"Riddling" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of Laius had the words explain'd, "Before his time to every mind obscure; "And the dark prophetess, down headlong flung, "Laid lifeless, all her riddling tales forgot. "Her, fostering Themis saw, and unreveng'd "To lie not suffer'd. Straight another plague "On Thebes was loos'd; and all the country swains "Fear'd by the savage beast their flocks to lose, "And fear'd their own destruction. With the youths "Adjacent, ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... alone should not destroy fast enough without this contribution, nor perfect the work (which is destruction) except we joined an artificial sickness of our own melancholy, to our natural, our unnatural fever. O perplexed discomposition, O riddling distemper, O miserable condition ...
— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Together with Death's Duel • John Donne
... of that he went away, nor was he thenceforward so assiduous in his visits; indeed, even when I began to get about again, he plainly feared and deprecated my society, not as in distaste, but much as a man might be disposed to flee from the riddling sphinx. The villagers, too, avoided me; they were unwilling to be my guides upon the mountain. I thought they looked at me askance, and I made sure that the more superstitious crossed themselves on my approach. At first I set this ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson
... cheerfulness which pervaded it. He was shown in by a neat maidservant in black gown and white apron, a canary singing a welcome from a cage in the shadow of the window, the voices of crowing cocks coming over the chimneys from somewhere behind, and the sun and air riddling ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy
... sank without a cry," he remarked quietly, looking straight up into the frightened face opposite, and then riddling mercilessly the confused explanation ...
— The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories • Algernon Blackwood
... "I am bewildered, and know not what to think about the dispute: for thou hast beguiled my mind with very dark riddling." ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")
... going to the front. Here, from a point of safety, they could hear war holding high revelry in the bottom below. Now, for the first time the soldier took occasion to examine his knapsack. A minie-ball had entered the lower part, passing through sixteen folds of tent-cloth, many folds of a blanket, riddling several articles of underwear, and finally burying itself in a small Bible. Such was its force that not a leaf from Revelations to Genesis remained without impress of the ball, and half ...
— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers
... a gravel-sifter. But there were a great many fallals and odds and ends which were not in the least like the sifter which they use for riddling sand. There were little manichords which resembled toes in white woollen stockings, and when they moved it was just as if a foot with two hundred skeleton toes were walking; and it walked and walked and ...
— In Midsummer Days and Other Tales • August Strindberg
... as he ranged alongside the policeman's horse stumbled and fell, Campbell, leaping off as the horse fell and grabbing at the halter of Berube's horse, but failing to hold him owing to the speed. Berube again threatened the riddling process, but the constables chased him to a slough, where the smuggler's horse got mired, but Berube tried to lead him out. Campbell fired in the air, but Berube kept going, whereupon Campbell shot the smuggler's horse, and the patrol took Berube and his four horses into ...
— Policing the Plains - Being the Real-Life Record of the Famous North-West Mounted Police • R.G. MacBeth
... rebel batteries opened upon the moving companies a concentrated fire from twenty pieces of artillery, putting a stop to the process. Shot and shell came tearing through our camps in every direction, crashing through trees, throwing up great clouds of dust, riddling tents and alarming the cooks and contraband servants ...
— Three Years in the Sixth Corps • George T. Stevens
... lost sight of by the mediaeval mystics, who as monks and priests were, of course, cut off from domestic life. The romances of true love which the Old Testament contains were treated as prophecies wrapped up in riddling language, or as models for ecstatic contemplation. Wordsworth, though his own home was a happy one, does not supply this link in the mystical chain. The most noteworthy attempt to do so is to be found in the poetry of Robert ...
— Christian Mysticism • William Ralph Inge
... "Well, sir, he's riddling of me now, sir; I dunno what to say; on'y it don't seem nat'ral to stand still and be blown up in a splosion, when you might get away. Ha! I have it, sir. S'pose I get the boat round under the cabin window, and you and Jackum shove ...
— King o' the Beach - A Tropic Tale • George Manville Fenn
... are forty, less one—sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, sifting, grinding, riddling, kneading, baking, shearing wool, whitening, carding, dyeing, spinning, warping, making two spools, weaving two threads, taking out two threads, twisting, loosing, sewing two stitches, tearing thread ...
