"Optional" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... myself, He may deny me many things I greatly desire. He may make my life hard and wearisome, depriving me of all that now makes it agreeable.' But, I reply, this is no matter of parley and discussion; it is not optional with God's children whether they will pay Him a part of the price they owe Him, and keep back the rest. He asks, and He has a right to ask, for all you have and all you are. And if you shrink from what is involved in such a surrender, you should ...
— Stepping Heavenward • Mrs. E. Prentiss
... entirely and that Tor. concludes the preceding formula with the last sentence of the above formula, except for the difference in one word. Tor. et de quacunque libra [List. et al. herba] si volueris facies ut demonstratum est supra. This might mean that it is optional (in the preceding formula) to shape the fish into one pound loaves instead of the small fish balls, which is often done in the case of forcemeats, as in veal, beef, ham loaves, ...
— Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome • Apicius
... Londres. And the same is true with Dover; Dover is not French; The French would be Douvres. However, I want to say this, that after the first three or four years after I took up Esperanto geographical or proper names were left optional and they were not given any particular spelling in the Esperanto language and are not now. Many Esperantists now would say Washington and London. But you can make the ...
— Esperanto: Hearings before the Committee on Education • Richard Bartholdt and A. Christen
... fishermen expected to deal only in your store for their fishing materials and the supplies for their families?-That is quite optional. They can take their supplies from our store; and suppose they take most of them there, because it is more convenient for them than to go ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie
... soon as he set foot upon deck, of course he was besieged by the usual myriad of land sharks. First came Monsieur the Commissionnaire with his book, out of which he enumerated two portmanteaus and two carpet-bags, for each of which he made a specific charge leaving his own gratuity optional with his employer; then came Mr. Boots to ask for something for showing them the way; after him the porter of the inn for carrying their cloaks and great-coats, all of which Mr. Jorrocks submitted to, most philosophically, but when the interpreter ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees
... the collectors, 'Doth not your Master pay tribute?' does not sound like the imperative demand which a 'publican' would have made for payment of an impost due to the Roman Government. It was an 'optional church-rate,' and the very fact that it was so, would make Jews who were, or wished to be considered, patriotic or religious, the ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren
... been included by no means all of the functions whose exercise by the government has been attempted or proposed, but they show the principal ones, and serve to indicate the nature of the optional field of ...
— Government and Administration of the United States • Westel W. Willoughby and William F. Willoughby
... the fleet was under sail with him on board. On the 7th, he was overtaken by Frobisher with orders to come back. He was to leave Sir John Burgh, Borough, or Brough, and Frobisher to command as his lieutenants. Choosing to construe the orders as optional in date, Ralegh proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre. Thence, after weathering a terrific storm on May 11, he himself returned. Before his departure he arranged the plan of operations. Half the fleet he stationed under Frobisher off the Spanish coast to distract the attention of ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing
... each set of players. Skittles are very popular. Fencing is eagerly learned; the English officer who teaches it being delighted with his pupils' progress. Lessons in gymnastics, like those in other sports, are optional. ...
— Turkish Prisoners in Egypt - A Report By The Delegates Of The International Committee - Of The Red Cross • Various
... the Eastern custom to bare the feet as a courteous recognition of place or persons, the Western custom, on account of the cold climate, has been to bare the head. Hence in India, where East and West meet, it is optional to follow whichever use the individual prefers; but to enter a church or house without baring head or feet is not polite. The lads quickly respond to the kindly explanation. Some slip off their shoes; one ...
— India and the Indians • Edward F. Elwin
... these with the battery. The carbons are such as are ordinarily employed in the construction of galvanic batteries, and can, as well as the wire and binding posts, be procured from any house that deals in telegraph material. Their size is to some extent optional; the dimensions I have given above ...
— The Electric Bath • George M. Schweig
... Mexican authorities. When the order was issued, it operated as a privilege to the vessels of the United States as well as to those of foreign countries to enter the ports held by our arms upon prescribed terms and conditions. It was altogether optional with citizens of the United States and foreigners to avail themselves of the privileges ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Polk - Section 3 (of 3) of Volume 4: James Knox Polk • Compiled by James D. Richardson
... cathedral a centre of intellectual activity, a college as it were of philosophers and writers. But afterwards his suggestions grew bolder, the Articles of Religion were to be set aside, the creeds made optional even for the clergy. His dream became more and more richly picturesque until at last he saw Canterbury a realized Thelema, and St. Paul's a new Academic Grove. He was to work at that remarkable proposal intermittently for many years, and to leave it at last no more than a shapeless ...
