"Against time" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... shoes which Mr. P. wears when in full costume, (vide his portrait on the title page,) were heeled and tapped for him by the hands of CRISPIN himself. They are still in excellent order, although, in these very shoes, Mr. P. walked his celebrated match against Time, beating that swift old party and doing his 1000 miles in 24 h., 12 m., 30 s. Between Mr. P. and shoes there is a well-marked resemblance. The shoe has a sole and he has a soul; the shoe is both useful and ornamental, and so is he; the shoe has an upper, and Mr. P.'s motto is, ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 17, July 23, 1870 • Various
... present weak state another year of Central Africa without quinine appeared to warrant death. It was a race against time; all was untrodden ground before us, and the distance quite uncertain. I trembled for my wife, and weighed the risk of another year in this horrible country should we lose the boats. With the self-sacrificing devotion that she had shown in every trial, she implored me not to think of any ...
— In the Heart of Africa • Samuel White Baker
... so narrow that nothing but sky was to be seen above and beyond. But to the left, the south canyon wall terraced back at perhaps a thousand feet in a series of magnificent strata, yellow, purple and crimson. Still south of this, lifted great weathered buttes and mesas, fortifications of the gods against time itself. The morning sun had not yet reached the camp, but it shone warm and vivid on the peaks to the south, burning through the drifting mists from the river, in colors that thrilled ...
— The Enchanted Canyon • Honore Willsie Morrow
... to me at that time than a place where, upon rare occasions, one dined in splendour, went to a huge and gilded music-hall, cultivated a bad headache, and presently sought to ease it by eating a nightmarish supper, and eating it against time. My allowance at Cambridge had, no doubt fortunately for my digestion, allowed of but few excursions to the capital; but my friend Wheeler lived within twenty miles of it, and I figured him already burgeoning as a magnate of Moorgate ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson
... is required to run with lightning speed for two or three miles and fetch back from a given spot a kind of toy lance planted in the ground. Then, having successfully passed the triple ordeals of fasting, stabbing, and running against time, and without food and water, the candidate, under the eyes of his admiring father, is at length received into the ranks of the bravest warriors, and is allowed to take a wife. At the close of the ceremony, the flow of blood from the candidate's ...
— The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont - as told by Himself • Louis de Rougemont
... leaving not a ripple in the crowd to mark his trail. The absorbed faces of his hearers, and the sense of what was being done behind their backs, seized him, and he smothered a laugh. His voice flowed on, deep-toned, vibrant, working his magic upon them, talking against time. ...
— Nicanor - Teller of Tales - A Story of Roman Britain • C. Bryson Taylor
... a child's temperature with a "minute thermometer", it is best to use your watch to tell you when the minute is up, for the minute, when you are simply waiting for it to pass, seems very long. But if you are "working against time", a minute seems short. The professor is shocked when the closing bell rings, and thinks that certainly the hour cannot be up; but some of the students have been consulting their watches for quite a long while, being sure the hour must be nearly over. These ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth
... great comfort that I have finished the serial story, and "Jackanapes"?—so that I am now quite free, and never mean to write against time again. I know you never cared for the serial; however, it is done, and tolerably satisfactory I think. "Jackanapes" I do hope you will like, picture and all. C—— sent Mr. Ruskin "Our Field," and I am proud to hear he says it is not a mere story—it's a poem! ...
— Juliana Horatia Ewing And Her Books • Horatia K. F. Eden
... cannot tune those discords of narration, Which may be names at Moscow, into rhyme; Yet there were several worth commemoration, As e'er was virgin of a nuptial chime; Soft words, too, fitted for the peroration Of Londonderry drawling against time, Ending in 'ischskin,' 'ousckin,' 'iffskchy,' 'ouski: Of whom ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron
... could rather wish, t'were Henryes arme: Who thankes thy painfull quill; and holds it more To be thy Subiect now, then King before. By thee he conquers yet; when eu'ry word Yeelds him a fuller honour, then his sword. Strengthens his action against time: by thee, Hee victory, and France, doth hold in fee. So well obseru'd he is, that eu'ry thing Speakes him not onely English, but a King. And France, in this, may boast her fortunate That shee was worthy of so braue a hate. Her suffring is her gayne. How well we see The Battaile labour'd worthy ...
— The Battaile of Agincourt • Michael Drayton
... the practice of recording the time of a race is looked upon as childish. The reason given is, that horses that have run or trotted separately against time will often show quite contrary results when matched against each other, and that the one that has made the shortest time on the separate trial will frequently be easily beaten on the same track by the one that showed less speed ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, October, 1880 • Various
... street, or even—incredible dream!—from one town to another. This struck from all three allusions to Edgar Poe and Jules Verne, and such platitudes as naturally rise to the lips of the most intelligent when they are talking against time, and dealing with a new invention in which it would seem ingenuous to believe too soon; and the question of the telephone carried them safely back to the ...
— The Age of Innocence • Edith Wharton
... both boys became guilty of serious breaches against time-honoured school etiquette. Bauer struck the defenceless Keith square in the face with his clenched fist, and Keith burst into tears. Quick as a flash one of the older boys grabbed Bauer by the scruff ...
— The Soul of a Child • Edwin Bjorkman
... she said graciously. "I—I didn't know any one liked them but me. I always have them made for me—I taught her the rule. I always call them"—she laughed nervously, and it dawned on him that this woman was really shy and "talking against time," as they said—"I always call ...
— Mrs. Dud's Sister • Josephine Daskam
... worth, luffing her through the fresher puffs, hawsing her up to windward fathom by fathom, and generally handling her as though we were sailing her in a race, as indeed we were in a sense—a race against time. ...
— Turned Adrift • Harry Collingwood
... to this, and Giovanni determined to outstay him, or rather, to stay until he rose to go and then go with him. It was tedious work for he was not a man who could talk against time on all occasions. But he struggled bravely and Spicca at last got up from his deep chair. They went out together, and stopped as though by common consent upon the brilliantly lighted landing of ...
— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford |
