"Officiousness" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the food storage cavern, supervising the work of two teen-age boys with critical officiousness although he was making no move to help them. At sight of Lake he hurried forward, the ingratiating smile ...
— Space Prison • Tom Godwin
... intrudes his person upon the scene of my early preparations to depart, on the following morning, and, when I start, takes upon himself the office of conducting me through the labyrinthian bazaar and to the gate of exit beyond. I am wondering somewhat who this individual may be, and wherefore the officiousness of his demeanor to the crowd at our heels; but his mission is soon revealed, for on the way out he pilots me into the court-yard of the Reis, or mayor of the city. The Reis receives me with the glad and courteous greeting of a person desirous of making himself agreeable and of ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens
... and to ask Dr. Vannini to get me a servant of the same build, not gifted with the faculty of divination, but who knew how to obey his master's orders. The rascal was much perturbed at the result of his officiousness, and asked Therese to plead for him; but, like a sensible woman, she told him that his master was the best judge of ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... deny the right of our ministers and synods expressing this dissent, and proposing to form a new creed, if they deem it requisite. To call the dissenting position of the Definite Platform a new one, is therefore a historical error; and to attempt to cast odium on it by the charge of officiousness, is also an act of injustice. The same charge would equally lie against the greater part of our best ministers during the last half century, and against the founders ...
— American Lutheranism Vindicated; or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topics • Samuel Simon Schmucker
... her a third of her way home. During the remaining two thirds she did a good deal of thinking; and arrived at the Lodge with her mind made up. There was no chance of peace and a good time for her, without going away from home. Dr. Cairnes' officiousness would be sure to do something to arouse Mr. Carlisle's watchfulness; and then—"the game will be up," said Eleanor to herself. "Between his being here and the incessant expectation of him, there will be no rest for me. I must get away." She laid ...
— The Old Helmet, Volume I • Susan Warner
... not have served God well in his generation, where he had been placed? He recollected some lines in the Ethics of Aristotle, quoted by the philosopher from an old poet, in which the poor outcast Philoctetes laments over his own stupid officiousness, as he calls it, which had been the cause of his misfortunes. Was he not a busybody too? Why could he not let well alone? Better men than he had lived and died in the English Church. And then what if, as Campbell had said, all his so-called convictions were to vanish just as he entered the Roman ...
— Loss and Gain - The Story of a Convert • John Henry Newman
... gain four times as much for the whole Medicine as in Conscience they ought; and a Juleb, which cost them six pence, will be rated at 10, 12, or more Shillings. But perhaps 'tis fit they should be paid for their created Visits; and for this unnecessary officiousness, persons of great estates may be contented to pay roundly, ...
— A Short View of the Frauds and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries • Christopher Merrett
... while the grooms slipped the last strap of the harness into its buckle. At the expiration of the quarter of a minute, as Sam stuck an unlighted cigar between his lips and took hold of the box to pull himself up to his seat, the good-natured landlady of Piney-woods Station called out, with some officiousness: ...
— The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems • Frances Fuller Victor
... little pleasure. He was a handsome man of about forty, sun-browned and keen of eye, with a grave intellectual face after the style of a Vandyk portrait, and a kindly smile; and he was happily devoid of all that unbecoming officiousness and obsequiousness which some persons affect when in the presence of Royalty. He bowed profoundly as the Queen received him, saying ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli
... not tell her. You may say to Father Frontford from me that it will be time enough for him to undertake the disposal of my property when it is mine. I thank him for his officiousness!" ...
— The Puritans • Arlo Bates
... the library table with a disorder of papers before him, Dick appeared at the door: good boy, full of zeal and pity. He looked so overflowing with honest affection, so eagerly ready to help that Raven exasperatedly loved him for his kind officiousness. Yet he had nothing for ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown
... officiousness he bustled out of the galley and, walking aft, to the spot where Hampton was lashed up, thrust his hand unceremoniously into the man's trousers pocket, withdrew a bunch of keys secured together upon a ropeyarn, and offered ...
— Dick Leslie's Luck - A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure • Harry Collingwood
... When that is over he will be just as another man again or worse. But I wonder whence Mr. Coventry should take all this care for him, to send for him up only to look after his Irish business with my Lord Ormond and to get the Duke's leave for him to come with so much officiousness, when I am sure he knows him as well as I do as to his little ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... headlong in assisting her as far down as possible. She lowered her skirts while I followed and then I helped her into the domino, rejoicing in the silken caress of her hair on my hands as I arranged the hood, a pleasant piece of officiousness for which I got thanks I did not deserve, ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough
... him in the hall, with well-meaning officiousness bringing forward his coat and hat. His presence helped to dissipate an impulse which seized Major Graham to rush upstairs again for one other word of farewell. Had he done so what would he have found? ...
— Four Ghost Stories • Mrs. Molesworth
... with luxury, and forgot to taste the dainties that were placed before him; he rose abruptly in the midst of the song, and hastily retired beyond the sound of music. His attendants observed the change, and endeavoured to renew his love of pleasure. He neglected their officiousness, repulsed their invitations, and spent day after day on the banks of rivulets sheltered with trees, where he sometimes listened to the birds in the branches, sometimes observed the fish playing in the streams, and anon cast his eyes upon the pastures and mountains ...
— Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia • Samuel Johnson
... impertinence, intrusiveness, presumption, boldness, incivility, officiousness, rudeness, effrontery, insolence, ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... in fluent if rather "bookish" German, in correct but somewhat halting French, or, if it was a Roman Catholic priest he had to deal with, in sonorous Latin. And, without anything approaching cant or officiousness, he always tried to bring the conversation round to the subject of religion—to the state of religion in the country in which he was travelling, about which he was always anxious to gain first-hand information, and, if possible ...
— Principal Cairns • John Cairns
... told of past transgressions, with considerable tranquillity, because we pride ourselves on the conviction of increased moral feeling; but the man who should act the friendless part of a censor among us, would still be able to discover our iniquity, in the resentment we exhibited at his officiousness.—E. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr
... by the officiousness of a servant at the inn to which the sufferers were carried, was taken at once to the post. And, after all, things turned out not quite so bad as anticipated; for when the doctors came to examine the state of Lady Isabel, not cursorily, they ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood
... communion with that long-ago victim of merciless practices and depraved tastes, not only caused him a painful shock, but also moved him with fervid desire to offer comfort and render help.—Yet, what to say, how to approach Richard without risk of seeming officiousness and consequent offense, he could not tell. The young man's experiences and his own were so conspicuously far apart. For a moment he stood uncertain and silent, then ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet
... Vinnius, that you would present these volumes to Augustus sealed up if he shall be in health, if in spirits, finally, if he shall ask for them: do not offend out of zeal to me, and industriously bring an odium upon my books [by being] an agent of violent officiousness. If haply the heavy load of my paper should gall you, cast it from you, rather than throw down your pack in a rough manner where you are directed to carry it, and turn your paternal name of Asina into a jest, and make yourself a common story. Make use of your ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace
... it was his cheerful obedience to orders, his good-natured smiling alacrity—minus officiousness, mind you—his unselfishness and his bravery, that gained for Jack Mackenzie the proud position ...
— As We Sweep Through The Deep • Gordon Stables
... other. 'My name's Cap'n Naskett, and I'm doing a record trip from New York to Liverpool in the smallest boat that has ever crossed the Atlantic, an' you go an' bust everything with your cussed officiousness. If you think I'm going to be kidnapped just to fulfil your beastly warnings, you've made a mistake. I'll have the law on you, that's what I'll do. Kidnapping's ...
— Many Cargoes • W.W. Jacobs
... a very fine kind grew in my orchard, I ventured to send some to her address. But the very next time I encountered Everard in the village, he cast a look at me as if he would have killed me for my officiousness, or, perhaps, for taking the liberty to suppose that Lexley Park was less luxuriously provisioned than in former years. Nor was it till long afterwards I discovered that my old housekeeper (who had taken upon herself to carry my humble ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. • Various
... curtsy when, opening the door to the autocratic summons of Crashaw's rat-a-tat, she saw the great man of the district at her threshold. Challis raised his hat. Crashaw did not imitate his example; he was all officiousness, he had the air of a chief superintendent ...
— The Wonder • J. D. Beresford
... curse thee for thy officiousness, from the tip of thy coal black wig to the sole of thy platter shoe—but that I am too good ...
— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle
... de Lamotte expected that the business would be kept quiet for the sake of the Queen, and that thus any very severe or public punishments would be avoided and perhaps no inquiries made. It is clear that this would have been the best plan, but de Breteuil's officiousness prevented it, and there was nothing for it but legal measures. De Rohan was arrested and put in the Bastile, having barely been able to send a message in German to his hotel to a trusty secretary, who instantly destroyed ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum
... sir, that nothing can carry the air of greater presumption than a servant intruding his opinion unasked upon his master, but at the same time there are certain seasons when the real danger of the master may not only excuse, but render laudable, the servant's officiousness. I therefore flatter myself that the congress will receive with indulgence and lenity the opinion I shall offer. The scheme of simply disarming the tories seems to me totally ineffectual; it will only embitter ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 (of 5) • John Marshall
... the author[2] has been ridiculed by the opponents of the Water-Cure, but which by no means belongs to impossibilities; for scarlatina simplex having been declared by eminent physicians (not of Priessnitz's school) to be "scarcely a disease,"[3] becoming fatal only through the officiousness of the doctor,[4] and other physicians of note recommending cold rooms and open air through the whole course of the disease,[5] or at least towards the latter part of it;[6] I do not see why a patient under water-treatment ...
— Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms • Charles Munde
... him angry—he did," she thrust in with feminine officiousness; and was checked by her ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver
... nothing to check Wonder's officiousness, other people said unpleasant things. Maybe the Members of Council began it; but, finally, all Simla agreed that there was "too much Wonder, and too little Viceroy," in that regime. Wonder was always quoting "His Excellency." It was "His Excellency this," ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling |
