—is rising in the office. Perkins swears by him, and that's made a ...
— McClure's Magazine, Volume VI, No. 3. February 1896 • Various
... fellows with Buck Lemington crowing over them, would be a bitter pill to Brad's crew. And they were really doing their level best to avoid such ...
— Fred Fenton on the Crew - or, The Young Oarsmen of Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... certainly reminds us that there is such a thing as Progress. In the latter play, Mr. J.W. WALLACK was a civil engineer. In the present drama, he is an uncivil tradesman. Both appeal to the levelling tendencies of the age; and in each, the author has done his "level best"—as Mr. GRANT WHITE would say—to flatter the Family Circle at the expense ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 5, April 30, 1870 • Various
... I have my theories as to what constitutes real living. However, I won't bother you with those. I expect they're pretty crude, after all. Besides, my preparations were all knocked on the head. I saw Camilla Payne again in Hugo's. She had stopped typewriting, and was a milliner there. I tried my level best to strike up an intimacy with her, but I failed. She wouldn't have it. The fact is, I was too rich and showy. And I had a reputation behind me which, possibly—well, you're aware of all that, Polycarp. In about a fortnight I worshipped her—yes, ...
— Hugo - A Fantasia on Modern Themes • Arnold Bennett
... constitutionally of course, which, under the leadership of the Mayor of San Fernando, has continued up to now, culminating at last in the Reform movement which Mr. Froude decries, and which his pupil, Mr. S. H. Gatty, is, from what has appeared in the Trinidad papers, doing his "level best" ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas
... of the small sums they contained and spread the amount on the table. "There it is, all of it, Lady of the Manor, at your service! Getting up entertainments is a costly thing, but—as far as it goes, I'll try my level best!" ...
— Dorothy's House Party • Evelyn Raymond
... sufferin' down below. What did He make us for, if He couldn't look after us? I wouldn't make a thing I wouldn't do my best by—an' I ain't nothin' but a factory girl. This—this poor thing that's goin' to be born an' hain't no right to, I'll do my level best by it—I will. It sha'n't suffer, if I can help ...
— In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... offender on one occasion in my experience. I was showing some portraits of Mr. Gladstone in my entertainment "The Humours of Parliament," and was doing my level best to rouse an appreciative North Country audience to a high pitch of enthusiasm for the man they worshipped so. I was telling them that at one moment he looks like this, and at another moment he looks like that, when I was amazed to ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... as an asphalt pavement and we skimmed along at forty miles an hour. When the animal had definitely made up its mind to cross in front of us, Charles gave the accelerator a real push and the car jumped to a speed of forty-eight miles. The antelope was doing his level best to "cross our bows" but he was too far away, and for a few moments it seemed that we would surely crash into him if he held his course. It was a great race. Yvette had a death grip on my coat, for I was sitting half over the edge of the car ready to jump when Charles threw on the brakes. With any ...
— Across Mongolian Plains - A Naturalist's Account of China's 'Great Northwest' • Roy Chapman Andrews
... fail after doing your level best, examine the work attempted, and see if it really be in the line of your bent or power of achievement. Cowper failed as a lawyer. He was so timid that he could not plead a case, but he wrote some of our finest poems. Moliere found that he was not adapted to the work of ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden
... geese seemed the only fowls truly at home on my farm. They did their level best. Satisfied that my hens would neither lay nor set, I sent to noted poultry fanciers for "settings" of eggs at three dollars per thirteen, then paid a friendly "hen woman" for assisting in the mysterious evolution of said eggs into ...
— Adopting An Abandoned Farm • Kate Sanborn
... all hands were still, watching with intense interest the progress of the race. The commodore, in the Skylark, was evidently doing his level best, for he was running away from the Sea Foam and ...
— The Yacht Club - or The Young Boat-Builder • Oliver Optic
... of the boys tried their level best to get the flag," said Dick, "but its defenders were much too numerous and strong for them. During the struggle there were some middling heavy blows passed, and, if I mistake not, Rodney came in for a few that he'll ...
— True To His Colors • Harry Castlemon
... 'Paramounters,' as they call themselves, taking the name from the assumption that it is the paramount duty of the voter to pinch any business interest bigger than his own, would like to legislate us out of existence; as against that we shall beat the tomtom and do our level best to stay ...
— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde
... in the yellow fields she recited the closing lines of "The Land of Heart's Desire," doing her level best to put into it some little portion of its mystical beauty. She was not altogether successful because she was only a girl without any training or knowledge of her art, but perhaps because of her youth she was less afraid and ...
— The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill • Margaret Vandercook
... join you at lunch, for a fact," grinned Bobolink; "but then, we made better time than we ever thought we could on the return journey. Talk to me about a prize spurrin' a fellow on to do his level best—the whip that does it is to put a first-class scare in him. Then you're goin' to see some runnin' that takes the cake. Wheel didn't we sprint, though? Bet you I jumped clear over a log that stood six feet high ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat • George A. Warren
... it. I was at Oxford then. She came down alone for a night, and begged me to try and talk Eustace over. It was the beginning of a barrier between them even then. It has grown high since. Eustace is a difficult man to move, you know. I did my level best with him, but I wasn't very successful. In the end of course the inevitable happened. Isabel lost patience and broke away. She was on her way out again before either of us knew. Eustace—of course Eustace ...
— Greatheart • Ethel M. Dell
... business with pleasure. We have just had the pleasure," (laughter, in the midst of which Fisher minor pricked up his ears and wondered if his song wasn't going to be appreciated after all). "The lambs have bleated and done their level best, I'm sure," (renewed laughter, and cries of "How now?"). "Now for the business. Gentlemen, the house clubs demand your support." (Fisher minor turned deadly green as he remembered the Modern boy and his half-crown. He looked round ...
— The Cock-House at Fellsgarth • Talbot Baines Reed
... her level best but he pulls her. He harvests small sections of the gum from time to time and occasionally he stops long enough to loosen up the roots as far down as your floating ribs. But he pulls her. He spares no pains to pull that tooth. Or if he spares any you are not able subsequently ...
— Cobb's Anatomy • Irvin S. Cobb |
