"Prevaricate" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... gentleman has a keen sense of honor—scrupulously avoiding mean actions. His standard of probity in word and action is high. He does not shuffle or prevaricate, dodge or skulk; but is honest, upright and straightforward. His law is rectitude—action in right lines. When he says yes, it is a law; and he dares to say the valiant no at ...
— How to Get on in the World - A Ladder to Practical Success • Major A.R. Calhoon
... at the many ghost, fairy, and robber stories which he had either heard of or invented, and poured out with unceasing volubility, and so often that he believed them all true. But the Ballantyne family had no great faith in his veracity, when it suited his convenience to fib, exaggerate, or prevaricate, particularly when excited by his own lucubrations, or the waggery of his more intellectual neighbors and companions. He had a seat in the centre, which he always occupied, and a stool for his deformed feet and legs; they all rose at times, asking Davie to do likewise, and when he got upon ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown
... to prevaricate. He lived an open, honest life, and had few secrets beside those of business. Ordinarily, he would have explained what he had been about the last two hours, but he had a sudden premonition that it was wiser not to do so. Miladi was sometimes captious ...
— A Little Girl in Old Quebec • Amanda Millie Douglas
... attired in his magnificent coat, trimmed with fur, and tendered his evidence to the coroner, which, of course, was precisely the same as the statement he had made to the landlord of the house; for, as he had made up such a well connected story, he was not likely to prevaricate or to depart from it in the ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest
... his death, in which he enjoyed the use of speech; and so far was he from thanking those who charitably offered him their admonitions, that he said he had not forgot himself, but had already taken care of what he thought necessary for his soul. However, he did not attempt in the least to prevaricate, but fairly acknowledged that he committed the fact for which he died, though nothing could oblige him to speak of it in any manner as if he was sorry for or repented of it, farther than for having occasioned his own misfortunes; so ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward
... aside or prevaricate, either in word or deed. Panaetius, the philosopher, said, that most of his orations were written, as if they were to prove this one conclusion: that only what is honest and virtuous is to be chosen; as that ...
— The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch - Being Parts of The "Lives" of Plutarch • Plutarch
... was no use now to prevaricate, Israel boldly confesses himself a prisoner-of-war. The officer, a good fellow as it turned out, had him escorted back to the inn; where, observing to the landlord that this must needs be a true-blooded Yankee, he calls for ...
— Israel Potter • Herman Melville
... occurred much about the same hour of the day, a remembrance which an association, uniformly painful to her moral sense, now revived with peculiar power, for she started and became pale. "My sweet bird," she exclaimed, "what is this; I shall be absent from evening worship again—but I will not prevaricate now; why—why is this spot to be fatal to me? Come, Ariel, come: perhaps I may ...
— Jane Sinclair; Or, The Fawn Of Springvale - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... hence, after receiving dreadful threats from some, and fair words from others, for his opinions, he was remanded to ward, where he lay two nights without any bed.—On Palm Sunday he underwent a second examination, and Mr. Marsh much lamented that his fear should at all have induced him to prevaricate, and to seek his safety, so long as he did not openly deny Christ; and he again cried more earnestly to God for strength that he might not be overcome by the subtleties of those who strove to overrule the purity ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox
... you condescend to talk familiarly with him again, ask him after Miss Betterton, and what became of her. And if he shuffle and prevaricate as to her, question him about Miss Lockyer.—O my ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson
... the purchaser. If you swindle the other contracting party in the essentials of the contract, don't complain when you are unhappy. Are shufflers entitled to happiness? and what are those who shuffle and prevaricate in a church any better than those who shuffle and prevaricate in a counting-house?" and ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... when he wrestled with Philomeleides in Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Achaeans cheered him—if he is still such and were to come near these suitors, they would have a short shrift and a sorry wedding. As regards your questions, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive you, but will tell you without concealment all that the old man of the ...
— The Odyssey • Homer
... kind," retorted the witch. "Why prevaricate? A maid with your colour hath small need even of my triple extract of toads' livers. What you have really come for is either a love-potion—" she paused and glanced keenly at her visitor—"or the means to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, March 10th, 1920 • Various
... order, and fit for inspection at any time of the day. Maids and men alike knew that they must do their work, or Alison Shaw would demand the reason of any neglect or unpunctuality; and with those black eyes fixed upon them it was impossible to prevaricate or offer excuses. ...
— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke
... to us who perceive the character as a whole, this extreme gentleness of nature is yet delineated with such exceeding refinement, that the effect never approaches to feebleness. It is true that once her extreme timidity leads her in a moment of confusion and terror to prevaricate about the fatal handkerchief. This handkerchief, in the original story of Cinthio, is merely one of those embroidered handkerchiefs which were as fashionable in Shakspeare's time as in our own; but ...
— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson
... "Don't prevaricate! Don't try to deceive me. You look a perfect wreck. All the signs of it. Come, which is it—morphia, ...
— Swirling Waters • Max Rittenberg
... all. Be so good as not to prevaricate; it won't help you to be cunning. But please yourself, ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... 'No, mamma;—I do not prevaricate. It is unfair to say that to me. I do love him. There. I think it ought to have been enough for you to know that I should never give him encouragement without telling you about it. I do love him, and I shall never love any ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope
... sometimes prevaricate to serve a turn is certain. There is an anecdote on record, contained in the notes to Gibbon's account of Mohammed in his Roman History, which proves this. In Grotius' famous book on the truth of the Christian ...
— Five Pebbles from the Brook • George Bethune English
... cheek as he said the last words. I thought of all the suspicious objects scattered about the room, of the probability that he was only putting this question to try my courage, of the very likely chance that he would shoot me forthwith, if I began to prevaricate. I thought of these things, ...
— A Rogue's Life • Wilkie Collins
... that when it was officially incumbent on him to explain himself, he would do so, but that he did not think the club a place for such discussions, or something to this purpose. "Tu prevariques donc!—Je t'arrete sur le champ:" ["What, you prevaricate!—I arrest you instantly."] the Bishop was accordingly arrested at the instant, and conducted to the Bicetre, without even being suffered to go home and furnish himself with necessaries; and the seals being immediately put ...
— A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, • An English Lady
... persons concerned with a court of justice here, is the extreme difficulty experienced in extracting truth from witnesses. It is almost impossible to conceive the effrontery with which nine-tenths of these men will swear any thing: they invariably prevaricate and contradict themselves when cross-examined, and are not unfrequently sent from the witness-box to prison, to take their trial for perjury. I remember, on one occasion, seeing a father, mother, and three ...
— Trade and Travel in the Far East - or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, - Singapore, Australia and China. • G. F. Davidson
... tromemfido. Presumptuous tromemfida. Pretence preteksto. Pretend (to claim) pretendi. Pretend preteksti. Pretend (to feign) sxajnigi. Pretentious afektema. Preternatural supernatura, preternatura. Pretext preteksto. Pretty beleta. Prevail superi. Prevalent gxenerala, rega. Prevaricate malverigxi. Prevent malhelpi, eksigi. Previous antauxa. Prey kaptajxo. Price prezo, kosto. Price—current prezaro. Priceless (valuable) senpreza, netaksebla. Price lists prezaro. Prick piki. Prick pikilo. ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... /vi.,n./ 1. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth beyond any reasonable recognition. In German the term is (mythically) 'gonken'; in Spanish the verb becomes 'gonkar'. "You're gonking me. That story you just told me is ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0
... his hour had come. His sin had found him out. He felt that to prevaricate would be ...
— The Lost Road • Richard Harding Davis
... estimate was made of their common value from the average produce of five years. The numbers of slaves and of cattle constituted an essential part of the report; an oath was administered to the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of their affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention of the legislator, were severely watched, and punished as a capital crime, which included the double guilt of treason and sacrilege. [174] A large portion of the tribute was paid in money; and of the current coin of the empire, gold alone could ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon
... "Prevaricate not, nor think to blind me," he answered. "The facts are of public notoriety, and it will not profit ...
— The Knight of the Golden Melice - A Historical Romance • John Turvill Adams
... is col'-breasted an' severe. An' ef I had to take one or the other, why, I'd let my wife prevaricate a little, ef need be, befo' I'd relinquish warmheartedness, an' the power to command peacefulness an' rest, an' make things comfortable an' homely, day ...
— Sonny, A Christmas Guest • Ruth McEnery Stuart
... permission to prevaricate was still further extended. The following five untruths are enumerated by various writers as not constituting mortal sins—namely, at the time of marriage, during dalliance, when life is in danger, when the loss of property is threatened, and ...
— India: What can it teach us? - A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge • F. Max Mueller
... grief, yet too proud to prevaricate. "But I advised him to stand firm; and he abode ...
