"Nought" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... spoke to her of power and pride, But mystically—in such guise That she might deem it nought beside The moment's converse; in her eyes I read, perhaps too carelessly— A mingled feeling with my own— The flush on her bright cheek, to me Seemed to become a queenly throne Too well that I should let it be ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe
... spent with thirst and hunger, and his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. Here and there he fancied that he saw a fair lake, and the sunbeams shining on the water; but when he came to it it vanished at his feet, and there was nought but burning sand. And if he had not been of the race of the Immortals, he would have perished in the waste; but his life was strong within him, because it was ...
— The Heroes • Charles Kingsley
... in this wood," sayes Robin, "By thee I set right nought: I am Robin Hood of Barnesdale, Whom thou so ...
— The Book of Old English Ballads • George Wharton Edwards
... infamy pressed upon me, yet in conflict with the pressure of this necessity there persisted that old rebellion, that bitterness which had been growing all these years against the man who, above all others, seemed to me to represent the forces setting at nought my achievements, bringing ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in God longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our eyes shall never grow dim, ...
— Daily Strength for Daily Needs • Mary W. Tileston
... from wisdom and un far from foolishness? Know that one who lacketh experience in worldly matters readily falleth into misfortune; and whoso considereth not the end keepeth not the world to friend, and the vulgar say:- -I was lying at mine ease: nought but my officiousness brought me unease." "Needs must thou," she broke in, "make me a doer of this good deed, and let him kill me an he will: I shall only die a ransom for others." "O my daughter," asked he. "and how shall that profit ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton
... to say in return; but then, you would have no habits of early obedience and long observance to break through. To him who has, it might not be so easy to burst forth at once into perfect independence, and set all their claims on his gratitude and regard at nought. He may have as strong a sense of what would be right, as you can have, without being so equal, under particular circumstances, ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen
... there it is once more, so that the lad in the next room cries out, "Who's that, mother?" No one answering, you're half lost again, when rap comes the hand again, the loudest of the three, and you spring to the door and open it, and there's nought there but a wind from the graves blowing in your face; and after a while you learn that in that hour of that same night your husband was lost at sea. Well, that happened to Mrs. Devereux. And I haven't time to tell you the warnings ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various
... as I have seyed before." He further remarks that "these Serpents slew men," and devoured them, weeping; and he tells us, too, that "whan thei eaten thei meven (move) the over jowe (upper jaw), and nought the nether (lower) jowe: and thei have no tonge (tongue)." Sir John thus states two popular beliefs of his time and of days prior to his age, namely, that crocodiles move their upper jaws, and that a tongue was absent ...
— Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky • Various
... to the customs old, that I wanted for nought in the wage I gained, the meed of my might; he made me gifts, Healfdene's heir, for my own disposal. Now to thee, my prince, I proffer them all, gladly give them. Thy grace alone can find me favor. Few indeed have ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... look full grim, And Jane did thus reply; Sir, you thought nought too good for him, You fed your Dog too high: 'Tis true he took me in the lurch, And leap'd into my Arms; But (as I hope to come at Church) I did your Dog no harm. Help House of ...
— Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, Vol. 5 of 6 • Various
... the tender spring And blossom of my youth, Taste all the sorrowing Of life's extremest ruth, And take delight in nought Save ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... From headland ever to headland and breach to breach Where earth gives ear to the message that all days preach With changes of gladness and sadness that cheer and chide, The lone way lures me along by a chance untried That haply, if hope dissolve not and faith be whole, Not all for nought shall I seek, with a dream for guide. The goal that is not, and ...
— A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... Hindus call the nought explicitly ['s][u]nyabindu 'the dot marking a blank,' and about 500 A.D. they marked it by a simple dot, which latter is commonly used in inscriptions and MSS. in order to mark a blank, and which was later converted into a small circle." ...
— The Hindu-Arabic Numerals • David Eugene Smith
... flashing points fell to the floor. We picked them up. They were the 'bright stones' of the Spanisher they were diamonds! Here was wealth beyond conception wealth beside which the fabled Golconda would be as nought, wealth untold for us all. But on the floor among the flashing gems there lay many white bones the bones of dead men. . . . Wealth, vast wealth for us all, and yet we quarreled there as to the division of the stones, and as to how we were to get them away. 'Get all we can at once ...
— A Rip Van Winkle Of The Kalahari - Seven Tales of South-West Africa • Frederick Cornell
... understand a word they said, he too—fancying, poor fellow, that he looked foolish, and cursing his Eton education that had neglected, for languages spoken by the dead, of which he had learned little, those still in use among the living, of which he had learned nought—retreated towards Randal, and asked wistfully, "Pray, what age should you say L'Estrange was? He must be devilish old, in spite of his looks. Why, he was ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... universal metempsychosis! Must all these aged sires in one funeral Expire? all die in one so young, so small? Who, had he lived his life out, his great fame Had swoln 'bove any Greek or Roman name. But hasty Winter, with one blast, hath brought The hopes of Autumn, Summer, Spring, to nought. Thus fades the oak i' the sprig, i' the blade the corn; Thus without young, this Phoenix dies, new born: 80 Must then old three-legg'd graybeards, with their gout, Catarrhs, rheums, aches, live three long ages ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden
... worse, I continue my candidacy without a constituency to elect me. This surprises my friends and worries me, for it is only a few weeks now to the general election; and if it happens that all this mysterious "preparation" comes to nought, a pretty figure I shall cut in the caricatures of Monsieur Bixiou, of whose malicious remarks on the subject ...
— The Deputy of Arcis • Honore de Balzac
... and bright are the colours it glows in, Yet not to me! To the beauty of God's bright creation my bosom is frozen! Nought can I see, Since she has departed—the dear one, the loved one, the chosen, Over ...
— Poems • Denis Florence MacCarthy
... with seven more in his company; and on that very bank where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I saw seven stately corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. It was a woful sight to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with nought to support them but these twa hands, and God's blessing, and a cow's grass. I have never liked to live out of sight of this bay since that time; and mony's the moonlight night I sit looking on these watery mountains and these waste shores; it does my heart good, whatever it may do ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends - Scotland • Anonymous
... clasp, in loyal love, The hand of him restored, who rules our home: Home—but I say no more: upon my tongue Treads hard the ox o' the adage. Had it voice, The home itself might soothliest tell its tale; I, of set will, speak words the wise may learn, To others, nought remember nor discern. ...
— The House of Atreus • AEschylus
... thing of nought] which Mr. Theobald changes with great pomp to a thing of naught, is, a ...
— Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare Vol. I Comedies • Samuel Johnson
... half sleep, however, did not continue long. At midday, after the visit of the physician, when the attendants had gone to perform the rites of noon-tide prayer, when their sleepy voices were still, and nought but the cry of the mullah resounded from afar, Ammalat listened to a soft and cautious step upon the carpets of the chamber. He raised his heavy eyelids, and between their lashes appeared, approaching his bed, a fair, black-eyed girl, dressed ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 • Various
... aspirations giving of its best unstintingly to the world, while gaining for itself little beyond sympathy, will appeal to the imagination of future ages long after the Irish Question, as we know it, has been buried. It may then, perhaps, be seen that the aspirations came to nought because they were opposed to the manifest destiny of the race, and that it should never have been expected or desired that the Dark Rosaleen should 'reign and reign alone.' Nevertheless, the fidelity and fortitude with which the national ideal had been pursued would command admiration, ...
— Ireland In The New Century • Horace Plunkett
... former war the infraction of the treaty. Are you unacquainted with the enemy, or with yourselves, or with the fortune of either nation? Your good general refused to admit into his camp ambassadors coming from allies and in behalf of allies, and set at nought the law of nations. They, however, after being there repulsed, where not even the ambassadors of enemies are prohibited admittance, come to you: they require restitution according to the treaty: let not guilt attach to the state, they demand to have ...
— The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six • Titus Livius
... could we go to escape from Periander, if he should know that you had been robbed by us? Your gold would be of little use to us, if on returning home, we could never more be free from fear." "Grant me, then," said he, "a last request, since nought will avail to save my life, that I may die, as I have lived, as becomes a bard. When I shall have sung my death song, and my harp-strings shall have ceased to vibrate, then I will bid farewell to life, and yield uncomplaining to my fate." ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch
... come apart with him, and now I hoped he would open his heart to me and treat me as he had been wont, as my true and dear brother, whose heart had ever been on the tip of his tongue. Far from it; he spoke nought but flattery, as "how fair I had grown," and then desired news of Cousin Maud, and Kunz, and our grand-uncle, and at last of Ursula Tetzel, which ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... his own way, sullen and murmuring, starved and weary. What they had seen or fancied, and whether, if the rest saw aught strange, Brother Thomas saw nought, I knew not then, and know not till this hour. But the tale of this ambush, and of how they that lay in hiding held their hands, and fled—having come, none might say whence, and gone, whither none might tell—is true, and was soon widely spoken of ...
— A Monk of Fife • Andrew Lang
... thoughtfully stipulating that it should be good and not too copious. Statistics are according to their conjurors; they are not independent bodies, with native colours; they needs must be painted by the different hands they pass through, and they may be multiplied; a nought or so counts for nothing with the teller. Skepsey saw that. Yet they can overcome: even as fictitious battalions, they can overcome. He shrank from the results of a ciphering match having him for object, and was ashamed of feeling to ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... tale that would get both our throats grappled by the garrota. The women might do the same, if we didn't make wives of them. Once that, and we can make exhibit of our marriage certificates, their words will go for nought. Besides, having full marital powers, we can take precautions against any scandal. Don Gregorio has got to die; the skipper too; and that rough fellow, the first mate—with the ...
— The Flag of Distress - A Story of the South Sea • Mayne Reid
... dew-drop of all heaven: with these lit shrines O'er-silvered to the farthest sea-confines, The sacramental marsh one pious plain Of worship lies. Peace to the ante-reign Of Mary Morning, blissful mother mild, Minded of nought but peace, and of ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier
... and I'm not going to mind if people do joke with me about it. I've had better things to think of on this New Year's day—good, heavenward thoughts and prayers and hopes, and if I do not become more and more transformed into the Divine, then are prayers and hopes things of nought. Oh, how dissatisfied I am with myself. How I long to be like unto Him into whose image I shall one day be changed when I see Him ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss
... coats without waste, according to his embroidered cloth; they were very small ends and snippets that lay about upon the table—"Too narrow breadths for nought—except waistcoats for ...
— The Tailor of Gloucester • Beatrix Potter
... death were nothing, and nought after death— If when men died at once they ceased to be,— Returning to the barren Womb of Nothing Whence first they sprung, ...
— Father and Son • Edmund Gosse
... of ignorance broad enough for you? If you, theologian, can find as firm footing as I, man of science, do on this foundation of minus nought—there will be nought to fear ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 1 • Leonard Huxley
... goode Mayde, with a stedfaste eye, Walke through the troubles vaine, and peryls dire, That doe beset mayde's path with haytes full slie, The trappes and gynnes of mischief's cunning syre. Ne nought to her is riches' golden shower, Ne gaudy baites of dresse and rich attyre, Ne lover's talke, ne flatteries' worthless store, Ne scandal's forked tongue—that ancient liar, Ne music's magic breath, ne giddy wheel Of gay lascivious ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various
... bellowing groan he rolled over on his side, and the longing, and the dream of the pleasant pastures, faded from his eyes. With a great spring the panther was upon him, and the eager teeth were at his throat,—but he knew nought of it. No wild beast, but his own desire, ...
— Earth's Enigmas - A Volume of Stories • Charles G. D. Roberts
... you like wi' me, Bessy," he said, in a low voice; "I've been the bringing of you to poverty—this world's too many for me—I'm nought but a bankrupt; it's no use standing ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot
... to meet! again to meet! Till then I fain would sleep; My longings and my thoughts to steep In Lethe's waters dark and deep. My loved one I again shall see, There's rapture in the thought! In the hope tomorrow of thee, My darling, I fear nought. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various
... dearest dear Papa, We one and all seem quite to be upset, 'Tis hotter than last summer was by far, At least so everybody says, but yet Much hotter than last June it could not be, And that's what I think, what do you think, pet? To sit indoors 'tis like a nunnery, With nought to do but tamely sit and knit, In fact I never ...
— The Minstrel - A Collection of Poems • Lennox Amott
... said, "it were best that you should rest, for a time. There will be nought doing in Delhi today and, after the heat of the day is over, we can supply you ...
— At the Point of the Bayonet - A Tale of the Mahratta War • G. A. Henty
... searching glance formed his usual expression, but, strange to say, they did not please Lida. To her, they seemed self- complacent, revealing nought of spiritual suffering and strife. She looked away and was silent. Then, mechanically, she kept turning over ...
— Sanine • Michael Artzibashef
... wild babbling rivulet; and now The forest's solemn canopies were changed 525 For the uniform and lightsome evening sky. Grey rocks did peep from the spare moss, and stemmed The struggling brook; tall spires of windlestrae Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope, And nought but gnarled roots of ancient pines 530 Branchless and blasted, clenched with grasping roots The unwilling soil. A gradual change was here, Yet ghastly. For, as fast years flow away, The smooth brow gathers, and the hair grows thin And white, and where irradiate dewy eyes 535 Had shone, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... be cold and dark, We need not cease our singing; That perfect rest nought can molest, Where golden ...
— Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days • Annie L. Burton
... nought said the snow-white Signy as she sat with folded hands And gazed at the Goth-king's Earl till his heart grew heavy and cold, As one that half remembers a tale that the elders have told, A story of weird and of woe: then spake King ...
— The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs • William Morris
... you could guess how Mr. Fearing conducted himself in Vanity Fair? Your guess is important to us and to you to-night; for it will show whether or no John Bunyan and Mr. Greatheart have spent their strength for nought and in vain on you. It will show whether or no you have got inside of Mr. Fearing with all that has been said; and thus, inside of yourself. Guess, then. How did Mr. Fearing do in Vanity Fair, do you think? To give you a clue, recollect that he was the timidest of souls. And remember ...
— Bunyan Characters (Second Series) • Alexander Whyte
... he was placidly gazing, because he had nothing else to do, betokened nought to Hedrick: to him it was the moon of any other night, the old moon; certainly no moon of his delight. Withal, it may never be gazed upon so fixedly and so protractedly—no matter how languidly—with entire impunity. That light ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington
... of a friend Anadea meets the Count de Blessure and feels the starts of hitherto unsuspected passion. Beside this new lover the Chevalier appears as nought. Her mind is racked by an ...
— The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood • George Frisbie Whicher
... nought but the snow," he said, laughing: but correcting himself, he added, "Ah, well, there was a wind, after all, for we're fairly drifted up a few miles t'other side of the Junction; and so I got leave to run over and see you: not often I ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... hellish wiles! The Father knows the Son; therefore secure Ventures his filial virtue, though untried, Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce, Allure, or terrify, or undermine. Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, 180 And, devilish machinations, come to nought!" So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned. Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized, Musing and much revolving in his breast How best the mighty work he might begin Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first Publish his godlike office now mature, ...
— Paradise Regained • John Milton
... giv'st the word: Thy creature, man, Is to existence brought; Again Thou say'st, "Ye sons of men, Return ye into nought!" ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... sufferers were the labourers, and they had no power to right themselves, though their wrongs were universally admitted, and laws for their protection continually being made, which their enemies contrived to set at nought; as will ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow
... there nought better than to enjoy? No deed which done, will make time break, Letting us pent-up creatures through Into eternity, our due— No forcing ...
— Is Life Worth Living? • William Hurrell Mallock
... went Gilpin, neck or nought! Away went hat and wig; He little dreamt, when he set out, Of running such ...
— The Diverting History of John Gilpin • William Cowper
... own heart's darling," quoth Mother Rigby, "whatever may happen to thee, thou must stick to thy pipe. Thy life is in it; and that, at least, thou knowest well, if thou knowest nought besides. Stick to thy pipe, I say! Smoke, puff, blow thy cloud; and tell the people, if any question be made, that it is for thy health, and that so the physician orders thee to do. And, sweet one, when thou shalt find thy pipe getting ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... about here no longer, Joe Harris, I tell ee," said Moll shrilly. "I've tramped at yer heel for the last twelve hours a'most, till I'm ready to drop, an' now you'd keep folks from their proper sleep all for nought!" ...
— Two Little Travellers - A Story for Girls • Frances Browne Arthur
... one! How soon her race was run— Her pain and suffering o'er, Herself from sin secure. Not hers to wander through the waste of years, Sowing in hope, to gather nought but tears; Nor care, nor strife, Dimmed her brief day of life. All true souls cherished her, and fondly strove To guard from every ill my meek ...
— Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing • T. S. Arthur
... God, no one has appeared great in his eyes. Ram and Ruheem, the Poorans, and the Koran, have many votaries, but neither does he regard. Simruts, Shasters, and Veds, differ in many things; not one does he heed. O God! under Thy favour has all been done, nought ...
— The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies • Robert Gordon Latham
... peep from the spare moss, and stemm'd The struggling brook; tall spires of windle strae Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope, And nought but knarled roots of ancient pines, Branchless and blasted, clench'd with grasping roots Th' unwilling soil. . . . . . . . . . A gradual change was here, Yet ghastly. For, as fast years flow away, The smooth brow gathers, and ...
— Modern Painters Volume II (of V) • John Ruskin
... conceal from thee the fierce and threatening words which I may hear against thee, Lord, from such strange people as those that haunt this wilderness." "I declare to Heaven," said he, "that I desire nought but silence; therefore, hold thy peace." {39} "I will, Lord, while I can." And the maiden went on with the horses before her, and she pursued her way straight onwards. And from the copse-wood already mentioned, they journeyed over a vast and dreary open plain. ...
— The Mabinogion Vol. 2 (of 3) • Owen M. Edwards
... thing is over, and no one knows, And it's nought to the future what you disclose. That you'll be loosed For ...
— Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with - Miscellaneous Pieces • Thomas Hardy
... AMITAYA! measure not with words Th' Immeasurable; nor sink the string of thought Into the Fathomless. Who asks doth err, Who answers, errs. Say nought." ...
— A Visit to Java - With an Account of the Founding of Singapore • W. Basil Worsfold
... alone, on the wide watery waste— Nought broke its bright monotony of blue, Save where the breeze the flying billows chased, Or where the clouds their purple shadows threw. We were alone—the pilgrims of the sea— One boundless azure desert round us spread; No hope, ...
— Poems • Denis Florence MacCarthy
... these flames nought can subdue— The Aqueduct of Sylla gleams, a bridge o'er hellish brew. 'Tis Nero's whim! how good to see Rome brought the lowest down; Yet, Queen of all the earth, give thanks ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo
... ungrateful, That herb is more fragrant than flowers. The poison, when poured from the chalice, Will deeply embitter the bowl; But when drunk to escape from thy malice, The draught shall be sweet to my soul. Too cruel! in vain I implore thee My heart from these horrors to save: Will nought to my bosom restore thee? Then open the ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron
... prize! Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim, He boarding her, she striking sail to him: "Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!" Such wits and beauties are not praised for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 'Twould burst even Heraclitus with the spleen To see those antics, Fopling and Courtin: The presence seems, with things so richly odd, The mosque of Mahound, or some queer Pagod. See them survey their limbs by Durer's rules, Of all beau-kind ...
— Essay on Man - Moral Essays and Satires • Alexander Pope
... time desirous to see him, because he had heard concerning him; and he hoped to see some miracle done by him. And he questioned him in many words; but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes stood, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers set him at nought, and mocked him, and arraying him in gorgeous apparel sent him back ...
— His Last Week - The Story of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus • William E. Barton
... to these sounds for hours, unable to see anything and having nought else to distract our attention, until Tom, becoming somewhat affected by the smell of the bilge water in the hold as well as by the unaccustomed rocking movement of the brig, began to feel ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson
... gone! That pleasant Home nought but a memory now; And yet, in humble thankfulness we bow,— Father, Thy will ...
— God's Answers - A Record Of Miss Annie Macpherson's Work at the - Home of Industry, Spitalfields, London, and in Canada • Clara M. S. Lowe
... or nought expert in poetrye Remembrynge my youth so lyght and frayle Purpose to compyle here full breuyatly A lytell treatyse wofull to bewayle The cruell swerers which do god assayle On euery syde his swete body to tere With terryble othes as ...
— The Conuercyon of swerers - (The Conversion of Swearers) • Stephen Hawes
... The truest heart, shall nought but falshood cherish, The mildest man, a cruell tyrant prooue, The water drops, the hardest flint shall perish, The hilles shall walke, and massie earth remooue: The brightest Sun shall turne to darkesome clowde, Ere I prooue false, where I ...
— The Bride • Samuel Rowlands et al
... "I care nought for thy Naya nor thy pagan Crocodile-god," exclaimed the Mohammedan chief impatiently. "Bow unto my divan, or of a verity my ...
— The Great White Queen - A Tale of Treasure and Treason • William Le Queux
... was a care-defying blade As ever Bacchus listed, Tho' Fortune sair upon him laid, His heart she ever miss'd it. He had nae wish but—to be glad, Nor want but—when he thirsted; He hated nought but—to be sad, And thus the Muse suggested His ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham
... breath she had commended him to his sister. Sara had brought him up—how she hardly knew. He had been everything to her. The child that her mother had given her was all her thought. Those who start with the idea "that people with nought are naughty," whose eyes are offended by rags, whose ears cannot distinguish between vulgarity and wickedness, and who think the first duty is care for self, must be excused from believing that Sara Coulter passed through all that had been decreed for her without losing ...
— Stephen Archer and Other Tales • George MacDonald
... and mortal woof. Cannot brook this charmed roof; All that mortal art hath wrought, In our cell returns to nought. The molten gold returns to clay, The polish'd diamond melts away. All is alter'd, all is flown, Nought stands fast but truth alone. Not for that thy quest give o'er: Courage! prove ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott
... all perfect energy, and the ecstatic, immutable, immovable perfection. But such was the unparalleled obstinacy of these wretched savages that they persisted in cleaving to their wives, and adhering to their religion, and absolutely set at nought the sublime doctrines of the moon—nay, among other abominable heresies they even went so far as blasphemously to declare that this ineffable planet was made of nothing more nor less than ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving
... praise-worthy purpose of a Federal Spinning Match, when, to their honour, their spirited exertion produced 99 skeins of excellent yarn—practically declaring, that they neither laboured in vain or spent their strength for nought. The day thus industriously concluded, finished not the harmony of their federalism; in the evening, to crown the pleasure of the day, with additional company, they regaled with an agreeable dance, and, at a modest hour, parted in love and friendship, with hearts convivial as they ...
— The Olden Time Series: Vol. 2: The Days of the Spinning-Wheel in New England • Various
... inspector-general and Greene as quartermaster, the new levies as they came in were disciplined and equipped; and in spite of the conspiracies and cabals formed against him by ambitious subordinates,—which enlisted the aid of many influential men even in Congress, but which came to nought before the solid character and steady front of the man who was really carrying the whole war upon his own shoulders,—Washington emerged from the frightful winter at Valley Forge and entered the spring of 1778 with greater resources at his command than he had ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XI • John Lord
... divided, and matured complete From seeds appropriate; whose wild discortderst, Reared by their strange diversities of form, With ruthless war so broke their proper paths, Their motions, intervals, conjunctions, weights, And repercussions, nought of genial act Till now could follow, nor the seeds themselves E'en though conjoined in mutual bonds, co Thus air, secreted, rose o'er laboring earth; Secreted ocean flowed; and the pure fire, Secreted too, ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... make A bok for Engelondes sake, The yer sextenthe of kyng Richard. What schal befalle hierafterward God wot, for now upon this tyde Men se the world on every syde In sondry wyse so diversed, That it welnyh stant al reversed, 30 As forto speke of tyme ago. The cause whi it changeth so It needeth nought to specifie, The thing so open is at ije That every man it mai beholde: And natheles be daies olde, Whan that the bokes weren levere, Wrytinge was beloved evere Of hem that weren vertuous; For hier in erthe amonges ous, 40 If noman write hou that it stode, The pris ...
— Confessio Amantis - Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins, 1330-1408 A.D. • John Gower
... dreaded had fallen. The Finn's presence on the bank had evidently been detected by a boat drawn up at the shore, and he had been followed to where we had lain in what we had so foolishly believed to be a safe hiding-place. Nought else was to be done but to face the inevitable. Three times the red fire of a rifle belched angrily in our faces, and yet, by good fortune, neither of us was struck. Yet we knew too well that the intention of our pursuers ...
— The Czar's Spy - The Mystery of a Silent Love • William Le Queux
... sleep is a long one, a deep one, and ghosts may pass over the sleeper, imps dance on his head, rats nibble at his provisions; he wakes not. He is under a charm—nought of evil can affect him, for he has prayed. Encompassed with dangers, the tramp always prays "Our Father," and that he may be kept for the one who loves him. Prayers are strong out of doors at night, for they are made at heaven's gate in ...
— A Tramp's Sketches • Stephen Graham
... homeward-bound sail hove in sight, and as the sea was very calm, our captain kindly promised to lower a boat and send letters by her. What a scene then commenced; nothing but scribes and writing-desks met the view, and nought was heard but the scratching of pens, and energetic demands for foreign letter-paper, vestas, or sealing-wax; then came a rush on deck, to witness the important packet delivered to the care of the ...
— A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53. • Mrs. Charles (Ellen) Clacey
... race from bondage fled, Signs from on high the wanderers led; But here—Heaven hung no symbol here, Their steps to guide, their souls to cheer; They saw, thro' sorrow's lengthening night, Nought but the fagot's guilty light; The cloud they gazed at was the smoke, That round their murdered brethren broke. Nor power above, nor power below, Sustained them in their hour of wo; A fearful path they trod, And ...
— An Ode Pronounced Before the Inhabitants of Boston, September the Seventeenth, 1830, • Charles Sprague
... guest, The cup went through among the rest, Who drained it merrily; Alone the Palmer passed it by, Though Selby pressed him courteously. This was a sign the feast was o'er, It hushed the merry wassail roar, The minstrels ceased to sound. Soon in the castle nought was heard But the slow footstep of the guard, Pacing ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott
... north wind's masonry. Out of an unseen quarry Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer Curves his white bastions with projected roof Round every windward stake, or tree, or door. Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he For number or proportion. Mockingly, On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths; A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn; Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall, Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate A tapering ...
— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... was laid a living offering on the altar of her country. He watched this development with awe and admiration. It was an ominous sign. It meant a reserve power in the South on which statesmen had not counted. It might set at nought the weight ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon
... hours less each time, and seven from seven is nought; it's got to be something different this time. And then afterwards it can't be minus seven, because I don't see how unless it made you more visible thicker, you ...
— The Enchanted Castle • E. Nesbit
... rogue," said Antinous to the swineherd, "we know thy ways! Why didst thou bring this caitiff to the town? Are there not beggars enough here already to mar our pleasure when we sit down to meat? 'Tis nought to thee, it seems, that these palmer-worms come swarming round the house ...
— Stories from the Odyssey • H. L. Havell
... another my raiment; another hath given me perceptions of sense and primary conceptions. And when He supplies my necessities no more, it is that He is sounding the retreat, that He hath opened the door, and is saying to thee, Come!—Wither? To nought that thou needest fear, but to the friendly kindred elements whence thou didst spring. Whatsoever of fire is in thee, unto fire shall return; whatsoever of earth, unto earth; of spirit, unto spirit; ...
— The Golden Sayings of Epictetus • Epictetus
... and the winds howled with demoniac fury. Quake after quake rent the rugged cliffs: huge sections toppled into the angry waters. Then a great tidal wave swept in and covered everything, cliffs, cave mouths and all. Nought remained where they had been ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930 • Various
... who sins aught Sins more than he ought; But he who sins nought Has much to be taught. Beat or be beaten, Eat or be eaten, Be killed or kill; Choose which ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler
... edefy more, with the syght of it Than wyll all the pratynge of holy wryt; For that except that the precher, hym selfe lyue well, His predycacyon wyll helpe neuer a dell, And I know well, that thy lyuynge is nought: Thou art an apostata, yf it were well sought, An homycyde thou art I know ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 14. Saturday, February 2, 1850 • Various
... "I know well the secret mind of his Holiness, whose delegate and representative I am; and could he see but the legitimate and natural limit set to the power of the patricians, who, in their arrogance, have set at nought the authority of the Church itself, be sure that he would smile on the hand that drew the line. Nay, so certain of this am I, that if ye succeed, I, his responsible but unworthy vicar, will myself sanction the success. But beware ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... Kerrs, with a following of their own retainers, came down to the village. Having heard that some of us had followed you to the wars, they took a list of all that were missing, and Sir John called our fathers up before him. They all swore, truly enough, that they knew nought of our intentions, and that we had left without saying a word to them. Sir John refused to believe them, and at first threatened to hang them all. Then after a time he said they might draw lots, and that two should die. My father and Allan Cunninghame drew the evil numbers, and Kerr hung them ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty
... heaven, then perishes and ceases to be. He has perfected his being, he has reached the height of his greatness, he has done what he was made for, let him fade away. The garb of legend is mean enough, but the thought it embodies is that ever true and solemn one, without which life is nought—'Man's chief end is to ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren
... heretofore. Someone is making your shillings and your half-crowns from real silver, instead of from baser metal, and yet there is a large profit which has not hitherto been possible through the high price of silver. With the old conditions you were familiar, but this new element sets at nought all your previous formulae. That is how ...
— The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont • Robert Barr
... have nought of an interview and colloquy not found mentioned in her collection of ballads, concerning a person quite secondary in Dr. Glossop's voluminous papers. She as vehemently prohibits a narration of Gower Woodseer's proposal some hours later, for the hand of the ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... may lead, Mr Townshend says, that if asked of what use is the eye if we can see without it, he might answer, "To show us how to make a camera obscura." The case is put illustratively, and we are far from wishing to take it literally to the author's disadvantage; but, in setting at nought the ordinary and sufficient reasoning on this subject, the author himself is obliged to adopt a similar but weaker line of argument. Unfortunate it is, that even in philosophy the judicial character is so rare; it is vainly imagined that error may be counteracted by antagonist error; ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 57, No. 352, February 1845 • Various
... "I've done nothing to be ashamed on," said the girl, "you're a hard man to the women, they all say so,—ohe!—ohe!" "Well there," said he dropping his bullying tone, "the squire won't harm you; I think you be in luck if he loikes you, say you nought;—that be my advice". The girl muttering ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous
... and he had nought, And robbers came to rob him; He crept up to the chimney-pot, And then they thought they had him; But he got down on t'other side, And then they could not find him; He ran fourteen miles in fifteen days, And never looked ...
— Ring O' Roses - A Nursery Rhyme Picture Book • Anonymous
... the Knight to put forth his hand to the belly, to seek out the heart; but the Knight said to him: "Ah, sir, a-God's mercy, what wouldst thou do? It is nought meet to thee, and if folk were to wot thereof, great reproach wouldst thou get thee. Let him be at this present, for he is more than dead. And if it please thee that that one trouble more about the matter, I will bear him down to the sea to ...
— Old French Romances • William Morris
... for that matter," murmured Mr. Redmayne. "It is your poor husband's case over again—blood, alas, but nought else!" ...
— The Red Redmaynes • Eden Phillpotts
... bows, From my quiver drew an arrow, Rais'd my war-cry—ha! he falls! From his crest I took the feather, From his crown I tore the scalp-lock. Shout his friends their cry of vengeance— What avails it? are they eagles? Nought else ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones
... not wasted, Not vain the Adjutant's laborious blush! Was it to Maud this glowing morn you hasted With yonder bauble in its bed of plush— Or was it that Miss Blake? Say not you faced, with ill-concealed dismay, Your thronging townsmen and had nought to say, Or from your KING stepped tremblingly away With someone else's Order ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Aug 8, 1917 • Various
... farthings, using each of the nine digits once and only once, is L98,765, 4s. 31/2d. Now, try to discover the smallest sum of money that can be written down under precisely the same conditions. There must be some value given for each denomination—pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings—and the nought may not be used. It requires just ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... my sister Jane, How foolishly she does complain, And teaze herself for nought. But 'tis the way of all her sex, Thus foolishly themselves to vex. Envy's a ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... dark officer-looking mon, at they called Colonel. Squoire Mervyn questioned me as close as I had been at 'sizes. I had guess, Mr. Dawson" (I told you that was my feigned name), "but I tould him nought of your vagaries, and going out a-laking in the mere a-noights, not I; an I can make no sport, I'se spoil none; and Squoire Mervyn's as cross as poy-crust too, mon; he's aye maundering an my guests but land beneath his house, though ...
— Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... darken this fair earth, but as a demon of the air shalt thou dwell in misery till the end of time." And of a sudden from out her shoulders grew black, shadowy wings, and, with a piercing scream, she swirled upward, until the awe-stricken Dedannans saw nought save a black speck vanish among the lowering clouds. And as a demon of the air do Eva's black wings swirl her through space to ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various
... his own part, prudently and strongly." Says the "Havamal": "A fool thinks he knows everything if he sits snug in his little corner; but he is at a loss for words if the people put to him a question." Elsewhere it is said: "Arch dunce is he who can speak nought, for that is the mark of a fool." And the sum of all this teaching about the tongue is that men should never speak without good reason, and then should speak to the point ...
— Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn • Lafcadio Hearn
... non-intervention in the affairs of other nations. This, indeed, was emblazoned upon the banner unfurled by Lord Grey, on advancing to the head of affairs. Can it, however, be necessary to show how systematically—how perilously—this principle was set at nought by the late Government? As represented by Lord Palmerston, Great Britain had got to be regarded as the most pestilent, intrusive, mischief-making of neighbours. A little longer, and our name would have actually stunk in the nostrils of Europe. Some began to hate us; others, to despise us!! all, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... blasts to new limits, jealously hoarding his meager supply of matches—which had come to, be his milestones as he drew near the end of Death Trail... Donald gave over the reckoning of time then. He recked nought of minutes or hours, nought of day or of night. Subconsciously, he still paused often to make sure that the east lay straight before him; but the activities of his mind now were become focused on the ceaseless counting of the matches that measured his span of life. And, as one after another ...
— The Wilderness Trail • Frank Williams
... country,—is the brave Who fought and bled for Freedom, or will fight To their last pulse, last breath, for Human Right.—— Great soul! oh, how like bubbles in the wave, Are the Sierras in cerulean flight, To thy true grandeur, letting nought enslave! ...
— Freedom, Truth and Beauty • Edward Doyle
... leaning back on the mantle-piece, "as the tyrannical customs of society cannot be altogether set at nought, I suppose ...
— The Lifeboat • R.M. Ballantyne
... kind drop bestow, 'Twere graceful pity, nobly brave; Nought ever taught the heart to glow Like the tear that bedews a ...
— As We Sweep Through The Deep • Gordon Stables
... bowed, highly delighted)—"these, I say, sir, are the privileges of the Poet—the Poietes—the Maker—he moves the world, and asks no lever; if he cannot charm death into life, as Orpheus feigned to do, he can create Beauty out of Nought, and defy Death by rendering Thought Eternal. Ho! Jemmy, another ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray
... race to acknowledge him as the Son of God, as God who appeared on earth united with body and soul." Origen then says that the demons counterworked this belief, and continues: "But God who had sent Jesus on earth brought to nought all the snares and plots of the demons and aided in the victory of the Gospel of Jesus throughout the whole earth in order to promote the conversion and amelioration of men; and everywhere brought about the establishment ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack
... the sufferers, was a deputation, and an address of sympathy from the Hurons. Time was, when to use their own expression, the grateful chiefs would have covered the ashes of the monastery with presents, but alas! of their vanished glory nought remained but two wampum belts. [Footnote: Wampum. Small shells of various colours formerly used by the North American Indiana as money, and strung like beads into broad ornamental belts.] Such as they were, it was decided in solemn council that they should be presented to the bereaved ...
— The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation • "A Religious of the Ursuline Community"
... our experience near the seaboard, by no means implies rain. So great is the distance of the Adirondac plateau from the sea, so numerous its ranges, and so great the elevation of the ridges lying between it and the ocean, that we found our ordinary weather calculations all come to nought, east winds blowing for days without a drop of rain, and western breezes ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... what gloomy joy to pour My freed, exhaling Soul!—sublime to rise, Rend the conflicting clouds, inflame the skies, And lash the torrents!—Bending to explore Our evening seat, my straining eye once more Roves the wide watry Waste;—but nought descries Save the pale Flood, o'erwhelming as it strays. Yet Oh! lest my remorseless Fate decree That all I love, with life's extinguish'd rays Sink from my soul, to soothe this agony, To balm that life, ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward
... He had opened his lips, but he stood there and uttered nought. He sounded the well of his courage, and it was dry. He groped in his treasury of words, and it was vacant. A devil of dumbness had him by the throat; the devil of terror babbled in his ears; and suddenly, ...
— Tales and Fantasies • Robert Louis Stevenson
... "Pele is nought," she declared, "I will go to Kilawea,[29] the mountain of the fires where the smoke and stones go up, and Pele shall not touch me. My God, Jehovah, made the mountain and the fires within it too, as ...
— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews
... and Nangâ Parbat, and all the other hills that stood in a vast circle round great Westarwân, as courtiers waiting on their king, grew vexed because he treated them as nought; and when the summer cloud that soared above their heads hung on his shoulders like a royal robe, they would say bitter, wrathful words ...
— Tales Of The Punjab • Flora Annie Steel
... Federigo degli Alberighi loves and is not loved in return: he wastes his substance by lavishness until nought is left but a single falcon, which, his lady being come to see him at his house, he gives her to eat: she, knowing his case, changes her mind, takes him to husband and makes ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio
... high, Sir; I must have five pounds off. It ought to be ten, by right. Cousin Joe has taken all out, and put nought in." ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... have, If he be but mine, If my heart, hence to the grave, Ne'er forgets his love divine— Know I nought of sadness, Feel I nought but worship, love, ...
— The Seaboard Parish Vol. 3 • George MacDonald
... force over all things—over goodness, virtue, kindness, and all else that make life worth living. It declares that Prussian Militarism has so possessed all Germans that not only their moral but their logical point of view has become distorted, so that they behold nought but virtue in applying science to bring about Mediaeval results. The conflict, he declares, is between absolutism which pretends to be sufficient unto itself and democracy which receives its power from the people, ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915 • Various
... her that she comes not home? Demeter seeks her far and wide, And gloomy-browed doth ceaseless roam From many a morn till eventide. 'My life, immortal though it be, Is nought,' she cries, 'for want ...
— A Book of Myths • Jean Lang
... argument, so tightly she clung to my arms, so pleading and sweet her ardent face, upturned, with the tears scarcely dry under her lashes, that I found nought to answer her, and could only look into her eyes—deep, deep into those grey-blue wells of truth—troubled to silence by her present plight ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... your decision, Paris. I will be the first to submit myself to your inspection. You shall see that I have more to boast of than white arms and large eyes: nought ...
— Works, V1 • Lucian of Samosata
... no heed to the brotherly protestations of his admirer, and exchanged only such words with him as their occupations required. Old Angus, however, was not so passive an observer of his new and unlooked-for housemate. "He's a good for nought sort of a fellow, slenken frae place to place wi' nowt but a sark to his back," Angus would say to his wife. Mr. Wilson's physical imperfections were an offence in the dalesman's eyes: "He's as widderful in his wizzent old skin as his own grandfather." Angus ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine
... Sir Richard Grenvill having retired before him and moved hastily with the Queen's troop to Truro. After this, Margery and I used to climb every morning to the earthwork and spy all the country round for signs of the hated troopers. Yet day passed after day with nought to be seen, and little to be heard but further rumours, of which the most constant said that the King himself was following Essex with an army, and had already seized and crossed the passes of ...
— The Laird's Luck • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... nurse,—yea, sometimes too of his father and pedant,—who have been wont to speak of rich men as the happy men and mention them always with honor, and to express themselves concerning death and pain with horror, and to look on virtue without riches and glory as a thing of nought and not to be desired. Whence it comes to pass, that when such youths first do hear things of a quite contrary nature from philosophers, they are surprised with a kind of amazement, trouble, and stupid astonishment, which makes them ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch
... unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in upon the tranquillity of the assemblage, and call the members all to nought; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in ...
— The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. • Washington Irving
... will perceive your error and comprehend that this is not Count Adolphus Schwarzenberg, to whom I could never have granted an audience in my cabinet. Only look closer and you will see, old Burgsdorf, that there is nought in the window niche but a great sheet of parchment, inscribed with manifold characters, furnished with the seal of the empire, and signed by the Emperor Ferdinand's own hand. I know that you do not read with ease, and therefore will tell you what is marked on this ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach
... not be," Rupert said; "for though in battle I hope that I shall not be found wanting, yet I trust that I shall have nought to do in private quarrels, but be looked upon as one of a ...
— The Cornet of Horse - A Tale of Marlborough's Wars • G. A. Henty
... useless, that very force wherewith the Lydian king was expecting most to shine. And as they were coming together to the battle, so soon as the horses scented the camels and saw them they turned away back, and the hopes of Croesus were at once brought to nought. The Lydians however for their part did not upon that act as cowards, but when they perceived what was coming to pass they leapt from their horses and fought with the Persians on foot. At length, however, ...
— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 1(of 2) • Herodotus
... fleming of wretches, It semith hard, for wretchis wol nought lere For very slouthe, or othir wilfull tetches, This said is by them that ben't worth two fetches, ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 37. Saturday, July 13, 1850 • Various
... in the same way; a man should know what he is advising about, or his counsel will all come to nought. But people imagine that they know about the nature of things, when they don't know about them, and, not having come to an understanding at first because they think that they know, they end, as might be expected, in contradicting one another and themselves. ...
— Phaedrus • Plato |
