"Poser" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... humorous anecdote, based upon the same story, is in connection with the exceedingly old "darky" he once met in the South, who claimed to have crossed the Delaware with Washington. "Were you with Washington," asked Mark Twain mischievously, "when he took that hack at the cherry tree?" This was a poser for the old darkey; his pride was appealed to, his very character was at stake. After an awkward hesitation, the old darkey spoke up, a gleam of simulated recollection (and real gratification for his convenient memory) overspreading his countenance: "Lord, boss, I was ...
— Mark Twain • Archibald Henderson
... new feature in our meetings and we were much struck with its wisdom. The questioner in an audience, no matter how bland and benevolent, is always viewed with aversion, and, however well armed at all points, is sure to be unhorsed by a brilliant sally of wit and ridicule. But when a poser is put in black and white, nothing will do but downright logic and argument. To that unwomanly work we addressed ourselves in the Toledo convention, and all admitted that we gave most satisfactory answers. Mrs. Israel Hall is the one who heads the woman's ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... receive your pay regularly?" "Yes." "Well, now, suppose you were working for a farmer, instead of a railway, would you expect your employer to hitch up his team every Saturday night and carry you home?" This seemed a poser, but it wasn't. "No," said the man promptly, "I wouldn't expect that; but if the farmer had his team hitched up and was going my way, I should call him a contemptible fellow if he would not let me ride." ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... leaning back in his chair, as if about to administer a poser.] By the way, Mr. Dunning, you tell us you have a strong conviction that Messrs. Hopwood & Co. are a myth, and their offices a sham—[caustically] may I ask whether you've tried to ascertain who is the actual tenant of the room ...
— The Big Drum - A Comedy in Four Acts • Arthur Pinero
... la foret qu'il aime Ce doux vent qui, faisant tout vibrer en nous-meme, Y reveille l'amour, Et, remuant le chene ou balancant la rose, Semble l'ame de tout qui va sur chaque chose Se poser tour ...
— French Lyrics • Arthur Graves Canfield
... imposing preparations. "What would become of the justice business of the parish, sir, if we shut up your tribunal? I don't suppose my mother would like to have the constables and the illegitimates introduced either into the drawing-room or the kitchen," (this was, as I meant it to be, a poser; if Mr Hawthorne senior had a hobby, it was his magisterial authority.) "The fact is, that at home, up-stairs or down-stairs, I couldn't read. I should have not only my own idleness, but the various idlenesses ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844 • Various
... a poser to March. It was so totally subversive of all his preconceived ideas, that it reduced him for ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne
... poser for Gonzaga. How was he to go about such a business as that? It was beyond his powers. Thus ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini
... farmer, by chance a companion in a coach with Charles Lamb, kept boring him to death with questions, in the jargon of agriculturists, about crops. At length he put a poser—"And pray, sir, how are turnips this year?" "Why that, sir," stammered out Lamb, "will depend upon the boiled legs ...
— The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes - Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection • Various
... five passengers on the steamer, and we amused ourselves comparing notes. One told of a voyage from Barcelona to Alicante which he had once undertaken. The first night out they lost a sailor; he was seized with a fit and died; and then came the poser. When they would arrive at Alicante and muster the crew for the inspection of the health officers one would be wanting; suspicions would be aroused that he had fallen a victim to contagious disease, and they ran the hazard of being stuck into quarantine unless they could succeed in ...
— Romantic Spain - A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II) • John Augustus O'Shea
... 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
... as one of the daughters of the friends with whom she was travelling. Fortunately it never entered my head that it mattered. For I doubt if I should have had the courage to question the chaperon, whose daughter she presumably was. It certainly was a "poser" to be told, "But you don't even know my name." Had I not been a bit of a seaman, and often compelled on the spur of the moment to act first and think afterwards, what the consequences might have been I cannot say. Fortunately, I remembered that it was not the matter at issue, and explained, ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... poser!" He ruminated a minute, then said, "It's useful, certainly, but not just what you'd call ornamental. One wouldn't save it for an ornament—not this one, anyway, but ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... poser. I attempted to pass the question by; but nothing would do, and I had to confess I slept ...
— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler • Pardee Butler
... answer this poser for along the road came the ambulance, pell-mell. Surely, the boys thought, Artie could not have spoken of Blythe's identity over the 'phone, yet following the ambulance came the touring car of Bridgeboro's police department with the chief in it, the ...
— Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... is General Washington's goot health, and his family's goot health, ant may dey all live long ant prosper. So poor Rip Van Winkle is dead, eh? [Now comes de poser;](149) if Rip is dead, [what has become of ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van - Winkle • Charles Burke
... ordre, un joli pigeon blanc vint se poser sur un arbre, tout prs de la fentre de la cuisine, et poussa un petit cri plaintif. La ngresse vit le pigeon, le montra au chef, et dit: "Chef, prenez votre grand couteau, coupez la tte ce pigeon, et faites-le rtir pour ...
