"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Still bearing under her arm, as she with her had brought it, her bundle. But with both of her arms the mother seized hold of the maiden, Clasping her round the waist, and exclaiming, amazed and bewildered: "Tell me, what means all this? and these idle tears, say, what mean they? I will not let thee depart: thou art the ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... letting the public see your animal just enough, and not too much; holding him up hard when the market is too full of him; letting him out at just the right buying intervals; always gently feeling his mouth; never slacking and never jerking the rein;—this is what I mean ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 2, December, 1857 • Various
... Lady Merrifield. 'I do not mean to interfere with your pleasure, 'but I had rather our discussions were not entirely selfish. Suppose, Gillian, we walked down to Casement ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Spirit must be more rich and various in its expression than any life that we have yet known, and find place for every worthy and delightful activity. It does not in the least mean a bloodless goodness; a refusal of fun and everlasting fuss about uplift. But it does mean looking at and judging each problem in a particular light, and acting on that judgment without fear. Were this principle established, ...
— The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day • Evelyn Underhill
... the ice was broken, and long enough, too, for that matter. I found that he was a Church of England clergyman by profession, and a Welshman by birth. He was well versed in the earlier history of the colony—that portion of it which is by far the most interesting—I mean its French or Acadian period. "There are in the traditions and scattered fragments of history that yet survive in this once unhappy land," he said, in a peculiarly low and mellifluous voice, "much that deserves to be embalmed ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens
... mean? Only the gunboats, some suggested, shelling guerillas out of the woods somewhere along the river bank. Impossible; too near, too far to the right, for that. It could hardly be artillery practice merely; for to-day was the Sabbath. And the youngest soldier among us ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, October, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... been brought together before in any part of the colony. The hope of their amendment seemed every day to lessen. The spirit of trade (not that liberal spirit which characterises the British trader, but a mean, selfish, avaricious passion, that hesitated not at any means to be gratified) proved the source of every evil under which ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 2 • David Collins
... mean? I have loved her for ages. I shall love her forever. She is the other half of my soul. In some lives I have missed her altogether let me be thankful that she has come so near ...
— Winter Evening Tales • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... fifty years ago, been no mean performer upon the vielle; and at the age he was then of, touched it well enough for the purpose. His wife sang now and then a little to the tune, then intermitted and joined her old man again, as their children and ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie
... I, when I read it to the crew. "I can assure you that those few lines will prove to mean more than the whole page about the Fall of Blankenberg. Now let us get down Channel and send those prices up ...
— Danger! and Other Stories • Arthur Conan Doyle
... the rearrangement of his ministry, had only just appointed the duke's nephew and heir, Mr Victor Cavendish, to be secretary to the treasury. But the duke had come to the conclusion that while he himself was substantially a free-trader,[1] Mr Balfour did not mean the same thing by the term. He necessarily became the leader of the Free Trade Unionists who were neither Balfourites nor Chamberlainites, and his weight was thrown into the scale against any association of Unionism with the constructive policy of tariff reform, ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 - "Destructors" to "Diameter" • Various
... town. Asking him why the Rais did not give them a few karoobs, he replied naively, "The Rais has none for us, but plenty to buy gold for his horse's saddle." To-day, nor yesterday, could I buy any eatable meat. I mean mutton, for this is the ordinary meat of the place, and upon which I live, with now and then a fowl. But in the Souk another camel was killed, and a great display was made of its meat. The camel was ill before ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson
... mean by that?" cried Madame de Watteville. "What is the meaning of such words? Your mother is unjust, no doubt, and according to you, would be so in any case! Never let such an answer pass your lips again to ...
— Albert Savarus • Honore de Balzac
... by comes the miner, and with strong and repeated strokes he drills a hole in its top, and the rock says, 'What does this mean?' Then the black powder is poured in, and with a blast that makes the mountain echo, the block is blown asunder, and goes crashing down into the valley. 'Ah!' it exclaims as it falls, 'why this rending?' Then come saws to cut and fashion it; and humbled now, and willing ...
— How to Succeed - or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune • Orison Swett Marden
... up with some intention of becoming angry; but he hardly knew how to carry it out; and then it might be a question whether anger would serve his turn. "Do you mean to say, Mr. Round, if you had found documents such as these, you would have done nothing about them—that you would have passed them by ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... entered the room, she found Phoebe sitting like one petrified, only just able to hold out the letter, and murmur—'What does it mean?' Imagining that it could only contain something fatal about Robert, Miss Fennimore sprang at the paper, and glanced through it, while Phoebe again faintly ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Eusebius was a living example had struck but shallow roots. Later he went to Athens, where St. Basil and St. Gregory, the two great doctors of the Church, were his fellow students. "What a viper the Roman Empire is cherishing in its bosom!" exclaimed Gregory, no mean judge of character, "but God grant that ...
— Saint Athanasius - The Father of Orthodoxy • F.A. [Frances Alice] Forbes
... almost no practice, like Tony's father, and was sitting in the office all day long doing nothing, where I knew he was, instead of going back and forth from the city with other men that have more money than it is right to have! I'd even be willing to have him keep the grocery store even if it did mean that he wasn't quite as first-family as ...
— Phyllis • Maria Thompson Daviess
... entirely an English disease; and that, in all appearance, they often confound the symptoms of it, with those of the venereal distemper. Perhaps I may be more particular on this subject in a subsequent letter. In the mean time, I am ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett
... wretchedly printed volumes do you! Now let me proceed with my pupil. Tell us, good Lysander, what can you possibly mean by the seventh symptom of ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... again; you will travel a long way, elder, before you find any people of that kind, Injuns or white folks. I know. I haven't lived fifty years in this troublesome world for nothin'. People who live up in the air, as you do, elder, have to come down. I'm sorry. You mean well!" ...
— In The Boyhood of Lincoln - A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk • Hezekiah Butterworth
... from high to low water of spring tides is approximately double that of neap tides, while the maximum height to which spring tides rise is about 33 per cent. more than neaps, taking mean low water of spring tides as the datum. Extraordinarily high tides may be expected when the moon is new or full, and in her position nearest to the earth at the same time as her declination is near the equator, and they will be still further augmented if a strong gale has been blowing for some ...
— The Sewerage of Sea Coast Towns • Henry C. Adams
... illiterate person? Similarly, the girl in the laundry does not make soap by rote, but by principle; and the girl in the dressmaking-shop does not cut out her pattern by luck, or guess, or instinct, or rule of thumb, but by geometry. And so the successful teaching of the industries demands no mean amount of academic preparation. In this lies the technical utility ...
— Tuskegee & Its People: Their Ideals and Achievements • Various
... proclaims to all the world; and that is why its possessor has betrayed and made miserable perhaps both herself and others, merely to be able to throw it as her own around her neck. For note well that ornaments adorn only those to whom they belong; it is mean to wear borrowed ornaments—it is held to be improper; and rightly so, for borrowed ornaments lie—they are a crown which gives to her who wears it the semblance of a power which in reality does ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka
... and separated therefrom by a six-inch wall. The leaden box was of rude construction, dented and much oxydized, the plates being a little thicker than those of the casket of Louis Columbus. The inscription on the outside of the lid "D. de la A. Per, Ate." was taken to mean "Descubridor de la America, Primer Almirante"—"Discoverer of America, First Admiral." The inscription on the inner side of the lid, without contractions, was: "Ilustre y Esclarecido Varon Don Cristobal Colon"—"Illustrious and noble man, Christopher Columbus." The letters "C C A" were interpreted ...
— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich
... did not mean it, my boy. You are doing your duty admirably to your invalid relative. I hope we both are; and sick people's fancies are to be studied. I don't think though you need be quite so blunt, Master Blount, though," added ...
— The Vast Abyss - The Story of Tom Blount, his Uncles and his Cousin Sam • George Manville Fenn
... mean, Captain Bryce?" he thundered. "I mean that you have concealed in your sworn statement all reference to der fact that you collided with and sunk the ship Royal Age on der night before the ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson
... mean to say that Mr. Brudenell goes after those girls?" asked the lady, raising her ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... letters at first from Padua, but then they came less often, and the last Ann ever had to show me was a mere feint which pleased me ill indeed, inasmuch as, albeit it was full of big words, it was empty of tidings of his life or of his heart's desire. What all this must mean Ann, with her clear sense and true love, could not fail to see; nevertheless she ceased not from building on her lover's truth; or, if she did not, she hid that from all ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... Monboso (Comp. Vol. I Nos. 300 and 301). It seems most obvious to refer it to Monte Rosa. ROSA derived from the Keltic ROS which survives in Breton and in Gaelic, meaning, in its first sense, a mountain spur, but which also—like HORN—means a very high peak; thus Monte Rosa would mean literally the High Peak.], a peak of the Alps which divide France from Italy. The base of this mountain gives birth to the 4 rivers which flow in four different directions through the whole of Europe. And no mountain has its base at so great a height as this, which lifts itself ...
— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci
... than I can tell, for I didn't think Miss Helma ever had any. And she said it was an important transaction. And I said, 'Is it like the Bank of England, miss?' and she said, 'Yes, to be sure.' Why, Miss Carrie, you have not gone and hid the letter, 'ave you? That would be real mean of you." ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade
... "do you mean that with fellows such as those I saw yonder, you and your friends are going to make fight against the greatest nation and the ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... with a gesture of impatience at his burlesque of obedience. "You know what I mean—that you ought to deny it; ought to be furious at ...
— Wyoming, a Story of the Outdoor West • William MacLeod Raine
... tables with one foot, and decorated sideboards; when people first had singing-girls, and lute-players, and players on the sharp-strung 'triangle,' and actors, to amuse them at their feasts; when the feasts themselves began to be extravagant, and the office of a cook, once mean and despised, rose to be one of high estimation and rich emolument, so that what had been a slave's work came to be regarded as an art. It was no wonder that such changes came about in Rome, when every triumph brought hundreds ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 2 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford
... and seemly raiment, and went for those dames, and brought them from the house of that good man to Santesteban, and did them all honour that he could. They of Santesteban were always gentlemen; and they comforted the daughters of the Cid, and there they were healed of their hurts. In the mean time Felez Muoz proceeded on his journey; and it came to pass that he met Alvar Faez Minaya, and Pero Bermudez on the way, going to the King with a present which the Cid had sent him; and the present was this, ... two ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various
... do not get the Bill? I think there will be some disturbance—the ruffians are always with us—although the people do not want Home Rule. I mean, they don't care about it. The bulk of the people would not give sixpence for Home Rule. They have been told it will pay them well, and they go in for that. Not one of them would have Home Rule if it cost him a penny, unless he believed he'd ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)
... Riccabocca understood by a priest that the Italian's heart smote him for his irreverent jest on the cloth. Luckily at this moment there was a diversion to that untoward commencement of conversation in the appearance of no less a personage than the donkey himself—I mean the donkey who ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... my Cirripedia book, I should not like to do so without I found others approved, and in some public way; nor indeed is it well adapted, as I can never recognise a species without I have the original specimen, which fortunately I have in many cases in the British Museum. Thus far I mean to adopt my notion, in never putting mihi or Darwin after my own species, and in the anatomical text giving no authors' names at all, as the systematic part will serve for those who want to know the history of the species as far as I can ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin
... and Baron Lambert had to start back this morning to organise the Belgian local committees into one central national affair, and I am to stay on until things are settled one way or the other. That may mean not getting back to Belgium for ...
— A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium • Hugh Gibson
... of the French, That Canada and Louisiana mean all America West of the Alleghanies, had not yet oozed out to the English; but it is gradually oozing out, and that England will have to content itself with the moderate Country lying east of that Blue range. "Not much ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVI. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great—The Ten Years of Peace.—1746-1756. • Thomas Carlyle
... painfully made! Seven! After all nothingness would mean rest. Eight! No pain to either, since they were together. Nine! He should live on in the hearts of his people. Ten! Agony of failure! ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall
... constantly in the presence of her slaves and retainers, having the alternative of being smothered to death in privacy or bored to death in plenty of fresh air. We were told the Sultana was a power in the State and a diplomatist of no mean order, but it was hard to believe this in the royal presence, unwashed and unlovely as it was. Still, I remember seeing in a Philadelphia paper that some American living in Sulu had described the Sultana as being "an agreeable, ...
— A Woman's Journey through the Philippines - On a Cable Ship that Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route • Florence Kimball Russel
... very much what he said; he always said he was as likely to be wrong as right. But he made all classics so gloriously new and living. He made us criticise by standards of common sense, and presume that the tragedians were not fools and that they did mean something. They were not to be taken as antiques privileged to use conventions that would be nonsense in ...
— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring
... He, on the other hand, O king, is a wicked-souled wight! Without doubt, O monarch, Time in this world is mightier than everything else, for we behold even thee struck down by Bhimasena in battle! Alas, how could the wretched and mean Vrikodara unrighteously strike thee down, thee that wert conversant with every rule of righteousness! Without doubt, Time is irresistible. Alas, having summoned thee to a fair fight, Bhimasena, putting forth his might, fractured ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown
... credit the deity with possessing all the good attributes, to whom must we credit the bad ones? A little later Sir Oliver does admit that we must credit the deity with the bad attributes also, but adds that they are dying out. But as they are part of the deity, their decay must mean that the deity is also undergoing a process of change, of education, and is as much subject to the law of growth as we are. Surely that is not what people mean when they speak about God. A god who is only a part of the cosmic process ceases to be a god ...
— Theism or Atheism - The Great Alternative • Chapman Cohen
... he said as she hesitated; "you are afraid I'll not be cleared of this charge. But I am sure to be—as sure as there is a God. Then, when you are nineteen or twenty, I mean to ask you to be my wife. You are my sweetheart now—oh, my dearest sweet-heart! Christine, you won't let any one else come in and take my place? You'll be just as you are now until we are ...
— The Rose in the Ring • George Barr McCutcheon
... do mean that. We remain together only to help, to heal, to console. Why should men and women be so eager to grant to each other the power of wasting life? That is what marriage gives—the right to destroy years and years of life. And the right, once given, it attracts —attracts! We have ...
— The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith • Arthur Wing Pinero
... "I mean it on every ground," said Mr. Turnbull, rising on his legs and standing with his back to the fire. "Of course I am not fit to have diplomatic intercourse with men who would come to me simply with the desire of deceiving me. Of course I am unfit to deal with members of Parliament who would flock ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope
... This does not mean that I must make a systematic study of Western metaphysics. Professional thinkers abound in the West; but the rank and file of the people pay little heed to them. It is true that they take themselves very seriously; but so does every clique of experts ...
— What Is and What Might Be - A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular • Edmond Holmes
... my ivory portrait!" exclaimed Ida. "How did you come by it? What do you mean about my leaving the world? Something strange has happened to me, I know, but did I die? I don't remember dying. Oh, can't somebody explain what ...
— Miss Ludington's Sister • Edward Bellamy
... construe. Moreover, to persuade women that it is not to themselves they are indebted for the virtue they possess, might it mot deprive them of the most powerful motive to induce them to preserve it? I mean by that, the persuasion that it is their own work they defend. The consequences of such morality would be discouraging, and tend to diminish, in the eyes of a guilty woman, the importance of her errors. But let us turn to matters of ...
— Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de L'Enclos, - the Celebrated Beauty of the Seventeenth Century • Robinson [and] Overton, ed. and translation.
... in, contritely. "Please don't be so dreadful about it. After all, you asked me, didn't you? Perhaps I've hurt your vanity. There, I didn't mean that, either. Oh, dear, let's talk about something impersonal. We get along ...
— Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed • Edna Ferber
... by-product of coke) to replace gasoline would necessitate the manufacture of many times the amount of coke now required by the world's industries. To develop the oil shale industry to a point where it could supply anything like the amount of oil now derived from oil pools would mean the building of great plants, including towns, railroads, and other equipment, equivalent to the plants of the coal mining industry. To apply any one of the various conservational measures discussed on later pages would only temporarily ...
— The Economic Aspect of Geology • C. K. Leith
... was! He wanted to marry me at any cost. Of course!—It was always in me that they were at first—I mean that they always have been in love with me. But as a rule the clever ones have gone over to Lora. In fact, I have always felt a little distrustful toward you because you never fell in love with Lora. And how much she is ahead of me—well, ...
— The Lonely Way—Intermezzo—Countess Mizzie - Three Plays • Arthur Schnitzler
... not the other classes of Chinese. For a few years after the signing of this convention this was the view adopted and acted upon by the immigration officials, but afterward they changed their attitude, and the foregoing Article has since been interpreted to mean that only the above-mentioned five classes can be admitted into the United States, and that all the other classes of Chinese, however respectable and honorable, must be refused admission. Will my readers believe ...
— America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat • Wu Tingfang
... [I mean by credit-power, the general impression on the national mind that a sovereign, or any other coin, is worth so much bread and cheese—so much wine—so much horse and carriage—or so much fine art: it may be really worth, when tried, less or more than is thought: the thought ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... time set the example of beginning, and he did it by thrusting softly with one foot till he could feel where Poole lay ready to seize him by the ankle and give it a warm pressure which the lad took to mean—Go on. ...
— Fitz the Filibuster • George Manville Fenn
... What if you substitute for it a copy of what you have written yourself, not less valuable to me, and less expensive to you? I hardly like to write to ask favours of such people as Bishop Ellicott; I mean I have no right to do so; yet I almost thought of asking him to send a copy of his Commentaries to us for our library. I have ventured to write to Dean Trench: and I am pretty sure that Mr. Keble will send me his "Life of Bishop Wilson." But pray act as you wish. I am very grateful ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge
... she said, "I am the White Kitten, and I just tumbled down from the hay-loft, but I didn't mean to." ...
— Among the Farmyard People • Clara Dillingham Pierson
... me a good deal better some days than he does others; I see it in his mean. And mark you! mark it well, female reader, these days are the ones that I cook up sights and sights of good food, and with a cheerful countenance and clean apron, set it before him in a bright room, on a ...
— Samantha Among the Brethren, Complete • Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
... female ear; and in whose best society—not universally nor without exception, of course not; Paul, don't be a fool—money makes marriages? When you were engaged, 'the world' said that it was a 'capital thing' for Polly. Did that mean that you were a good, generous, intelligent, friendly, and patient man, who would be the companion for life she ought to have? You know, as well as I do, and as all the people who said it know, that it meant ...
— The Potiphar Papers • George William Curtis
... his Majesty at length exclaimed, "I shall believe nothing until you have explained those two things, which are always in my thoughts, which were lately mentioned to me, and which I can justify by no reasoning. I mean the trial of Urbain Grandier, of which I was never well informed, and the reason for the hatred you bore to my unfortunate mother, even to her ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... last, "you're not like the others." Then hastily: "I don't mean to offend you when I say that, you know. Only one can tell, to look at you, that you are different." He thought that sounded rather boyish, and remembered that he was going to the war, and was, or would soon be, a fighting man. "I've known a lot of girls," he added ...
— Love Stories • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... sheep (which they most coveted), without alarming us. Still, although we had no apprehension of the natives, both Nadbuck and Toonda were constantly on the watch, and it was evident the former considered himself in no mean capacity at this time. He put on an air of great importance, and shewed great anxiety about our next interview with the natives; but Toonda took everything quietly, and there was a haughty bearing about him, that contrasted ...
— Expedition into Central Australia • Charles Sturt
... mean, sir," exploded the fat man, at last, "by tearing through the streets like a locomotive? ...
— Paul the Peddler - The Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... difficulty of reaching a definite conclusion as to boundary. When Talleyrand was questioned as to boundaries, he returned evasive answers, and said he did not know, and when pressed to be more explicit, said: "You must take it as we received it." "But what did you mean to take?" asked Livingston. "I do not know," replied Talleyrand. "Then you mean that we shall construe it our own way?" said Livingston again, to which Talleyrand made final reply: "I can give you no direction. You have made a noble bargain for ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
... that the works of Josephus, and of his imitators—of that Joseph and his brethren, I mean, whom a friend of mine calls "The Miller and his men"—I fear me, I say, that these are well-nigh exhausted. Yet I have known very ancient jokes turned with advantage, so as to look almost equal to new. But this ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... know, 'Though time has been we both could run, 'Such days are gone and over now;— 'I only mean to see ...
— Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs • Robert Bloomfield
... as they rested against a log, having their regular after-dinner, heart-to heart talk, "we had better hiepus (light out), if we mean to get to the coast and bring up at Myers on time, besides taking in all we want to on the way. We know the Harney's River route like a book and we've been over the Indian trail to Lawson's River, so we've ...
— Dick in the Everglades • A. W. Dimock
... I do not mean to be understood that this dogma is held by all Calvinists, but, whether held or not, it ...
— The Calvinistic Doctrine of Predestination Examined and Refuted • Francis Hodgson
... demanded. "Give that letter to me.... Oh, Scott! Did you ever hear of anything half so mean? Kathleen's written out about a thousand questions in ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers
... love: he stoops to view What saints above and angels do; And condescends yet more to know The mean affairs of ...
— The Psalms of David - Imitated in the Language of The New Testament - And Applied to The Christian State and Worship • Isaac Watts
... "You mean to say that he will be pitiless, and banish me from his roof. So be it; it will only be what I deserve. There is no torture that I cannot bear, after what I have suffered ...
— File No. 113 • Emile Gaboriau
... all which he appeared to comprehend of what I said his answer was "Awoy," accompanied by a nod, as if he had said "O yes." On my mentioning Goindura Gally, and making the signs of paddling a canoe, he pointed immediately to the westward. This term I understood from the Bungan tribe to mean saltwater; water being kally, gally, or gallo. So bungan gallo was the name of the lower Bogan, and Bogan gallo that of the upper Bogan. Goindura I understood to mean salt, in consequence of that word ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 1 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell
... princes were put to the sword, and their wives and daughters made slaves and concubines? On the other side, I would not be so delicate as those modern critics, who are shocked at the servile offices and mean employments in which we sometimes see the heroes of Homer engaged. There is a pleasure in taking a view of that simplicity, in opposition to the luxury of succeeding ages: in beholding monarchs without their guards; ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer
... allow so much freedom to these savages as they had been accustomed to, but on the contrary require reparation for so cruel a murder by a process of justice, or some other way, or let things in the mean time remain as they were, in order the better to await our vessels and our return, that we might all together consult what was to ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain V3 • Samuel de Champlain
... instructions of Secretary Cameron to General Sherman, when the original expedition went to Port Royal, authorizing him to organize the negroes into companies and squads for such services as they might be fitted for, but this not to mean a general arming for military service. Secretary Stanton, though furnishing muskets and red trousers to General Hunter's regiment, did not think the authority sufficient to justify the payment of the regiment. The first regiment, as raised ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. September, 1863, No. LXXI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... be angry, Cousin," said little Sam, when the porpoise gave token that he was hardbound in slumber. "He don't mean to hurt your feelings, ...
— Chanticleer - A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family • Cornelius Mathews
... I entreat you. I did not mean to play with your love, but I was mistaken in my feelings. I realized I did not love you well enough to marry you, so it was ...
— Dainty's Cruel Rivals - The Fatal Birthday • Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller
... for us, "the last of the Small-War affairs for the present. Started,—from Tschopau region, Bamberg way,—April 29th-May 5th. In Three Columns: Finck leftmost, and foremost (Finck had marched April 29th, pretending to mean for Bohemia); after whom Knobloch; and (May 5th) the Prince himself. Who has an eye to the Reichs Magazines and Preparations, as usual;—nay, an eye to their Camp of Rendezvous, and to a fight with their miscellaneous Selves ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XIX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... George is that particular himself, and them new folks, Gobbleall as they call them, are right down mean, and come down on you if they misses one little mossle of parkisit; and there's my poor sister to keep—as is afflicted, and ...
— The Carbonels • Charlotte M. Yonge
... bitter Lent her hopes of sharing in the sacred feast were finally taken from her. It remains uncertain whether she considered that her change of dress would be direct disobedience to God, which her words seem often to imply; or whether it would mean renunciation of her mission, which she still hoped against hope to be able to resume; or if the fear of personal insult weighed most with her. The latter reason had evidently something to do with it, but, as ...
— Jeanne d'Arc - Her Life And Death • Mrs.(Margaret) Oliphant
... he had no other cause to regret his venture, even his interest in young Hamilton did not urge him to deprive his little family of the luxuries so necessary in the West Indies. Economy on his salary would mean a small house instead of large rooms where one could forget the heat; curtailment of the voluminous linen wardrobes so soon demolished on the stones of the river; surrender of coach and horses. He trusted ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton
... nodded, as there was no use in speaking in such a noise. He presently showed that he did not mean to go round to the front of the shed. That would never have done; for the flood had washed away the soil there, and left nothing to stand upon. He broke away the boards at the back of the bee-shed, which were old and loosely fastened. He was glad he had come; for the ...
— The Settlers at Home • Harriet Martineau
... my only pleasure. In intervals of leisure, before or after school, or at recess, I found much that was worthy attention. Seated at my desk, wrapped in my dignity, I watched, with many a sidelong glance, the progress of rustic love-making. I only mean by this, that from their general movements I constructed such love-stories as seemed to me probable. I learned who went with whom, who wished they could go with whom, who could and who couldn't, who did and ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 78, April, 1864 • Various
... intensifies those emotions. They have little to distract them; they are not bewildered by endless disquisitions on conduct, and religion itself is for them an emotion rather than a systematized creed. For the poor man home, children, fireside affection, mean more than for the rich man, because they are his only wealth. This is the lesson which Wordsworth has so nobly taught in his "Song at the Feast ...
— The Empire of Love • W. J. Dawson
... next morning, her mother scowled at her. "What did you mean by telling me you had been ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand
... that all our currency be "sound as the Government and as untarnished as its honor," and that both metals be used as currency and kept at parity by legislative restrictions. The New York Tribune thought that this could mean nothing but a gold standard; the Times was fearful that it would lead to silver; the Springfield Republican condemned it as "chock full of double-dealing." Its ambiguity, however, was in line with the purposes and ambitions of two men who were actively preparing for the campaign of 1896—Marcus ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley
... you mean the banquet. That is all arranged long ago under three heads. First, the order of entering the hall; second, the order of the seats; third, ...
— Gycia - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Lewis Morris
... does not clearly mean the one thing for which it was intended, it means nothing, and is worthless. Look, ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson
... formal family division. The context is not, however, sufficiently clear to render his position with respect to their exact status as precise as is to be desired, but it is tolerably certain that he did not mean to make Diegueno a family name, for in the volume of the same society for 1856 he includes both the Diegueno and the other above mentioned tribes in the Yuma family, which is here fully set forth. As he makes no allusion ...
— Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico • John Wesley Powell
... time we had passed right through the fleet, we got the schooner round and waited impatiently until morning. There was a good deal of firing of blank cartridge, throughout the night, as also of signalling with coloured lanterns; but we could, of course, make nothing of it, and took it simply to mean that the men-o'-war in charge of the convoy were doing their best to keep the fleet from becoming scattered during the continuance ...
— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood
... cried he, "what does it all mean? First we must gallop fit to break our necks, and then we ...
— Chicot the Jester - [An abridged translation of "La dame de Monsoreau"] • Alexandre Dumas
... would have tried her today: she has had Mr. Vigors on her hands all the afternoon, and he has been—here's her little note—what are the words? No doubt 'most overpowering and oppressive;' no, 'most kind and attentive,'—different words, but, as applied to Mr. Vigors, they mean the same thing. ...
— A Strange Story, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... knows bettern dat. Sometimes a body can't tell whedder you's a sayin' what you means or whedder you's a sayin' what you don't mean, 'case you says 'em ...
— The Gilded Age, Part 1. • Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Charles Dudley Warner
... heart, in the domain of mind, there are no geographical lines dividing the nations. You come to us as members of one family. You come that we may all stand on one plane of freedom. I wish we could take you to our four 'star States' where women vote. We mean to give you of our best but we expect to get from you much more than we give. You will show us that those who speak English are not the only ones whose hearts are alive to the great flame ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper
... St. Augustine have strained this, and similar passages, to mean that because property rests on human, and not on divine, right, therefore it should not exist at all. It is, of course true that what human right has created human right can repeal; and it is therefore quite fair to argue that all the citizens of a community might agree to live a life of communism. ...
— An Essay on Mediaeval Economic Teaching • George O'Brien
... I said, I hope you will not write in verse. When you write in prose you say what you mean. When you write in rhyme you say what ...
— Over the Teacups • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... She opened the casket and taking out those three jewels, kissed them and gave them to the King. Then she went away bearing his heart with her. After her going the King sent for his son Sharrkan and gave him one jewel of the three, and when he enquired of the other two replied, "O my son! I mean to give one to thy brother Zau al-Makan, and the other to thy sister Nuzhat al- Zaman." But when Sharrkan heard that he had a brother (for to that time he knew only of his sister) he turned to his sire and said to him, "O King, hast thou a son other than myself?" He answered, "Yes, and he is now ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... I am no hero. I had made a fool of myself as I knew I should if I ever—ever spoke to you as I did that day. Now, of all things I don't like to be ridiculous. I thought that evening if I could be the means of bringing you two together it would take the curse off, so to speak. I mean that it would make me cut a less ridiculous figure than I did and restore my self-respect. I wanted to be able to think of you and Charley happy together without calling ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston
... Really lost. I mean to say have you ever had the feeling of being lost? It is rather a dreadful feeling. I had it once and I have never forgotten it. I will ...
— The Thirteen Little Black Pigs - and Other Stories • Mrs. (Mary Louisa) Molesworth
... I, stepping up to him, "can you tell me if a young woman called Bretta Wetherholm lives any way handy here?" He looked at me very hard as I spoke, with some surprise in his countenance. Then I recollected myself; "that was her name, I mean, sir," said I; "it's now Mrs Kelson, I am told. Her husband is Tom Kelson. Yes, that's ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston
... "What mean these lurid openings?" nervously asked Miss Church-Member, for their flames excited her terror. Mr. World replied, with a look of surprise: "Have you never heard that these are to give light to pilgrims, such as we? Without them the way would prove ...
— Mr. World and Miss Church-Member • W. S. Harris
... mean one of those stupid crushes," he began, "where all the people outside are trying to butt their way in, and all those inside are wishing to heaven that they were well out again—like so many June bugs and millers on a summer night bumping against both sides ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston
... a long breath, and regarded me with a fixed stare. "I mean," said Jack, fixing his eyes upon me with an awful look, "I mean this —that I have ...
— The Lady of the Ice - A Novel • James De Mille
... the riding-house to useful more than to learned purposes; for I can assure you they are very different things. I would have you allow but one hour a-day for Greek; and that more to keep what you have than to increase it: by Greek, I mean useful Greek books, such as Demosthenes, Thucydides, etc., and not the poets, with whom you are already enough acquainted. Your Latin will take care of itself. Whatever more time you may have for reading, pray bestow it upon those books which are immediately relative to your ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... by a grand outing, as related in "The Putnam Hall Encampment." The cadets marched far away from the school, to the shore of a beautiful lake, and there our heroes managed to have a good time in spite of the mean work of several ...
— The Mystery at Putnam Hall - The School Chums' Strange Discovery • Arthur M. Winfield
... "What does it all mean?" he cried. "I always supposed we should protest in defense of the Danish ports, for their sakes and our own. What is all this botheration about Sir Isaac and the rest of you? Do you think ...
— The Man Who Knew Too Much • G.K. Chesterton
... Police, spent most of their time manoeuvring, with a view to awakening the intelligent interests of the ranks and instructing the men on the nature of the ground in the vicinity. Colonel Baden-Powell lost no opportunity of preparing for the gallant Cronje, and, in order to show that he did not mean to be caught napping, some nights were passed by the garrison in ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) - From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, - 15th Dec. 1899 • Louis Creswicke
... drew rein before a small house, very ugly and mean-looking, and that seemed on the point of ...
— The Brown Fairy Book • Andrew Lang
... whole may some day be construed in ideal form. Not only do the materials lend themselves under certain circumstances to aesthetic manipulation, but underlying their worst disjointedness are three great continua in which for each of us reason's ideal is actually reached. I mean the continua of memory or personal consciousness, of time and of space. In {265} these great matrices of all we know, we are absolutely at home. The things we meet are many, and yet are one; each is itself, ...
— The Will to Believe - and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy • William James
... by moral and religious considerations from making my real feelings known, and I feel I should sink in my own estimation if I gave way, though my natural desire is to do so. In the face of opportunities (not I mean of paedicatio, but of expression of excessive affection, etc.), or what might be such, I always fail to speak lest I should forfeit the esteem of the other person. I have a feeling of surprise when any one I like ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... and made that an excuse to return to his bachelor life, relying on the coldness of the marquise, her pride, and the thousand barriers that the life of a great lady sets up about a woman in Paris. You'll know what I mean when you go there. People said to Rochefide: 'You are very lucky to possess a cold wife who will never have any but head passions. She will always be content if she can shine; her fancies are purely artistic, her desires will ...
— Beatrix • Honore de Balzac
... exercise any influence for the perversion of public morals? Much; their influence is disastrous. And do the men who profess them believe them, taking the word 'believe' in its real and deep meaning? No; they often do mischief which they do not mean to do, and do not see that they do. They are intoxicated with a bad philosophy, and intoxication renders blind. It is easy to prove that these optimists, who in theory find that everything is right, are perpetually contradicting themselves in practice. Address yourselves ...
— The Heavenly Father - Lectures on Modern Atheism • Ernest Naville
... my experience, and that also of others, that the fewer precautions one takes, the more one relies on Nature to take care of one instead of on impracticable devices—the better for one's health in the end. I do not mean by this that one should go and drink dirty water to avoid fever,—far from it,—but if the water is dirty the best plan is not to drink it at all, whether filtered—or, to be accurate, passed through a filter—or not, or made ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... surprised now. But at any rate the days are over of Omniscience like that of the Hibbert critic, who knows exactly what he would know if he were God Almighty. What is pain? What is evil? What did they mean by devils? What do we mean by madness? The rising generation, when asked by a venerable Victorian critic and catechist, "What does God know?" will hardly think it unreasonably flippant ...
— The New Jerusalem • G. K. Chesterton
... fate of mortal things were theirs? Go home good men, and tell your Masters from us, We do 'em too much honour to force from 'em Their barren Countries, ruin their vast Cities, And tell 'em out of love, we mean to leave 'em (Since they will needs be Kings) no more to tread on, Than they have able wits, and powers to manage, And so we shall befriend 'em. Ha! ...
— Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (2 of 10) - The Humourous Lieutenant • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... liberation and unity of Italy as effected by an illustrious band of patriots, aided by friendly powers and fortunate circumstances, I mean freedom in a political sense. The papal yoke, so far as it was a yoke, was broken only in a temporal point of view. The Pope lost only his dominions as a temporal sovereign,—nothing of his dignity as an ecclesiastical monarch; and we are to consider his opposition ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume X • John Lord
... he exclaimed, dropping his customary good-natured manner, "this is carrying things with a pretty high hand. It's a good deal like kidnapping, it seems to me. I didn't give you permission to carry me off in this way, and I want to know what you mean by it and what you are about. I've no objection to making a little trip in your car, which is certainly mighty comfortable, but first I'd like to be asked whether I ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss
... herself. Her feet were immersed in water, and she stood in a stooping posture to screen herself from observation, should the Indians return to seek her. In the mean time, her little boy slumbered peacefully, and regardless of surrounding perils. None of her fears or dangers disturbed his repose; and, when the morning light allowed her to gaze on his sweet face, lit up by the smiles of infantile joy, as he beheld ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones
... you are!" he exclaimed, knocking over the top of the rhubarb-pot table and the empty glass in his wrath. "Of course I don't mean a dead man. I mean what would you do to bring a partly drowned man to ...
— A Great Emergency and Other Tales - A Great Emergency; A Very Ill-Tempered Family; Our Field; Madam Liberality • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
... you mean, Colonel!" cried Hawkins, filled with vague alarms by the old man's awe-compelling ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... living as a servant with the ladies of the island. Who could have put her there? He thought of Emilio's colloquy with Maria Fortunata. But the Signora? A mother? What did it all mean? Even the madness of the English could scarcely be so pronounced as to make such a proceeding as this quite a commonplace manifestation of the national life and eccentricity. He ...
— A Spirit in Prison • Robert Hichens
... hear nor see, but show their breeding: Each lady striving to out-laugh the rest; To make it seem they understood the jest. Their countrymen come in, and nothing pay, To teach us English where to clap the play: 20 Civil, egad! our hospitable land Bears all the charge, for them to understand: Mean time we languish and neglected lie, Like wives, while you keep better company; And wish for your own sakes, without a satire, You'd less good breeding, or ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden
... felt that he ought to step back and tell Mike how to manage— as he was acting; but, knowing that all this meant delay and that speed was everything, and might mean success instead of failure, he knew that he must trust to his comrade's own common sense. And now, with the feeling upon him that if the man awoke suddenly he would start and fall back into the sea, he tightened ...
— Cormorant Crag - A Tale of the Smuggling Days • George Manville Fenn
... One day a blue bird started to build her nest in the muzzle of one of their guns. Some of the sentimental fellows took this as an augury. "A sweet gentle little bird building her nest in the muzzle of a cannon! What could that mean but, that peace was about to be ...
— From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign - A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw • William Meade Dame
... consummation, will it not be well, O indigent friends, that you, fallen flat there, shall henceforth learn to take advice of others as to the methods of standing? Plainly I let you know, and all the world and the worlds know, that I for my part mean it so. Not as glorious unfortunate sons of freedom, but as recognized captives, as unfortunate fallen brothers requiring that I should command you, and if need were, control and compel you, can there henceforth be a relation between us. Ask me not for Indian meal; you shall be compelled to earn ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle
... all heart-breaking. I don't only mean those beautiful graves, overgrown with acanthus and violets, but the mutilated arches and columns and dumb appealing fragments looming up in the glowing sunshine ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. I (of II.), Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic • Emma Lazarus
... but if they were willing to take private's "fare," they paid private's "fee," which was gratuitous. As a general rule, however, the officers kept apart from the men, for the officer who pushed himself in the private's quarters was looked upon as penurious and mean. It was only in times of the greatest necessity that a Southern officer wished to appear thus. If the Southern soldier was poor, he was always proud. This hotel was called the "South Carolina Soldiers' ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert
... "I didn't mean it for one, my dear, though I meant no reproach in it. You get too many compliments as it is. Frank, like all young, inexperienced people, has many impractical ideas, that time will cure. Young enthusiasts of every age are going to turn the world upside down, ...
— From Jest to Earnest • E. P. Roe
... thoughtfully, "there's a party or a picnic. How many people do you mean, Cousin Jack? And do you mean children ...
— Marjorie at Seacote • Carolyn Wells
... from Bengal during this campaign, or we shall hazard a disaster. There are, I believe, several that your Lordship has not yet called upon. They should be at hand as soon as possible, and their present places supplied by others. In the mean time, corps of Punjaubies and Hillmen should be raised for general service. Not only can no commanding officer say what his corps will do under circumstances in which their religion or prejudices may afford a pretext for disobedience, but no officers can say how far their regiments sympathise with ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman
... Branwen, with a look of firmness, yet of transparent honesty, that amused her companion greatly; "at least," she continued in a quieter tone, "I don't feel good, and the queen often tells me that I am very naughty, though I sometimes think she doesn't mean it. But when I think of that—that monster and his insult to my dear Hafrydda, and his impudence in wanting me. Oh! I could tear him limb from limb, and put the bits in the fire so that they could never ...
— The Hot Swamp • R.M. Ballantyne
... withdraw from further appeals to the public, as I mean to do, I cannot pose as a Prospero who breaks his staff. I am only a somewhat sturdy, highly nervous varlet in the sphere of art, who has sought to wear the robe of the magician—and being now disrobed, ...
— Margot Asquith, An Autobiography: Volumes I & II • Margot Asquith
... matter. Your second visit and demand were neither in conformity to the one nor in accordance with the other. You must have put a construction upon what I wrote which it cannot fairly bear. By "requisitions" I mean your requirements that the two men should be banished by the King, according to his promise. No notice has been made to me of your visit by the Court, and I have therefore had no occasion to say anything whatever about it in my communications to the Court, nor shall I have any I suppose. In ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman
... Protector of England also comes as an intercessor, and most earnestly requests and beseeches your Royal Highnesses to deign to extend your mercy to these your very poor and most outcast subjects—those, I mean, who, inhabiting the roots of the Alps and certain valleys in your dominion, have professed nominally the Religion of the Protestants. For he has heard (what no one can say has been done by the will of your Royal Highnesses) that those wretched creatures ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson
... minx!" Miss Oleander burst out, the moment they were alone in the carriage. "Guy, what on earth did you mean by paying her such marked attention ...
— The Unseen Bridgegroom - or, Wedded For a Week • May Agnes Fleming
... nature of the project [you have formed]? impart it to me." He replied, "I mean to have thee married; and to get thee the wazir's daughter for thy wife." I gave for answer, "How can the wazir give his daughter to a wretch so poor and destitute as myself? Will it be when I embrace his faith? This is what I never can do." He replied, "The custom of this city is, ...
— Bagh O Bahar, Or Tales of the Four Darweshes • Mir Amman of Dihli
... although the worthy man did not mean to give her pain, but rather pleasure, by this rough applause, she could not help feeling how very low the fortunes of De Clifford's son had fallen. But she did not make this thought apparent, she folded him closer to her heart, and whispered words ...
— The Grateful Indian - And other Stories • W.H.G. Kingston
... "What can my Helen mean?" replied Lady Ruthven; "who would talk of being a vestal with such a heart in view as that of the Regent of Scotland? and that it will be yours, does not his eloquent ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter
... is derived from the Old English word commonty which came to mean "the body of the common people, commons." Communication is from the Latin communicare, also derived from communis—common, and ic (the formative of factitive verbs)—to make, or to ...
— The Farmer and His Community • Dwight Sanderson
... Presently while we were eating our rolls, the garcon, a Parisian (who was also the ostler), came in and said: Would Madame—indicating the Baronne—come up to "Mademoiselle," who wished to speak to her? We could not think who he could mean, as I was the only "Mademoiselle" of the party. The Baronne told him so. "Mais non!" he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of upstairs, "La demoiselle dans la ...
— The Visits of Elizabeth • Elinor Glyn
... the diction of the Thyrsis was modelled on that of Theocritus, whom I have been much reading during the two years this poem has been forming itself, and that I meant the diction to be so artless as to be almost heedless. However, there is a mean which must not be passed, and before I reprint this I will consider well all objections. The images are all from actual observation.... The cuckoo in the wet June morning, I heard in the garden at Woodford, and all those three stanzas, which you like, are reminiscences of Woodford. ...
— Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems • Matthew Arnold |