— The Woman Who Did • Grant Allen
... altercate, dispute, quibble, scruple, haggle, higgle, chaffer; trim, prevaricate, shift, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... and no advantage is sought by unfair means. It is evident that we ought to account him the best grammarian, who has the most completely executed the worthiest design. But no worthy design can need a false apology; and it is worse than idle to prevaricate. That is but a spurious modesty, which prompts a man to disclaim in one way what he assumes in an other—or to underrate the duties of his office, that he may boast of having "done all that could reasonably be expected." Whoever professes to have improved ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... prevaricate that intention. But Law'! that was pyo gas, Mr. March. I favors Rosemont, an' State aid toe Rosemont—perwidin'—enough o' the said thereof to go round, an' the same size piece faw ev'y po' man's boy as faw ev'y rich man's boy. Of co's with gals it's diff'ent. Mr. March, you don't ...
— John March, Southerner • George W. Cable
... girl, half scared by her tone, and tempted to prevaricate. "Why—he must have picked ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote
... need of my denying it if you don't say it," the old man answered. "Why should we prevaricate just at the last? We never prevaricated before. I've got to die some time, and it's better to die when one's sick than when one's well. I'm very sick—as sick as I shall ever be. I hope you don't want to prove that ...
— The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 1 (of 2) • Henry James
... it strict etiquette at first to prevaricate concerning the real nature of his errand, and consequently the actor told a cock-and-bull story about the purchase of a horse; rather a transparent bit of make-believe considering the matter ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie
... an untruth, but, questioned in that point-blank way, I had to prevaricate; otherwise I should have been forced ...
— The Four Faces - A Mystery • William le Queux
... cried, "I have come. The newspapers say to destroy your religion. As usual, they prevaricate. I have come to free you. All you who have yokes to shed prepare to shed them now. I come with the olive-branch in my hand. Greet me with outstretched palms. Do not fight me for I am come to save ...
— Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica • John Kendrick Bangs
... where she was going his concern reached its height. At the moment of her departure he could prevaricate no longer, and, confessing to the gambling, told her the truth as far as he knew it—that the guineas had ...
— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy
... going for the habit?" Benedetto murmured, with a sweet smile. The Padre's handsome face flushed. He quickly conquered the human sentiment which prompted him to prevaricate, and replied: ...
— The Saint • Antonio Fogazzaro
... you give me the lie?—direct or indirect, I will not bear it; I, a son of the house of Dymock, to be thus bearded in my own Tower, to be told that what I choose to assert may not be true; that I am, in fact, a deceiver,—a sharper,—one that would prevaricate for sordid pelf!" What more the worthy man added, our history does not say, but that he added much cannot be disputed, and that he poured forth in high and honourable indignation, many sentiments which would have done credit both to the ...
— Shanty the Blacksmith; A Tale of Other Times • Mrs. Sherwood [AKA: Mrs. Mary Martha Sherwood]
... I was not satisfied with the truth of this last statement, for there was a strange look in her eyes which suggested that she still desired it very much; also she seemed to me to prevaricate upon certain points. Further, those in charge of her allowed that this diagnosis was probably correct, especially as she is now in the Home for the second time, although her first visit there was a very short one. Still they thought that she would be cured in the ...
— Regeneration • H. Rider Haggard
... that those papers among the Tatlers and Spectators, where the whole order is abused, were not his own. I will appeal to all who know the flatness of his style, and the barrenness of his invention, whether he doth not grossly prevaricate? Was he ever able to walk without his leading-strings, or swim without bladders, without being discovered by ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli
... there. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him, and "he told them according to all the words the king had commanded." Thus, this man of God, as he is called, could tell a lie, or very strongly prevaricate, when he supposed it would answer his purpose; for certainly he did not go to Zedekiah to make this supplication, neither did he make it; he went because he was sent for, and he employed that opportunity to advise Zedekiah to surrender himself ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine
... into the verandah, and around the garden into the potting-shed. If it was no visitor more serious than the postman or the tax-gatherer, I used to go forth and coax the timid wanderer home. If it was a caller, above all a female caller, it was my privilege to prevaricate, remarking innocently that ...
— Father and Son • Edmund Gosse
... could be stronger against him than the papers on his person. He was not there to prevaricate, and he told them his rank and name. There was no trial, and Howe at once ordered that he should be hanged the next morning. Worse than this, had he known it, he was to be hanged by William Cunningham, the Provost-Major, a man whose brutality, through the war disgraced ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various
... Philip II., with all the experiences learned in the wars of Charles V. and in the conquest of Peru and Mexico, aided, too, by the forces of France and the terrors of the Vatican and the money of the Flemish manufacturers? It was the dictate of self-preservation which induced Elizabeth to prevaricate, and to deceive the powerful monarchs who were in league against her. If ever lying and cheating were justifiable, they were then; if political jesuitism is ever defensible, it was in the sixteenth ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VIII • John Lord
... am a right bad case ob lazy majesty, 'ca'se de king been step on. Whin yevery li'l black boy whut choose gwine wander round at night an' stip on de king of ghostes, it ain't no time for to palaver, it ain't no time for to prevaricate, it ain't no time for to cogitate, it ain't no time do nuffin' but tell de truth, an' de whole truth, an' ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories • Various
... prevaricate," Sandy began, his eyes gloating on her lovely confusion; "do na preteend—" But the sweet blue eyes were too much for him. Breaking down utterly, he tossed the guineas to one side on the table, and stretching out both hands toward Bel, he exclaimed,—"Ye're the sweetest thing the eyes ...
— Between Whiles • Helen Hunt Jackson
... gravity. "I don't want to be your accuser or your confessor; and if you should try to prevaricate, I ...
— The Quickening • Francis Lynde
... you are going to prevaricate and hedge. I've thrown every plan to the winds to come tearing back. The least ...
— The Lady of the Basement Flat • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... before entering into active service, take the entire series of courses offered by this hall, and are thus taught to prevaricate, abbreviate, and exaggerate, or do ought else to attain the end ...
— Mr. World and Miss Church-Member • W. S. Harris
... owned that he was right, what would the consequence be? He might refuse to leave her. Even assuming that he controlled himself, he would take his departure harassed by anxieties, which might exercise the worst possible influence over the good effect of the journey. To prevaricate with herself or with him was out of the question. That very evening she had quarrelled with his mother; and she had yet to discover whether Mrs. Gallilee had forgiven her. In her heart of hearts she hated deceit—and in her heart of hearts ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins
... quoting Acts xxviii. 13, where Paul says, "And from thence we fetched a compass." When Nephi and his family landed in Central America" there were beasts in the forest of every kind, both the cow, and the ox, and the ass, and the horse" (ix Nephi xviii. 25). If Nephi does not prevaricate, there must have been a fatal plague among these animals in later years, for horses, cows, and asses were unknown in America until after its discovery by Europeans. Moroni, in the Book of Ether (ix. 18, 19), is still more generous, adding to the possessions of the Jaredites sheep and swine* ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn
... allowed to prevaricate, all that remained for me to do was to return no reply. But there was stubbornness in my silence; I should have liked to say pettishly: "But you won't let me explain, you won't let ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond
... their views a little, and always in a way that makes one realize how badly they need airing—but most of the nicer women are very chary of talk, they have to be drawn out, a hint of opposition makes them start back or prevaricate, and I see them afterwards with their husbands, pretty silken furry feathery jewelled silences. All their suppression doesn't keep them orthodox, it only makes them furtive and crumpled and creased in their minds—in just the way that things get crumpled ...
— The Passionate Friends • Herbert George Wells
... in her chair with a dejected face. "Oh, as for that," she cried, wearily, crossing her hands, "before you and Hilda, who know all, what need to prevaricate? How CAN I believe it? We understand how it came about. That woman! ...
— Hilda Wade - A Woman With Tenacity Of Purpose • Grant Allen
... of those men who can no more tell a direct lie, or even prevaricate, than they can get outside their own skins. He held even the white lies of conventionality to be unworthy of anyone who held the truth as sacred, and yet for the life of him he could not look this lovely girl in the ...
— The Missionary • George Griffith
... strength. As we have seen, his religion is not favourable to the highest development of conscience. Hence, sincerity and truthfulness are not among his strong points. Not only does pantheism undermine conscience, the example of the most prominent gods of the Hindu pantheon, leads men to prevaricate and encourages all forms of duplicity. Under these circumstances it were strange if the Hindu were conspicuous in honesty and in loyalty to the truth. And in like manner he is wanting largely in those convictions which, in ...
— India's Problem Krishna or Christ • John P. Jones |
