"Pluck" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... races of all sorts and daily. Hurdles had given place to great hedges and ditches, which most of the animals distinguished themselves in leaping. Monty was still the hindmost in everything, yet showed his pluck in sticking to his saddle at all risks, ...
— Dorothy on a Ranch • Evelyn Raymond
... I always think of him as stopping for a moment to dream of home, looking about in a discouraged way for hawthorn which he knows is not there, then spying the little cluster of evergreen leaves with their pink and white blossoms nestling among the oak leaves at his very feet and kneeling to pluck and sniff them in some thing like adoration. It may not have been that way at all, but someone found that first mayflower and loved ...
— Old Plymouth Trails • Winthrop Packard
... the arms of some natives who came running from that side. A big induna blazed at me, missed me, and then fumbled at his belt for another cartridge. It was not a proper bandolier he had on, and I saw him trying to pluck out the cartridge instead of easing it up from below with his finger. As I got my horse steady and threw my rifle down to cover him, he suddenly let the cartridge be and lifted an assegai. Waiting to make sure of my aim, just ...
— The Red True Story Book • Various
... carries on over hilltop and hollow, The life of Old England, the pluck and the fun; And who would ask more than a stiff line to follow With hounds running hard ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, November 3, 1920 • Various
... need, and hast as happy a manner of reconciling a man's conscience with his necessities, as might set up a score of casuists; but beware, my most zealous counsellor and confessor, how you drive the nail too far—I promise you some of the chaffing you are at just now rather abates my pluck.—Well—give me your scroll—I will to Clara with it—though I would rather meet the best shot in Britain, with ten paces of green sod betwixt us." So ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott
... in the vessel, Sai must have met with a melancholy death. Some died daily as we came into colder climates, and he was allowed one each day. It was just enough to keep him from starving, and this sometimes made him seize it so ravenously, that he did not give himself time to pluck off the feathers; these in process of time formed a hard substance within the intestines, which made him very ill, he refused even his small portion of food, and I thought would have died; but I made some pills of calomel, butter, and flour, and put them very far down his throat, ...
— Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals • R. Lee
... and encouragement, "that we are at length permitted the society of such a respectable person of our own sex as you appear to be. I must say that my niece and I have had but little for which to thank the hospitality of King Louis.—Nay, niece, never pluck my sleeve—I am sure I read in the looks of this young lady sympathy for out situation.—Since we came hither, fair madam, we have been used little better than mere prisoners; and after a thousand invitations to throw our cause and our persons under ...
— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott
... Christmas tree, And gems for the fair and gay; The lettered page for the mind bears he, And robes for the wintry day. And there are toys for the girls and boys; And eyes that years bedim Grow strangely bright, with a youthful light, As they pluck from the pendant limb. ...
— Christmas Entertainments • Alice Maude Kellogg
... it," answered Aylmer,—"pluck it, and inhale its brief perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments and leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels; but thence may be perpetuated a race as ...
— Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18) - Mystery • Various
... cherub flying past, Plucked thee, and placed within his breast, And there by guardian angel nurst, Thou took'st a shape of human grace, Until, a lowly flower at first, Thou grew'st the first of mortal race. Alas! if I who still was blessed When thou wast but a lowly flower— To pluck thy image from my breast, Though thus thou will'st it, have no power; Thou still to me, though lifted high In hope and heart above the glen, Where first thou won my idol eye, Must spell my worship just ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various
... cannot look on these smiling and flowery valleys, and believe that such lovely scenes are always untenanted—that there are no children occasionally picking up these apricots—no village girls to pluck these bright, fragrant flowers. We fancy that they are out in the fields, and will be there in the evening, and that their hamlet is hid behind the slope of the next hill; and it is only when we come to some Indian ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca
... be acquainted with the reckless way in which people pluck opinions like flowers—a bud here, and a leaf there. The bouquet is pretty to-day, but you must look for it to-morrow in ...
— Obiter Dicta • Augustine Birrell
... place, if you'll pluck up your heart; and you'll find yourself better with the motion of ...
— Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... nowadays to claim success is to obtain it, and since, after all, great works are only due to the expansion of little ideas, I do not see why I should not pluck the laurels, if only for the purpose of crowning those dirty bacon faces who join us in swallowing a dram. One moment, pilot, let us not start without making ...
— The Physiology of Marriage, Part I. • Honore de Balzac
... did not refuse. He gave him another two months. No longer term could be conceded; but, yes, he would give him another two months. "Just for the almighty fun of the thing. If there's one thing I like to see," said Dicky, "it's pluck." Dicky was more than ever sure of his game. He argued rightly that Rickman would never have sold his books if he could have sold his articles or borrowed from a friend; that, as he had nothing else to sell or offer as security, his end was certain. But it was so glorious to see ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair
... body of Esquimaux had landed, and the noise and confusion on the shore were so great that scarcely an intelligible sound could be heard. In the midst of all this, and while yet engaged in caressing Chimo, Edith felt some one pluck her by the sleeve, and on looking round she beheld the smiling faces of her old friends Arnalooa and Okatook. Scarcely had she bestowed a hearty welcome on them, when she was startled by an ecstatic yell of treble laughter close to her ear; and turning quickly ...
— Ungava • R.M. Ballantyne
... want a scoop that will make your career," he answered slowly, "it's here. Waiting for you to pick it up. I promised you first call on my news—here it is. Have you the pluck ...
— Swirling Waters • Max Rittenberg
... instinct to the dictates of that power which came straight from the hands of the gods; now she felt actual physical nausea at the sight of this pitiable coward, who—wallowing in his own cruelty—had not even the unreasoning pluck of ...
— "Unto Caesar" • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... attack, we may struggle indefinitely without much result. All problems of life involve certain common factors. The essential difference between the educated and the uneducated man, if we grant each an equal measure of pluck, persistence, and endurance, lies in the superior ability of the educated man to analyze his problem effectively and to proceed intelligently rather than blindly to its solution. I maintain that education should give a man this ideal of attacking any problem; furthermore I ...
— Craftsmanship in Teaching • William Chandler Bagley
... now," said the Prince; "my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... flower!" said the old woman, "but place yourself here, and when Death comes,—I expect him every moment,—do not let him pluck the flower up, but threaten him that you will do the same with the others. Then he will be afraid! he is responsible for them to Our Lord, and no one dares to pluck them up ...
— A Christmas Greeting • Hans Christian Andersen
... out of the question to withdraw, as there was nothing left to them but to arm themselves with whatever pluck and boldness they had at their command in order to carry out the role they had undertaken to play in ...
— LOUISA OF PRUSSIA AND HER TIMES • Louise Muhlbach
... bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.' In short, if the Jews had not suffered their King to riot thus unpunished, God had not punished them. We must pluck out the offending eye and cut off the diseased hand and foot. How this is to be done, it is easy to observe. Not by death-blows, wars, tumults, but by quite other means, for God hath called us to peace. Does the king or the lord of the common hand choose ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... to a mind diseas'd; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff, Which weighs upon ...
— Life of Johnson - Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood • James Boswell
... moment, were perhaps as mixed as they had ever been—curiosity, parental disapproval, to which he knew he was not entitled, admiration of her pluck in letting that fellow know, fears for the consequences of this confession, and, more than all, his profound disturbance at knowing her at last launched into the deep waters of love. It was the least of these feelings that ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... remaining hope of emancipation," he exclaimed bitterly. "You have the repute of being able to pluck the heart out of a mystery, Mr. Brett, so when you ...
— The Stowmarket Mystery - Or, A Legacy of Hate • Louis Tracy
... shafts, and we went downstairs, while his wife held a light for us. When we got outside I stood the body up, so as to deceive the coachman, and said: 'Come, my friend; it is nothing; you feel better already I expect. Pluck up your courage, and make an effort. It will soon be over.' But as I felt that he was slipping out of my hands, I gave him a slap on the shoulder, which sent him forward and made him fall into the carriage, ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... Quarante at Monaco; and Baccarat had no secrets for her. At Trouville she astonished the natives with the startling novelty of her bathing-costumes; and, when she found herself the centre of a reasonable circle of lookers-on, she threw herself in the water with a pluck that drew upon her the applause of the bathing-masters. She could smoke a cigarette, empty nearly a glass of champagne; and once her mother was obliged to bring her home, and put her quick to bed, because she had insisted upon ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau
... said old Joe, "of this tailor afore. His name's Sloper. I've never larnt why he mounted them guns, or where the little rooting hog got his pluck from to fire 'em. But there can be no shadder of a doubt, mates, that his object in firing to-day was ...
— The Honour of the Flag • W. Clark Russell
... mother, and give him to his nurse; and often, beneath my tree, make him drink milk, and beneath my tree let him play; and, when he shall be able to speak, make him salute his mother, and let him in sadness say, 'Beneath this trunk is my mother concealed.' Yet let him dread the ponds, and let him not pluck flowers from the trees; and let him think that all shrubs are the bodies of Goddesses. Farewell, dear husband; and thou, sister; and, {thou} my father; in whom, if there is any affection {towards me}, protect my branches from the wounds of the sharp pruning-knife, ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes - and Explanations • Publius Ovidius Naso
... "Nay, but I know the lad too well. He was ever pining for London, for gay places and the stir of life. There was evil in his blood. It was the books he read, and the strange taste he had for solitude. What else? But he'd not the pluck of a rabbit. He never killed himself—not he! He's a living man to-day, and as I'm a living woman I'll drop my hand ...
— The Survivor • E.Phillips Oppenheim
... a happiness too great for words—the sight and feeling of this lovely garden were for the poor tired and dulled little girl, ecstasy past telling. She did not care to go running about to find where the streams came from or to pluck the flowers, as some children would have done. She just sat down on the delicious grass and rested her tired little head on a bank ...
— The Boys and I • Mrs. Molesworth
... jokes, but they loved his pluck, his courage, his adventurous spirit, his contempt for danger, his shrewd insight, his unfailing good humour, his reckless energy: all qualities that stood out at a period when the most active virtues of our race had reached their zenith, the ...
— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc
... affianced; but there were many of them, and it was a difficult matter to choose amongst them. The butterfly could not make up his mind; so he flew to the daisy. The French call her Marguerite; they know that she can tell fortunes, and she does this when lovers pluck off leaf after leaf and ask her at each one a question about the beloved one: "How does he love me?—With all his heart?—With sorrow?—Above all?—Can not refrain from it?—Quite secretly?—A little bit?—Not at all?"—or questions to the same import. Each one asks in his own language. ...
— The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales. • Hans Christian Andersen
... thought he should rather talk to Grettel. He looked at her with a smile, and immediately she began to pluck at her skirt and pat her hair and look at him out of a corner of her eye. He said: "It was good of your parents, wasn't it, to put your best clothes on you when they meant ...
— Everychild - A Story Which The Old May Interpret to the Young and Which the Young May Interpret to the Old • Louis Dodge
... seeking to recover the stolen horse, he unintentionally stole another. In trying to restore the wrong horse to his rightful owner, he was himself arrested. After no end of comic and dolorous adventures, he surmounted all his misfortunes by downright pluck and genuine good feeling. It is a noble contribution to ...
— Seek and Find - or The Adventures of a Smart Boy • Oliver Optic
... was on a barren plain, with scores of deer in plain sight, it was a different matter. There they had to crawl snakelike along the ground. Thus on it went, the Indian repeatedly uttering a cheery word of encouragement to Alec, who had so won his admiration by his pluck and endurance. ...
— Three Boys in the Wild North Land • Egerton Ryerson Young
... through the thickest gloom. Never off his guard, he knew when and where to strike, and when to reserve the blow that opportunity only served to encourage; for it is hard for the brave in battle to retain the gauntlet of defiance, and so armed, "out of the nettle danger pluck ...
— A sketch of the life and services of Otho Holland Williams • Osmond Tiffany
... kiss'd its green-gloss'd locks; And round its knees the merry West Wind danc'd; And round its ring, compacted emerald; The south wind crept on moccasins of flame; And the fed fingers of th' impatient sun Pluck'd at its outmost fringes—its dim veins Beat with no life—its deep and dusky heart, In a deep trance of shadow, felt no throb To such soft wooing answer: thro' its dream Brown rivers of deep waters sunless stole; Small creeks sprang ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford
... had heard her voice: she was reading aloud to some one on the vine-screened porch. And once again in passing, he had caught a glimpse of a shapely arm with the loose sleeve falling away from it as it was thrust upward through the porch greenery to pluck a bud from the crimson rambler adding its graceful mass to the clambering vines. It was rather disappointing, but he was not impatient. In the fulness of time the destiny which had twice intervened would intervene again. He was as certain of it as he was of the day-to-day ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde
... feather to shake off my friend when he must need me" (Timon of Athens). My impression was that he had been convicted of harbouring, or aiding to escape, some who had broken the law, whatever more that may have meant, for, with his pluck, he was probably little troubled about niceties of fine feeling, and, thus accoutred, Providence dropped the man amongst altogether different circumstances and associations in ...
— Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne & Victoria • William Westgarth
... the worst motives, they were to be found in that miserable creature, as he stood there urging himself on to hate those whom he should have loved—cursing those who were nearest to him—fearing her, whom he had ill-treated all his life—and striving to pluck up courage to take such measures as might entirely quell her. Money was to him the only source of gratification. He had looked forward, when a boy, to his manhood, as a period when he might indulge, unrestrained, in pleasures which money would buy; and, when ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope
... the voyage Desmond found his position somewhat improved. His pluck had won the rough admiration of the men; Captain Barker was not so constantly chevying him; and Mr. Toley showed a more active interest in him, teaching him the use of the sextant and quadrant, how to take the altitude of the sun, and many other ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang
... knowing that he is a coward at heart. They fly upon him, now from below, now from above. They buffet him from one side and from the other. They circle round him like a pair of swift gunboats round an antiquated man-of-war. They even perch upon his back and dash their beaks into his neck and pluck feathers from his piratical plumage. At last his lumbering flight has carried him far enough away, and the brave little defenders fly back to the nest, poising above it on quivering wings for a moment, then dipping down swiftly in pursuit of some passing insect. The war is over. ...
— Fisherman's Luck • Henry van Dyke
... with many men acrost the seas, And some of 'em was brave, an' some was not." (So Mister KIPLING says. His 'ealth, boys, please! 'E doesn't give us TOMMIES Tommy-rot.) We didn't think you over-full of pluck, When you scuttled from our baynicks like wild 'orses; But you're mendin', an' 'ere's wishing of you luck! Wich you're proving an addition to our forces. So 'ere's to you, though 'tis true that at El Teb you cut and ran; You're improvin' from ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, January 14, 1893 • Various
... hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, ...
— The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc • Thomas de Quincey
... who made the satisfaction of his lusts the condition of needy girls' securing work, all the while careless that he was conducting them along the first stage of a downward journey, which might lead to unsuspected depths of degradation. She itched to pluck him by the beard, to tell him what ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte
... the Wars in your country against the Red Indians, of the gallantry of your soldiers against the cunning of the Red Man, and what is more, of the pluck of your ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts
... pluck them from the trees, as there were plenty lying on the ground. And since these were doomed to rot in time, the consciences of the boys did not disturb them much. Still, they knew they were trespassing, and ...
— The Rushton Boys at Rally Hall - Or, Great Days in School and Out • Spencer Davenport
... there for several nights, for many empty Mauser cartridge-cases were found in the summer-house, and a very dicky punt was discovered in the rushes. This latter we sank, and were no more troubled; but it shows the cool pluck of the enemy's snipers in getting right into our lines by themselves (and also—I regret to add—certain other ...
— The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade - August 1914 to March 1915 • Edward Lord Gleichen
... whose gates were open to me in those early days. In one of these was a vast bed of purple heartsease, flower of the beautiful name. Year after year they had blossomed and gone to seed till the harvest of flowers in their season was past gathering, and any child in the neighborhood was at liberty to pluck them by handfuls, while the wicked ones played at "chicken fighting" and littered the ground with decapitated bodies. There is no heartsease nowadays, only the magnificent pansy of which it was the modest forerunner. But one little cluster of dark, spicy ...
— Aunt Jane of Kentucky • Eliza Calvert Hall
... must make sure that it does not get out. The young cub has a deal of spirit and pluck, and he would not live long if he were shut up on such rations as ...
— Fighting for the Right • Oliver Optic
... and a general arming-for-conquest expression, as some of the "ladies of the chorus and ballet," appeared from the side door. "Isn't she pretty?" he went on, in an audible aside to me. "I've a crow to pluck with her too. Tag, Fraeulein!" he added, advancing to the young lady ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill
... it not been for two thoughts which braced him. The sinister shadow of young Dr. Small sitting in the dark corner by the water-bucket nerved him. A victory over Phillips was a defeat to one who wished only ill to the young school-master. The other thought that kept his pluck alive was the recollection of Bull. He approached a word as Bull approached the raccoon. He did not take hold until he was sure of his game. When he took hold, it was with a quiet assurance of success. As Ralph spelled in this dogged ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston
... bias, an' that bias runs ter money every time. You know as well as I do that he won't lift his finger unless there's a dollar stickin' to it, an' that he hain't no use fur anythin' nor anybody unless there's money in it for him. I'm blamed if I don't think that if he ever gits ter heaven, he'll pluck his own wings an' sell the ...
— Just David • Eleanor H. Porter
... multitude of nothings which arrogant creed-makers have impiously superadded to pure christianity removed from the church than I do; but wisdom must direct in this great and necessary work. It was those who had more zeal than discernment who asked if they should pluck up the tares from among the wheat? They were told that they would pluck up the wheat with the tares.—Let us be careful, my brother, and in our zeal to cleanse, ...
— A Series of Letters In Defence of Divine Revelation • Hosea Ballou
... more to popularize the genuine truths of science in this country than Professor Agassiz, or worked more successfully to that end. He was willing to place the decorative wreath on the starry forehead of science, but refused to pluck from the soul "the starry eyes of faith and hope," that man might be dwarfed down to the "nearest of kin" ...
— Life: Its True Genesis • R. W. Wright
... Dr. R.V. PIERCE, the Buffalo (N.Y.) Commercial says: "He came here an unknown man, almost friendless, with no capital except his own manhood, which, however, included plenty of brains and pluck, indomitable perseverance, and inborn uprightness, capital enough for any man in this progressive country, if only he has good health and habits as well. He had all these great natural advantages, and one thing more, an excellent education. He had studied ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce
... ethereal look she always had had. She was hearing those voices they used to chaff her about. How she had gone for John one day, when he began ragging her about that old hymn! She always had the pluck of the devil! He frowned. She hadn't had pluck enough to stand up to her father! He would look at her picture no longer. He wouldn't think of her. She had chucked him. But his eyes were held by the eyes that ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross
... a dingy little room to consider the surrender of the city. Mayor Mayo dashed in and out with the latest information he could get from the War Department. He was slightly incoherent in his excitement, but he was full of pluck and chewed tobacco defiantly. He announced that the last hope was gone and that he would maintain order ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon
... Daddy Birotteau's shop, with not a penny of capital but their determination to get on, which, in my opinion, is the best capital a man can have. Money may be eaten through, but you don't eat through your determination. Why, what had I? The will to get on, and plenty of pluck. At this day du Tillet is a match for the greatest folks; little Popinot, the richest druggist of the Rue des Lombards, became a deputy, now he is in office.—Well, one of these free lances, as we say on the stock market, of the pen, or of the brush, is the only man in Paris who would marry ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac
... plums, apricots, tamarinds, watermelons, citrons, pears, and many other fruits and vegetables. The natives push a stick into the ground, drop in a kernel or two of corn, cover them with the soil by a mere brush of their feet, and ninety days after they pluck the ripe ears. There is no other labor, no fertilizer is used, nor is there any occasion for consulting the season, for the seed will ripen and yield its fruit each month of the year, if planted at ...