— The Passionate Friends • Herbert George Wells
... immune, independent, unrestrained; liberated, freed, released, emancipated, delivered; unconstrained, unreserved, informal, familiar, frank, ingenuous, communicative, artless, candid; gratuitous, spontaneous, voluntary, optional; liberal, open-handed, generous, bountiful, lavish, flush, munificent, hospitable; unrestrained, immoderate, prodigal, dissolute, lax; ready, eager, prompt, willing. Antonyms: subject, reserved, formal, coercive, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... of conversation in the country: Servants, and Can fowls be made to pay? The first, I believe, is compulsory, the second optional." ...
— Reginald • Saki
... each family, comfortably fitted up and admirably ventilated. The members were received on board in the order in which they had entered the Society, the earlier members thus having the priority. Of course it was optional for any member to make the voyage on any ship not belonging to the Society, without losing his place in the list of claimants when ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka
... provision of optional religious instruction at the dying hour of the class-day cannot redeem the neutral school. In fact the Survey of School conditions in Saskatchewan conducted by Dr. Foght, in 1918, revealed there ...
— Catholic Problems in Western Canada • George Thomas Daly
... they are not asked to keep us healthy, but only to cure us of disease, and so their studies relate to disease, not health; and dietetics, a science dealing with the very first principles of health, is an optional course in the ...
— No Animal Food - and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes • Rupert H. Wheldon
... that when they have fulfilled the conditions on their part the reward is their due, as, indeed, it really is; and they come and demand it as such. The tendency, then, is, to divest their minds of all sense of obligation in respect to doing right, and to make them feel that it is in some sense optional with them whether to do right and earn the reward, or not to do right and ...
— Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young • Jacob Abbott
... own way. use one's discretion, exercise one's discretion; take upon oneself, take one's own course, take the law into one's own hands; do of one's own accord, do upon one;s own authority; originate &c. (cause) 153. Adj. voluntary, volitional, willful; free &c. 748; optional; discretional, discretionary; volitient[obs3], volitive[obs3]. minded &c. (willing) 602; prepense &c. (predetermined) 611[obs3]; intended &c. 620; autocratic; unbidden &c. (bid &c. 741); spontaneous; original &c. (casual) 153; unconstrained. Adv. voluntarily &c. adj.; at will, at pleasure; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... you a Bill," said the King, sitting down at his typewriting machine, "enacting that women shall vote at all future elections. Shall vote, you observe; or, to put it plainer, must. Voting will remain optional, as before, for male electors; but every woman between the ages of twenty-one and seventy will be obliged to vote, not only at elections for Parliament, county councils, district boards, parish councils, and municipalities, ...
— The Chronicles of Clovis • Saki
... table in the middle. In sitting down he placed himself as nearly as possible in full view, but with his face toward the mountains. It gave him a preoccupied air to be seen relighting his cigar. It was thus optional with the couple who began to advance along the promenade to pass him by or to pause ...
— The Letter of the Contract • Basil King
... are, upon an average, born with a greater original susceptibility of parts. The difference, if there really is any observable difference, can only arise from their different situations. Exertion and activity are in general absolutely necessary in one case and are only optional ...
— An Essay on the Principle of Population • Thomas Malthus
... as can be done without the violation of contract. The public debt is represented in great part by bonds having from five to twenty and from ten to forty years to run, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. It is optional with the Government to pay these bonds at any period after the expiration of the least time mentioned upon their face. The time has already expired when a great part of them may be taken up, and is rapidly approaching when all may be. It is ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... extending to three years, but still confined to English studies. In 1856, the Latin and Greek languages were introduced, and in 1859, the German was added to the full course. These ancient and foreign languages were optional with the students, as well as the French language, which was ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin
... unlettered class of people, it is well to put a footnote in very small type under optional lines or words and to instruct the purchaser to "Cross out the style you do not want" or "Put an X opposite the ...
— Business Correspondence • Anonymous
... ASQUITH (of Paisley) endorses The sentence of violent death, Though he leaves him alternative courses For yielding his ultimate breath; He allows him an optional charter— To swing by his neck from a tree, Or to perish a piteous martyr ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, February 4, 1920 • Various
... when an older person enters the room; remain standing until your courtesy is acknowledged, or until the older person is seated. (Optional with the teacher ...
— Manners And Conduct In School And Out • Anonymous
... God, we understand the Scriptures to mean, first, that it is a divine institution and not a mere social compact. It does not belong to the category of voluntary associations such as men form for literary, benevolent, or commercial purposes. It is not optional with men whether government shall exist. It is a divine appointment, in the same sense as marriage and the church are divine institutions. The former of these is not a mere civil contract, nor is the church as a visible spiritual community ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various
... the question of education. It is sad that this should have been so, for Howe well knew that education should bring peace and not a sword. We may make education a battle-ground,' he said, 'where the laurels we reap may be wet with the tears of our country.' At this time primary education was optional, given in private schools, aided in some cases by provincial grants. Both Howe and Johnston would fain have substituted a compulsory system, supported by local assessments, but both feared the repugnance of the country voters to direct taxation, and it was not till 1864 that Dr (afterwards Sir) ...
— The Tribune of Nova Scotia - A Chronicle of Joseph Howe • W. L. (William Lawson) Grant
... President or Chief Justice. This may be in part due to a general profession of holding to the principle of Benjamin Franklin that office should neither be sought nor refused and in part to the American idea that the people choose their own officers so that public service is not optional. In other countries this is not so. For centuries some seats in the British Parliament were controlled and probably sold as were commissions in the army, but that has never been the case here. A certain Congressman, however, on arriving at Washington was asked by an old friend ...
— Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. - A Collection of Speeches and Messages • Calvin Coolidge
... we find done by the patriarchs in the Old Testament ought to be free and not forbidden. Circumcision is abolished, but not so that it would be a sin to perform it, but optional, neither sinful nor acceptable.... In like manner it is not forbidden that a man should have more than one wife. Even at the present day I could not prohibit it; but I would not recommend it" (Commentary on Genesis, 1528; see Jarcke, Studien, p. 108). "Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere, ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton
... the Japanese language, arithmetic, Japanese history, geography, science, drawing, singing, and gymnastics, and, in schools for females, sewing. Besides these agriculture, commerce, and manual work, as well as the English language, are optional subjects. The moral lessons taught in these schools, I may remark, are not based upon any particular religious doctrines or dogmas, but ...
— The Empire of the East • H. B. Montgomery
... told to use cream for charlotte russe or trifles, there is no way in which you could make milk serve, since it is not an accessory but the chief part of those dishes. For a cake in which cream is used, butter whipped to a cream may take its place. Wine is usually optional in savory dishes; ...
— Culture and Cooking - Art in the Kitchen • Catherine Owen
... fish with sauce; and lastly, an arrosto (roast) of fowls, veal, game, or all three. The arrosto is generally very dry and done to cinders almost. Vegetables are served up With the umidi, but plain boiled, leaving it optional to you to use melted butter or oil with them. A salad is a constant concomitant of the arrosto. A desert or fruit concludes the repast. Wine is drank at discretion. The wine of Lombardy is light and not ill flavored; it is far ...
— After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 • Major W. E Frye
... ear is very old, mention of it being made in Exodus xxi., 5 and 6, in which we find that if a Hebrew servant served for six years, his freedom was optional, but if he plainly said that he loved his master, and his wife and children, and did not desire to leave their house, the master should bring him before the judges; and according to the passage in Exodus, "he ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... impressed by the Pythagorean philosophy, and very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gave Pythagoras as an authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted silence optional; whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live for a year without once asking a question or making an explanation. In aggravated cases he ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard
... justifiable to copy features in cast iron which have generally been constructed in stone or marble? The answer is obvious: Certainly not, when those features suggest the mass and proportions or treatment proper only for stone or marble; but when they do not so represent the material, it is quite optional for the architect to build up his front with castings, if by so doing he can obtain greater rigidity of bearing, strength, and durability. He ought, of course, to vary the proportions of his pilasters and horizontal lintels, and make ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 • Various
... Friedrich shall see fit, on the morrow. For the Meissen north road forks off there, in those two directions: straight northward is for Grossenhayn, right hand is for Badeburg. Most interesting to Lacy, which of these forks, what is quite optional, Friedrich will take! Lacy is an alert man; looks well to himself; warns Daun; and will not be caught if he can help it. Daun himself is encamped at Reichenberg, within two miles of him, inexpugnably intrenched as usual; and the danger surely is not great: nevertheless both these ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... of troubles upon happiness is then optional!" - he said, with a humorous expression so cool and shrewd that I could not ...
— Daisy in the Field • Elizabeth Wetherell
... attendance at which is of course optional, affords all the opportunity of gaining a knowledge of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Affiliated with this church are four flourishing societies, one for the men called the Holy Name Society; one for the women ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various
... of the classic or 18th century Suite were the Allemande, the Courante, the Sarabande and the Gigue; and, between the last two, it became customary to insert an optional number of other dances—the most usual being the Gavotte, Bourree, Minuet and Passepied. In effect, the Suite was a kind of "international Potpourri" of the dances most in vogue, and affords us a vivid reflection ...
— Music: An Art and a Language • Walter Raymond Spalding
... spirit into the drama and epic compositions is incompatible with strict notions of art will scarcely be disputed: but such a general objection does not apply in the case of lyric poetry, where even the character of the subject is optional. It is an instance of this kind that we are now about ...
— The Germ - Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art • Various
... staff, and have proved of benefit to the companies themselves. A pension encourages earlier retirement from work, quickens promotion, and vitalises the whole service. On nearly all railways retirement is optional at sixty and ...
— Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland • Joseph Tatlow
... appropriate a time for the reception of them. ... To please everybody was impossible. I therefore, adopted that line of conduct which combined public advantage with private convenience. ... These visits are optional, they are made without invitation; between the hours of three and four every Tuesday I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, often in great numbers, come and go, chat with each other, and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room, and they ...
— Heroes Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie
... to take it except of their own free will. Yet look at the scene that followed, when mother showed herself unwilling! Think of being ordered to the Custom-House as a prisoner for saying she supposed she would have to! That's liberty! that is free will! It is entirely optional; you have only to take it quietly or go to jail. That is freedom enough, certainly! There was not even that choice left to me. I told the officer who took down my name that I was unwilling to take the oath, and asked if there was no escaping it. "None whatever" was his reply. "You ...
— A Confederate Girl's Diary • Sarah Morgan Dawson
... with the assistance of their president, twenty new Unions have been added, making, in all, thirty-seven Unions, with a total membership of about 2,300. Of this number, more than 1,300 are in the City of Montreal. In this particular Union the fee is optional, which may account, in some measure, for the seeming disproportion ...
— Why and how: a hand-book for the use of the W.C.T. unions in Canada • Addie Chisholm
... not be so complete a reaction from our present ideas and methods as to make what are now regarded as mere hobbies the main matter of education, and to relegate much of the present school course, as the writing of verses has already been relegated, to the category of optional side-shows. At any rate these free-time interests can supply a very useful stimulus to much of the routine work. In these a boy may find himself for the first time, and discover, despite his experience in class, that ...
— Cambridge Essays on Education • Various
... "These visits are optional. They are made without invitation. Between the hours of three and four every Tuesday, I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, often in great numbers, come and go;—chat with each other;—and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room; and they retire ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 4 (of 5) • John Marshall
... upon whether or not Robert Herrick was insane. Sir Thomas Browne always preferred to think that he was; whereas Philip Borsdale perversely considered the answer to be optional. Perversely, Sir Thomas protested, because he said that to believe in Herrick's sanity was not conducive ...
— The Certain Hour • James Branch Cabell
... he will be right; provided he means no more than this: Where a certain apparent difference between things (though perhaps in itself of little moment) answers to we know not what number of other differences, pervading not only their known properties, but properties yet undiscovered, it is not optional but imperative to recognize this difference as the foundation of a specific distinction; while, on the contrary, differences that are merely finite and determinate, like those designated by the words white, black, or red, may be disregarded if the purpose for which the classification is made ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill
... with safety and profit, be done away. Abolish, I would say, your whole system of marks, and college rank, and compulsory tasks. I anticipate an objection drawn from the real or supposed danger of abandoning to their own devices and optional employment boys of the average age of college students. In answer, I say, advance that average by fixing a limit of admissible age. Advance the qualifications for admission; make them equal to the studies of the Freshman year, and reduce the college career ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866 • Various
... with their own individuality. All Viols until about 1520 were furnished with pieces of gut tied round the neck and fingerboard to mark the divisions of the scale—in short, were fretted. From the work of Ganassi we learn that the use of these divisions was optional, thus supplying us with authentic information of considerable value with regard to the gradual emancipation of this class of instrument from frets, and foreshadowing the union of the Geige or Fiddle with the Viol. Passing to the question of form given by the Italians, early in the ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart
... however, beside frequent entrance, entrance is required for multitudes at the same time, the size of the aperture either must be increased, or other apertures must be introduced. It may, in some buildings, be optional with the architect whether he shall give many small doors, or few large ones; and in some, as theatres, amphitheatres, and other places where the crowd are apt to be impatient, many doors are by far the best arrangement of the two. Often, however, ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin
... and conditions of the Production of Wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them. It is not so with the Distribution of Wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely. The things once there, mankind, individually or collectively, can do with them as they like. They can place ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill
... now and then enough boiling water to make up for what cooks out. If spices are approved, simmer with the fruit, a pinch of blade mace, some whole cloves and half a dozen black pepper corns. This is optional. Strain without pressing to avoid cloudiness, and mix the juice while still very hot with the brandy and soaked kernels. Add brandy and kernels, also a quart of whiskey—there should be a gallon of the fruit juice. Stir hard ...
— Dishes & Beverages of the Old South • Martha McCulloch Williams
... one," said Simon Orts. "As I understand it, you appeal to me to meddle in your affairs on the ground that you once made a fool of me. I think the obligation is largely optional. I remember quite clearly the incidents to which you refer; and it shames even an old sot like me to think that I was ever so utterly at the mercy of a good-for-nothing jilt. I remember every vow you ever made ...
— Gallantry - Dizain des Fetes Galantes • James Branch Cabell
... the walls are for the families," explained Mary. "It is, of course, optional with those who work here whether they use the dining room or not. We supply all food at cost. This was this ...
— Mary Minds Her Business • George Weston
... widened its interpretation to any such degree as holding that recognition of the interest of our nation in religion, through the granting, to qualified representatives of the principal faiths, of opportunity to present religion as an optional, extracurricular subject during released school time in public school buildings, was equivalent to an establishment of religion."[28] He further pointed out that "the Congress of the United States has a chaplain ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin
... will possibly set it down as additional evidence of my cold-heartedness. If so you must. Would you also mind writing the business letter on an independent sheet, with a proper beginning and ending? Whether you inclose another sheet is of course optional.—Sincerely yours, PAULA POWER.' ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy
... that one ought to be withdrawn from entering religion through deference to one's parents. For it is not lawful to omit that which is of obligation in order to do that which is optional. Now deference to one's parents comes under an obligation of the precept concerning the honoring of our parents (Ex. 20:12); wherefore the Apostle says (1 Tim. 5:4): "If any widow have children or grandchildren, let ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas
... optional with man to obtain spiritual or material manna as it is disseminated throughout existence. To feed on material diet alone, contracts and distorts the circle of the man; but a full comprehension of the needs of the circle, a proper denial of supply to some of ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... set forth are cited in the margin. The more important passages, particularly those which the catechumens may be expected to memorize, are specially indicated by a dagger (), and are printed in full at the end of the chapter. The use of a Scripture lesson is, of course, optional with the pastor. One is indicated, however, for each chapter, and may be read in class or be assigned to the catechumens to be read at home. The Scriptural illustrations are cited for the convenience of the pastor in his oral exposition. The division into chapters ...
— An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism • Joseph Stump
... are slaves in a sense; they are bought and sold until their original indebtedness is paid. A father is in debt, we'll say. He sells his daughter to a geisha or a sing-song master, and the girl is rented out until the debt is paid. Then the work is optional; they go on their own. There are sing-song girls in Hong-Kong and Shanghai who are famous and wealthy. Sometimes they marry well. If they become bad it is ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath
... reverse of genuine form conceived as a necessary relation between the proportions of a figure, having no concern whatever with the notions "agreeable" or "disagreeable," simply because it is necessary and not optional. But even where form is not openly exacted by civilised people, there is no greater evidence of this requisite relation of proportions; a striving after the agreeable dissimulation, already referred to, is on the contrary noticeable, though it is never so successful even if it be more eager than ...
— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche
... school districts. Wisconsin and Ohio have recently enacted laws compelling every county to employ at least one public health nurse, and a dozen or more states have passed legislation making the employment of county or local nurses optional. Under whatever auspices they are employed, rural public health nurses have found that their most effective work may be done at first in connection with the schools. Medical examination of school children ...
— The Farmer and His Community • Dwight Sanderson
... the cards that we may be disbanded soon. The war is generally regarded as almost over, and candidates for the Military Police Force, which is being organised for the Transvaal and Orange Free State, are being sought for amongst the various Yeomanry Companies out here, the conditions being an optional three months' service, ten shillings a day pay and all found. About fifty of our company have volunteered, and may go into Pretoria any day now. These fifty have been supplied with the best horses we have amongst us, and we have not many now, my horse "Juggernaut," ...
— A Yeoman's Letters - Third Edition • P. T. Ross
... hours later. My mind is evidently so constituted that I am subconsciously forced into the path of duty without recourse to tiresome mental processes. However that may be, I have never regretted that cowardice is not optional ...
— A Princess of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... it would seem that these Training Colleges must always rest upon a voluntary foundation; it is difficult to conceive of their being carried on upon State principles; you may make religious teaching optional in an elementary day school, and the evil results may be not easily perceptable; but when eighty or a hundred young men or young women are brought together into one home, to lead a common family life with common ...
— The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 • Various
... might have been made, they were to exhibit it to a magistrate, and, before him, to pledge their faith to each other "in the presence of God, the searcher of hearts." The religious ceremony was optional, the civil necessary for the civil effects of marriage,—See the Journals for the month of August, ...
— The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans - to the Accession of King George the Fifth - Volume 8 • John Lingard and Hilaire Belloc
... years of age; universal, compulsory for literate persons ages 18-65, optional for ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... by perfection in mechanical exercises is the performing certain feats to a uniform nicety, that is, in fact, undertaking no more than you can perform. You task yourself, the limit you fix is optional, and no more than human industry and skill can attain to; but you have no abstract, independent standard of difficulty or excellence (other than the extent of your own powers). Thus he who can keep up four brass balls does this ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt
... wiser, apparently, else you would have known better than to suggest the possibility of friendship between us. You are a poor judge of human nature, and conceited past my understanding, to imagine that it is a matter which is entirely optional with you." With the slow one-sided smile of irony which her face sometimes wore, she bowed slightly. Then, "You will excuse me?" and ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart
... the law, the solemnities of their coronations were mere creations of the law also, and were known to it in no other light than as the rights of the whole realm of England. He, therefore, who was ready to take one step, and to get rid of the queen's coronation, as a mere optional ceremony, ought to be ready to take also another step, and to get rid of the king's coronation, on the ground of its being a vain, idle, empty, and expensive pageant. Her claim to a coronation rested upon immemorial usage, and the numerous rights ...
— Coronation Anecdotes • Giles Gossip
... at times of self-deceptive charlatanism. "Louis Lambert," as a whole, is now quite unreadable; it contains some admirable descriptions, but the "scientific" portion is mere fantastic verbiage. There is something extremely characteristic in the way Balzac speaks of its having been optional with him to make it a "purely learned" work. His pretentiousness was simply colossal, and there is nothing surprising in his wearing the mask even en famille (the letter we have just quoted from is, as we have said, ...
— The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 • Various
... faltered or murmured. The trial found them true, I can safely say that the men of my brigade were even more prompt in rendering obedience, more careful in doing their full duty at this time, when it was entirely optional with themselves whether they should go or stay, than they had ever been in the most prosperous days of the Confederacy. To command such men was the proudest honor that an officer ...
— History of Morgan's Cavalry • Basil W. Duke
... ages under both forms. The faithful, however, had the privilege of dispensing with the cup and of partaking only of the bread until the time of Pope Gelasius, in the fifth century, when this general, but hitherto optional, practice of receiving under both kinds was enforced as a law for ...
— The Faith of Our Fathers • James Cardinal Gibbons
... an oath to obey the lawful orders of their superiors. Such an oath has never been understood to be eternal in its obligations. It is dissolved by the death, dismissal, or resignation of the officer who takes it; and such resignation is not a mere optional right, but becomes an imperative duty when continuance in the service comes to be in conflict with the ultimate allegiance due to the sovereignty of the ...
— The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government • Jefferson Davis
... was abolished as a tax, it remained optional with the publishers to have any number of their issue stamped they pleased for transmission through the poet. The number of stamps thus issued in the first six months after the repeal was 21,646,688, whereas the number in the corresponding period of 1854, when the tax still ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... to that institution. This was soon taken advantage of by a few individuals who proceeded to conduct private transactions among themselves. Their excuse was that if transactions were merely permitted in the Clearing House it became optional as to whether they should take place there or elsewhere. Within a few days thereafter the Committee amended the ruling by substituting the word "must" for the word "may." The great responsibility attached to promulgating rulings, which were to ...
— The New York Stock Exchange in the Crisis of 1914 • Henry George Stebbins Noble
... gave Lee his "immediate freedom or if he should prefer it (on account of the accidents which have befallen him and which have rendered him incapable of walking or of any active employment) to remain in the situation he now is, it shall be optional in him to do so— In either case however I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars during his natural life which shall be independent of the victuals and cloaths he has been accustomed to receive; if he chuses the last alternative, but in full with his freedom, if he prefers the first, ...
— The True George Washington [10th Ed.] • Paul Leicester Ford
... property or debts to the amount of one thousand dollars. It required all resident Chinese laborers to register, and the Chinese Government was similarly entitled to require the registration of all American laborers resident in China. The treaty made optional the clause requiring merchants, travelers, and other classes privileged to come to the United States, to secure a certificate from their Government vised by the American representative ...
— Our Foreigners - A Chronicle of Americans in the Making • Samuel P. Orth
... with another, in seemly order, and converse in a low tone; first upon the property of the defunct, and next upon the politics of the day. You walk with the others into the church, where service is said over the body. It is optional to go to the grave or not. When you go away, you enter your carriage and return to your business or ...
— The Laws of Etiquette • A Gentleman
... never knew a foreigner!" said young Townsend, in a tone which seemed to indicate that his ignorance had been optional. ...
— Washington Square • Henry James
... material, and you are to get down to the work of making a syllabus, and so on. You will meet other officers from all branches of the Service, and it should be interesting and useful. I presume you will be willing to go? Of course it is entirely optional, but I may say that the men who volunteer ...
— Simon Called Peter • Robert Keable
... general injunction 'all the priests join in the singing.' Unless we admit that one statement, which defines some other more general statement, may stand to the latter in a supplementary relation, we are driven to assume an optional proceeding, and this is objectionable as long as there is any other way open; according to a principle laid down in the Prva Mmms (X, 8, 15). As the clauses referring to the abandonment of the works, ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut
... can prevent it, but that may not be optional with me. I will—but hush! Let us speak no more of the future; my soul faints with thirst when I think of it. Sometimes I think I see Germany pointing to her many wounds, and calling me to come and heal her lacerated body. And yet I can do nothing! I must stand ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... appears that the Government of Nicaragua, as one of its last sovereign acts before merging its powers in those of the newly formed United States of Central America, has granted an optional concession to another association, to become effective on the expiration of the present grant. It does not appear what surveys have been made or what route is proposed under this contingent grant, so that an examination of the feasibility of its plans ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents • William McKinley
... and military. The Ephebic period of service (from eighteen to twenty) was at first reduced from two years to one, and after the Macedonian conquest, in 338 B.C., when there was no longer an Athenian State to serve or protect, the entire period of training was made optional. The Ephebic corps was now opened to foreigners, and in time became merely a fashionable semi-military group. Instead of the military training, attendance at the lectures of the philosophical schools was now required, and attendance at the rhetorical schools was ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
... 9 hours (the younger 10) In school, at their studies and tasks 9 " In school, or in the house, the elder at optional studies or work, the younger at play 31/2 " (the younger 21/2) At meals 11/2 " Exercise in the open air, in the shape of a formal walk, often with lesson-books in hand, and even this only when the weather is fine at the appointed ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer
... are thirteen secret orders in Zuni, in many of which women and children are conspicuous, besides the purely mythologic order of the K[o]k-k[o]. All boys are initiated into this order, while but few girls enter it. It is optional with a girl; she must never marry if she joins the K[o]k-k[o], and she is not requested to enter this order until she has arrived at such age as to fully understand its grave ...
— The Religious Life of the Zuni Child - Bureau of American Ethnology • (Mrs.) Tilly E. (Matilda Coxe Evans) Stevenson
... should await confirmation. I now believe that Yule was correct in his conception, and that, in accordance with his suggestion, Jang indeed represents the phonetically exact transcription of a Tibetan proper name. This is the Tibetan a Jan or a Jans (the prefixed letter a and the optional affix -s being silent, hence pronounced Jang or Djang), of which the following precise definition is given in the Dictionnaire tibetain-latin francais par les Missionnaires Catholiques du Tibet (p. 351): 'Tribus ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa |
