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Impose   Listen
verb
Impose  v. t.  (past & past part. imposed; pres. part. imposing)  
1.
To lay on; to set or place; to put; to deposit. "Cakes of salt and barley (she) did impose Within a wicker basket."
2.
To lay as a charge, burden, tax, duty, obligation, command, penalty, etc.; to enjoin; to levy; to inflict; as, to impose a toll or tribute. "What fates impose, that men must needs abide." "Death is the penalty imposed." "Thou on the deep imposest nobler laws."
3.
(Eccl.) To lay on, as the hands, in the religious rites of confirmation and ordination.
4.
(Print.) To arrange in proper order on a table of stone or metal and lock up in a chase for printing; said of columns or pages of type, forms, etc.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Impose" Quotes from Famous Books



... heed to the child; he was wondering how this young girl, whom he had expected so easily to impose upon, had penetrated his scheme, and how long she ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 • Various

... plain that the external conditions of life impose on the individual certain habits of feeling which often conflict with his personal propensities. As a member of society he has a powerful motive to attribute certain feelings to himself, and this motive acts as a bias in disturbing his vision of what is actually in his mind. While this holds good ...
— Illusions - A Psychological Study • James Sully

... civil and religious affairs, the greatest political and intellectual advance since the Renaissance, is also a local American—and more particularly a Rhode Island—triumph. Agencies are today subtly at work to undermine this principle, and to impose upon us through devious political influences the Papal chains which Henry VIII first struck from our limbs; chains unfelt since the bloody reign of Mary, and infinitely worse than the ecclesiastical machinery which Roger Williams rejected. But when the vital relation of intellectual ...
— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

... plan provided for a representative governing body to be known as the Grand Council, to which each colony should elect delegates (not more than seven or less than two) for a term of three years. This body was to have control of Indian affairs, impose taxes, nominate all civil officers, authorize the opening of new lands to settlement, and in general have charge of colonial defence, and of the enlistment, equipment and maintenance of an army. An executive or viceroy, to be known as the president-general, ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... who, while not opposed to Union, were apprehensive that the price to be paid for it would be the partial surrender of their testimony in behalf of their distinctive principle. They did not wish to impose their beliefs on others, but they were anxious to reserve to themselves full liberty to hold and propagate their views in the United Church, and they were not sure that, by accepting the Articles ...
— Principal Cairns • John Cairns

... "but I have thought that my interest might be reconciled with that pity to which every human being has a right. You will remain on board my vessel, since fate has cast you there. You will be free; and, in exchange for this liberty, I shall only impose one single condition. Your word of honour to submit to it ...
— Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea • Jules Verne

... attorney began to make objections. But the first to make an uproar was Porfiry Ovtchinnikov.... And what had the fellow to make an uproar about?... He hasn't an acre of ground; he is acting as representative of his brother. He bawls: "No, you shall not impose on me! no, you shan't drive me to that! give the plans here! give me the surveyor's plans, the Judas's plans here!" "But what is your claim, then?" "Oh, you think I'm a fool! Indeed! do you suppose I am going to lay bare my claim to you offhand? ...
— A Sportsman's Sketches - Works of Ivan Turgenev, Vol. I • Ivan Turgenev

... which we are arrayed has sought to impose its will upon the world by force. To this end it has increased armament until it has changed the face of war. In the sense in which we have been wont to think of armies there are no armies in this struggle, ...
— In Our First Year of the War - Messages and Addresses to the Congress and the People, - March 5, 1917 to January 6, 1918 • Woodrow Wilson

... you told me about Miss Kircher, and knowing that you dislike her, I feel that it is not fair to her and to you that we should impose longer upon you. I know that our presence is keeping you from continuing your journey to the west coast, and so I have decided that it is better for us to try and reach the white settlements immediately without imposing ...
— Tarzan the Untamed • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... my lord, That my ability may undergo, And nobleness impose: at least, thus much; I'll pawn the little blood which I have left To save the ...
— The Winter's Tale - [Collins Edition] • William Shakespeare

... afford opportunity for an interesting study and the linguistic reactions of some of them would be forcible to the point of picturesqueness. The traditional teachers would demand to know by what right he presumed to impose upon them such an unheard-of program. Others might welcome the suggestion as a means of relief from irritating and devastating drudgery. In their quaint innocence and guilelessness their souls would revel in rainbow dreams of preachments, homilies, and wise counsel that would ...
— The Reconstructed School • Francis B. Pearson

... the soul. Since this infection could be destroyed only by expiations prescribed by the gods, the extent of the sin and the character of the necessary penance had to be estimated. It was the priest's prerogative to judge the misdeeds and to impose the penalties. This circumstance gave the clergy a very different character from the one it had at Rome. The priest was no longer simply the guardian of sacred traditions, the intermediary between man or the state and the gods, but also a spiritual guide. He taught ...
— The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism • Franz Cumont

... you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced. I have no objection to your adding to the comforts of your family by that means. So far as I can tell, you seem to be a deserving object. But I must impose one or two conditions on you, before you enter my house in that capacity. While you are here, I must stipulate that you are always known as—say as Richards—an ordinary name, and convenient. Have ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... one discontented man, you raise up three in his room; which is a state lesson I never knew before. But when others discover your fear, and that discontent procures fear, they will be discontented too, and impose on you. ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... with a proposal for the prevention of sweating he would, for instance, take expert advice as to whether its provisions could be enforced; and whether, if enforceable, they would impose added hardships on any class of employees or penalties on any ...
— The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage • Almroth E. Wright

... tsuiho-shi have historical importance. They represent the unequivocal beginning of the military class which was destined ultimately to impose its sway over the whole of Japan. Their institution was also a distinct step towards transferring the conduct of affairs, both military and civil, from the direct control of the sovereign to the hands of officialdom. The Emperor's power ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... I said. I did not know how to continue my speech. Though they might choose to pass as husband and wife among strangers, they could hardly expect to impose ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton

... give to our own foolish and selfish wills the keys of His treasure-house. The condition of our getting what we will is our willing what He desires; and unless our prayers are a great deal more the utterance of the submission of our wills to His than they are the attempt to impose ours upon Him, they will not be answered. We get our wishes when our wishes are moulded by ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI • Alexander Maclaren