— Hebrew Literature
... admiral, with the wind free, shot by us, delivering his fire from one broadside, then tacking under our lee, discharged the other with tremendous effect, wounding our masts and spars, riddling our canvas and rigging, and strewing our decks with ...
— The Boy who sailed with Blake • W.H.G. Kingston
... and banters young Worthy in the Relapse, for letting his Lady slip through his fingers, and calls him a Town-Spark, and a Platonick Fool for't. [Footnote: Collier, p. 127.] Hey Jingo, here's Riddling for ye! what would this whimsical Gentleman be at? first he rails at a Lover for holding a pretty Woman fast, and then he jokes upon him for letting her go; this runs almost parallel with the Fable of the ...
— Essays on the Stage • Thomas D'Urfey and Bossuet
... Italiens," remarked a low voice. (This was an elderly parasite, one of those persons who show their independence—as they think—by riddling their friends with epigrams.) "Except to the Italiens. And if the dowager cares for anything on this earth but her daughter—it is music. Such a good performer she was in her time! But the Countess' box is always full of young butterflies, and ...
— A Woman of Thirty • Honore de Balzac
... de Camp arrive as was expected.—Cadet Wellesley exhibiting his military accomplishments by surveying the back field; all the holes and corners; riddling the sty and pigs with Mr. Brown's blunderbuss; bivouacking in the pantry at Victoria's expence; and, when remonstrated with, for mere sport knocking the plaster Albert off the garden wall into the lane. ...
— Christmas Comes but Once A Year - Showing What Mr. Brown Did, Thought, and Intended to Do, - during that Festive Season. • Luke Limner
... night they wage this combat. What gods they are who fight endlessly and indecisively over New York is not for our knowledge; whether it be Thor and Odin, or Zeus and Cronos, or Michael and Lucifer, or Ormuzd and Ahriman, or Good-as-a-means and Good-as-an-end. The ways of our lords were ever riddling and obscure. To the right a celestial bottle, stretching from the horizon to the zenith, appears, is uncorked, and scatters the worlds with the foam of what ambrosial liquor may have been within. Beyond, a Spanish goddess, some minor deity in ...
— Letters from America • Rupert Brooke
... dreadful pass of death, Not ever to be question'd any more Save on the further side; but when I met Merlin, and ask'd him if these things were truth— The shining dragon and the naked child Descending in the glory of the seas— He laugh'd as is his wont, and answer'd me In riddling triplets of old ...
— Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy - Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls • Various
... opening of the land, we saw a sloop at anchor near a wooded point, her pennant flying. We pushed along, unheeding its fiery signal to bring to; and declining, she let fly a swivel loaded with grape, and again another, riddling our sail; but we were travelling with wind and tide, and we soon left the indignant patrol behind. Towards evening came a freshening wind and a cobbling sea, and I thought it best to make for shore. So, easing the ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... conflict. Dick felt a terrible constriction. It was as if some one were choking him with powerful hands, and he strove for breath. He knew that the masses pressed upon their flank by Stuart and Hill, were riddling ...
— The Sword of Antietam • Joseph A. Altsheler
... killing you if I can help it. You knocked me down on the deck with the butt-end of your pistol, and ordered my body to be taken below by the hands, or else you said you'd throw it overboard. For that outrage I'll take my last revenge, after riddling you like a sieve, by smashing in your skull, and pitching your ...
— Picked up at Sea - The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek • J.C. Hutcheson
... the tawny sand-hills, red under the sun now close to the horizon, the fusillade ran and rippled. On Nissr, metal plates rang with the impact of the slugs, or glass crashed. The gigantic Eagle of the Sky, helpless, received this riddling volley as she sagged ashore, now almost in the grip ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England
... was in this moment that the battle was won and lost, for every gun of the British broadside was sweeping the American deck diagonally from stern to bow, while the marines in the tops of the Shannon picked off the officers and seamen of the Chesapeake, riddling them with musket balls. It was like the swift blast of a hurricane. Lawrence fell, mortally wounded. Ludlow, his first lieutenant, was carried below. The second lieutenant was stationed between decks, and the third ...
— The Fight for a Free Sea: A Chronicle of the War of 1812 - The Chronicles of America Series, Volume 17 • Ralph D. Paine |
