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Understand   /ˌəndərstˈænd/   Listen
Understand

verb
(past & past part. understood, archaic understanded; pres. part. understanding)
1.
Know and comprehend the nature or meaning of.  "I understand what she means"
2.
Perceive (an idea or situation) mentally.  Synonyms: realise, realize, see.  "I just can't see your point" , "Does she realize how important this decision is?" , "I don't understand the idea"
3.
Make sense of a language.  Synonyms: interpret, read, translate.  "Can you read Greek?"
4.
Believe to be the case.  Synonym: infer.
5.
Be understanding of.  Synonyms: empathise, empathize, sympathise, sympathize.



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"Understand" Quotes from Famous Books



... "I understand what you mean, and you should have a room in my house if I had one to spare, but a neighbour of mine has one on the ground floor, and if you will wait a moment I will go ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... of life by a white man whose wife he had accidentally shot at the door of her cabin. He was one of the first to welcome the white men and adopt the improvements they brought with them. When he became sufficiently civilized to understand that polygamy was unlawful, he separated from his oldest wife. Her scalp was carefully preserved among those of the great warriors he had conquered. His son, Flying Deer, who is with us to-day, will address you in his own language, which I ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... sir," he went on. "I owe everything to him. He's very good—but there are a lot of his own children; and there's my aunt—and she thinks—. My uncle doesn't grudge me anything, he often says so, but he naturally wants me to be getting my own living—and so does my aunt; and she doesn't quite understand how difficult it is, nowadays, to get in to anything—and my cousins don't understand it either, except Cicely, she's different. Of course, I can't at present contribute anything for my board and lodging and my clothes." He stopped, a minute, and looked down at ...
— A Sheaf of Corn • Mary E. Mann

... the family name, and from their taste at christenings, I should say there might be some slant toward England itself. A nomenclature not without distinction. 'Bertram'; rather nice, eh? And there is a sister who teaches in one of the schools, I understand; and her name is Rosalind, or Rosalys. Think of that! I gather that the father is in ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... The reader will probably understand this part of the subject better if he will take the trouble briefly to consider the actions of the mind and body of man in the sciences and arts, which give these latter the relations of rank usually ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin

... bring Vickers with him to Paris and started with her mother. "No sermons, you know, mother," she warned Mrs. Price. "It's something you and I don't understand." ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... expectation about them. The lieutenant looked them over as he passed them. "Johnson," he said, "do you take the lead and line and go forward and sound a bit." Then to the others: "Now, my men, the moment we run her aboard, you get aboard of her as quick as you can, do you understand? Don't wait for the sloop or think about her, but just see that the grappling irons are fast, and then get aboard. If any man offers to resist you, shoot him down. ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard I. Pyle

... in general treated me with some degree of affection; but her behaviour began now to be changed. She soon took an opportunity of giving me to understand that her fortune was insufficient to keep me; and, as I could not live on the interest of my own, it was high time for me to consider about going into the world. She added, that her brother having ...
— Amelia (Complete) • Henry Fielding

... purposes to do—putting the highest character into his work, scrimping nothing, but priding himself upon his integrity and conscientiousness. Once Cromwell said to Bernard—a clever but somewhat unscrupulous lawyer, "I understand that you have lately been vastly wary in your conduct; do not be too confident of this: subtlety may deceive you, integrity never will." Men whose acts are at direct variance with their words, command no ...
— How to Get on in the World - A Ladder to Practical Success • Major A.R. Calhoon

... smile amiably his dissent or approval. Had the rest of our company been of his mind in the matter, it would not have been so much easier for us to start the talk at once than to stop it at a reasonable hour, our Thursday nights would not have been so deafening with talk that I do not yet understand why the other tenants in the house did not unite in an indignant ...
— Nights - Rome, Venice, in the Aesthetic Eighties; London, Paris, in the Fighting Nineties • Elizabeth Robins Pennell

... medical profession. You are the guardians of the health of the republic. You are acquainted with the deadly properties of the drug in question. You can understand the necessity, and appreciate the importance of reform. You know that entire abstinence is urged by paramount considerations. In the work of reform from spirit-drinking, you have acted in a manner that reflects ...
— A Disquisition on the Evils of Using Tobacco - and the Necessity of Immediate and Entire Reformation • Orin Fowler

... in that quarter, as he had there made great encroachments on his Catholic Majesty's dominions. These conditions were received at the court of Britain with that indignation which might have been expected from an injured and incensed nation. In answer to which the Spanish ambassador was given to understand, that the King of Great Britain was determined never to relinquish his right to a single foot of land in the province of Georgia; and that he must allow his subjects to make reprisals, since satisfaction for their losses in trade could in no other ...
— An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia, Volume 2 • Alexander Hewatt

... intention, and I could understand and forgive his curse in the excitement of the moment. Together we hurled ourselves against the door. It did not move an inch, and a long low chuckle greeted the attempt from the other side. We tried madly again and again, but the ...
— The Motor Pirate • George Sidney Paternoster

... "I cannot understand why difficulties should arise. I am certain I brought a fortune large enough for all extravagance," was the lady's constant remark when expenditure was mentioned. Years pass over the heads of the young—and they grow old; and over the heads ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 387, August 28, 1829 • Various

... quite understand the verse, but she knew how patiently and meekly her mother had borne sudden poverty, the sale of her goods, and the bitter parting from her beloved husband. Bolton also had been struck by the pious courage of one who had had a large share of ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... did not longer continue to allow others, who had painfully earned a clearer knowledge of the situation, to rule in his name. The French, after a long series of preliminary blunders, were just beginning to understand the country when the Emperor arrived and attempted independently to acquire the same lesson, at the expense of the nation, of his ...
— Maximilian in Mexico - A Woman's Reminiscences of the French Intervention 1862-1867 • Sara Yorke Stevenson

... do not quite understand from your letter whether it is your new Vicar that you suspect of pro-German proclivities, or the pew-opener. We advise you to communicate with the nearest Rural Dean ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 9, 1914 • Various

... he said, "I understand You're more than merely natty, I hear you sing to beat the band And Adelina Patti. Pray render with your liquid ...
— The Best Nonsense Verses • Various

... It is not easy to say what a panegyrist of that period intended by 'a complete knowledge of Greek,' or 'fluent Greek writing,' in a Prince. I suspect, however, that we ought not to understand by these phrases anything like a real familiarity with Greek literature, but rather such superficial knowledge as would enable a reader of Latin books to understand allusions and quotations. Poliziano, it may be remarked, thought it worth while to flatter Guidobaldo in ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds

... she, "the people of your race are a strange people. I do not understand them. An evil is done them, and they pass it by; a good is done them, and they do not remember. With us it is different. Always in our hearts dwell the good and ...
— The Silent Places • Stewart Edward White

... long that my tent became again quite rotten. One of my men, after long sickness, which I did not understand, died here. He was one of the Batoka, and when unable to walk I had some difficulty in making his companions carry him. They wished to leave him to die when his case became hopeless. Another of them deserted to Mozinkwa. ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone

... it is to talk so! You understand nothing at all about the matter. Your relatives would take offence in every possible way if I did not invite them. They would not speak to ...
— Armenian Literature • Anonymous

... I think I can understand why it was—when I looked up at the woman in the doorway there were tears ...
— The Friendly Road - New Adventures in Contentment • (AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

... still to observe her. She had asked some question about the working of the toy, and the girl, taking it herself, began to explain the little secret. Flora bent her head over it, but she clearly didn't understand. I saw her, in a manner that quickened my curiosity, give a glance back at the place from which she had come. Lord Iffield was talking with another young person: she satisfied herself of this by the aid of a question addressed to her own attendant. She then drew ...
— Embarrassments • Henry James

... really admirable," he said, as he destroyed Miss Brewer's note; "just clever enough to be useful, just shrewd enough to understand the precise force and weight of an argument, but not clever enough, or shrewd enough, to find out that she is used for any purpose but the one for ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... Elfi Bey, the unfortunate bashaw of Cairo, and was now on his way to execute a commission which his uncle had delivered to him upon his dying-bed. Labakan was not so frank with respect to his circumstances; he gave him to understand that he was of lofty descent, and ...
— The Oriental Story Book - A Collection of Tales • Wilhelm Hauff

... somewhat through the throat; but we could not understand one word that they said. We anchored, as I said before, January the 5th, and seeing men walking on the shore, we presently sent a canoe to get some acquaintance with them; for we were in hopes to ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... arrangement not permitting us to send letters in the afternoon, unless we send straight to Reading (six miles) on purpose,—so perhaps this may cross an answer from Mr. —— or from you about Bramshill; perhaps, on the other hand, I may have to write again. At all events, you will understand that this is written on Saturday night. God bless you, my very dear and ...
— Yesterdays with Authors • James T. Fields

... department near at hand, there was exhibited china ware and Japanese toys and curiosities, and our party "invested." The guide could not make us understand what all this meant, but it was a "fair," that was plain enough, and he gave it the English name. The natives were very much in earnest, and worked hard to achieve a good time. At such an exhibition and miscellaneous out-door gathering nearly anywhere else there would have been sure ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou

... our faith and delivering our souls, because we trust in him. So God rewarded Jacob by giving him more light: by not leaving him to himself, and his own darkness and meanness, but opening his eyes to understand the wondrous things of God's law, and showing him how God's law is everlasting, righteous, not to be escaped by any man; how every action brings forth its appointed fruit; how those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. ...
— The Gospel of the Pentateuch • Charles Kingsley

... Bull, Doug, I can't understand you! Here you go for six months making a blank sissy of yourself over a sky pilot and then you give the most dangerous man in the Valley the gol-dingest mauling and beating he ever had in his life! Why, even I won't go up against ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie

... is it, the only thing is to keep out of the way," said Ben. "Now listen, James, a faint-hearted fellow is sure to peach, and out of the way you must keep. I say must—understand me." ...
— Taking Tales - Instructive and Entertaining Reading • W.H.G. Kingston

... perception unusual in her class, Susan took all this in, then rang the bell. There was no back door, so far as she could see, and she thought it best to enter as she had done in the morning. But the large fat woman who opened the door gave her to understand that ...
— The Secret Passage • Fergus Hume

... "Can't you understand?" she continued. "Mr. Rochester seems to think that Lord Guerdon had seen you somewhere under disgraceful circumstances. There! I've got it out now," she added, with a wan little smile. "That is why he feels sure ...
— The Moving Finger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... general is so much refined since then, that many of his words, and more of his phrases, are scarce intelligible. And of those which we understand, some are ungrammatical, others coarse; and his whole style is so pestered with figurative expressions, that it is as affected as it is obscure. It is true that, in his latter plays, he had worn off somewhat of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 57, No. 352, February 1845 • Various

... waxed more determined. His mother is master of the house, but he is master of his mother. This morning she came and entreated me to go. "George wished it so much"; he had begged her to use her influence, etc., etc. Now I believe that George and I understand each other very well, and respect each other very sincerely. We both know the wide breach time has made between us; we do not embarrass each other, or very rarely; my six or eight years of seniority, to say nothing of lack of all pretension to beauty, etc., are a perfect safeguard. ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... its empire is universal. Nor indeed is it merely the Greek and Latin Churches which utter themselves here, but Greece and Rome in their deepest distinctions, as these existed from their earliest times. The key to the whole history, Pagan as well as Christian, of each is in these words. We can understand how the one established a dominion in the region of the mind which shall never be overthrown, the other founded an empire in the world whose visible effects shall never be done away. This is an illustrious example; but I am bold ...
— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench

... We can now understand the main Russian plan a little better. In the north the army was to advance from Koenigsberg and endeavor to cut off Danzig and break the line of defenses between that place and Thorn, thus leaving this fortress ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... uncommon accident where due care is not taken. The heat of summer, or a sudden change of weather, will occasion the same misfortune, if the barrels are not watched, and eased when they require it, by drawing the peg. The only part which remains to complete the brewing, is fining the beer. To understand this, it is necessary to remark, that London porter is composed of three different sorts of malt; pale, brown, and amber. The reason for using these three sorts, is to attain a peculiar flavour and colour. Amber is the most wholesome, and for home brewing ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... plucked flower-like in the garden of art. She loved the perfect work—she had the artistic chord. This chord could vibrate only to the touch of another, so that appreciation, in her spirit, had the added intensity of regret. She could understand the joy of creation, and she thought it scarcely enough to be told that she herself created happiness. She would have liked, at any rate, to choose her way; but it was just here that her liberty failed her. ...
— Nona Vincent • Henry James

... carriage; and as he walked with her downstairs he asked her whether she believed the Duchess to be in earnest in her sorrow. "She so mixes up her mirth and woe together," said the Duke, "that I myself sometimes can hardly understand her." ...
— The Prime Minister • Anthony Trollope

... sometimes indulges in anti-matrimonial theories, and it may prove most interesting to convert her from the error of her ways. A man has such beautifully sure ground under his feet when she has given him plainly to understand that she prefers {31} friendship to love. A would-be suitor will find his opportunities of intercourse regulated by her standard of conventionality. She is free to make her own life, with her own code of conduct, her own ...
— The Etiquette of Engagement and Marriage • G. R. M. Devereux

... The soles of my feet are as hard and tanned As the conscience of old Pope Hildebrand, The Holy Satan, who made the wives Of the bishops lead such shameful lives, All day long I beat my breast, And chant with a most particular zest The Latin hymns, which I understand Quite as well, I think, as the rest. And at night such lodging in barns and sheds, Such a hurly-burly in country inns, Such a clatter of tongues in empty heads, Such a helter-skelter of prayers and sins! Of all the contrivances of the time For sowing broadcast ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... understand in the least what he was talking about, but I recognized the sarcasm of his final expression, and had spirit ...
— That Affair Next Door • Anna Katharine Green

... which for the present we only understand those members which may be useful to him in fight, and the loss of which only amounts to mayhem by the common law) are also the gift of the wise creator; to enable man to protect himself from external injuries in a state of nature. To these therefore ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... —your mind isn't on it; your heart isn't in it. You give up, and subside into a bottomless deep of silence, permanently; people must speak to you two or three times to get your attention, and then say it over again to make you understand. This kind of thing goes on all the rest of the evening; nobody can interest you in anything; you are useless, a depressing influence, a burden. You go to bed at last; but at three in the morning you are as wide awake as you were in the beginning. Thus we see what you have been doing for nine ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... the lightness with which serious things are taken by men here, and it took me some time to understand it. I met a young captain of the Royal Marine Artillery who was in charge of a battery of trench mortars. He was telling me of how one of his mortars and the crew were wiped out by a direct hit. He referred to it as though he had ...
— "Crumps", The Plain Story of a Canadian Who Went • Louis Keene

... here, and by what conveyance, without my consent? Why did she come to sleep with you only to display her beauty, to kindle a flame of love while she slept, and then leave you while you were in a slumber? These things, I must confess, I do not understand; and if heaven do not favour us in our perplexity, I fear we must both go down to the grave together." As he spoke, he took the prince by the hand, and said, "Come then, my son, let us go and grieve together; you with hopeless love, and I ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... crazed with the contemplation of you,—you whom I considered as my own wife, living here as the Duchess of Hereward. Only since I have learned that the duke is gone—and gone forever from you, have I come to my senses. Do you understand me, and ...
— The Lost Lady of Lone • E.D.E.N. Southworth

... his study and tried to draw me out. Kindness always made me ineloquent, and as I sat in his big basket chair and sniffed the delightful odour of his pipe, I expressed myself chiefly in woe-begone monosyllables and hiccoughs. Nevertheless he seemed to understand me very well, and though he did not say much, I felt by the way in which he puffed out great, generous clouds of smoke, that he sympathised with me. He told me to come and see him twice a week, and ...
— The Ghost Ship • Richard Middleton

... his wasting flesh and his sunken eyes confirm the statement;—is he a madman, or is he not? he should be raising a family and enjoying matrimony; but he lets this fair-faced lovely girl wither away; he might as well be bringing up a perpetual priestess of Demeter. And now you understand my feelings when one set of people kick me about or waste me by the bucketful, and the others clap irons on me like a ...
— Works, V1 • Lucian of Samosata

... They understand that much, the sea-marsh cattle, to keep out of reach of the dead combatant. In the delirium of anguish, relief cannot be distinguished from attack, and rescue of the victim has been proved to mean goring ...
— Balcony Stories • Grace E. King

... the woman who is to be really mistress of her house must be an engineer, so far as to be able to understand the use of machines and to believe what she is told. Your ham-and-eggs woman was of the old type, now gone by in the fight for the right ...
— Euthenics, the science of controllable environment • Ellen H. Richards

... the land, yet unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow:" and that "many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian." (Luke iv. 25.) By which examples he gave them to understand, that it was not the nature of a Divine interposition, or necessary to its purpose, to be general; still less to answer every challenge that might be made, which would teach men to put their faith upon these experiments. Christ ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley

... atomicity and gravitative properties of the Aether, it is difficult to understand how there can be density of the medium, and still more difficult to give a satisfactory explanation of different degrees of density for the same medium, which some scientists ...
— Aether and Gravitation • William George Hooper

... there he sat, content to look at her, twisting his hands together below the table to concentrate his attention and master himself; and he read just what she told him to read, expounding the words and phrases she could not understand. I dare say that with his hair well brushed, and his best coat, and his eyes on the book, he looked as proper as you please. But if the high-born young lady had returned the glances he could not refrain from bending upon her now and then, she would have ...
— A Roman Singer • F. Marion Crawford

... voice, when I entered the salon where he was surrounded by the officers who formed his brilliant staff, "I am glad to see you, at last"—"Te voila donc, enfin;", but as soon as we were alone he made me understand that he was pleased with my reserve, and thanked me for it. I was immediately placed at the head of his Cabinet. I spoke to him the same evening respecting the insurrection of the Venetian territories, of the dangers which menaced the ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... subtle antagonist in the world. He is of the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the man of dogged determination that sets his mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the end, with never a thought of change. He is the man whose psychology is easy to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never allows himself to think of anything except the business at hand. This man is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the mental capacity of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of ...
— The Art of Lawn Tennis • William T. Tilden, 2D

... she thanked him, and told him, if he had a friend who loved her, he had only to teach him how to tell his story and that would woo her. Upon this hint, delivered not with more frankness than modesty, accompanied with certain bewitching prettiness and blushes, which Othello could not but understand, he spoke more openly of his love, and in this golden opportunity gained the consent of the generous Lady Desdemona privately to ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... their fashionable life. They spoke to me subsequently, and I bravely threw at them a Chinese phrase or two; but when the conversation got above my head, I told them, quietly but determinedly, that I could not understand, my English speech seemed vaguely to indicate a sudden collapse of the acquaintance, the opening of a gulf between us, destined to widen to the whole length and breadth of Yang-kai, swallowing up their erstwhile confidences. One of them facetiously remarked that the gentleman wished to ...
— Across China on Foot • Edwin Dingle

... this; and as soon as ever I saw the Dutch Captain, I ran to him, and put my arms round him, and said, "father, save me." (for I knew that if he did not buy me, I should be treated very ill, or, possibly, murdered) And though he did not understand my language, yet it pleased the Almighty to influence him in my behalf, and he bought me for two yards of check, which is of more ...
— A Narrative Of The Most Remarkable Particulars In The Life Of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince, As Related By Himself • James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw

... social standing, who seek to make up—to bridge that narrow and unfathomable gulf—by affability. This dog it seemed, knowing that he was not quite a pointer, sought to conciliate humanity by an eagerness, by a pathetic and blundering haste to try and understand what was expected of him and to perform the same without delay, which was quite foreign to the nature ...
— The Velvet Glove • Henry Seton Merriman

... Mr. Wingate to pull Rostafinski's uncertain description of a problematic form across the sea, to attach it to our clearly defined and well known American species, changing the Polish description the while to make it fit, is hard to understand; especially in view of the fact, by Wingate admitted, that Rex had in his letters to Morgan already named the American type Enteridium umbrinum. The two students differed as to generic reference, and later on Morgan published Reticularia splendens Morg.; rather than R. umbrina (Rex) ...
— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

... [from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally 'to drink' and metaphorically 'to be one with'] The emphatic form is 'grok in fullness'. 1. To understand, usually in a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge. Contrast {zen}, which is similar supernal understanding experienced as a single brief flash. See also {glark}. 2. Used of programs, may connote ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... with a peculiar interest. All these years there had been growing up in Jack Darcy a plant of nobler promise than mere worldly ambition. Not that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come to understand its true uses. The same power that had educated the workmen had been going on with silent, steady processes in him. He had come to comprehend the dignity of the soul, and that God desired his return in the deeds done for one another, ...
— Hope Mills - or Between Friend and Sweetheart • Amanda M. Douglas

... those of Britain) were indebted for the singular tranquillity which they enjoyed, to the gentle interposition of their sovereign. But Datianus, the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors, than to understand the secret intentions of Constantius; and it can scarcely be doubted, that his provincial administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs. The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... walked a trifle unsteadily, and much of her colour was gone. "I can't understand it," she panted; ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell

... him as he walked out this morning he would doubtless have said, "I do not expect you Nawthern men, with yo'r contracted ideas of what constitutes a man's personal honor, to understand the view I take of this mattuh, Major, but my blood requires it. I never forget that I am a Caarter, suh,—and you must never ...
— Colonel Carter's Christmas and The Romance of an Old-Fashioned Gentleman • F. Hopkinson Smith

... this manuscript, please, and go over it, and cut out what you like to make it printable, and write a few words to make people understand about it. And then see if any one will publish it. You know more about all these things than I do. If it should sell, keep part of the money for your own work and give the rest to poor Ellen. As to The Captive—I ...
— The Journal of Arthur Stirling - "The Valley of the Shadow" • Upton Sinclair

... the duties of that responsible office who are not fit for it—must be thoroughly acquainted, not only with the map of the earth and heavens, but he must know also all that science has revealed of some of the most subtle of the operations of nature; he must understand, as far as man can yet discover them, what are the laws which regulate the movements of the currents, the direction of the tempest, and the meanderings of the magnetic fluid. Or, to take a case with which you ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

... I understand you," said Flemming; "but if I do, you mean to say, that, as the body continually changes and takes unto itselfnew properties, and is not the same to-day as yesterday, so likewise the soul lays aside its idiosyncrasies, and is ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... fighting hard for her young life. She seemed in some vague way to understand that her mother was near. Lady Dora's hand soothed and calmed her, her gentle motherly ways brought comfort and rest; but many long days passed before Lillian knew those around her, or woke from her troubled, feverish ...
— Dora Thorne • Charlotte M. Braeme

... as I have, my daughter," she added, in a softened tone, "but with your limited knowledge of the world, you cannot understand the importance attached to unblemished associations. And never mention the subject to Ernest, if you would not revive memories that had better ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... and necessitated wheat imports at rising world prices. Continued dependence on foreign energy and Morocco's inability to develop small and medium size enterprises also contributed to the slowdown. Moroccan authorities understand that reducing poverty and providing jobs are key to domestic security and development. In 2005, Morocco launched the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), a $2 billion social development plan to address poverty and unemployment and to improve the living ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... be less curved at either end. If the reader will take the trouble to trace fig. 2 on a stout card, to cut it out in a single piece (cutting only half through the cardboard where the planks touch), and to fasten it into shape with pieces of gummed paper, he will understand the architecture of the boat more easily than from any description. If he wishes to build a boat he had best proceed to make as large a model in pasteboard as his materials admit, and to cut the planks to scale, according to the pattern of his model. The grace of the boat depends ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... the humble-looking house, Norton left Matilda and went off again. Yes, it was a plain, small brick house, with wooden steps and little windows. Matilda had the door opened to her by Maria herself. She could not understand, though she surely saw, the cloud which instantly covered a flash of pleasure in Maria's face. The two went in, went up the stairs to a little back room, which was Maria's own. A chill came over Matilda here. It was so different ...
— The House in Town • Susan Warner

... of Aunt Marcia and Aunt Winifred amused father tremendously. He thinks, however, that he would like Aunt Marcia better than Aunt Winifred, as he—and I—get more anticlerical every year. But we keep it to ourselves. Mamma and Alice wouldn't understand. Ryde is very full, and mamma and Alice want nothing more than the pier and the sands and the people. Papa and I take long walks along the coast, or across the island. We find a cliff to bask on, or a wood that comes down to the water, and then papa gets out a Greek book ...
— Lady Connie • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... likely that he might ask to see Kitty. But there was an obstacle in the way of her willing compliance with that request, which it was impossible to think of without remorse, and which it was imperatively necessary to remove. Mrs. Presty would understand that she alluded to the shameful falsehood which had led the child to suppose ...
— The Evil Genius • Wilkie Collins

... to the new members to inform themselves of the nature of the question and the old ones to recover from the impression which erroneous statements had made upon their minds I understand to be the remaining motive of His Majesty's ministers for delaying the meeting; but this was a precaution which, relying on the plain obligation of the treaty, the President could not appreciate, and he must, ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 2) of Volume 3: Andrew Jackson (Second Term) • James D. Richardson

... sorrowfully; "parted with the last of that sort four months ago—up at eight down at nine you understand, miss." ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... "But I think you understand better than most people," she answered, and sat down on a little chair placed beside a big leather chair so that Hewet had ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf

... watery eyes. "I'll say it if I want to!" he yelled. "I'll say anything I feel like sayin'! Some folks can't understand English; some folks have got lignumvity heads and you have ...
— The Winds of Chance • Rex Beach

... the master interrupted me and said: 'My dear child, I cannot give you an opinion of your compositions; I have far too little time; I can't even get my own letters written. I understand nothing at all about music (Ich verstehe gar nichts ...
— Musicians of To-Day • Romain Rolland

... days. She wished them to be sumptuous, and when he alone could not pay the expenses, she made up the deficit liberally, which happened almost every time. He tried to make her understand that they would be quite as comfortable somewhere else, in a smaller hotel, but ...
— The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert • Various

... much in Bacon's way, and he never neglected it when it did come, nor his own fortune or vocation; his letters remain to attest his care in these respects. But no doubt Bacon was then as ready to be of use to Essex, the one man who seemed to understand and value him, as Essex was desirous to be of use ...
— Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley • Richard William Church

... "Go to grass, you old granny. I've been putting in my spare time since I came back letting Juanita understand the facts. If she had any wrong notions she ain't got them any longer. She's all ready to kiss and make up with Pablo first ...
— A Daughter of the Dons - A Story of New Mexico Today • William MacLeod Raine

... men and women, as it were, to really help the East-end while living in West-end comfort. It is so difficult for religious people to realise that the finest prayer of all is to "play the game." But the poor understand the wonder of that prayer full well; it is, indeed, I rather fancy, the only prayer that they really do understand, the only one which really and truly touches them and helps them on their way. And, when I see among the very poor the simply magnificent human material which is allowed to ...
— Over the Fireside with Silent Friends • Richard King

... heart before you answer. That vision told me that by your nobleness and sacrifice you should save the lives of many. I demanded that you should be brought back to me, and the request was refused—why, it matters not. Now I understand the reason—that this was so ordained. I demand no more that force should be used to you. I demand that you shall come of your own free will, to suffer the bitter and shameful reward of your sin. Or, if you so desire, bide where you are of your own free will, ...
— The Brethren • H. Rider Haggard

... was energetic and passionate rather than discreet. She would not admit that her child had done any wrong, and could not be got to understand but that the law should make a husband live with his wife in the proper way. It was monstrous to her thinking that her daughter should be married and taken away, and then sent back, without any offence on ...
— Kept in the Dark • Anthony Trollope

... ministry of the latter, they went on foot to Truro to be present at his communions, and carried their children thither on their backs to be baptized by him. These people had so little English that they could scarcely understand any sermon in that language. This may be judged from an incident that occurred some years later. A Highlander, living in Truro, attended Mr. Cock's service. The latter one day took for his text the words, "Fools make a mock of sin." The former bore the sermon patiently, but said afterward, ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... perfect liberty as the only effectual expedient for rendering this annual reproduction the greatest possible, its doctrine seems to be in every respect as just as it is generous and liberal. Its followers are very numerous; and as men are fond of paradoxes, and of appearing to understand what surpasses the comprehensions of ordinary people, the paradox which it maintains, concerning the unproductive nature of manufacturing labour, has not, perhaps, contributed a little to increase the number of its admirers. They have for some years past made a pretty ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... We understand that Sir Peter Laurie has been presented with the Freedom of the Barber's Company, enclosed in a pewter shaving-box of the value of fourpence-halfpenny. On the lid ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... just general boasting. And he certainly gave me to understand that it was two or three, ...
— The Loudwater Mystery • Edgar Jepson

... Meredith desired no visitor at all, she particularly disliked the appearance of this one. Rowan's words to her were full of meaning that she did not understand; but they rendered it clear at least that his love affair had been interrupted, if not been ended. She could not believe this due to any fault of his; and friendly relations with the Conyers family was for her instantly at an end with ...
— The Mettle of the Pasture • James Lane Allen

... take these; and it will be a kindness to sit up with her to-night. I will see her to-morrow; and as I can't allow you to be the only good Samaritan in the place, understand, Jack, that I attend the poor old woman and find medicine ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... would not be diverted from the main issue. "I repeat, Susan: You disobey me, as you've threatened to, and I'm done with you. Understand that. You'll go your way, ...
— Apron-Strings • Eleanor Gates

... recital like a series of dissolving views, showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading Assyria is rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media is looming into sight. We are, in this third instalment of Maspero's monumental work, brought to understand how the decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another, culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture and civilisation ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... comparison between the conquest of the Confederacy and the conquest of Ireland, there are, of course, a good many things to be said which politicians cannot be expected to understand. Strange to say, it is not certain that a lost cause was never worth winning; and it would be easy to argue that the world lost very much indeed when that particular cause was lost. These are not days in which it is exactly obvious that an agricultural society was more dangerous than an industrial ...
— What I Saw in America • G. K. Chesterton

... dramatic critics, and men in public life advocate the municipal manner of theatrical enterprise. Their aim, as I understand it, is to procure the erection, and the due working, of a playhouse that shall serve in permanence the best interests of the literary or artistic drama. The municipal theatre is not worth fighting for, unless there is a reasonable ...
— Shakespeare and the Modern Stage - with Other Essays • Sir Sidney Lee

... understand what you wish to do," he said in a moment. "I should like to know—so that I may know ...
— The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 2 (of 2) • Henry James

... his son were walking the road together one day, and the Goban said to the son 'Shorten the road for me.' So the son began to walk fast, thinking that would do it, but the Goban sent him back home when he didn't understand what to do. The next day they were walking again, and the Goban said again to shorten the road for him, and this time he began to run, and the Goban sent him home again. When he went in and told the wife he was sent home the second time, she began to think, and she said, 'When he bids ...
— The Kiltartan History Book • Lady I. A. Gregory

... country in the daytime knows that it is not exactly the kind of a place one would pick out for pleasure riding. Imagine riding at night, over such a country, filled with almost every imaginable obstacle to travel, and without any real roads, and you can understand the sort of a ride I had that night. I was mighty glad to see the dawn break, and to be able to pick my way a little more securely, although I could not increase the pace at which I had driven my horse ...
— An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (Colonel W. F. Cody) • Buffalo Bill (William Frederick Cody)

... before any other music, developed apace, while instrumental (secular) music was still in its infancy. In Germany, even the drama was neglected for its kindred form of opera; therefore, in studying its development, we may well understand why the dramatic stage considered the opera ...
— Critical & Historical Essays - Lectures delivered at Columbia University • Edward MacDowell

... in the course of five or ten minutes. He then took the cards out of the box, and, after shuffling them, returned them to their place. Fred placed a "quarter" on the table; the gambler put another by its side, and drew out a card from the silver case. Tom did not understand the game; but his companion put the ...
— The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army - A Story of the Great Rebellion • Oliver Optic

... a handful of earth, and pronounced, or rather muttered, some words which I did not understand, and threw it upon me. 'Quit the shape of a man,' said he to me, 'and take on you that of an ape.' He vanished immediately, and left me alone, transformed into an ape, overwhelmed with sorrow in a strange country, and not knowing ...
— Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights • E. Dixon

... thousand fantasies, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That wonderful passage in Comus of the airy tongues, perhaps the most imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the Anat. of Mel.: "Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in ...
— Milton's Comus • John Milton

... dismisses "The Library" in a few brief sentences, of which the keynote is despair. My own view is that a close analogy may be traced between the fittings of monastic libraries and those of collegiate libraries; and that when we understand the one we ...
— Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods - The Rede Lecture Delivered June 13, 1894 • J. W. Clark

... continued Mrs. Perley, "that it was a great loss and disappointment to you not to be able to get down to Valparaiso and settle your affairs there, for we are aware that you need whatever money is due you from that quarter. And we understand, too, what a great blow it was to you to be shipwrecked, and lose all your ...
— The Adventures of Captain Horn • Frank Richard Stockton

... approved the object, and admired the ingenuity of its execution. A new colonial minister, in the hurry of his office, gladly surrendered to the governor's judgment a question often beyond his comprehension, and which to resist it was necessary to understand. Thus it was ordered to execute public works by contract instead of the gangs; to levy a tax on convict labor; to retain men seven years in chains. Boards, or commissions, which gave him the aspect of a mediator or judge, advised him to postpone and quash ...
— The History of Tasmania, Volume I (of 2) • John West

... of the relation between the federal government and the business interests of the nation, the anthracite strike of 1902 is of marked significance. The operators had given evidence of a failure to understand that their business so concerned the nation that the interest of the public in it must be heeded. The successful outcome enhanced the prestige of the government and of the President, and an example of the need of greater control over corporations received wide publicity at the ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... all his eyes, Echecrates,[73] as his manner was, took the cup and said: "What do you say about making a libation out of this cup to any god? May I or not?" The man answered: "We only prepare, Socrates, just so much as we deem enough." "I understand," he said; "yet I may and must ask the gods to prosper my journey from this to that other world—even so—and so be it according to my prayer." Then holding the cup to his lips, quite readily and cheerfully ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume I (of X) - Greece • Various

... tell me, that since my profession of the life which you alone determined, I have been so neglected and so forgotten that you will neither see me nor write to me? Make me understand it, if you can, or I must tell you what everybody says: that it was not a pure love like mine that held your heart, and that your coarser feeling vanished with absence and ill-report. Would that to me alone this seemed ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... Wellingtons, the Paisley fogle for the fabric of the China loom. Moreover, he walked with a swagger, and affected in common conversation a peculiar dialect which he opined to be the purest English, but which no one—except a bagman—could be reasonably expected to understand. His pockets were invariably crammed with sharelists; and he quoted, if he did not comprehend, the money article from the "Times." This sort of assumption, though very ludicrous in itself, goes down wonderfully. Bob gradually became a sort of authority, and his opinions got quoted ...
— Stories by English Authors: Scotland • Various

... Henry IV, with his sons and his court, in England; and Charles VI, with his court and clergy, and Isabella herself, and her second husband, had no doubt whatever as to Richard's death. If they had, if they were not fully assured that he was no longer among the living, it is difficult to understand Henry IV.'s proposals to Charles VI. for a marriage between Isabella and one of his sons; or how, on any other hypothesis than the conviction of his death, the Earl of Angouleme, afterwards Duke of Orleans, would have sought ...
— Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 - Memoirs of Henry the Fifth • J. Endell Tyler

... that, my boy," said Dagobert, "I do not understand it; and I will not argue about it. I maintain it, that my old cross of honor would be at least as deservedly affixed to your cassock ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... come back, bring us many presents and plenty of blankets, beads, and ribbons, which he would exchange as before for robes and furs. We were sorry to see him go, but, as he promised to return in a few moons, we were much consoled. It was not long until our spies reported something they could not understand coming into our country, and the whole village was in a great state of alarm. Some of the boldest ventured out, and returned with the joyful intelligence that the strange objects our young men had seen was the trader and his people. All the village ran to meet him, ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... the beginning of a country profile contains a brief summary of the background information necessary to understand the current situation in a country. The entry appears for only a few countries at the present time, but may be added to more countries ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... Venice, where he was given to understand that Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, had brought a great number of masters from Germany, and had caused them to begin to make fabrics in silk, gold, floss-silk, and wool, for his own use and pleasure, but that he had no ...
— Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 05 ( of 10) Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo Lotto • Giorgio Vasari

... very fond of philosophy, and study it in my leisure time. But I never understand it well, except in Cicero's books. Slaves, pour ...
— Thais • Anatole France

... of it, boy. You're too young to understand these things. But poor Brace once lost ...
— Gil the Gunner - The Youngest Officer in the East • George Manville Fenn

... since the war that I met General Sherman, and it was on the line of the Union Pacific Railway, at one of those justly celebrated eating-houses, which I understand are now abandoned. The colored waiter had cut off a strip of the omelette with a pair of shears, the scorched oatmeal had been passed around, the little rubber door mats fried in butter and called pancakes had been dealt around the ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... understand this mysterious object, Galileo continued his observations during the year 1610, and, to his amazement, he saw the two lesser bodies gradually become smaller and smaller, until, in the course of the two following years, they had entirely vanished, ...
— The Story of the Heavens • Robert Stawell Ball

... understand her look, and so Edith followed her own course. "Thank you, oh, thank you," she said. "It was very kind of you to collect me so many, they please me very much. I wish I knew of something that you would ...
— Emilie the Peacemaker • Mrs. Thomas Geldart

... with a luminous "But" when, across the table, he laid his hand on her arm. "I CAN understand it," he confessed. "I AM in ...
— What Maisie Knew • Henry James

... company's pardon,—there was no sae mony hairs on the warlock's face as there's on Letter-Gae's [*The precentor is called by Allan Ramsay,—"The Letter-Gae of haly rhyme."] ain at this moment; and he had as gude a pair o' boots as a man need streik on his legs, and gloves too;—and I should understand boots by this time, ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... and by ruling any such extravagant faith out of court help to legitimate our personal mistrust of its pretensions. I confess that I myself have always had a great mistrust of the pretensions of the gnostic faith. Not only do I utterly fail to understand what a cognitive faculty erected into the absolute of being, with itself as its object, can mean; but even if we grant it a being other than itself for object, I cannot reason myself out of the belief that however familiar and at home ...
— The Will to Believe - and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy • William James

... {125} better system. Here again Sydenham aimed at carrying out a perfectly clear and consistent programme, the political blending of the French with the British colonists. Unfortunately that programme was impossible. It had been constructed by men who did not understand the racial problem, and who, even if they had understood it, would not have accepted the modern solution. Yet French nationalism, between 1839 and 1841, had certain negative lessons still to learn. As, in Upper Canada, Robert Baldwin discovered from his opposition to ...
— British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government - 1839-1854 • J. L. Morison

... Mr. Wordley, anger and amazement struggling for the upper hand. "What the devil I beg your pardon, Mrs. Heron! You must excuse an old man with a short temper and a touch of the gout—but I don't understand you! Why don't ...
— At Love's Cost • Charles Garvice

... thought it would save time as you were actually up and dressed," explained Eltham; "and the house is quite near to here, I understand." ...
— The Devil Doctor • Sax Rohmer

... over, and because baptism with Christians is always with water, people cannot easily separate the image of water from the word, when it is read or pronounced. But if this image is never to be separated from it, how will persons understand the words of St. Paul, "for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body?" Or those of Jesus, "Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" Or, if this image is not to be separated from it, ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... gradually came to know the import of love, and she readily took a fancy to Ch'in Chung, who was an amorous being. Ch'in Chung too returned her affection, on account of her good looks; and, although he and she had not had any very affectionate tte—ttes, they had, however, long ago come to understand each ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... had done. You had said that patriotism was a man-made feeling, and I repeated your words over and over. It was all I could seem to remember. I could not see why our parting had been necessary. I wonder if you can understand. It was as if I had been reborn into a new set of beliefs. All that had seemed inevitable and great had grown trivial. I could not see distinctions as I had. God made us—English, French, Indians. ...
— Montlivet • Alice Prescott Smith

... the ascent. But the thing had to be done, like many other hopeless-looking things, and a party of infantry and cavalry were detailed for the duty,—a company of Sikhs, and twenty-five dismounted men of Desmond's squadron, led by himself. Our main force was stationed in the valley, you understand, and the advance was covered by three mountain guns. The men were deployed in an extended line at the foot of the hill, and began a careful ascent, taking advantage of every scrap of cover available, the Ghilzais picking them off with deadly certainty whenever they got ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... well know how fully I understand and appreciate all that you have done for education in Canada, and that there are few people in the Dominion for whom I have always entertained a greater ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson

... me a dinner at the new Hotel de Ville, which was also lighted with the Edison system. They had a very fine installation of machinery. As I could not understand or speak a word of French, I went to see our minister, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, and got him to send a deputy to answer for me, which he did, with my grateful thanks. Then the telephone company gave me a dinner, and the engineers of France; and I attended the dinner celebrating the fiftieth ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

... fluently among them. They met on the common ground of English, but not one of them could speak it well, each one translated phrases of her own tongue quite literally, and the meaning of the whole talk was largely a matter of guesswork. What they did understand was nature's language of motherhood. They were content to sit for hours on the veranda or in the grove or behind the house, preparing vegetables for Moya, chattering about their babies and explaining their meaning by gestures that seemed ...
— Ethel Morton at Rose House • Mabell S. C. Smith

... certain member of the Imperial family than is good for him to know. Promote him with increased salary to Yokohama, and send him there by way of Marseilles upon some confidential mission. But on no account must he return to Russia before going to Japan—you understand? He will no doubt wish to travel by way of Siberia, but this must be forbidden. If you will write out his appointment, I will obtain the Emperor's signature to it ...
— The Minister of Evil - The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia • William Le Queux

... in the village all understand the winds with their wind songs in summer and winter. And they understand the rough wind who comes sometimes and picks up the village and blows it away off high in the sky all ...
— Rootabaga Stories • Carl Sandburg

... duties ill performed Weighed on each heaving breast, No weariness of work-day care Disturbed their tranquil rest; The stars to them as yet were in The reach of baby hand, Temptation, trial, grief, were words They could not understand. ...
— Indian Legends and Other Poems • Mary Gardiner Horsford

... my guns," he announced ironically. "He'd've got the contents of the other, only he chose to play the fool and into my hands. Now I guess you understand,"—and turning his head he fixed her with an inflexible glare, chill and heartless as steel,—"that one squeal out of you will be the last. Oh, I've got no scruples; arrest to me means a living death. I'll take a shorter course, by preference, ...
— The Brass Bowl • Louis Joseph Vance

... few to write her least part's history, Though they should ever write and never write but that. Millions look on her eyes, millions think on her wit, Millions speak of her, millions write of her hand. The whole eye on the lip I do not understand; Millions too few to praise but some one part of it, As either of her eye or lip or hand to write, The light or black, the taste or ...
— Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles - Delia - Diana • Samuel Daniel and Henry Constable

... said that a Man was stronger than they were. What could this terrible creature be like? He must be a mountain indeed, if he was to master such a beast as the black Elephant. Yet the black creature said that Men got on his back, a dozen of them at a time. The Lion could not understand it at all. He shook his ...
— The Talking Thrush - and Other Tales from India • William Crooke

... acquainting myself with the organisms of the geologic periods, I have been similarly but more deeply impressed by what I must be permitted to term the human cast and character of the contrivances which they exemplified. Not only could I understand the principles on which they were constructed, but further, not a few of them had, I found, been actually introduced into works of human invention ages ere they were discovered in the rock. What the great Creator-worker had originated in the Palaeozoic and Secondary ...
— The Testimony of the Rocks - or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed • Hugh Miller

... that the American people may correctly understand and judge the question of the extinction or preservation of our wild life, it is necessary to recall the near past. It is not necessary, however, to go far into the details of history; for a few quick glances at a few high points ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday

... their heaven, did you not say that it was a tedious place, full of pious old ladies and Philistines? And are you not got to the paradise of the Greeks? What, then, ails you with your lot?" "Sir," said he, "to be plain with you, I do not understand a word these fellows about me say, and I feel as I did the first time I went to Paris, before I knew enough French to read the Master's poems. {128} Again, every one here is mirthful and gay, and there is no man with a divinely passionate potentiality of pain. When ...
— In the Wrong Paradise • Andrew Lang

... wait about a bit, and if you see nobody there, say out loud, 'From James Gilverthwaite as is sick and can't come himself'; and when the man appears, as he will, say—aye!—say 'Panama,' my lad, and he'll understand ...
— Dead Men's Money • J. S. Fletcher

... found out Shakespeare and read it with great zest. At seventeen he conceived the plan of his book, and resolved to do two things to make himself fit to write it: first, he resolved to devote four hours a day to the study of physical science, in order that he might be able fully to understand and to unfold its relations with history; secondly, he resolved to devote an equal portion of each day to the study of English composition and practice in writing, in order that he might be able to set forth his opinions with force and perspicuity. To these resolutions he adhered ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., April, 1863, No. LXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics. • Various

... Saint Peter, not so now; Let him who can my meaning understand. A harsh rule is a heavy weight to bear. I melt but where I must, and stand alone. I think of him who falling died in Po; Already thence the thrush has pass'd the brook Come, see if I say sooth! No more for me. A rock amid the waters is no joke, Nor birdlime on the twig. Enough my grief When a ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch

... pocket-book, he threw it to the gypsies, and fell back in his chair, as if exhausted with so much enjoyment. And in this lies the triumph of the gypsy music; it is like that of Orpheus, which moved the rocks and trees. The soul of the Hungarian plunges, with a refinement of sensation that we can understand, but cannot follow, into this music, which, like the unrestrained indulgence of the imagination in fantasy and caprice, gives to the initiated all the intoxicating ...
— The Gypsies • Charles G. Leland

... Baptist Church in Clayton, and if his domestic economy was a matter of open gossip, there was no question concerning the fact of his learning. It had been the boast of the congregation for years that Judge Hollis was the only man in town who was smart enough to understand his sermons. When Mr. Meech started out in the morning with a book under his arm and one sticking out of each pocket, Sandy would pull up on his elbow to watch proceedings. He loved to see fat Mrs. Meech pat the little man lovingly on the ...
— Sandy • Alice Hegan Rice



Words linked to "Understand" :   solve, penetrate, believe, image, sense, bottom, empathize, grok, appreciate, picture, perceive, lick, construe, get, apprehend, dig, take account, visualize, figure out, work out, catch, fathom, puzzle out, envision, comprehend, fancy, compass, get the picture, make out, project, visualise, savvy, follow, work, sympathise, grasp, touch, figure



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