"Poser" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... once put to me what he evidently deemed a poser: "Do you urge that we shall be stronger than our ...
— Peace Theories and the Balkan War • Norman Angell
... addled my head with writing all day, and have barely wit enough left to send my love to my cousin, and—there's a genealogical poser—what relation of mine may the dear little child be? At present, I desire to be commended to her clear ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 1 (of 3), 1833-1856 • Charles Dickens
... a poser; so the Major thought it best to counterfeit sleep; but he overdid it, and snored so loud, that the boy began to laugh, and his father had to practise his deception with less noise. And by degrees, the little hand that held his moustache dropped feebly on the bedclothes, and the ...
— The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn • Henry Kingsley
... utmost conscientiousness to find a reconciling conception which shall subject the old laws of nature to the smallest possible strain. Mr. Myers uses that method of gradual approach which has performed such wonders in Darwin's hands. When Darwin met a fact which seemed a poser to his theory, his regular custom, as I have heard an able colleague say, was to fill in all round it with smaller facts, as a wagoner might heap dirt round a big rock in the road, and thus get his team over ...
— The Will to Believe - and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy • William James
... poser to me as well as to you. But I suppose Wallace could explain it as erosion. He claims this whole western country was once under water, except the tips of the Sierra Nevada mountains. There came an uplift of the earth's crust, and the great inland sea began to run out, presumably ...
— The Last of the Plainsmen • Zane Grey
... suivre son cours tres-directement. C'est cependant sur ces bords etroits et escarpees que se trouvent pratiques les chemins par ou l'on passe. Le danger y est tres grand: car a peine un animal peut-il poser le pied. Toutes les fois que le courant fait un detour, la surface des bords a plus de largeur; cependant moins que lorsque plusieurs se reunissent. Un voit facilement pourquoi. L'eau forcee de se detourner, s'eloigne plus de la rive que quand elle va en ligne droite, et ronge ainsi le cote saillant ...
— Theory of the Earth, Volume 2 (of 4) • James Hutton
... course any one could have gone to the trenches, and been momentarily seen here and there, and could have done so fairly safely and easily by simply walking straight up, taking advantage of what little cover there was; but to get right up without showing at all, was rather a poser, as all cover ceased about a hundred yards behind ...
— Bullets & Billets • Bruce Bairnsfather
... poser. Several men know the difference, but feel quite incapable of explaining it. The question runs down the front rank. Finally it is held up and disposed of by ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay
... Humphrey when I go back," thought Edward. "He says that Billy is getting old, and that he wishes he could get another pony. I will tell him what a plenty there are, and propose that he should invent some way of catching one. That will be a poser for him; yet I'm sure that he'll try, for he is very ingenious. And now which way am I to turn to find my way home? I think it ought to be to the north; but which is north? For there is no sun out, and now I perceive it looks very like rain. I wonder ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat
... congratulations and then my thanks for the manner in which you have assisted me to carry out my original plan. The preparation of the plan for the Siegesallee has occupied many years, and the learned historiographer of my House, Professor Dr. Poser, is the man who put me in a position to set the artists clear and intelligible tasks. Once the historic basis was found the work could be proceeded with, and when the personalities of the princes were established it ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw
... consent, and Sheykh Yussuf who heard me begged me by all means to make him read it carefully so as to guard him against the heretical inventions he might be beset with among the English 'of the vulgar sort.' What a poser for ...
— Letters from Egypt • Lucie Duff Gordon
... over this question? None, not even Emile, unless I have taken great pains to teach him not to answer. Every one will say, "The stone falls because it is heavy." "And what do you mean by heavy?" "That which falls." "So the stone falls because it falls?" Here is a poser for my little philosopher. This is his first lesson in systematic physics, and whether he learns physics or no it is a good ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... a poser for Jim; a shock to a deep-set prejudice. Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been a woman of power, the unquestioned and able head in a community of men, he had unconsciously clung to the old idea of woman's mental inferiority. In college he had had that notion ...
— The Preacher of Cedar Mountain - A Tale of the Open Country • Ernest Thompson Seton
... touching and so philosophic, takes his old hero under the shade of some young oaks to meditate on the nature of the soul and the destiny of man. The narrative proceeds thus: "Une abeille, dont le corsage brun brillait au soleil comme une armure de vieil or, vint se poser sur une fleur de mauve d'une sombre richesse et bien ouverte sur sa tige touffue. Ce n'etait certainement pas la premiere fois que je voyais un spectacle si commun, mais c'etait la premiere que je le voyais ...
— Nature Mysticism • J. Edward Mercer
... call a poser, my dear Timothy, but I cannot help myself; this I can safely say, that I have no animosity against Mr Harcourt—at least, not sufficient to have any wish to take away ...
— Japhet, In Search Of A Father • Frederick Marryat
... to show that the small boy really stands in need of a little instruction in the art of buying apples. So I will give a simple poser dealing ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... now that I know him he doesn't seem interesting in the least. He's priggish and conceited; he's a poser, too. It is too bad, Pat, for you to tire yourself out and get such a—a ...
— The Shield of Silence • Harriet T. Comstock
... Weaver, and the Haberdasher; but the necessary idea would not come, rack his brains as he would. All things, however, come to those who wait—and persevere—and one morning he announced, in a state of considerable excitement, that he had a poser to set before them. He brought out a square piece of silk on which were embroidered a number of fleurs-de-lys in rows, as shown in ...
— The Canterbury Puzzles - And Other Curious Problems • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... and Mr. Edison informed me that as a marine engine started before the ship left New York and continued running until it reached its home port, so an engine for his purposes must produce light at all times. That was a poser to me, for a five-hours' run was about all that had been required ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
... famous "poser," And he had the nimble art Of deluding men to thinking That he owned an honest heart; He was always hinting "boodle," At which hints the lobby laughed For they knew he talked "retrenchment," But he always ...
— Oklahoma Sunshine • Freeman E. (Freeman Edwin) Miller
... subtle-, knotty point; vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, &c. (see riddle); paradox; hard-, nut to crack; bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the ...
— Journalism for Women - A Practical Guide • E.A. Bennett
... come to the crux of my discussion. Thus rejecting results reached by the ballot as now in practical use, a query is already in the minds of those who listen. At once suggesting itself and flung in my face, it is asked as a political poser, and not without a sneer,—What else or better have I to propose? Would I advise a return to old and discarded methods,—Heredity, Caste, Autocracy, Plutocracy? I respectfully submit this is a question no one has a right to put, ...
— 'Tis Sixty Years Since • Charles Francis Adams |