... and cruel fate; and while the Church of England cowardly suffers the State to impose it, and selfish men care not, we, with some enthusiasm for the unborn and some indignation to see their disabilities, must do what lies in our ...
— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... paid by them, for being present at a house conventicle. And it is hereby declared, that magistrates of burghs royal are liable, for every conventicle to be kept within their burghs, to such fines as his majesty's council shall think fit to impose; and that the master or mistress of the house where the conventicle shall happen to be kept, and the persons present thereat, are to relieve the magistrates, as the council shall think fit to order the ...
— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various

... conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed ...
— The Communist Manifesto • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

... thousand crimes of their war, the agony of millions of people upon whose liberties they had trampled and upon whose necks they had imposed a brutal yoke. Yet even with all those memories of tragic scenes which in this book are but lightly sketched, I hoped that the peace we should impose would not be one of vengeance, by which the innocent would pay for the sins of the guilty, the children for their fathers' lust, the women for their war lords, the soldiers who hated war for those who drove them to the shambles; but that this peace should in justice and mercy lead the ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs

... take up passenger service we come to a much more difficult and interesting part of the subject, for here we must consider it in all its bearings, and meet the complications that varying conditions of place and service impose. In consequence, I do not believe we can recommend one diameter for all passenger car wheels although such a state of simplicity would be most desirable. For instance, in a sandy country where competition ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 794, March 21, 1891 • Various

... within himself as to whether he should stay or return to England. Many causes produced this feeling. There was, in the first place, disillusionment on discovering that the whole thing, from the Egyptian Government point of view, was a sham, and that his name was being made use of to impose on Europe. But then he thought he saw an opportunity of doing some useful and beneficial work, and, stifling his disappointment, he went on. Arrived on the scene, he found himself thwarted by his Egyptian colleagues, and treated with indifference by the Cairene Government. ...
— The Life of Gordon, Volume I • Demetrius Charles Boulger

... men, to lift the ports and run out the guns," said the lieutenant, with finger uplifted to impose silence. "Depress your muzzles, and wait till I give the word to fire. She'll come up on this side, as I thought, so we'll give her the benefit of all ...
— The Penang Pirate - and, The Lost Pinnace • John Conroy Hutcheson

... pleasure in escaping from the stupid jurisdiction of the crowd, which knows neither what it wants, nor what one wants of it, which takes the means for the end, and by turns curses and adores, elevates and destroys! What a delight to impose emotions on it and receive none from it, to tame it, never to obey it. If one may ever be proud of anything, is it not a self-acquired power, of which one is at once the cause and effect, the principle and the result? Well, ...
— The Girl with the Golden Eyes • Honore de Balzac

... a close blockade, and not venturing at once to advance the idea of a "long range" blockade, England was nevertheless able to impose severe restrictions upon Germany by extending the lists of contraband, applying the doctrine of continuous voyage to both absolute and conditional contraband, and throwing upon the owners of cargoes the burden of proof as to destination. ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott

... followed by very evident and open admiration. And no wonder; her beauty threw a charm over all her actions: it was even a pleasure to accompany her in shopping excursions—which he used to look upon as the greatest tax that a lady could impose upon his gallantry; but then, few persons looked so beautiful as Jane, when selecting a muslin, or trying on a hat. He soon became proud of a place at her side, and much more vain of her ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... under the collective government of their own body. A representative assembly drawn from among themselves would simply reflect their own turbulent insubordination. It would refuse its authority to all proceedings which would impose, on their savage independence, any improving restraint. The mode in which such tribes are usually brought to submit to the primary conditions of civilized society is through the necessities of warfare, and the despotic authority indispensable to military command. A military leader ...
— Considerations on Representative Government • John Stuart Mill

... and death of an illimitable number of forms through the stages of countless ages, not exempting those lives from the fear, torture and misery that are still so essential a part of the scheme of life. Why impose so cruel and wasteful a condition upon those numberless billions that have lived before us, since nothing but eternal death ...
— Tyranny of God • Joseph Lewis

... the ways of thinking and in the feelings of men; but it is a very extraordinary coalition of parties indeed, and a kind of unheard-of unanimity in public councils, which can impose this new-discovered system of negotiation, as sound national policy, on the understanding of a spectator of this wonderful scene, who judges on the principles of anything he ever before saw, read, or ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... better than Ourson why the next return of the fairy would be painful to him. Since Agnella had revealed to her in confidence the nature of the sacrifice that she could impose upon herself, she was resolved to accomplish it, in spite of the opposition of Ourson. She thought only of the delight of giving an immense proof of her affection. This hope tempered her joy ...
— Old French Fairy Tales • Comtesse de Segur

... protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years, and it was made optional with the court to impose less than the existing penalty of ten years' imprisonment. A few years afterward it was proposed to reduce the age to 12 years. Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, in behalf of the W. C. T. U., went before the Judiciary Committee and said: "I represent 21,000 women and any man who dares to vote for ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... nor less. Whenever the ambassador or the minister goes to the palace, or to Stamboul, or on any expedition whatsoever, the kavass follows him, frequently acting as interpreter, and certainly never failing to impose respect upon the populace. Moreover, when he is not needed by the head of the mission in person, he is ready to accompany any member of the household when necessary. A lady may cross Stamboul in safety with no other attendant, for ...
— Paul Patoff • F. Marion Crawford

... forcibly says—"That there should be so universal a fame and fear of that which never was, nor is, nor can be ever in the world, is to me the greatest miracle of all. If there had not been, at some time or other, true miracles, it had not been so easy to impose on the people by false. The alchemist would never go about to sophisticate metals to pass them off for true gold and silver, unless that such a thing was acknowledged as true gold and ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... and down the room. He began to suspect treason and feared it, but he felt at the same time that the Teutons could impose any conditions they pleased upon him, and that he was powerless ...
— The Knights of the Cross • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... wished that he had told his masters earlier in the conversation of his unwillingness to leave Monkshaven for so long a time; and then again he felt that the gratitude he owed them quite prohibited his declining any task they might impose, especially as they had more than once said that it would not do for them to appear in the affair, and yet that to no one else could they entrust so difficult and delicate a matter. Several times that day, as he perceived Coulson's jealous sullenness, ...
— Sylvia's Lovers — Complete • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... exercise his power in another National Church; it denied the claim of the Bishop of Rome to exercise jurisdiction over the Archbishop of Canterbury; it denied the power of any one part of the Church to impose local decisions, or local dogmas, upon any ...
— The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments • E. E. Holmes

... unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet; and Timur betrayed a design of leading his royal captive in triumph to Samarkand. An attempt to facilitate his escape, by digging a mine under the tent, provoked the Mongol Emperor to impose a harsher restraint; and in his perpetual marches, an iron cage on a wagon might be invented, not as a wanton insult, but as a rigorous precaution. But the strength of Bajazet's mind and body fainted under the trial, and his premature death might, without ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... "is something independent of myself. I wring my hands, but I follow where it leads. Love has its crimes,—that I admit,—but they are the only road to experience. And experience is all I care to live for! At any rate, I cannot accept the limits that you, mother, would impose upon me. Each of us must be content to recognise the other's personality. I have tried to reconcile you to an affection that must be content to be irregular. You repel it and me, under the influence of a ...
— Sir George Tressady, Vol. II • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... and explain at great length; but we impose a law of severe brevity upon ourselves. And we have said enough. Out of this one principle of subtle and lurking antagonism, may be explained everything which has been denounced under the idea of pedantry in Milton. It is the key to all that lavish pomp ...
— Theological Essays and Other Papers v2 • Thomas de Quincey

... great vexation of her father who, after her mother's death, in an hour when his heart was softened, had promised that he would never impose any constraint upon her in the choice of a husband, she had hitherto rejected every suitor. She had showed even the distinguished Philotas in Pelusium, without the least reserve, that he was seeking her in vain; for just at that time she thought she had perceived that Hermon ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... of a worth which thwarts my self-love. Accordingly it is something which is considered neither as an object of inclination nor of fear, although it has something analogous to both. The object of respect is the law only, and that the law which we impose on ourselves and yet recognise as necessary in itself. As a law, we are subjected too it without consulting self-love; as imposed by us on ourselves, it is a result of our will. In the former aspect it has an analogy to fear, in the latter ...
— Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals • Immanuel Kant

... cried the doctor. "It is very clear to me that you have let this man impose upon you by his insidious ways, and I am bitterly hurt by your folly. You ought to know better. However, the past is past. Now make amends by helping to have this man ...
— First in the Field - A Story of New South Wales • George Manville Fenn

... plain, had been marked by the most cruel reprisals. Men were beaten to death behind bits of wall, with the butt-ends of muskets, others had their brains blown out in ravines by the pistols of gendarmes. In order that terror might impose silence, the soldiers strewed their road with corpses. One might have followed them by the red trail which they left behind.[*] It was a long butchery. At every halting-place, a few insurgents were massacred. Two ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola

... which he professed himself unworthy. "He had hoped," he said, "to pass the remainder of his days in the quiet practice of his monastic duties; and it was too late now to call him into public life, and impose a charge of such heavy responsibility on him, for which he had neither capacity nor inclination." In this resolution he pertinaciously persisted for more than six months, until a second bull was ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2 • William H. Prescott

... reluctance. Submit in the end, however, he did, for after some minutes of this private talk he went to his cloak, and avoiding, as it seemed, his fellows' eyes, put it on. Berthaud accompanied him to the door, and the winner's last words were audible. "That is all," he said; "succeed in what I impose, M. de Bazan, and I cry quits, and you shall have fifty crowns for your pains. Fail, and you will but be paying your debt. But you will not fail. Remember, half an ...
— In Kings' Byways • Stanley J. Weyman

... money for the outfit of leathern buckets and bags by subscription," replied Franklin; "and we can impose a fine upon members for being ...
— From Boyhood to Manhood • William M. Thayer

... get their way by often threatening to go, even on secondary points, and that they must not threaten unless they "meant it." (2) Mr. G. insisted he was "going." "Therefore we have to count with Hartington. We doubt if we can form part of a Hartington Government, and we can't do so if we do not ... impose our terms by threats.... This is why I have been forcing the pace of late.... Chamberlain is a little timid just now, in view of the elections and the fury of the Pall Mall. I could not drive Chamberlain out without his free consent, so I am rather tied. Still, we shall ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2 • Stephen Gwynn

... on the other hand, to impose certain taxes the effect of which is to promote saving. Intentionally or not, yet effectively, it penalizes certain callings and sections of the ...
— Government Ownership of Railroads, and War Taxation • Otto H. Kahn

... the gold, for, in addition to the regular formula, the king hung about the neck of the person touched a ribbon to which was attached a gold coin. Notwithstanding these stringent measures, some were able to impose on the king, for the coins were often found in the shops, having been sold by the recipients. Says Brand: "Barrington tells us of an old man who was a witness in a cause, and averred that when Queen ...
— Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing • George Barton Cutten

... their affairs, domestic and external, by one central power. The overthrow of armed resistance in such cases was the end of trouble, and political society and public order were rapidly re-formed under the restraint which the triumphant authority was so easily able to impose. ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... good old cause was traduced by malignants"; and that Parliament must be moved to redress their wrongs. With strange impolicy, Parliament passed a resolution against any council of officers, and sought to impose its authority upon a power greater than itself. The ready answer was a demand for the dissolution of Parliament. Richard Cromwell was allowed no choice in the matter; if he did not do it, the army, he was told, would do it for him. He gave an involuntary assent. On April ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik

... you that Lew Simpson is one of the most reliable wagon-masters on the plains,” said Mr. Russell, “and he has taken a great fancy to Billy. If your boy is bound to go, he can go with no better man. No one will dare to impose on him while he is with Lew Simpson, whom I will instruct to take good care of the boy. Upon reaching Fort Laramie, Billy can, if he wishes, exchange places with some fresh man coming back on a returning train, and thus come home ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... larger sums to encourage designs against parliament and the army; it might again be induced to show a similar readiness in providing money, without which the army could not disperse, if parliament would but impose a fine upon them as a body, "which money being chargeable so properly upon themselves, we presume they will not have the like ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe

... a common phrase; meaning not only praise hm to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by ejaculating "Al" and continue his ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... The editor of the Carstairs Papers was evidently very desirous, from whatever motive, to disguise this most certain and obvious truth. He has therefore prefixed to some of Johnstone's letters descriptions which may possibly impose on careless readers. For example Johnstone wrote to Carstairs on the 18th of April, before it was known that the session would be a quiet one, "All arts have been used and will be used to embroil matters." The editor's account of the contents of this ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 4 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... gentlemen, that our children as they grow up and begin to reason can avoid such questions? No, they cannot, and we will not impose on them an impossible restriction. The sight of an unworthy father involuntarily suggests tormenting questions to a young creature, especially when he compares him with the excellent fathers of his companions. The conventional answer to this question ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... Denmark was vested to a great extent in the hands of the bishops and nobles. It was by these two parties that the king was elected, and so great was their influence that, as a rule, the candidate chosen by their votes was obliged to accept any conditions they cared to impose. The bishops, as in most countries at the time, held enormous estates, granted to their predecessors by the crown or bequeathed by generous benefactors for the maintenance of religion. Unfortunately, ...
— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French • Rev. James MacCaffrey

... appointment at Charing Crosse, who did at first mightily please me with informing me thoroughly the virtue and force of this Act, and indeed it is ten times better than ever I thought could have been said of it, but when he come to impose upon me that without more ado I must get by my credit people to serve in goods and lend money upon it and none could do it better than I, and the King should give me thanks particularly in it, and I could not get him to excuse me, but I must come to him though to no ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... into the congregation, which in some cases was perpetual, almost always extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to the Gentiles the faith of Moses had never been inculcated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews inclined to impose it on themselves as a ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... Old Men bring themselves to, is by making the others believe their Familiarity with Devils and Spirits, and how great a Correspondence they have therewith, which if it once gains Credit, they ever after are held in the greatest Veneration imaginable, and whatever they after impose upon the People, is receiv'd as infallible. They are so little startled at the Thoughts of another World, that they not seldom murder themselves; as for Instance, a Bear-River Indian, a very likely young Fellow, about twenty Years of Age, whose Mother was angry at his drinking of too much ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson

... show evidence of increasing efforts, particularly in the areas of enforcement, trafficking-related corruption, and victim protection; the government increased implementation of its anti-trafficking law, but failed to impose significant penalties for convicted traffickers and failed to vigorously investigate and prosecute ongoing and widespread allegations of public officials' complicity in trafficking; victim protection efforts remain in early, formative stages ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... assumption that women were, and must be always dependent by reason of their sex. In the light of a broader humanity, the distinctions seem cruel and barbarous, but that they were the result of any spirit of injustice or intentional tyranny, or of any desire on the part of men to oppress women or impose upon them any hardship or burden because of their physical weakness, is not at all probable. They were merely the outgrowth of the conditions incident to ruder stages of social development, and were, ...
— Legal Status Of Women In Iowa • Jennie Lansley Wilson

... beautiful golden swords of the finest and most elaborate workmanship, to adorn her breast, and determined to go to confess herself on the following day to the vicar, and to submit herself to the harshest penance he should choose to impose upon her, in order to merit the absolution of those sins by means of which she had vanquished the obstinacy of Don Luis, who, but for them, would without a ...
— Pepita Ximenez • Juan Valera

... blustering bully fool impose upon them if he will," he said to himself again and again; "he never could take me in. It shall be my task to show them who can render the most ...
— Jack Harkaway and his son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece • Bracebridge Hemyng

... man, rather than a great man; he is a plain honest creature, with quiet knowledge, but I dare say all the English have told you, he has a very particular understanding: I really don't believe they meant to impose on you, for they thought so. As to Bondelmonti, he is much less; he is a low mimic; the brightest cast of his parts attains to the composition of a sonnet: he talks irreligion with- English boys, sentiment with my sister, (218) and bad French with any one that will hear him. ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole

... of law, however absurd, uttered by one big-wigged judge following a reverend line of ghostly big-wigs gone before that have said the same foolish things for ages—these all take considerable advantage from the power of accessories to impose upon the human imagination. The divinity that hedges kings is the result of a set of stage-fixings which make the little great, and half the horror inspired by the priest's curse is derived from bell and book and candle. The ...
— The Faith Doctor - A Story of New York • Edward Eggleston

... sensitive morbidity of mind, which has been, and still is, so epidemic a disease. You know me well enough to believe, that I am not fond of the cant of assuming an artificial character, or of creating a fictitious interest; and I am far from wishing to impose upon you a malady of constitution for a dignity of mind. You must pardon my prolixity. I own that it is very painful to me to come to the main part of my confessions, and I am endeavouring to prepare myself by lingering ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... himself up to usury, he undertook what is known as "business affairs," a profession which, in such hands, could not fail to be lucrative, being aided by his exemplary morals and honest appearance. It was the more easy for him to impose on others, as he could not be accused of any of the deadly vices which so often end in ruin—gaming, wine, and women. Until now he had displayed only one passion, that of avarice, but now another developed itself, ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - DERUES • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... strange that Shelley and Keats, Arnold and Swinburne, who were not merely passionate admirers of Greece but drew their chief inspiration from her, should be so different in style and matter. The explanation is simple. Some influences are tyrannous; they impose themselves, they dominate, they enslave. But there is a better and rarer type of influence, which stimulates and inspires yet leaves the poet free to develop his own genius with enlarged horizons and quickened sensibilities. Greek influence on ...
— The Legacy of Greece • Various

... Washington, by what was considered by them an abuse of civil trust, and by military interference, to overpower the settlers in Kansas, denying them the right of self-government, and an attempt arbitrarily and surreptitiously to impose upon the inhabitants against their will a fraudulent Constitution. It was this large contribution of free-thinking and independent Democrats, who had the courage to throw off party allegiance and discipline in behalf of the principles of free government on which our republican system is founded, ...
— The Galaxy - Vol. 23, No. 1 • Various

... technical objections; but there is, at the same time, much vulgar error on that subject, grounded on reasons which would tend to subvert all rules of law and legal procedure whatever. In the case above mentioned, the legislature had thought fit to impose on applicants for redress under the statute in question, a duty, which through haste or negligence had been overlooked, and which Sir William Follett's clients had a perfect right to take advantage of, as soon as his acuteness had detected it. To return, however. No member ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 363, January, 1846 • Various

... German Empire for fifteen months; it seems as if the taking off of that single wretch should have ended the whole Medicean domination; but there was not a voice raised to second the homicide's appeal to the old love of liberty in Florence. The Medici party were able to impose a boy of eighteen upon the most fiery democracy that ever existed, and to hunt down and destroy Alessandro's murderer at their leisure. No," added the old man thoughtfully, "I think that the friends of progress must abandon assassination ...
— Indian Summer • William D. Howells

... heavier than the rigid type, will, no doubt, appear in time, and the real improvement would be in the direction of having the blades capable of automatic adjustment, dependent on the wind pressure, or the turning speed, and thus not impose this additional duty on ...
— Aeroplanes • J. S. Zerbe***

... at a famine price. In his opinion, therefore, the intervention of the Government was absolutely necessary. Such intervention, he admits to be surrounded with great difficulties, and calculated to impose an enormous additional burthen upon them; it must, however, he holds, be done, or the people will starve. In reply to those who called for loans, at a low rate of interest, to be expended on the improvement of the land, he says, it is to be remarked that there are ...
— The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) - With Notices Of Earlier Irish Famines • John O'Rourke

... his neighbors was that of a man devoted to peace, but one upon whom it was unsafe to impose. Those few who had stirred his slow anger into eruption, had found him one as distinctly to be feared ...
— A Pagan of the Hills • Charles Neville Buck

... not uncommon to find men in the North who accept all that the old Nullifier put forward as a new truth eight-and-twenty years ago. Earnestly and zealously, and with no small amount of talent, the friends of slavery labored to impose their views upon the entire Southern mind,—and that not so much because they loved slavery for itself as because they knew, that, if the slaveholding interest could be placed in opposition to the Federal Union, that Union might be destroyed. They were fanatics in their attachment to slavery, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various

... it or not we are a great world power, fated to become far greater, unless we throw away our advantages; we must either accept the average world standards, which call for military preparedness, or impose new standards upon a world which concedes no rights to nations that have not the might to guard and enforce ...
— The Conquest of America - A Romance of Disaster and Victory • Cleveland Moffett

... of evolution is now a vital part of biology, and we might accept the evolution of man as a special deduction from the general law. Three great groups of evidence impose that law on us. The first group consists of the facts of palaeontology, or the fossil record of past animal life. Imperfect as the record is, it shows us a broad divergence of successively changing types from ...
— The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 - Science • Various

... four months, in the empty Babylon, he would have ample stores of time. But toward the end of August he got a letter from Grace in which she spoke of her situation and of her mother's in a manner that seemed to impose on him the doing of something tactful. They were paying a third visit—he knew that in Calcutta Gardens lady's-maids had been to and fro with boxes, replenishments of wardrobes—and yet somehow the outlook for the autumn was dark. Grace didn't ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... their business for us as rivals, in a way in which twenty Ramilies or Blenheims could never have done it. Were we absolute conquerors, and France to lie prostrate at our feet, we should be ashamed to send a commission to settle their affairs which could impose so hard a law upon the French, and so destructive of all their consequence as a nation, as that ...
— Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke. • Edmund Burke

... more barbarous than this! To impose laws on men which in conscience they thought they could not comply with, to punish them for their noncompliance, and continually revile them as undutiful and disobedient subjects by reason thereof, and yet not permit them peaceably to depart and enjoy their own opinions in a distant part ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... and their parasites, at the expense of the people and the national treasury. When we add to this the conscript system, which is draining the provinces of their best Moslem subjects, to the advantage of the Christians and Jews, and the blindness of the Revenue Laws, which impose on domestic manufactures double the duty levied on foreign products, it will easily be foreseen that the next half-century, or less, will completely drain the Turkish Empire of ...
— The Lands of the Saracen - Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain • Bayard Taylor

... do work great damage when minds capable of being stereotyped to them agree to impose those definitions on their fellows as final, authoritative, and essential to their welfare. The divine is neither infinite nor sublime when you can say, Here are His lineaments and He has no other ...
— Levels of Living - Essays on Everyday Ideals • Henry Frederick Cope

... her mouth for a sharp reply, but laughed instead. "I suppose I do scold a good deal," said she, "but if I didn't goodness knows who wouldn't impose on us. I can't bear to be ...
— The Burgess Bird Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess

... of pre-exilic times, and to modify it in the direction of existing or future needs. So long as the temple stood, custom could be trusted to take care of the ritual tradition, but the violent breach with their country and their past would impose upon the exiles the necessity of securing those traditions in permanent and accessible form. P is therefore referred almost unanimously by scholars to the exilic and early post-exilic age, and may be roughly put ...
— Introduction to the Old Testament • John Edgar McFadyen

... properly explained to the young lady in gentle terms? Must he not be round with her, and give her to understand in plain words,—the plainest which he could use,—that she would not get his good things, though she would most certainly impose the burden of all her evil things on the man whom she was proposing to herself as a husband. He remembered very well as he went, that he had been told that Miss Crawley had herself refused the offer, feeling herself to be unfit for the honour tendered to her; but he suspected ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... the memory can never lose, the mad attempts of the House of Stuart to Romanize England, to the loss of the most magnificent dominion the world ever saw; and another historian, scarcely less eloquent, has drawn a series of fearfully interesting pictures of the stern efforts of the Spaniards to impose a detested State and a more detested Church upon the burghers of the Netherlands. The spirit of James II., and the spirit of Philip II., was the same spirit which is now striving to force Slavery and Slave Law upon Kansas; and though the field of battle is narrower, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858 • Various

... evidence no good affection to the present established church in Scotland, who will be ready to interpret the action of a few immoderately and unseasonably zealous people, as the deed of the whole Presbyterians in Scotland, and to make a handle thereof against them, to impose upon them some new burdens; or to take such measures as will effectually put a stop to the more general ...
— The Auchensaugh Renovation of the National Covenant and • The Reformed Presbytery

... Ramon would not be a lawyer; well, after all, one didn't have to have a degree to be a man of importance. Besides the father felt he was getting old; it was hard for him to look after the working of his orchards personally. He could make good use of that son who seemed to have been born to impose his will ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... raillery of a friend, and does not turn the Sacred Order into ridicule: but it is a just censure on such persons as take advantages from the necessities of a Man of Merit, to impose upon him hardships that are by no means suitable to ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... of modern times; did produce the miraculous Henry James; did produce Stanford White and the incomparable McKim; and did produce the only two Anglo-Saxon personalities who in graphic art have been able to impose themselves on modern ...
— Your United States - Impressions of a first visit • Arnold Bennett

... to go far to perform my directions; but I want faithfulness in the discharge of the duty I shall impose on you," said the Greek, sternly. "And, mark me, Giacomo—if you play me false, as you have done others, I will find you out, and finish your worthless life with as little compunction as I would that of ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston

... Paris, and if you follow my instructions implicitly, we may succeed in saving her. I only impose one condition, which I will tell you when ...
— The Queen's Necklace • Alexandre Dumas pere

... would in no wise alter my position with your majesty." However painful to the king such a determination might be, he did not allow the duke to perceive it; he dissembled the resentment he felt, and contented himself with saying, "Duc de Choiseul, I do not pretend to impose chains on you; I have spoken to you as a friend rather than as a sovereign. Now I return to what was said at first, and accept with confidence the promise you make me not to torment a lady whom I love ...
— "Written by Herself" • Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

... that when caught they generally are willing to arrange to pay heavy fines. These offers have, of course, been refused and we have taken the position that we will in no case accept merely a fine. In all these cases already tried we have asked the court to impose jail sentences and we expect to continue that policy. Men and women who make a living and fatten off the shame, the disgrace and the ruin of innocent young girls are a menace to the community, to whom ...
— Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls - War on the White Slave Trade • Various

... Thus it is clear that Penance is an accidental preparation to the Eucharist, that is to say, sin being supposed. Wherefore it is written in the last chapter of the second Book of Paralipomenon (cf. 2 Paral 33:18): "Thou, O Lord of the righteous, didst not impose penance on righteous men." [*The words quoted are from the apocryphal Prayer of Manasses, which, before the Council of Trent, was to be found inserted in some Latin copies ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... in their hands all the elements of success. Thanks to the completest of tyrannies, all obstacles were removed, and the laws which it pleased them to impose were always accepted. After ten years of violence, of destruction and burning and pillage and massacre and general upheaval, their impotence was revealed so startlingly that they fell into universal ...
— The Psychology of Revolution • Gustave le Bon

... "just how you tried to impose upon my uncle—how you tried to rob me, and tonight I have invited the reporters to my house ...
— Vera - The Medium • Richard Harding Davis

... boundless, and I am quite willing that you should trade on it. Only I remember the first starts that we old fellows had. Dash it! We were not spoiled like that, I can tell you. We had ten years' labour and struggle before us ere we could impose on people a picture the size of your hand; whereas nowadays the first hobbledehoy who can stick a figure on its legs makes all the trumpets of publicity blare. And what kind of publicity is it? A hullabaloo from one end of France to the other, sudden reputations ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola

... the opportunity which his tenure of power from time to time gave him of averting approaching dangers. Those who know how tremendous is the strain which the headship of a cabinet and the leadership of the House of Commons impose will understand, though they will not ...
— William Ewart Gladstone • James Bryce

... opinion, notwithstanding the fact that in a moment of anger—according to the statement of a newspaper reporter whose veracity Vanderbilt denied to his dying day—he had used the familiar expression, "The public be damned!" There were intimations that the Legislature was planning to impose heavy taxes on the property, solely because Vanderbilt held this gigantic personal ownership in the property. This prospect frightened him and he consulted friends whose judgment he respected. They urged him to sell a considerable ...
— The Railroad Builders - A Chronicle of the Welding of the States, Volume 38 in The - Chronicles of America Series • John Moody

... demands of a regular office position, even if one had been open to her. Mrs. Finnegan's enthusiasm to be neighborly and helpful was more a matter of theory than practice, and it did not take Claire many days to decide that she had no right to impose upon a good nature which was made up largely of ignorance of a sick-room's demands. Claire's final check from Flint was dwindling with alarming rapidity; indeed, she was facing the first of the year with the realization that there ...
— The Blood Red Dawn • Charles Caldwell Dobie

... amounting to thirty, in the short space of fifteen years. He was in the habit of reading these to an old female domestic, by the name of La Foret; on whose unsophisticated judgment he greatly relied. On one occasion when he attempted to impose upon her the production of a brother author, she plainly told him that he had never written it. Sir Walter Scott may have had this habit of Moliere's in his mind, when he introduced a similar expedient into his "Chronicles of the Canongate." For the same reason, our ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 358 - Vol. XIII, No. 358., Saturday, February 28, 1829 • Various

... his zeal and industry, did not set about things in the right way, though he would not have been able to point out precisely where Nikolai Petrovitch's mistake lay. 'My brother's not practical enough,' he reasoned to himself; 'they impose upon him.' Nikolai Petrovitch, on the other hand, had the highest opinion of Pavel Petrovitch's practical ability, and always asked his advice. 'I'm a soft, weak fellow, I've spent my life in the wilds,' he used to say; 'while you haven't seen so much of the world for ...
— Fathers and Children • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

... Deep lines of thought were seen to plow Their way across the royal brow. "Your state is desperate, no question; Pray favor me with a suggestion." "O King of Men," the spokesman said, "If you'll impose upon each head A tax, the augmented revenue We'll cheerfully divide with you." As flashes of the sun illume The parted storm-cloud's sullen gloom, The king smiled grimly. "I decree That it be so—and, not to be In generosity outdone, Declare you, each ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce

... seniors and not to go near the fire in hall when seniors are present. No one, either senior or freshman, is to apply the term "Domine" to a bajan, and no freshman is to call a senior man a bajan. The Court met twice a week, and it could impose penalties upon senior men as well as bajans, but corporal punishment is threatened only against the ...
— Life in the Medieval University • Robert S. Rait

... him in the Navy as I am; which though I believe it is true, yet I am much pleased to have that character given me by Sir W. Coventry, whatever be the success of it. But I perceive they do think that I know too much, and shall impose upon whomever shall come next, and therefore must be removed; though he tells me that Sir T. Clifford is inclined well enough to me, and Sir T. Osborne, by what I have lately done, I suppose. This news is but what I ought not to be much troubled ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... who is richer than his neighbours is sure to be envied, by numbers who wish to see him brought down to their own level. But in countries where civilization, law, and religion impose their restraints, the rich have a reasonable ground of security. And besides there being, in all such communities, a diffusion of property, no single individual need fear, that the efforts of all the poorer sort can ever be ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr

... sculptors of the earlier half of the fifteenth century are more than mere forerunners of the great masters of its close, and often reach perfection, within the narrow limits which they chose to impose on their work. Their sculpture shares with the paintings of Botticelli and the churches of Brunelleschi that profound expressiveness, that intimate impress of an indwelling soul, which is the peculiar fascination of the art of Italy in that century. Their works have been much ...
— The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry • Walter Horatio Pater

... for the same amount. Cleigh was a collector by instinct. With him it was no fad; it was a passion, sometimes absurd. This artistic love of rare and beautiful creations was innate, not acquired. Dealers had long since learned their lesson, and no more sought to impose ...
— The Pagan Madonna • Harold MacGrath

... with the Czardom of Muscovy many centuries ago, the Boyar was in fact no more than a steward of the Czar's estate and a leader of a posse defending his property; the most he dared to do was surreptitiously to obstruct the carrying out of the Czar's intentions; he dared not try to impose the will of his class upon the crown. The other classes were even more apolitical. So little did the several classes aspire to domination that they missed many golden opportunities to seize and hold a share ...
— A History of Trade Unionism in the United States • Selig Perlman

... political scandal, a divorce, a social event, a defalcation, a lost child, an unidentified victim of accident or crime, an election, or—that undefined quickener of patriotism called a casus belli. It can impose any topic it pleases upon the public mind. In case there is no topic, it is necessary to make one, for it is an indefeasible right of the public ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... a misfortune,' said Robert. 'People treat him as a man of expectations, and at his age it would not be easy to disown them, even to himself. He has an eldest son air about him, which makes people impose on him the belief that he is one; and yet, who could have guarded against the notion ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the connoisseurs; if they do not so march, so much the better for oneself. Every one cannot admire and love everything; but let a man look at things fairly and without prejudice, and make his own selection, holding to it firmly, but not endeavouring to impose his taste upon others; defending, if needs be, his preferences, but making no ...
— From a College Window • Arthur Christopher Benson

... "I did think for a moment you were trying to impose on my young confidence. Gee! Just think, of it! Cracky, what a prize! The Doctor himself—well—well! Say, I'd like ...
— The Varmint • Owen Johnson

... the doctrine of original sin, he continues: "Suppose even that there exists such a thing as original sin,—when God, whose power is infinite, was willing to pardon, was His hand too short to redeem (Isa. l. 2), so [Pg 316] that, on this account, He was obliged to take flesh, and to impose chastisements upon himself? And even although I were to grant that it was necessary that a single individual of the human race should bear this punishment, in order to make satisfaction for all, it would, at all events, have ...
— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2 • Ernst Hengstenberg

... progress, to dull that aurora, to denounce and retrench the harshness of enthusiasm, to cut all angles and nails, to wad triumph, to muffle up right, to envelop the giant-people in flannel, and to put it to bed very speedily, to impose a diet on that excess of health, to put Hercules on the treatment of a convalescent, to dilute the event with the expedient, to offer to spirits thirsting for the ideal that nectar thinned out with a potion, to take one's precautions against too much ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... Dr. Bradley has warned us that 'the pedantry that would bid us reject the word fittest for our purpose because it is not of native origin ought to be strenuously resisted'; and I am sure that he would advocate an equally strenuous resistance to the pedantry which would impose upon us words of alien tongue ...
— Society for Pure English, Tract 5 - The Englishing of French Words; The Dialectal Words in Blunden's Poems • Society for Pure English

... Measure, and KING LEAR. As his closing plays show, however, he had reached the knowledge that for the general as for the private wrong, the sane man must cease to cherish indignation. That teaching, which he could not didactically impose, for such a world as his, on the old tragedy of revenge which he recoloured with Montaigne's thought, he found didactically enough set down in ...
— Montaigne and Shakspere • John M. Robertson

... wiped me clean)—Ver. 1089. "Emungo," "to wipe the nose" for a person, also meant "to cheat" or "impose upon him;" probably, by reason of the state of helplessness it implied in the ...
— The Captiva and The Mostellaria • Plautus

... that above all he required sleep to fit him for his work next day, and he determined to impose sleep on himself if will-power could do it. As he rose to return to his tent a sullen voice from the direction of the willow-bushes spoke up in English as good ...
— The Woman from Outside - [on Swan River] • Hulbert Footner

... to be caused by evil spirits, pretend that they are freed from devils, and restored to their senses by holy water, and certain prayers, as by inchantment. But these juggling tricks, how grosly soever they may impose on the eyes and minds of the ignorant multitude, not only scandalize, but also do a real injury to, men of greater penetration. For such, seeing into the cheat, often rush headlong into impiety; and viewing all sacred things in the same ...
— Medica Sacra - or a Commentary on on the Most Remarkable Diseases Mentioned - in the Holy Scriptures • Richard Mead

... force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were the only party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it on the country. If they had not succeeded to the Government when they did, there is little doubt in my mind that the armies of Imperial Germany would have been in Petrograd and Moscow in December, and Russia would again be ridden by ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed

... great national interests, as it can be reasonably hoped to maintain it with communications unbroken. The line thus occupied must rest upon positions so chosen that by their strength, natural and developed, it shall be possible, when offence has to be exchanged for defensive warfare, to impose to the utmost upon the invader both delay and loss; for delay and loss mean lessening power, and only by causing such diminution, greater relatively than his own, can the weaker hope eventually to reverse the odds and win ...
— Story of the War in South Africa - 1899-1900 • Alfred T. Mahan

... on their way to Montego Bay, having to inspect several small fortresses along the coast. "We pushed on, however," he continued, "rather faster than was prudent, and knocked up our horses so that they require a day's rest before proceeding further; and we must therefore impose ourselves on you as guests, ...
— The Missing Ship - The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley • W. H. G. Kingston

... up again the prisons, bid my treasurer Not give three farthings out-hang all the culprits, Guilty or not—no matter.—Ravish virgins: Go bid the schoolmasters whip all their boys! Let lawyers, parsons, and physicians loose, To rob, impose on, and ...
— Miscellanies, Volume 2 (from Works, Volume 12) • Henry Fielding

... impose classical measures on English poetry more blest in their results. The very men on whom the literary Romanizers had fixed their hopes were the first to abandon the enterprise in despair. If any genius was equal to the task of naturalizing hexameters in a language where strict quantity is unknown, ...
— English literary criticism • Various

... my heart, my heart alone, I wish to unfold; nothing more than the sweet raptures of this keen passion, which her charms excite within it. To express its gentle pining, and to hide what may be from those eyes that impose on me their will, I have assumed this ...
— Psyche • Moliere

... was reduced to such an extremity that he was obliged to submit to negotiations for peace, on just such terms as his enemies thought fit to impose. They made very hard conditions. The first attempt at negotiating the peace was made in an open field, where Philip and Henry met for the purpose, on horseback, attended by their retainers. Richard had the grace to keep away from this meeting, so ...
— Richard I - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... his office reassured. He had a feeling that in the end the committee would purge him or at least give him another chance. It was inconceivable that they would pronounce the penalty of expulsion, although they might impose a fine. He was so glad to be rid of Brauer, though, that he counted the whole circumstance ...
— Broken to the Plow • Charles Caldwell Dobie

... administer it. The court could not, by law, indicate its severity, nor its lenity, nor indeed add anything in regard to its execution, save to direct that it should be administered by the commander who convened the court. And while it was undoubtedly the general intention of the court-martial to impose a mild punishment, yet the quality of the reprimand was left entirely to the discretion of the ...
— The Loyalist - A Story of the American Revolution • James Francis Barrett

... condition precedent, the general government may require the recognition of its right to control the primary disposal of the land, but can have no right to impose a condition with the mandate that it shall be subsequently fulfiled and no power to enforce the mandate if the State admitted should refuse to comply. Not for all the land in Kansas, not for all the land between the Missouri and the Pacific ocean, ...
— Speeches of the Honorable Jefferson Davis 1858 • Hon. Jefferson Davis

... gentlemen. Recently he has gone beyond the threatening stage. If rumour can be trusted, he has thrown at least six of them through their office windows. He has taken a dislike to the whole tribe. They are, in his opinion, a gang of criminals for whom no punishment could be too severe, because they impose upon the public in general and Higgins in particular, by continuing in business as if they were in a position to let houses when, as a matter of fact, there are no houses ...
— Punch, Volume 156, 26 March 1919 • Various

... Joshua) 'that our first thoughts, that is, the effect which any thing produces on our minds on its first appearance, is never to be forgotten; and it demands for that reason, because it is the first, to be laid up with care. If this be not done, the artist may happen to impose on himself by partial reasoning; by a cold consideration of those animated thoughts which proceed, not perhaps from caprice or rashness (as he may afterwards conceit), but from the fulness of his mind, enriched ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... introduce myself. I am Phil Forrest and this, my companion, is Teddy Tucker. We're green as grass, and we shall have to impose upon your good ...
— The Circus Boys on the Plains • Edgar B. P. Darlington

... dear Lucian, you would let our babes and sucklings lie quiet, and say no more about them: as for your gods, I leave them at your mercy. Do not impose on me the performance of a task in which Plato himself, if he had ...
— Imaginary Conversations and Poems - A Selection • Walter Savage Landor

... Canacopoles,) the care of the churches, which he caused to be built in peopled places; and recommended to them the ornament of those sacred buildings, as far as their poverty would allow. But he was not willing to impose this task on them, without some kind of salary; and therefore obtained from the viceroy of the Indies, a certain sum for their subsistence, which was charged upon the annual tribute, payable to the crown of Portugal, from the ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... sheer might and unright that their Regency enabled the House of Albany to exercise over the orphans of the royal family, whose head was absent; and a captive knight could be no mischievous person. Still this might be only a specious pretence to impose on the chaplain, and gain admittance to the castle; and Patrick was resolved to be well on his guard, though he replied courteously to the graceful bow with which the stranger greeted him, saying in ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge

... manufacturer of cloth, a man of means and high standing. He was a Puritan, with all the faults and virtues of a sectary. He resisted ship-money and the tax unlawfully imposed on tonnage and poundage. He had the misfortune to live at the time when Charles I undertook to dispense with Parliament, and to impose unlawful taxes and burdens upon the people of England, and when the privileges of the nobility were enforced with great severity by judges dependent upon the crown. He had three sons, John, baptized on the 4th of ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

... that," said Bessie, after a moment. "You see, Thad, there are a great many things about running a house that neither you nor I are familiar with yet, and it seems to me that maybe we'd better wait a little while before we impose these rules on the girls; it would be awkward to have to make ...
— Paste Jewels • John Kendrick Bangs

... grande, de plus en plus grande, dans le gouvernement d'un peuple, a mesure que le peuple lui-meme contient un plus grand nombre de forces diverses ayant droit et de vivre et de participer a la chose publique, est un fait de civilisation qui s'impose lentement a une societe organisee, mais qui n'apparalt point comme un principe a une societe qui s'organise.— FAGURT, Revue des Deux Mondes, ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... have directed your attention—likewise these pictures," he added, glancing around, "and in which I have represented scenes that my own eyes have witnessed. Here, henceforth, Agnes, shalt thou dwell; and let the past be forgotten. But there are three conditions which I must impose upon thee." ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett

... throw thee, thou shalt be at my commandment. Swear this to me; for I fear thy perfidy, since experience has it that as long as perfidy is in men's natures, to trust in every one is weakness. But if thou wilt swear I will come over to thee." Quoth Sherkan, "Impose on me whatever oath thou deemest binding, and I will swear not to draw near thee until thou hast made thy preparations, and sayest 'Come wrestle with me.' If thou throw me I have wealth wherewith to ransom myself, and if I throw thee I shall get ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... wishes to create any of these rights in favour of his neighbour, the proper mode of creation is agreement followed by stipulation. By testament too one can impose on one's heir an obligation not to raise the height of his house so as to obstruct his neighbour's ancient lights, or bind him to allow a neighbour to let a beam into his wall, to receive the rain water from a neighbour's pipe, or allow a neighbour a right of way, of driving cattle or ...
— The Institutes of Justinian • Caesar Flavius Justinian

... the conclusion, as he felt bound to do, that those persons had been guilty of the great crime of not only giving false evidence by deposing to events that had never occurred, but of conspiring together to endeavour to impose upon the Wicklow family a child who was not the real heir to the title and estates attaching to the earldom. He was bound to add that the demeanour of Mrs. Bloor and her sister Rosa Day in the witness-box, was ...
— Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton • Anonymous

... on-Diamond, so as to learn whether they would fight or not. I admit that I was much pleased to learn that danger was over and we were facing friends and not enemies; yet I was mad to think men would impose upon us in that way. The experiment was a dangerous one, and likely to be very serious in its consequences. The other men with me were equally wroth at the insult offered by those who had been so foolish ...
— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... finding it impossible to impose silence and tranquillity upon that mob, there was but one course for the people in the carriages to pursue: to let them alone, raise the windows and drive at full speed in order to abridge that unpleasant martyrdom as much as possible. Then it was terrible. ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet



Words linked to "Impose" :   inflict, intrude, bring down, intercommunicate, tax, communicate, prescribe, tithe, visit, oblige, toll, charge, compel, lay, mulct, foist, order, dictate



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