— Aztec Land • Maturin M. Ballou
... is borne aloft in the heavens? Thou who canst pluck the maid from her mother's enfolding, pluck from her mother's enfolding the firm-clinging maid, and canst give the chaste girl to the burning youngster. What more cruel could victors in vanquished city contrive? Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus
... wicked fox that is preying on the flock! If the bold mountaineers, the constituency of "Hon." John Whimpery Brass, cannot commend the discretion displayed by the projector of the enterprise, they must certainly admire his pluck. In face of the odds, few ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne
... good, but there is something that, as a rule, proves even better. This is organization and leadership, backed up by pluck; and here the Riverside boys were in a class ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman
... to fly away many, if not all, will drop something. I have found these to be acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts, buckeyes, sycamore balls, sticks, eggshells, pebbles, etc. As a crow leaves an oak he will pluck an acorn, which he may carry five miles and light on a beech tree where something else will attract his attention, when he will drop the acorn and maybe pluck a pod of beechnuts and fly away ...
— Seed Dispersal • William J. Beal
... the beauty of wealth Strong saw and respected. But he argued within himself "This poor devil, this unlucky outcast of a returned convict, is ten times as good a fellow as my friend Sir Francis Clavering, Bart. He has pluck and honesty, in his way. He will stick to a friend, and face an enemy. The other never had courage to do either. And what is it that has put the poor devil under a cloud? He was only a little wild, and signed his father-in-law's name. Many a ...
— The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2 - His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy • William Makepeace Thackeray
... his very commonness was a healthy, normal thing. It made no effort to wreathe itself with chaplets of elegance; it was beautifully unaware that such adornment was necessary. It enjoyed itself, youthfully; attacked the earning of its bread with genial pluck, and its good-natured humanness had touched him. He had enjoyed his talk; he wanted to hear more of it. He was not in the mood to let him go his way. To Penzance, who was to lunch with him to-day, he would present a study of ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... night he patrolled before Ellaphine's home and tried to pluck up courage enough to twist that old door-bell again. Suddenly she ran into him. She was sneaking through the front gate. He tried to talk to her, but ...
— In a Little Town • Rupert Hughes
... a strong country girl, with plenty of pluck, and as the dog came leaping and barking about in a very alarming way, she hit him as hard as she could on his head. The wonder is she did not kill him on the spot, and, as it was, the blow turned him ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey
... to lose his grips of them, to turn his back upon them, to quit them with purpose of heart, and to say to them, get you hence, as Isa. xxx. 22. This is to deny ourselves, which we must do ere we become his disciples, Matt. xvi. 24. This is to forsake our father's house, Psalm xlv. 10, and to pluck out our right eye, and to cut off our right arm, Matth. v. 29, 30. This abandoning of all our false propes and subterfuges must be resolute, over the belly of much opposition within, from the carnal and natural inclinations of the heart; and of much ...
— Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life • John Brown (of Wamphray)
... not commend me so; I am flesh and blood, and you do not know what you may pluck upon that reverend person of ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott
... rather like a tempest in a teapot, now it is all over, but I do admire your pluck, little boy, in holding out so well when every one was scolding at you, and you in the right all the time," said Frank, glad to praise, now that he honestly could, after ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott
... the air around her. In a sheltered, sunny nook, she found a single erythronium, lured forth in advance of its proper season, and gathered it as a relic of the spot, which she might keep without blame. As she stooped to pluck it, her own face looked up at her out of a little pool filled by the spring rains. Seen against the reflected sky, it shone with a soft radiance, and the earnest eyes met hers, as if it were her young self, evoked ...
— Beauty and The Beast, and Tales From Home • Bayard Taylor
... and in popularity no man stood higher; but he did not possess the power of restraining his followers or of holding them in hand, and the result was, that instead of being their leader he became their instrument. Fond of applause, ambitious of distinction, timid by nature, destitute of pluck, and of that rarer virtue moral courage, Ledru Rollin, to avoid the imputation of faint-heartedness, put himself in the foreground, but the measures of his followers being ill-taken, the plot in which ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 7 - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 12, 1850 • Various
... proportions. The desert of ice that stretched far and wide about us was wild and desolate beyond description, and the perils which beset us were so great that at times I was minded to turn back. But I pulled my pluck together and ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... traveller made no prompt answer, but bent down as if to pluck a wild-flower which grew by the road-side: ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... secret of diving is the possession of plenty of pluck and self-confidence. One need not be an expert swimmer to be a good diver. In fact, some persons can dive very well and at the same time are mediocre swimmers. As in other branches, practise ...
— Swimming Scientifically Taught - A Practical Manual for Young and Old • Frank Eugen Dalton and Louis C. Dalton
... think all the more of you for having pluck to tackle any honest work that comes," said Overton, decidedly. "We all do—every man in the settlement. If I didn't, I wouldn't be asking you to look after this little girl, who hasn't any folks—father or mother—to ...
— That Girl Montana • Marah Ellis Ryan
... statement of the case, and manner, immediately calmed down, made an explanation and withdrew. I could not resist a hearty laugh at the storm which had so suddenly burst upon us and had been as suddenly quelled, and turning to him said, "Mr. Charless, I had no idea you had so much pluck." He joined the laugh and said, "My Irish will sometimes come up. Besides," he added, more gravely, "that man took no pains to learn the facts of the case, and has a way of bullying that I wanted to put a ...
— A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless - In a Series of Letters to his Grandchildren • Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless
... of the Ketaki, and pluck the flower of the rose." The Ketaki, a highly odoriferous flower, was used in giving fragrance to ...
— Bagh O Bahar, Or Tales of the Four Darweshes • Mir Amman of Dihli
... have the skill to paint, And pluck to labor and to wait; And too much sense to pine and faint, Because the ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various
... his knee, "th' owd parson's lass. A little wench not much higher nor thy waist, an' wi' a bit o' a face loike skim-milk, but steady and full o' pluck ...
— That Lass O' Lowrie's - 1877 • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... themselves and touch, the pairs just above them closing somewhat upon them, as in the shut sprig; so is the little round Pedunculus of this leaf fitted into a little cavity of the sprig, visible to the eye in a sprig new pluck'd, or in a sprig withered on the Branch, from which the leaves easily fall ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke
... to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the forest, the pneumatic bed for ...
— The Forest • Stewart Edward White
... word 'at micht fa' sair on a sair hert," he returned; "but gien ye kent a', ye wad ken I hed a gey sized craw to pluck wi' 's lordship mysel'." ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... his lordship appeared on a race-course—it was at Ascot, a few months later—he was greeted with thunders of cheers from the bookmakers, a tribute to his pluck and sportsmanship, which must have taken away some of the sting of defeat. But fate which had dealt this merciless blow to the Marquess was in no mood to spare him further disaster. The second stroke fell within five months of the first—at the Newmarket ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall
... people, but it glides through various transformations of self-deceit; like the evil genius in the fairy tale, now dwindling to a mere seed, now bursting into a devouring fire. When, with an honest purpose, we probe it and pluck at it, still we may detect it in the lowest socket of the heart. Often it is most vital when we feel most sure that it is vanquished. It delights in the garb of humility, and finds its food in the profession of self-renunciation. See ...
— Humanity in the City • E. H. Chapin
... for he came back with a funny sidelong shuffle, arms extended, and Dreer, perhaps surprised at the other's pluck, moved ...
— Left Tackle Thayer • Ralph Henry Barbour
... 'As grand a pluck as a man could wish to find in a woman, true as I'm here,' he said, reaching forward his hand and tentatively touching her between ...
— England, My England • D.H. Lawrence
... you! Would you pluck my hair and line your nests with my curls! Pischt—away with you!" she flung out the crumbs again. ...
— The Black Cross • Olive M. Briggs
... Mary Percival, "she would be considered handsome everywhere, Martin, squaw or not; her features are very pretty, and then she has a melancholy smile, which is perfectly beautiful; but now, Martin, pluck these turkeys, or we shall not have them ...
— The Settlers in Canada • Frederick Marryat
... pluck was he to the backbone; and clear grit through and through; Boasted and bragged like a trooper; but the big words wouldn't do; The boy was dying sir, dying, as plain as plain could be, Worn out by his ride with Morgan ...
— Twilight Stories • Various
... that all your energies and pluck will be brought into play against a desperate effort on the part of enemies to overthrow you. If you are in love, evil women ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... developed from the rank and file. The best houses do not hire high class help from other concerns. The most successful men are those who started in at the bottom of the ladder, and by perseverance and pluck and aptitude they climbed the ladder until they ...
— Dollars and Sense • Col. Wm. C. Hunter
... is lamentable to think how he was robbed, abused, and bullied by his friends. Why didn't he show a little pluck? There wasn't a rough sailor, or shrewd boy—the English boy, in all his impudence and prejudice, flourished in Balaclava—who would not gladly have patted him upon the back if he would but have held up his head, and shown ever ...
— Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands • Mary Seacole
... the hearts of the people. The outrages committed at Lexington and Bunker's Hill had, in truth, exasperated the people at large, and this exasperation was increased tenfold when, at a later period, news arrived of the invasion of Canada. They saw that it was a rude attempt to pluck a jewel from the British crown, and it excited feelings of resentment in their breasts deep and lasting. Not a few Englishmen who maintained that the Americans were justified in taking up arms to assert their own rights were converted by this step adopted ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... "five finger," or common starfish, which we may pick up on any beach, while it never grew upon a stem, yet still preserves the radial symmetry of its stalked ancestors. Pick up your starfish, carry it to the nearest field, and pluck a daisy close to the head. How interesting the comparison becomes, now that the knowledge of its meaning is plain. Anything which grows fast upon a single immovable stem tends to grow equally in all directions. ...
— The Log of the Sun - A Chronicle of Nature's Year • William Beebe
... at the full Mushrooms you may freely pull; But when the moon is on the wane, Wait ere you think to pluck again. ...
— Rhymes Old and New • M.E.S. Wright
... his preference there hovered the vague adumbration of a belief that his cousin's final merit was a certain enviable capacity for whistling, rather gallantly, at the sanctions of mere judgment—for showing a larger courage, a finer quality of pluck, than common occasion demanded. Mr. Wentworth would never have risked the intimation that Acton was made, in the smallest degree, of the stuff of a hero; but this is small blame to him, for Robert would certainly never have risked it himself. Acton certainly exercised great discretion ...
— The Europeans • Henry James
... account to read the writing. The woman gladly complied, was cured of her eye-trouble, and loaned the charm to another woman, similarly affected, who also soon experienced relief. Thereupon a natural curiosity prompted them to examine the mystic spell, and this is what they read: "May the Devil pluck out thine eyes, and ...
— Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery • Robert Means Lawrence
... see the days of careful preparation which have been given to these spontaneous utterances. The after-dinner speaker needs to find somewhere some unworked joker's quarry, where some jokes have been left without a label on them; he needs to acquire the art of seeming to pluck, as he goes along in the progress of his speech, as by the wayside, some flower of rhetoric. He seems to have passed it and to have plucked it casually,—but it is a boutonniere with tin foil round it. [Laughter.] You can see, upon close inspection, the mark of the planer on his well-turned sentences. ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various |
