"Talk" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... folks the very state of their existence is the war. They do not talk about it because they are living it. Even those who are so fortunate as to recall the happy times when there was no conflict, scarcely assume a superiority over their comrades who cannot remember ...
— With Those Who Wait • Frances Wilson Huard
... left me, the king began to talk, and Frances seldom interrupted him save to draw him out, knowing that a talking man sooner or later tells a great deal that he should have left unsaid. This is especially true if a shrewd listener ...
— The Touchstone of Fortune • Charles Major
... the house, and Lopeman and son taking the almost worthless calf, which had been the cause of so much trouble, went to their home. Lopeman then went to the county seat and gave himself up to the authorities. As soon as the news spread over the neighborhood, excitement ran high and there was loud talk of lynching. The murdered man was very popular. His old neighbors smelled blood, and it was with some difficulty that they were prevented from taking the law into their own hands. Better judgment prevailed, however, and after six months the trial came ...
— The Twin Hells • John N. Reynolds
... "you saved me an ugly fall, and I'm very much obliged, and all that; but—but you don't know the first thing about golf, and so you had better not talk about it." He made an effort to gain his feet, but sat ...
— The Half-Back • Ralph Henry Barbour
... for my use; and that when I was in want of any thing from the king, he was to act as my solicitor. According to his command, I resorted daily to court, having frequent conference with the king, both by day and by night; as he delighted much to talk with me, both of the affairs of England and other countries; and also made many enquiries respecting the West Indies, of which he had heard long before, yet doubted there being any such place, till I assured him I had been ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII. • Robert Kerr
... had an innate love of perfect form, an innate "sentiment against hideousness and rawness," and so he was a classicist by temperament. Then his training was essentially classical. He used to protest, with amusing earnestness, against the notion that his father had been a bad scholar. "People talk the greatest nonsense about my father's scholarship. The Wykehamists of his day were excellent scholars. Dr. Gabell made them so. My father's Latin verses were not good; but that was because he was not poetical—not because he was a bad scholar. But he wrote ...
— Matthew Arnold • G. W. E. Russell
... off all of a sudden. So all the malicious women's tongues were set going with their spinning-wheels, and this poor worthy dairy-mother, whose piety, charity, and kindness I have noticed already, was in a few days the common talk of the parish. ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold
... the hollowed trunk of a tree and sometimes lashed in couples for greater stability may still be seen on all rivers. He makes his own fishing-nets, knitting them on a stick at his leisure while he is walking along or sitting down to smoke and talk. He worships his fishing-nets at the Diwali festival, and his reverence for the knitted thread is such that he will not touch or wear a shoe made of thread, because he thinks that the sacred article is debased by being sewn into leather. When engaged in road-work the Dhimars have unsewn sandals ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume II • R. V. Russell
... 'e ain't; wery much the rewerse.—But you mustn't speak, sir; the doctor said we was on no account to talk to you." ...
— In the Track of the Troops • R.M. Ballantyne
... an interesting subject," he said afterwards to the First Lieutenant. "The hearty applause was very gratifying, and it is wonderful how a little straight talk goes ...
— Stand By! - Naval Sketches and Stories • Henry Taprell Dorling
... literally do not understand the impact of this problem on people's lives, but all you have to do is go out and listen to them. Just go talk to them anywhere, in any congressional district in this country. They're Republicans and Democrats and independents. It doesn't have a lick to do with party. They think we don't get it, and it's time we show that ...
— State of the Union Addresses of William J. Clinton • William J. Clinton
... folks were asleep, Major Waldron and his wife had a long talk about the sick woman and her little boy, and it was decided between them that Major Waldron should go the next morning and ...
— Diddie, Dumps & Tot - or, Plantation child-life • Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle
... close to mine, and as he knew my special weakness, the scamp continued: "Just think what a swaggering thing it will be to do and how amusing to tell about; the whole army will talk about it, and it will give you a ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... "that, if I had bestowed on me the wealth of Croesus, my aims must be still the same, and my means essentially the same." He had no temptations to fight against,—no appetites, no passions, no taste for elegant trifles. A fine house, dress, the manners and talk of highly cultivated people were all thrown away on him. He much preferred a good Indian, and considered these refinements as impediments to conversation, wishing to meet his companion on the simplest terms. He declined invitations to dinner-parties, because ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various
... Comanches and all the other tribes are still your friends. Mode Cunard and you were here and had the talk with Gen. Pike; we still hold to the talk we made with Gen. Pike, and are keeping the treaty in good faith, and are looking for him back again soon. We look upon you and Mode Cunard and Gen. Pike as brothers. ...
— The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War • Annie Heloise Abel
... such bosh!" he cried scornfully. "It makes me sick to hear a fellow talk such nonsense. Balls and dinners—faugh! If that's your idea of happiness, why not settle down in London and be done with it! That's the place for you! I'd give my ears to go round the world, but ...
— About Peggy Saville • Mrs. G. de Horne Vaizey
... of a right which is fixed in his favor in the Constitution of the United States, which he has sworn to support? Can he withhold it without violating his oath? and more especially, can he pass unfriendly legislation to violate his oath? Why this is a monstrous sort of talk about the Constitution of the United States! There has never been as outlandish or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of any respectable man on earth. I do not believe it is a constitutional right ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay
... "Didn't dance. The German's old." "Didn't you? I had to lead— Awful bore! Did you go home?" "No. Sat out with Molly Meade. Jolly little girl she is— Said she didn't care to dance, 'D rather sit and talk to me— Then she gave me such a glance! So, when you had cleared the room, And impounded all the chairs, Having nowhere else, we two Took possession of the stairs. I was on the lower step, Molly, on the next ...
— Point Lace and Diamonds • George A. Baker, Jr.
... retaining the history, would be highly interesting. I am sure you are entitled to expect[13] on all accounts and not interruption from me in a task so honorable, and I hope you will spare me a day in town to talk the old Judge's affairs over. The history of the Bass should be a curious one. You are of course aware of the anecdote of one of your ancestors insisting on having the ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder
... talk enough to fill whole books about the war," replied Kinnison; "but I want to hear Mr. Pitts and Mr. Colson, and the rest of the old men, spend a little breath ...
— The Yankee Tea-party - Or, Boston in 1773 • Henry C. Watson
... to talk continuously of the infinite energy stored up in the atoms of matter, and of the illimitable power which the release of that energy, by the system that he had all but completed, would place at the disposition of man; and at the same time Sir Athelstone could with difficulty ...
— The Second Deluge • Garrett P. Serviss
... attend public meetings, and listen to political harangues as a recreation after their household labors. Debating clubs are to a certain extent a substitute for theatrical entertainments: an American cannot converse, but he can discuss; and when he attempts to talk he falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he were addressing a meeting; and if he should warm in the course of the discussion, he will infallibly say "gentlemen," to the person with whom ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al
... honours are being showered on you!" said Wildney. "First to get the score of the season at cricket, and bowl out about half the other side, and then go to tea with the head-master. Upon my word! Why, any of us poor wretches would give our two ears for such distinctions. Talk of curse ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar
... kind and true, But glows with ardent love for you; Though absent, still you rise in view, And talk and smile, Whilst heavenly themes, for ever new, Our ...
— Cottage Poems • Patrick Bronte
... matter which could not be indulged in matrimony, and he therefore never married. Yet once he went so far as to elope with a young person of rank from a ball: the pair were, however, immediately overtaken. The affair was, of course, the talk of the clubs. But Brummell had his own way of wearing the willow. "On the whole," said he, "I consider I have reason to congratulate myself. I lately heard from her favourite maid that her ladyship had been ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various
... day among the hills. After so long in the close streets of the town, it seemed as though they could never get enough of the clear, fresh air and the pleasant country sights and sounds. Everything seemed beautiful to them, moors, and hills, and golden harvest-fields. They did not talk much, only now and then one would point out to the other some new object of interest, a glimpse of blue water caught between the hills, or a lark upspringing from some grassy knoll, singing as ...
— The Orphans of Glen Elder • Margaret Murray Robertson
... same thing. But it would be a sad thing to have to think that when we found ourselves in the same ungracious condition, from whatever cause, we had only to submit to it, saying, 'It is a law of nature,' as even those who talk most about laws will not do, when those laws come between them and their own comfort. They are ready enough then to call in the aid of higher laws, which, so far from being contradictory, overrule the lower to get things into something like habitable, endurable condition. It may be ...
— The Seaboard Parish Vol. 2 • George MacDonald
... just say this to you, Davy,' Ancrum went on presently, 'before we shut the door on this kind of talk—for when a man has got a few things to do and very little strength to do 'em with, he must not waste himself. You may hear any day that I have been received into the Catholic Church, or you may only hear it when I ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... face. Because I have seen women, brought up as you have been, crawling miserably about in the sloughs of poverty. Because I have seen the weaknesses of human nature and know that they exist in me—yes, and in you, for all your standing there so strong and arrogant and self-reliant. It is easy to talk of misery when one does not understand it. It is easy to be the martyr of an hour or a day. But to drag into a sordid and squalid martyrdom the woman one loves—well, the man does not live who would do it, if he knew what I know, had seen what I have ...
— The Great God Success • John Graham (David Graham Phillips)
... of reform spread rapidly. In the 'sixties of the eighteenth century, John Wilkes, a squint-eyed and immoral but very persuasive editor, had raised a hubbub of reform talk. He had criticized the policy of George III, had been elected to Parliament, and, when the House of Commons expelled him, had insisted upon the right of the people to elect him, regardless of the will of the House. His admirers ...
— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes
... been defined as a word stating something about the subject. Verbs are inflected or changed to indicate the time of the action as past, present, or future; as, I talk, I talked, I shall talk, etc. Verbs also vary to indicate completed or incompleted action; as, I have talked, I shall have talked, etc. To these variations, which indicate the time of the action, the name TENSE ...
— Practical Grammar and Composition • Thomas Wood
... affection and interest in the Woman's Press Club led her to attend its meetings, whenever she was able, going there in the carriage sent for her. On the 12th of May she was present at a club meeting, and gave us an informal talk, which proved to be her parting address, though at the time we knew it not. That day her words were full of significance. She expressed herself with fervor, chiefly on the importance of clubwomen bearing a large measure ...
— Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June" • Various
... "Let's go talk to my foremen," said Chuka complacently. "We'll see how fast my ... ah ... mineral spring is trickling metal down the cliff-face. If you can really launch a lifeboat, we might get some help here in a year and ...
— Sand Doom • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... a very famished tiger. B. returned to his own bungalow a wiser man, and told his servants that, had he taken their advice, he would not have suffered such an adventure or the loss of his pony. He rewarded the villagers for their kindness and hospitality and for a long time his escape was the talk ...
— Bengal Dacoits and Tigers • Maharanee Sunity Devee
... talk had made Charm thirsty. "Why should we not go," she asked, "across the next field, into that farm house yonder, and beg for a glass ...
— In and Out of Three Normady Inns • Anna Bowman Dodd
... Says she can tell you something worth one hundred thousand francs. Will not talk now. Money useless at present. She wants your definite instructions, and says, ...
— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage
... them. They'll be on me, if you talk of them here," whispered the boy eagerly. Drops of sweat stood on his brow from the agony of terror he was in. As Paul looked at the lad, he felt something like fear creeping over him. He turned his eyes involuntarily ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various
... from men's fields the swallow forth had flown, When she espied amid the woodlands lone The nightingale, sweet songstress. Her lament Was Itys to his doom untimely sent. Each knew the other through the mournful strain, Flew to embrace, and in sweet talk remain. Then said the swallow, "Dearest, liv'st thou still? Ne'er have I seen thee, since thy Thracian ill. Some cruel fate hath ever come between; Our virgin lives till now apart have been. Come to the fields; revisit homes of men; Come dwell with me, a comrade dear, again, Where thou ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... in Scotland in those days was simply frittered away in the tittle-tattle of cross and causeway, and the insipid talk of taverns. The most trifling incidents of everyday life were dissected and discussed, and magnified into events of the first importance. Many residents had no trade or profession whatever. Annuitants ...
— Robert Burns - Famous Scots Series • Gabriel Setoun
... certainly ran away. She met the curate in the shrubbery about a couple of months after her marriage with the Duke. There were folks who saw the meeting and heard some words of their talk. They arranged to go, and she sailed from Plymouth with him a day ...
— A Group of Noble Dames • Thomas Hardy
... part company," Mr. Sabin said, "or talk of something more cheerful. You depress me, Felix. Let Duson bring us wine. You ...
— The Yellow Crayon • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... quarrels between these two strange lovers, if they were lovers, that had made a friendship, warm and real—on Cicely's side even impassioned—between Nelly and Cicely. For Cicely had at last found someone—not of her own world—to whom she could talk in safety. Yet she had treated the Sarratts cavalierly to begin with, just because they were outsiders, and because 'Willy' was making such a fuss with them; for she was almost as easily jealous in her brother's case as in Marsworth's. But now Nelly's sad remoteness from ordinary ...
— Missing • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... and some one sat at a piano playing sprightly music. She had seen pianos like that in Cartagena, and on the boat, and they had seemed to her things bewitched. In the room at the end of the hall men and women were dancing on a floor that seemed of polished glass. Loud talk, laughter, and singing floated through the rooms, and the air was warm and stuffy, heavy with perfume. The odor reminded her of the roses in her own little garden in Simiti. It was ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking
... sat beside Hiram, as he had at the boarding-house table. He had scarcely spoken since his arrival; but now, under cover of the talk of Mother Atterson, the driver of the furniture van, and Sister, he began ...
— Hiram The Young Farmer • Burbank L. Todd
... counterpart of so much that is evil? This is, I imagine, magnifying love, painting love. It is a better discourse on virtue and vice than are the heathen writings. The model the apostle presents should justly shame the false teachers, who talk much of love but in whom not one of the virtues he mentions ...
— Epistle Sermons, Vol. II - Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost • Martin Luther
... did not ask it. De Stancy had promised to be back again in half-an-hour, and Paula had heard the promise. But at the end of twenty minutes, still seeming indifferent to what was going on around her, she said she would stay no longer, and reminding Somerset that they were soon to meet and talk over the rebuilding, drove off with ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy
... you did," shaking hands cordially; "she used to talk about you all the time, so that I felt intimately acquainted with all the family. Well, I call this first rate luck. It's two years since I saw any ...
— Clover • Susan Coolidge
... the boys were conscious of something unlike what they had been taught to imagine of a schoolmaster, and by many a lasting regard was contracted for him. In the higher forms, at least, it became the fashion, so to speak, to think and talk of him with pride and affection. As regards the permanent effects of his whole system, it may be said that not so much among his own pupils, or in the scene of his actual labours, as in every public school throughout England is to be sought the chief and ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol X • Various
... experience of his spiritual associates discovered to him that their professions of zeal were too frequently accompanied by want of charity; and that in matters of religion, as in every thing else, they who feel the most, generally talk the least. ...
— Lives of the English Poets - From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of - Johnson's Lives • Henry Francis Cary
... the miner's widow." As they sit together, through the long day, they discuss what they will do for the improvement of the people, there is no provision for the repayment of anti-election promises to the managers of trusts; no talk of rewarding henchmen with ...
— The Transgressors - Story of a Great Sin • Francis A. Adams
... scoundrel!" exclaimed the uncrowned king in his most supercilious manner, and then began to talk of ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... During at least three months in the year, its isolation is peculiarly relieved and marked by the snow, which lies above an even line all along its vast bulk. It is also one of those mountains in which one can recognise the curious regularity of the "belts" which text-books talk of. There are great forests at the base of it, just above the hot Mediterranean plain; the beech comes higher than the olive, the pines last of all; after them the pastures and the rocks. In the end of February a man climbs ...
— Hills and the Sea • H. Belloc
... with a sad smile, "this is neither the time nor place to talk of such matters. It is time to give notice of the old ...
— The Lifeboat • R.M. Ballantyne
... complexion than Mrs. Steele, (Dick's wife, whom he had now got, and who ruled poor Dick with a rod of pickle,) and yet to see her dazzled Esmond; he would shut his eyes, and the thought of her dazzled him all the same. She was brilliant and lively in talk, but not so incomparably witty as her mother, who, when she was cheerful, said the finest things; but yet to hear her, and to be with her, was Esmond's greatest pleasure. Days passed away between him and these ladies, he scarce knew how. He poured his heart out ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray
... instituted a money-contribution, on as large a scale as I could. But if you refer,[n] Aeschines, to what was fair as between ourselves and the Thebans or the Byzantines or the Euboeans—if at this time you talk to us of equal shares—you must be ignorant, in the first place, of the fact that in former days also, out of those ships of war, three hundred [n] in all, which fought for the Hellenes, Athens provided two hundred, and did not think herself unfairly used, or let herself be ...
— The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 2 • Demosthenes
... wondering whether she could get away without being seen when she noticed a curious appearance in the air: it puzzled her very much at first, but after watching it a minute or two she made it out to be a grin, and she said to herself, "It's the Cheshire-Cat: now I shall have somebody to talk to." ...
— Junior Classics, V6 • Various
... I was not going to waste the choicer flowers of speech on a man who was incapable of understanding them. Later on, when he had awakened to a sense of his position, I would begin really to talk to him. ...
— Love Among the Chickens - A Story of the Haps and Mishaps on an English Chicken Farm • P. G. Wodehouse
... good-night and went below. After some further talk, Captain Von Cromp followed him, and the boys were left alone on the submarine, save for the ...
— The Boy Allies Under Two Flags • Ensign Robert L. Drake
... there began to be much talk about a voyage of exploration to that country which Leif had discovered. The leader of this expedition was Thorstein Ericsson, who was a good man and an intelligent, and blessed with many friends. Eric was likewise invited to join them, for the men believed that his ...
— The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 • Various
... the conceit out of you, Mr Jack," said Ned, as they continued their retreat. "I did think I was a better-plucked one than this. Talk about a weak 'un; I'm ...
— Jack at Sea - All Work and no Play made him a Dull Boy • George Manville Fenn
... hatred. No man cried, God bless him." He wrote to the King that he should push forward the whole matter of the bishoprics as fast as possible, adding the ridiculous assertion that the opposition came entirely from the nobility, and that "if the seigniors did not talk so much, not a man of the people would open his ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... bishops. Both as stadtholder of the Duchies in 1526, and as viceroy of Norway in 1529, he displayed considerable administrative ability, though here too his religious intolerance greatly provoked the Catholic party. There was even some talk of passing him over in the succession to the throne, in favour of his half-brother Hans, who had been brought up in the old religion. On his father's death Christian was proclaimed king at the local diet of Viborg, and took an active ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various
... What, he exclaims, have we here? "If Cato has not been upright in his pecuniary intercourse with you—if he owes you any thing—put that on my account." What ignorance of southern institutions! What mockery, to talk of pecuniary intercourse between a slave and his master! The slave himself, with all he is and has, is an article of merchandise. What can he owe his master?—A rustic may lay a wager with his mule, and give the creature the peck of oats which he had ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... no further comment, except to say, "But to know clears the air and leaves me free to talk to him at need." Penhallow felt that where he himself might be a useless confessor, his wife was surely to ...
— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell
... this topic only at intervals of other talk; for he avoids it, at least with me. But from what we all know of Aurelian, it is not one's opinion nor another's that can alter his will when once bent ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware
... and then we'll talk about Mary Andrews," laughed Aunt Jane. "If I'd 'a' thought before I spoke, which I hardly ever do, I wouldn't 'a' mentioned Mary Andrews, for I know you won't let me see any rest till you know ...
— Aunt Jane of Kentucky • Eliza Calvert Hall
... to talk to the women, evidently explaining about Bob and the ass; and as they talked the eyes of all of them were most of the time fixed upon these two. As for the children, they glared for a time with very evil looking faces at Bob; ...
— Among the Brigands • James de Mille
... is from Fr. vanter, and this from a late Lat. vanitare, to talk emptily, used by St Augustine. This looks very simple, but the real history of these words is most complicated. In Mid. English we regularly find avaunt, which comes from Old Fr. avanter, to put forward, ...
— The Romance of Words (4th ed.) • Ernest Weekley
... know how to express his happiness. His tongue seemed paralysed, and he could not manage to say more than Yes or No. But while he was enjoying a capital dinner and delicious beverages, his tongue was loosened, and he was not only able to talk as well as before, but to indulge in many ...
— The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country • William Forsell Kirby
... space of five years that had elapsed since his departure no one had heard anything of him; all talk about him had died away, as though he had vanished from the face of the earth. When Fabio met his friend in one of the streets of Ferrara he almost cried out aloud, first in alarm and then in delight, and he at once invited him to his villa. ...
— Dream Tales and Prose Poems • Ivan Turgenev
... "Your talk is so much Greek to me sometimes, Joe," said Bob Haines. "You use so much technical language when you get going that you fog me. I can make a plane do what it is supposed to do, most of the time, but some of these special ideas floor ...
— The Brighton Boys with the Flying Corps • James R. Driscoll
... soul," said grandmother. "I wish I had not been so hasty with her. It will be a lesson to me;" and noticing that at this Sylvia looked up in surprise, she added, "Does it seem strange to you my little Sylvia, that an old woman like me should talk of having lessons? It is true all the same—and I hope, do you know, dear?—I hope that up to the very last of my life I shall have lessons to learn. Or rather I should say that I shall be able to learn them. That the lessons are there ...
— Grandmother Dear - A Book for Boys and Girls • Mrs. Molesworth
... master that there was a sound of falling water, and said there were sure to be brooks running in the valley. Mr. Lawley was, however, too sad to talk to his servant; he could only say, 'I don't doubt it,' and then they ...
— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood
... some that man first learned to talk by imitating the sounds of nature. It is sometimes called the "bow-wow" theory of the origin of language. Words are used to express the meaning of nature. Thus the purling of the brook, the lowing of the cow, the barking of the dog, the moaning of the wind, the rushing of water, the cry of animals, ...
— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar
... ninety small papers issued a four page suffrage supplement furnished them. The list of speakers included 1,495 names and almost no meeting or convention of any importance was held during the latter part of the three months that did not make room on its program for a talk on ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various
... Saint and Lady Honoria drifted into a long and animated conversation about their fellow guests, which Geoffrey scarcely tried to follow. Indeed, the dinner was a dull one for him, and he added little or nothing to the stock of talk. ...
— Beatrice • H. Rider Haggard
... what's disturbing me when we talk about it is not my own case, it's the general case. Here's a woman—never mind that it's me—here's a woman that has made a success in life, that has abandoned it and that wants to go back to it. You argue she mustn't. I could say it's monstrous. I ...
— This Freedom • A. S. M. Hutchinson
... bad judgment are only a few out of many which were the subject of common talk among officers and civilians in Tampa. I could specify many others, but criticism is at best unpleasant duty, and the only justification for it is the hope that, if mistakes and disorders are pointed out and frankly recognized, ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan
... go somewhere," urged the Frenchman. "Some place were we can sit down and have ze talk about important matters. I have ze message for you zat I cannot ...
— The Submarine Boys for the Flag - Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam • Victor G. Durham
... spite of this resolution supper was not a merry meal. Talk was spasmodic, interrupted by long silences. Mrs. McCrae—slight, gentle, motherly, with wavy silver hair—was plainly worried. Her husband brooded unconsciously over his plate. Sheila and Casey, conversing on topics which neither was thinking about, ...
— Desert Conquest - or, Precious Waters • A. M. Chisholm
... ever observe that there are two classes of patients in states, slaves and freemen; and the slave doctors run about and cure the slaves, or wait for them in the dispensaries—practitioners of this sort never talk to their patients individually, or let them talk about their own individual complaints? The slave doctor prescribes what mere experience suggests, as if he had exact knowledge; and when he has given his orders, like a tyrant, he rushes off with equal assurance to some ...
— Laws • Plato
... that the other day old Doctor Dastick brought his New-York niece to call upon us. She began to talk to my brother, and when at last topics of conversation failed, turned to look at the picture of Saint Josselyn, which could be seen through the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., April, 1863, No. LXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics. • Various
... talk plainly, hey, old fellow?" Dick demanded. On together they walked, until Prescott felt himself perspiring, while the horse's coat ...
— Uncle Sam's Boys with Pershing's Troops - Dick Prescott at Grips with the Boche • H. Irving Hancock
... "How people talk," interrupted Talleyrand, "about what they do not comprehend. Generous as Bonaparte is, he does not throw away his expenses; perhaps within twelve months all these renegadoes or adventurers, whom you all consider as valets ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton
... United States officers as General Howard. We could have lived forever at peace with him. If there is any pure, honest white man in the United States army, that man is General Howard. All the Indians respect him, and even to this day frequently talk of the happy times when General Howard was in command of our Post. After he went away he placed an agent at Apache Pass who issued to us from the Government clothing, rations, and supplies, as General Howard directed. ...
— Geronimo's Story of His Life • Geronimo
... been some talk, particularly in the senior day-room, of more active measures. It was thought that nothing less than a court-martial could meet the case. But the house prefects had been against it. Sheen was in the sixth, and, however monstrous and unspeakable might have been his ...
— The White Feather • P. G. Wodehouse
... comfortable. I have seldom seen a cosier retreat on a broiling summer's day, and in this dusty, dirty town. She has not breakfasted yet, nor, except for my cup of coffee, have I. I will do myself the pleasure of joining her. A cutlet and a glass of cool claret will suit me admirably just now, and we can talk as we eat." ...
— The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood • Arthur Griffiths
... remind me of that time on board the steamer, when the quarter-master was going to shoot the bird. You made it up with him—and you'll come to my hotel and make it up with me. And then we'll shake hands, and talk about Sally. If it's not taking another liberty, I'll trouble you for a light." He helped himself to a match from the box on the chimney-piece, lit his cigar, and left ...
— The Fallen Leaves • Wilkie Collins
... talk on the plantation about the actual beginning of the Civil War. Slaves was very guarded in their talk as they feared the master's wrath. Uncle Mose thought little or nothing about the War and ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration
... a crisis, of weeks of suspense, of a long, hard strain. Her father had been laid in his grave five days before, and that morning his will had been read. In the afternoon she had got Edith off to St. Leonard's with their aunt Julia, and then she had had a wretched talk with Eric. Lastly, she had made up her mind to act in opposition to the formidable will, to a clause which embodied if not exactly a provision, a recommendation singularly emphatic. She went to bed and slept the sleep ...
— The Chaperon • Henry James
... all three; and so did Malcom, after a fashion, but he was less keenly interested than the others. He sometimes tried to talk with Bettina about the studio incident, but never could he begin to discuss Barbara in the slightest way without encountering ...
— Barbara's Heritage - Young Americans Among the Old Italian Masters • Deristhe L. Hoyt
... charm of the Lieder themselves. But these Lieder are, for probable freedom from indebtedness and intrinsic exquisiteness of phrase and rhythm, unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled. To compare Walther to Petrarch, and to talk of the one being superior or inferior to the other, is to betray hopeless insensibility to the very rudiments of criticism. They are absolutely different,—the one the embodiment of stately form and laboured intellectual ...
— The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory - (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) • George Saintsbury
... and above his eccentricities in the matter of launching a subject, Mr. Doolan is the only member of his calling I ever saw who talks in real life as all the members of his calling are fondly presumed to talk, in story-books ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb
... he gave a weekly dinner. These exploits are described by Dr. Carlyle, and by Smollett himself, in "Humphrey Clinker." He did not treat his vassals with much courtesy or consideration; but then they expected no such treatment. We have no right to talk of his doings as "a blood-sucking method, literary sweating," like a recent biographer of Smollett. Not to speak of the oddly mixed metaphor, we do not know what Smollett's relations to his retainers really were. As an editor he had ...
— Adventures among Books • Andrew Lang
... was the scientific selection of the workmen.... Under ...scientific management ...it is an inflexible rule to talk to and deal with only one man at a time, since we are not dealing with men in masses, but are trying to develop each individual man to his highest state of efficiency and prosperity. The 75 men ...
— Making Both Ends Meet • Sue Ainslie Clark and Edith Wyatt
... colours! Explain!" repeated Mrs Moss, quickly. "What nonsense do you talk? Has not my daughter explained, and she is not given ...
— The Eagle Cliff • R.M. Ballantyne
... singular that the great majority of the British press and people should dare to talk so glibly of intervention in this our civil war, when we consider what their intermeddling may cost them. Cotton they may or may not get, but no intervention can compel us to buy their goods, and, as we have already pointed out in our columns, the entire loss of the free States market involves ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. • Various
... "I'll talk with that main guy Siwash, some time this afternoon. Meantime, I wish you would all leave this matter in my hands. It may turn out to be of more importance to us than ...
— The Boy Scouts on the Yukon • Ralph Victor
... quizzing Sue with more regard of how she was speaking than of what she was saying. "How odd to hear a woman selling cakes talk like that!" she said. "Why don't ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy
... so we struggled manfully against our difficulties. A confident American lady, meditating Europe, and knowing little French and no German, is said to have remarked jauntily that if the worst came to the worst she could always talk on her fingers to the peasants; but I did not attempt to avail myself of the results of early practice in that universal language. Christian's answers—the more intelligible parts of them—were a stratified succession of yes and no, and as ...
— Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland • George Forrest Browne
... dog, although a good student, had a fancy for writing doggerel. Many and many a time, when the enchanter and his wonderful animals were seated in their armchairs round a blazing fire, talking exactly as any three good friends might talk, a nose would flatten itself against the panes, and the three companions would see looking in at them some stranger whose curiosity had got ...
— The Firelight Fairy Book • Henry Beston
... monastery, vast crowds of pilgrims were attracted thither. By their offerings and the donations of the great it became wealthy. The Abbos enjoyed the rank of a Prince, and the monks, as a body, were descended from noble families. They were a proud, irritable race, and could talk as much almost about the history of their quarrels as of their pious exercises. Conrad of Hohenrechberg, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, stood at their head, troubled himself little about incense and choral singing, and thought ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger
... of all assembled save the Professor. All except him appeared tense and nervous and in no way inclined to joke. For a time after the lean man's rebuke they engaged in casual talk, then one after another they drew off their boots and rolled up in their blankets. All but Stephen. His arm was throbbing with unusual pain. It was still in splints, and still bandaged in a sling around his ...
— Bred of the Desert - A Horse and a Romance • Marcus Horton
... power"—what do you suppose a wide-awake purchaser would be willing to pay for that? Perkins and his neighbor believe that $1,000 is a very modest estimate added by their electric plant to both places. And they talk of doing still more. They use only a quarter of the power of the water that is running to waste through the wheel. They are figuring on installing a larger dynamo, of say 30 electrical horse-power, which will provide clean, dry, safe heat for their houses even on the coldest days in winter. When ...
— Electricity for the farm - Light, heat and power by inexpensive methods from the water - wheel or farm engine • Frederick Irving Anderson
... Paid a visit to the Duke after breakfast, and in the afternoon went three miles down the river to visit the Lady Combermere on her way up the river. In the evening we paid another visit to the Duke, at which period, every day, he holds a sort of levee for supercargoes, and Captains of vessels, to talk over "news." Upon these occasions he discovers an acute knowledge of his own interest. Remained on shore, and passed the night in the Duke's English house, where his visitors always sleep, but none of his family, except a few ...
— A Voyage Round the World, Vol. I (of ?) • James Holman
... were in torment, and that the very motion of the girl's lips caused them terrible pain. She was sentenced to be hanged with eight other alleged witches two days later, and was carried back, fainting, to her cell. In a few minutes the girl was delirious, and began to talk about her lover, and of her future prospects. Even her sister was not allowed to remain with her during the night, and the frail young creature was left to the ...
— My Native Land • James Cox
... possess.... It has little or no value," he added with a harsh, grating laugh. "It will not be worth your while to steal it. You will have to see a brat and report to me on his condition—his appearance, what? ... Talk to him a bit.... See what he says and let me know. ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy
... a gulf of gloomy blue, Gapes in the centre of the sea—and through That dark mysterious gulf ascending, sound 415 Innumerable streams with roar profound. [109] Mount through the nearer vapours notes of birds, And merry flageolet; the low of herds, The bark of dogs, the heifer's tinkling bell, Talk, laughter, and perchance a church-tower knell: [110] 420 Think not, the peasant from aloft has gazed And heard with heart unmoved, with soul unraised: [111] Nor is his spirit less enrapt, nor less Alive to independent ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight
... her. I do hope Jim will come in about supper time. I should think he was safe to. I wonder if I could rub a little of that liniment onto my 'and myself. It do burn so; to think that jest a little thing of this sort should make me mis'rible. Talk of breed! I don't suppose I'm much, after all, or I'd not fret about a ...
— Good Luck • L. T. Meade
... the day, his concern was with the practical knowledge bearing upon existing conditions and that might aid in the solution of the ever-recurring problems confronting men in responsible positions. He loved to talk of the founders of the Government, and of the matchless instrument, the result of their wise deliberations, declared by Gladstone, "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time from the brain and purpose of man." The Constitution was in very truth ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson
... Here's the soup. Mrs. Reid, lay another place. I am dreadfully hungry; nothing gives me such an appetite as unrolling mummies; it involves so much intellectual wear and tear, in addition to the physical labour. Eat, man, eat. We will talk afterwards." ...
— Queen Sheba's Ring • H. Rider Haggard |
