"Overtask" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Sir Walter, as it chanc'd, Was pacing to & fro in the avenue That westward fronts our house, Among those aged oaks, said to have been planted Three hundred years ago By a neighb'ring Prior of the Woodvil name, But so it was, Being overtask't in thought, he heeded not The importune suitor who stood by the gate, And beg'd an alms. Some say he shov'd her rudely from the gate With angry chiding; but I can never think (Sir Walter's nature hath a sweetness in it) That he would use a woman—an old woman— ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas
... forth with spear and shield, That none might drag the body;[11] lion-like He stalk'd around it, oval shield and spear 345 Advancing firm, and with incessant cries Terrific, death denouncing on his foes. But Diomede with hollow grasp a stone Enormous seized, a weight to overtask Two strongest men of such as now are strong, 350 Yet he, alone, wielded the rock with ease. Full on the hip he smote him, where the thigh Rolls in its cavity, the socket named. He crushed the socket, lacerated wide Both tendons, and with that rough-angled mass 355 ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer
... "Do not overtask yourself," warned Poutrincourt, pausing beside the thin, pale-faced man who knelt in the long shadows of the rainy dawn among his neatly-arranged plots. "If you are too zealous you may never see France again." Lescarbot laughed and dug a little grave in his plantation. "What in heaven's ...
— Days of the Discoverers • L. Lamprey
... good pattern. This is utter folly. One cardinal rule in seeking either pleasure or profit is not to tire one's self. When time is limited and the opportunity may never recur, the temptation is almost overpowering: this is our only chance—we must not lose it. But it is lost if we overtask the perceptions and carry away no idea with us: there is no gain, and positive harm. No one new to galleries should look at pictures for more than an hour together, and I think that one who knows and cares much about them will not wish to do so for more than double that time. We learn by degrees ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 90, June, 1875 • Various
... contemporary utterance, "It has been decided that the forces so contributed shall rather serve to assert a principle than to constitute a serious burden on {p.081} the colonies"; and it is doubtless more judicious to accept less, and charily, of a too eager giver than to overtask his benevolence. Nevertheless, a more guarded and contingent refusal would have shown better appreciation of current conditions, and of the Imperial possibilities involved in the continued and increased participation of the colonies in an ...
— Story of the War in South Africa - 1899-1900 • Alfred T. Mahan |