— Contes et lgendes - 1re Partie • H. A. Guerber
... was for a moment a perfect "poser" to Ishmael. He wasn't interested in bonnets! But, however, as he had the faculty of seeing, understanding, and remembering everything that fell under his observation in his own limited sphere, he blew out his candle, sat down and complied with his aunt's request, narrating and describing ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... wish to do the fighting part, and to be among the first on board the enemy's ship. Who would form the bodyguard? That was a poser. Of course Sam Smatch would be one; but then by himself he would not be of much use, as his wooden leg might chance to stick in a hole and stop his progress. At last they agreed to refer the matter to the Captain, and to get him to tell off a body ...
— True Blue • W.H.G. Kingston
... true, had there been such a poet we should never have had our Milton; but that may not serve the Swan of Vaucluse as justification for being miserable before a looking-glass, that he starved his grandsons to serve ours. Take him then as a poser: give him, for the argument's sake, Boccace to his company, Cino; give him our Pulci, give him Ariosto, give him Lorenzo, Politian; give him Tasso for aught I care; you have no one left but the sugar-cured Guarino. Dante stands ...
— Earthwork Out Of Tuscany • Maurice Hewlett
... connection? Carteret's imagination shied. For, to have the existence of an illegitimate son of your oldest and dearest friend thus suddenly thrust upon you, and that by a young lady of the dearest friend's family, is, to say the least of it, a considerable poser for any man. It may be noted as characteristic of Carteret that, without hesitation, he recognized the sincerity and fine spirit of Faircloth's letter. Characteristic, also, that having seized the main bearings of it, his feeling ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet
... This was a poser; for the first mate, though good-natured and good- humoured enough, and probably a thinking man, too, in his way, was too matter-of-fact a person to indulge in "dreamy sentimentalities," as he would have styled ...
— The Ghost Ship - A Mystery of the Sea • John C. Hutcheson
... questions at the same time, I blundered. The first was a poser and might have elicited some interesting revelation of feminine mental process. In forlorn ...
— Jaffery • William J. Locke
... a poser, as Louise and I really have not much in common, and I was at a loss where to begin. But something had to be done, and so I made ...
— Hepsey Burke • Frank Noyes Westcott
... slowly. "But you needn't have given me such a poser to start with. It's a problem my dear, that has puzzled many a girl before you, and many a parent, too. The worst of it is that there is so much to be said on both sides. I could make out an excellent brief for each; and, while I think of it, it wouldn't ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... which maintains its equanimity on encountering a baker's cart with an awning, will face the noisiest and most vociferous of boilers. But granting that the committee is right in coming to this conclusion as far as regards the danger arising to horses, the other objection we alluded to was a poser, from which we shall be glad to see how they extricate themselves—we mean the injury done to the turnpike road. Why, it turns out that a steam-coach does no injury at all; but, from the necessity it is under to sport ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various
... the society; that they had no appreciation of its benevolent intentions in respect to themselves. He found, on the contrary, that they were positively embittered toward it and toward its designs for their removal from the country as toward their worst enemy. This circumstance was undoubtedly a poser to their young friend. How could he reconcile this deep-seated and widespread disbelief in the purity of the motives of the Colonization Society, with the simple integrity and humanity of the enterprise itself? Later, ...
— William Lloyd Garrison - The Abolitionist • Archibald H. Grimke
... life had improved him, but it had not made him happy. It would be absurd to say that he looked sad. A boy of his age cannot look sad continually, unless sadness is a pose with him, which he is enjoying very much indeed. But Bonbright was no poser.... And he did not look happy. There were even times when there was a worn, haggard look about his eyes when he came down in the morning. This was when he had allowed himself to think ...
— Youth Challenges • Clarence B Kelland
... had brought along Dick's horse, and they now took good care that the animal should not get away from them. Where to look for Dick, however, was a poser. ...
— The Rover Boys out West • Arthur M. Winfield
... the question was a poser. He did not want to be her lover, had never intended it; his easy gallantry had meant nothing. But now, seeing her averted face, the eyes down-drooped, he could think of no reply that was not love-making. She stole a swift look at him, recognized his hesitation, and felt a stab, ...
— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner
... he was least expecting it. It was the Squire's custom, when one of the smaller scholars or poorer spellers rose to spell against the master, to give out eight or ten easy words, that they might have some breathing-spell before being slaughtered, and then to give a poser or two which soon settled them. He let them run a little, as a cat does a doomed mouse. There was now but one person left on the opposite side, and, as she rose in her blue calico dress, Ralph recognized Hannah, the bound ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston |
