"Failing" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... brothers soon absorbed all Washington's time and attention. Peter was an invalid, and the whole weight of the perplexing affairs of the failing firm fell upon the one who detested business, and counted every hour lost that he gave to it. His letters for two years are burdened with harassments in uncongenial details and unsuccessful struggles. Liverpool, where he was compelled to pass most of his time, had few attractions ...
— Washington Irving • Charles Dudley Warner
... Mrs. Mullen's this morning," she explained, "an' she told me her eyesight was failing, so I offered to do ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... taken a sudden and violent interest in teaching her child to read and repeat hymns. The hymns that it pleased Minette best to learn were some that Gladys had sung at her mother's request. These Netta did not know by heart, indeed, her failing memory prevented her retaining anything she had once known; so an old hymn book was produced from Gladys' book-shelf, which contained these hymns that she had been taught in her ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale
... in hearing a man attempting wit, and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch, and tumbling ...
— Pearls of Thought • Maturin M. Ballou
... A common failing among students is an inability to avoid a frequent absolute emphatic inflection when it is not in place. Many are unable steadily to sustain a sentence till the real point is reached. They fail to keep ...
— Public Speaking • Irvah Lester Winter
... he lives up to his standard except in this one failing for which I am truly sorry. Abominable I grant you—but there are many ...
— Kennedy Square • F. Hopkinson Smith
... who'll judge the limits of the world By what appears unto our failing sight Appeals to sense, reason down headlong hurld Out of her throne by giddie vulgar might. But here base senses dictates they will dight With specious title of Philosophie, And stiffly will contend ...
— Democritus Platonissans • Henry More
... those which belong to men who have regular employment, and would therefore find it impossible to cultivate any great quantity of land. Many of that class are anxious to have a holding of some sort, as it lends a certain elasticity to their incomes and provides them with a never-failing interest. One who may be taken as typical hired six acres with a good cottage and a large garden, paying a rent of L. 20 a year. When this holding was created it had already a suitable cottage, but L. 100 was needed to provide outbuildings, ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... and he pushed through the crowd of men around the theatre entrance, and hastened to overtake them. He found nothing to overtake—nowhere along that stretch of street, illumined by window lights, was there any sign of a man and woman walking together. He stopped bewildered, staring blindly about, failing utterly to comprehend this mysterious vanishing. What could it mean? What had happened? How could they have disappeared so completely during that single moment he had waited to speak to Fairbain? The man's heart beat like a trip-hammer with ...
— Keith of the Border • Randall Parrish
... The non-dealer playing without proposing and failing to win the point, gives two ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous
... not all this information was communicated by the aunt, who had too much of the family failing herself to appreciate it thoroughly in others. But as time went on, Archie began to observe an omission in the ...
— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson
... to come, since I am kept here by my failing health," said the Cardinal. "Besides, I am somewhat better, and it is only natural that you should wish to give me some explanations and defend your work and enlighten my judgment. In fact, I was astonished at not yet having seen you, for I know that your faith in your ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... cannot be a more kindly consequence than this, our not failing from their not failing: we do not, because they ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853 • Various
... the principal failing occurred in the sailing, And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed, Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due East, That the ship would not travel ...
— The Hunting of the Snark - an Agony, in Eight Fits • Lewis Carroll
... letter confess everything, revealing how his soul had been tortured, how he had resolved to die, how he had hesitated about carrying out his resolution, and what means he had employed to strengthen his failing courage. And in the name of their old friendship he would implore of the other to destroy the letter as soon as he had ascertained that the culprit had inflicted justice on himself. Renardet might rely on this magistrate, he knew him to be sure, discreet, incapable ...
— The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5 (of 8) - Une Vie and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893
... in London. Only here we dissemble and pretend to love it. It is partly in consequence of this that works, not only of acknowledged but genuine excellence, such as those I have been careful to select, are, though so universally praised, so little read. The poor student attempts them, but failing—from many causes no doubt, but also sometimes from the fact of their not being there—to find those unrivalled beauties which he has been led to expect in every sentence, he stops short, where he would otherwise have gone on. He says to himself, 'I have been ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn
... the six months spent in the city, our party came sailing home again all the better for the trip, and Annie so full of tales to tell that it was a never-failing source of amusement to hear her hold forth to her younger brother in her pretty way, "splaining and 'scribing all ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Vol. 5 - Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott
... little pine table close to the heap of failing embers, and aided by what light the sulky candle gave, was bending over and trying to arrange a patch on my old hunting-coat. It was an old, old hunting-coat, far gone in the sere and yellow leaf. It was ...
— The Singing Mouse Stories • Emerson Hough
... Peter the Great and later under Catherine II, began to reach out for Turkish territory. The Turks had risen by the sword, and now, as other nations progressed and they stood still, the power of the sword was failing them. Russia expanded toward the Black Sea, as before she had expanded toward the Baltic, feeling out from her boundaries everywhere, moving along the line of least resistance, already looking toward Poland as her ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various
... whispers Piddie. "And it's not the first occasion, Torchy, on which he has been found failing. I am sending some of ...
— Torchy As A Pa • Sewell Ford
... met with much commendation, and manifested, as they all protested, great political capabilities; the statesman who submitted all to his friends never failing to rise to eminence in Leaplow. The committee took my name in writing and hastened back to their schooner, in order to get into port to promulgate the nomination. These persons were hardly off the deck, before another party came up the opposite ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper
... substantial hunters' equipments, the marvellous and oftentimes ridiculous luxury affected by the wealthy camper, the makeshifts of the poorer ranchmen of the valley, out with their entire families and the farm stock for a "real good fish," all these were of never-failing interest to Bob. In fact, he soon discovered that the one absorbing topic—outside of bears, of course—was the discussion, the comparison and the appraising of the various items of camping equipment. ...
— The Rules of the Game • Stewart Edward White
... instance and then another would he demonstrate the unprofitableness of trying to appear rich, or courageous, or strong, without really being the thing pretended. "You are sure sooner or later to have commands laid upon you beyond your power to execute, and failing just where you are credited with capacity, the world will give you no commiseration." "I call that man a cheat, and a great cheat too," he would say, "who gets money or goods out of some one by persuasion, and defrauds him; but of all imposters he surely is the biggest who can delude people into ...
— The Memorabilia - Recollections of Socrates • Xenophon
... de Gloria and Nitherohy to join him with all despatch. The Piranga, useless from her bad sailing, owing to the state of her copper, had been ordered to Rio; and she and the Liberal, who both arrived to-day, are the bearers of the official intelligence. Lord Cochrane, whose kindness is never-failing, writes to me as follows. I do not like to quote, even in my journal, private letters; but this is short, and tells in few words ...
— Journal of a Voyage to Brazil - And Residence There During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823 • Maria Graham
... then on our way to Tristram's house, and there we met Allen, Hudson and Tristram. They told us they had got on the car as agreed upon, and had got off at Harlem Bridge, and walked up the track about six miles, but, failing to find us, had become disgusted and returned home. That evening Tristram, McGuire and I started for Norwalk in the five o'clock train. We all got off at Stamford, and I went to a livery stable, for the purpose of hiring a horse ...
— Bucholz and the Detectives • Allan Pinkerton
... do believe you've been silly," said Betty, trying to speak severely and failing completely because her dimple would deepen distractingly. "You know I told ...
— Betty Gordon at Boarding School - The Treasure of Indian Chasm • Alice Emerson
... Failing to exercise her power and perform her duty in this direction, and thus practically perpetuating the present government, I submit that, in my judgment, we cannot now ignore our obligation to give the State her full representation on the score of the alleged irregularity of the government through ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 • Various
... be less," added the gaunt First Officer, who spent his days ashore watching the growth of a new Doraine and his nights on board with the failing ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon
... is a facile, quickly moving instrument; it works in flashes; it assimilates seemingly without effort, and it is at its best under the highest pressure. The Kaiser is not to be laughed at for wanting to know all there is to be known, but he may justly be criticized for failing to distinguish between the attempt ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw
... had continued their stroll and had passed from the Piazza del Popolo to the Corso. Giovanni was taciturn and moody. He looked straight ahead, failing to notice the gayly attired beauties thronging that great thoroughfare, who at ordinary times would have engrossed his attention. Not so with Esperance; he admired the vivacious ladies on the sidewalk ...
— Monte-Cristo's Daughter • Edmund Flagg
... the letter over the Malakand Pass and up the road by Dir, and in due time an answer was returned. Ralston received the answer late one afternoon, when the light was failing, and, taking it over to the window, read it through. Its ...
— The Broken Road • A. E. W. Mason
... 'who, when my only friend—a dear and kind one, too—was in full health of mind, humbled himself before him, but was spurned away (for he knew him then) like a dog. Who, in his forgiving spirit, now that that friend is sunk into a failing state, can crawl about him again, and use the influence he basely gains for every base and wicked purpose, and not for one—not one—that's ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... means of a string connecting the hammock and the rocking-chair in which sat Mrs Burgess, acting as a mild motor for both the chair and the hammock. "That's Noble Dill walking along the sidewalk," Mrs. Burgess said, interpreting for her husband's failing eyes. "I bowed to him, but he hardly seemed to see us and just barely lifted his hat. He needn't be cross with us because some other young man's probably taking Julia Atwater ...
— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington
... exempt a printing press and a newspaper office connected therewith, not to exceed in all the value of twelve hundred dollars. Any person entitled to any of the exemptions mentioned in this section does not waive his rights thereto by failing to designate or select such exempt property or by failing to object to a levy thereon, unless failing or refusing so to do when required to make such designation or selection by the officers about to levy. [Sec.4297.] ...
— Legal Status Of Women In Iowa • Jennie Lansley Wilson
... Johnny is?" said the woman. He was the son of her former owner; and now, finding her proper support failing her, she instinctively turned to him. "He wouldn' let him turn ...
— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various
... possible; but it is certain that he did not take this course. He seemed to regard the movement in favor of Prince Frederick's claims to the duchy as a democratic movement. It was so called by the more violent Conservatives. The king, after failing to take the lead, could not now, consistently with his determination to be independent, fall in with the crowd; this would seem like yielding to pressure. Besides, he felt probably more than the Prussian people in general the binding force of the London treaty. Yet, as a German, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, October, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... had wished. Taking a pick and an axe he went to the graveyard, but when he struck the grave with his tools and the earth rolled back, disclosing the body of La Rose, the old fellow was so terrified that he ran helter-skelter from the spot. A draught of good wine brought back his failing courage, however, and he returned and passed the rose three times under the nostrils of his late acquaintance. Instantly La ...
— Legends & Romances of Brittany • Lewis Spence
... He had inherited his father's business (now passed out of the family) with something of his mechanical talent. Of a confiding disposition, he had been wronged by those whom he had intrusted most extensively, and, property gone and strength failing, his misfortunes, which he had at all times borne with exemplary patience and fortitude, had culminated in the loss of his old home, the home of his father before him, by the hand of the incendiary. He had left me a precious legacy ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... shadowing of Ivan Abramovitch was in competent hands. With the strong man's confidence in himself, he had no fears as to his decision to release the man. He was beginning to have a shadowy idea of the relation of pieces in his jig-saw puzzle. Ivan, he knew, ought to have been arrested if only for failing to give a satisfactory account of his possession of the pearl necklace. But the superintendent had, as he mentally phrased it, "tied a string to him," and it would not be his fault ...
— The Grell Mystery • Frank Froest
... just British claims, and at the same time so improve its whole financial position as to contribute greatly to the increased prosperity of the Republic and to redound to the benefit of foreign investments and foreign trade with that country. Failing such an arrangement, it may become impossible for the Government of the United States to escape its obligations in connection with such measures as may become necessary to exact justice to ...
— State of the Union Addresses of William H. Taft • William H. Taft
... the officers of Scotland; only the Lord of Bocleuch and Sir Robert Kerr were faultie. They were complained of, and new dayes appointed for the delivery of their prisoners. Bocleuch was the first, that should deliver; and hee failing entered himselfe prisoner into Barwicke, there to remaine till those officers under his charge were delivered to free him. He chose for his guardian Sir William Selby, master of the ordinance at Barwicke. When Sir Robert Kerr's day of delivery came, he failed too, and my Lord Hume, by the ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3) • Walter Scott
... shrink back appalled. In the excitement of the hour, and under the inspiration of his strong human love, Gregory was not afraid to die, though life seemed, with its new possibilities, sweeter than ever before. He knew that his strength was failing fast, that reaction would soon set in, and that he would be helpless, and his great hope was that he could ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe
... beautiful butterfly that was about to die. She had laid her eggs on a cabbage-leaf in the garden; and, as she thought of her children, she said to a caterpillar that was crawling upon the leaf, 'I am going to die. I feel my strength fast failing, and I want you to take ...
— Little Alice's Palace - or, The Sunny Heart • Anonymous
... Lightwood,' I must postpone the reply for one moment, or we shall have an anti-climax. Artichoke failing signally, my client refers the task to me: his purpose being to advance the interests of the object of his search. I proceed to put myself in communication with her; I even happen to possess some special means,' with a glance at Eugene, 'of putting myself in ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens
... thought of correcting my violent passions, and of teaching me how to conquer them as Edmee did? I doubt it. Every man needs to be loved before he can be worth anything; but each in a different way; one with never-failing indulgence, another with unflinching severity. Meanwhile, until some one solves the problem of making education common to all, and yet appropriate to each, try to ...
— Mauprat • George Sand
... the principal point of greatness in any state, is to have a race of military men. Neither is money the sinews of war (as it is trivially said), where the sinews of men's arms, in base and effeminate people, are failing. For Solon said well to Croesus (when in ostentation he showed him his gold), Sir, if any other come, that hath better iron, than you, he will be master of all this gold. Therefore let any prince or state think solely of his forces, except his militia of natives be of good and valiant ...
— Essays - The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. - Verulam Viscount St. Albans • Francis Bacon
... acknowledgement of a written communication, to losing a State paper at a moment when the safety of the country depends upon its being available for reference, comes within the category of "red tape." But he did get things done somehow, thanks to some extent to his pronounced and never-failing sense of humour. When one felt worried, weary, worn out, one only had to sit opposite to him at lunch at the club and to listen to some of his tales of manufacturing New Army officers, to be oneself ...
— Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 • Charles Edward Callwell
... Failing every other kind of guardian, at Rome one used to be appointed under the lex Atilia by the praetor of the city and the majority of the tribunes of the people; in the provinces one was appointed under the lex Iulia et Titia by the president of ...
— The Institutes of Justinian • Caesar Flavius Justinian
... money for some time; and when it was spent, ordered his goods to be carried into the market-place, where they were sold for half their value, though there were among them several articles that had cost immense sums. Upon the produce of these he lived a considerable time; but this supply failing at last, he had nothing left by which he could raise any more money, of which he informed the fair Persian ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous
... to the teacher. A lesson of the same length was promptly given again. The rebel showed the teacher he was wrong by failing to know it. ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon
... passion for and memory of the moorland. It was a farm about half a mile from Needham Farm, on one of the lower slopes of Kinder Low. It had belonged to a peasant owner, lately dead. The heirs wished to sell, but failing a purchaser were willing to let ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... fixed, one on which Guest felt sure he would be able to catch his friend at the chambers, as being the preferable place, though, failing this, there was ...
— Witness to the Deed • George Manville Fenn
... respect for those who control him, and with it their authority over him. If once he thinks there are grown-up people with no more sense than children the authority of age is destroyed and his education is ruined. A child should know no betters but its father and mother, or failing them its foster-mother and its tutor, and even this is one too many, but this division is inevitable, and the best that can be done in the way of remedy is that the man and woman who control him shall be so well agreed with regard to him ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... nimble legs for safety. Sometimes a horse got jammed in the centre of the swaying mass, and could neither advance nor retreat. Then the savage rider leaped upon the buffaloes' backs, and springing from one to another, like an acrobat, gained the outer edge of the circle; not failing, however, in his strange flight, to pierce with his lance several of the fattest of his ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... whole of the following day we plied our paddles in almost total silence and without a halt, save twice to recruit our failing energies with a mouthful of food and a draught of water. Jack had taken the bearing of the island just after starting, and laying a small pocket-compass before him, kept the head of the canoe due south, ...
— The Coral Island • R.M. Ballantyne
... Kritavarman in the centre of the chest with a long arrow. And piercing him then with seventy arrows, he once more pierced him with many others. The Bhoja warrior, however, in return, pierced Satyaki with seventy arrows of keen points. Like the swiftly-coursing winds failing to move a mountain, Kritavarman was unable to move Satyaki or make him tremble. Senapati deeply struck Susarman in his vitals. Susarman also struck his antagonist with a lance on the shoulder-joint. Virata, aided by his Matsya warriors of great energy, resisted Vikartana's son in that battle. And ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... her,—she sat up again—she had been quietly leaning back; once or twice her hand went up with a quick movement to drive back the feeling that was passing limits; then gaining level ground once more, the horses sprang forward, and in the failing twilight they swept round before the house. Except the tower, it was but two stories high, the front stretching along, with wide low steps running from end to end. In unmatched glee Dingee stood on the carriage way showing ...
— Wych Hazel • Susan and Anna Warner
... against the enemy's weaknesses. We will use the power of our values to shape a free and more prosperous world. We will employ the legitimacy of our government and our cause to craft strong and agile partnerships. Our economic strength will help failing states and assist weak countries in ridding themselves of terrorism. Our technology will help identify and locate terrorist organizations, and our global reach will eliminate them where they hide. And as always, we will rely on the strength of the American people to remain ...
— National Strategy for Combating Terrorism - February 2003 • United States
... to me again about being an invalid!" cried the girl. "When I came back to Bellvieu I was led to believe that you were fast failing in health. But, as yet, I have seen no indication that you are not as hale and hearty ...
— Dorothy's Triumph • Evelyn Raymond
... provided with all she requires," but she herself showed such violent opposition that at last, in fear for her health, they ceased to press it. Had they done so, she would surely have run away. At the same time she had no other home, no means, and what powers she had had of earning any were fast failing her. ...
— Dick and Brownie • Mabel Quiller-Couch
... utter despair gripped him and it was not until several seconds had elapsed, while he was tossed at the mercy of the storm, that he was able to get a grip on himself. He struck out frantically and for just a brief minute was guilty of a failing which he had never yielded to—the perilous weakness of being rattled and hitting hard at nothing. In swimming, above all things, this is futile and dangerous, and presently Tom regained his mental poise and struck out calmly, swimming in the direction in which the wind bore him, ...
— Tom Slade with the Boys Over There • Percy K. Fitzhugh
... a man who seemed doomed to failure it was U. S. Grant in the spring of 1861. He had cut loose from the profession for which he had been trained, and, after drifting from one occupation to another and failing in all, he was now, at thirty-nine years old, a clerk in a country store and unable to make ends meet at that. Three years later he was Lieutenant-General of the armies of the United States, and five years after that ...
— Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers • Arthur Brisbane
... his heel to leave her. But in that instant the warning voice cried out again in Olga's soul, compelling her to swift action. She sprang after him, caught his arm, clinging to it with all her failing strength. ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell
... in manners without awkwardness, vulgar astonishment or mauvaise-honte. As a man he is high-spirited and energetic, always ready to fight for his Sultan, his country and, especially, his Faith: courteous and affable, rarely failing in temperance of mind and self-respect, self-control and self-command: hospitable to the stranger, attached to his fellow citizens, submissive to superiors and kindly to inferiors—if such classes exist: Eastern despotisms have arrived nearer the idea ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton
... feeling that, quite unaccountably, Derry was failing her. A shamed feeling that she had offered herself and ...
— The Tin Soldier • Temple Bailey
... be his former prisoner, the old man Edwards, who slipped from his saddle with the never-failing grace of the cow-man, and came slowly toward the cabin. He smiled wearily as he said: "I'm on your trail, Mr. Ranger, but I bear no malice. You were doing your duty. Can you tell me how far ...
— Cavanaugh: Forest Ranger - A Romance of the Mountain West • Hamlin Garland
... indeed contrived to get everything directed by General Simon, without giving him a single word in writing which might compromise himself, and had left himself in a position in which he could deny everything if, in the event of the plot failing, General Simon should accuse him of being a participant. The First Consul, though convinced of Bernadotte's guilt, had no solid evidence to go on, and his council of ministers concluded that it would not be feasible ...
— The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot, Translated by - Oliver C. Colt • Baron de Marbot
... protector, Mrs. Valeria—I understand!" He bowed low to Benjamin, with ferocious irony. "Your humble servant, Mr. Retributive Justice! I have deserved you—and I submit to you. Walk in, sir! I will take care that your new office shall be a sinecure. This lady is the Light of my Life. Catch me failing in respect to her if you can!" He backed his chair before Benjamin (who listened to him in contemptuous silence) until he reached the part of the room in which I was standing. "Your hand, Light of my Life!" he murmured in his gentlest tones. "Your hand—only to show that you have forgiven ...
— The Law and the Lady • Wilkie Collins
... company had reached its complement—it was limited to forty-seven men and three officers—a small band of hostiles began depredations near Sheridan City, one of the towns that grew up over-night on the Kansas-Pacific railway. Forsyth pursued this party, but failing to overtake it, made his way into Fort Wallace for rations, intending to return from there to Fort Hays. Before he started back, however, another band of Indians appeared near the post and stole some horses from the stage company. This unexpected raid made Forsyth hot to go for ...
— The Memoirs of General Philip H. Sheridan, Vol. II., Part 6 • P. H. Sheridan
... has seen the moon when it was full and bright and gave a wondrous light, but now it is only a pale crescent in the sky and its light is failing. Certainly the moon is failing and not like the child ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10 - The Guide • Charles Herbert Sylvester
... determined to secure, as of paramount importance, the right which is the birthright of an American citizen. We, therefore, appeal to you gentlemen vested with the power largely to shape conditions to confer with us and influence public opinion to adopt woman suffrage through State action. Failing to accomplish this, the onus of responsibility will rest upon the men of the South if southern women are forced to support a National Amendment, weighted with the same ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various
... Testament. However, they impose a double labor upon us, inasmuch as we are compelled to defend the text and to clear it of such corruptions, and to correct their absurd comments. If I quote them occasionally, it is to avoid the suspicion of proudly despising them, or of failing to read, and to give sufficient consideration to, their writings. While we read them intelligently, we do so with critical discrimination, and we do not permit them to obscure Christ, and to corrupt the ...
— Commentary on Genesis, Vol. II - Luther on Sin and the Flood • Martin Luther
... of the Duke of Montpensier had been for some time rapidly failing. His constitution and that of his brother, Count Beaujolais, had been quite undermined by the hardships they had endured during their imprisonment. All the remedies which the best medical advice could administer proved unavailing. It soon ...
— Louis Philippe - Makers of History Series • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
... and Major-General Duvall, United States Army, for allowing me to accept. My thanks are also due the various officers and officials of the Insular Government who placed me under obligations by their hospitality and other courtesies and by the never-failing patience with which they received and answered my many questions. To my friend Colonel J.G. Harbord, United States Army, Assistant Director of Constabulary, I am beholden for instructions sent out in advance of the journey to the various Constabulary posts on the itinerary, directing ...
— The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon From Ifugao to Kalinga • Cornelis De Witt Willcox
... vicar was on one occasion taking the duty of an old man with failing eyesight, and Dick reminded him before the afternoon service that there was a funeral at four o'clock. "You must come into the church and tell me when it arrives," he told the clerk, "and I will stop my sermon." It was the habit of the old clergyman to relapse into a strong Yorkshire ...
— The Parish Clerk (1907) • Peter Hampson Ditchfield
... inimitable series of Monday morning cartoons for Le Figaro: one said "De Morbihan" instinctively at sight of that stocky figure, short and broad, topped by a chubby, moon-like mask with waxed moustaches, womanish eyes, and never-failing grin. ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance
... us now as well while we are here, as He shall do while we are there afore His blessed face. But for failing of love on our part, therefore is all ...
— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley
... rude awakening which came with the Yuan Shih-kai coup d'etat of 4th November, 1913. Thus we had this double paradox; on the one hand the Chinese people awkwardly trying to be western in a Chinese way and failing: on the other, foreign officials and foreign governments trying to be Chinese and making the confusion worse confounded. It was inevitable in such circumstances that the history of the past six years should have been the history ...
— The Fight For The Republic in China • Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale
... the heart,—at the bottom of the heart; but I cannot read it, the writing is so fine, it is a female hand; I do not know how to read a woman's writing. They have a cipher of which Satan alone has the key. My sight is failing me. I have flies in my head. There is always one of them that hides this name from me. Oh! in mercy, in pity, take away the fly and bring me a pair of pincers. . . . With good pincers I will seek that name even in the last fibers of this ...
— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne
... mother's home, where we were to spend a few weeks longer before returning to the city, which was to be our permanent home. Soon after my return to Elmwood, I received an urgent message to visit Mr. Judson, who was said to be fast failing. I felt a degree of reluctance to go, having never once entered his dwelling since the memorable day on which I left it years ago, but I felt it my duty to comply with his request. I found him much weaker than I had ...
— Walter Harland - Or, Memories of the Past • Harriet S. Caswell
... not to murmur; to feel that it is in mercy my Father in Heaven afflicts me thus. If I might but retain my health, my mother should never suspect my sufferings, I would, I know I would, hide them from every eye; but she reads them in my failing frame and pallid features, when I would by every means in my power prove to her that while she is spared to me, I cannot be wholly unhappy. It was not illness of body that prevented my replying to your first long letter; but papa and ...
— The Mother's Recompense, Volume I. - A Sequel to Home Influence in Two Volumes. • Grace Aguilar
... she might shrink from openly presenting herself at the main entrance to the gallery, and might prefer—especially if she was not aware of the priest's presence in the room—to slip in quietly by the library door. Failing to find her, on putting this idea to the test, Lord Loring had discovered Penrose, and had so hastened the introduction of the younger of the two ...
— The Black Robe • Wilkie Collins
... upon her face, and awakened her failing senses. She spoke again, and the melody of her voice was like the faint notes of an ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach
... stately neck and shoulders was the thing itself, and a more beautiful decoration was never worn by woman from the days of the Queen of Sheba to this day of lavish display in jewels. It was a marvel, indeed, but the moment I saw it I ceased to give the lady credit for superior virtue in failing to smuggle it through the custom-house, for its very size would have precluded the possibility of a successful issue to any such attempted evasion of the law. It was too bulky to have been secreted in ...
— R. Holmes & Co. • John Kendrick Bangs
... these heartless friends did not escape the notice of the dying queen. Though her strength of body was almost gone, the soul was as active and busy as ever within its failing tenement. She watched every thing—noticed every thing, growing more and more jealous and irritable just in proportion as her situation became helpless and forlorn. Every thing seemed to conspire to deepen the despondency and gloom which darkened ...
— Queen Elizabeth - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... a fiasco," the sheriff was heard saying, "owing to our failing to take them by surprise. Why, three-fourths of those taken will have to be liberated, and we have let the worst ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... race, good Jobst, lies now in you and your daughter's hands. Through the witchcraft of Sidonia Bork, as ye know, and all the world testifies, our ancient race has been melted away till but a few dry twigs remain, and no young eyes look up to us when our old eyes are failing. But what Sidonia Bork has destroyed, Diliana Bork, by God's help, can restore. For, mark! after all human help had been found of no avail, this man whom ye see here, a magister artium of Grypswald, Joel by ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold
... the U.S. Geological Survey monument. A fierce gale was blowing from the west, and turning toward the tree-clad slopes of the east, we stood in the wind, with the everlasting blue above and the glorious and never-failing green beneath. Unconsciously there sprang to my lips Joaquin ...
— The Lake of the Sky • George Wharton James
... where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the sovereign power, should leave his native country with all his partizans, and look for some new land, where, after he had established himself, he might drop all foreign correspondence? The easy navigation of the South Sea ...
— History of Louisisana • Le Page Du Pratz
... favourite study, having initiated the Numismatic Journal in 1836. In the following year he became the secretary of the newly established Numismatic Society. In 1848 he was elected secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, an office which he was compelled to resign in 1860 on account of failing health. Akerman published a considerable number of works on his special subject, the more important being a Catalogue of Roman Coins (1839); a Numismatic Manual (1840); Roman Coins relating to Britain (1844); Ancient Coins—Hispania, Gallia, ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... made an easy capture of the two brothers that kept the inn and their servant in their first sleep. He was about to put them the torture, to elicit the true state of the case, when, their courage failing, they confessed without the least reserve, severally at first, and then jointly, that 'twas they that had slain Tedaldo Elisei, not knowing who he was. Asked for why, they answered that 'twas because he had sorely harassed the wife of one of them, ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio
... in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, And works ...
— The World's Best Poetry Volume IV. • Bliss Carman
... energy he could into a series of short jerky strokes, using the muscles of his arms, failing altogether to get the weight of his body on the oar. At the end of twenty minutes Priscilla gave him ...
— Priscilla's Spies 1912 • George A. Birmingham
... We visited him at Winchester, and found him sorely old and with failing wits. We be on our way to our mother's brother, Master ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... involuntary shudder ran over me, for my companion turned with a confident look to reassure me, and he was so completely master of himself that I at once absorbed from his abundance, and felt the chinks of my failing courage beginning to close up. To meet his eye in the presence of danger was like finding a mental railing that guided and supported thought along the giddy edges ...
— Three John Silence Stories • Algernon Blackwood
... with regard to punishments is that all the relatives of a culprit, in the event of his not being found, are implicated in his guilt; if therefore the principal cannot be caught his brother or father will answer nearly as well, and failing these, any other male or female relatives who may fall into the hands ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 2 (of 2) • George Grey
... to be natural, and was failing wretchedly. His voice was actually sad, and she had never heard it sad in all their intercourse before. She had never thought it could be sad, and the sound was something like a revelation of the man. It made her afraid of herself—afraid for herself. And yet above all ...
— Theo - A Sprightly Love Story • Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett
... urchin, but his chatter had been a distraction; he had kept her spirits up by his way of making game of everything, as if it was all one huge raree show. Now she was beginning to tremble, her strength was failing her, she, who by nature was so courageous. The shells no longer fell around her: the Germans had ceased firing on Bazeilles, probably to avoid killing their own men, who were now masters of the village; but within the last few minutes she had heard the whistling of bullets, that ...
— The Downfall • Emile Zola
... of Scaife's room. Instantly John divined what had come to pass, and cursed himself for a fool. Warde, from some coign of vantage, had seen a boy leave his house. Why should he try to arrest the boy? why should he risk the humiliation of running after him, and, perhaps, failing to capture him? No, no; men forty were not likely to work in that boyish fashion. Warde had adopted an infinitely better plan. Assured that a boy had left the house, he had nothing to do but walk round the rooms and find out which one was absent. He had begun with Scaife. Next ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell
... mountains and penetrated into Old Castile, he decided to anticipate it. Lopez was sent ahead with a donkey bearing a cargo of Testaments, his instructions being to meet Borrow and Antonio at La Granja. Failing to find Lopez at the appointed place, Borrow pushed on to Segovia, where he received news that some men were selling books at Abades, to which place he proceeded with three more donkeys laden with books that had been consigned to a friend at Segovia. At Abades ...
— The Life of George Borrow • Herbert Jenkins
... overcame him. He tried to shake it off and sat down. Presently it left him and he felt quite as usual. Then he made a second attempt. The same thing occurred again. This time it was worse, and sight and strength failing, he sank on his own bed, fainting. By a tremendous effort he prevented entire unconsciousness from taking place and lay ...
— Crowded Out! and Other Sketches • Susie F. Harrison
... it seemed that the chill of death Over me there like a mantle fell, And I knew by my fluttering, failing breath That the end was near, and all ...
— Yesterdays • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... is centuries since we were here. But what will you have? with the bad season, the rains, the banks failing, the—but you, madame, are well? And Monsieur Paul?" "Ah, ca va tout doucement Paul is well, the good God be praised, but I—I perish day by day" At which the entire court-yard was certain to burst into laughing protest. For the whole household of Guillaume le Conquerant ...
— In and Out of Three Normady Inns • Anna Bowman Dodd
... distress and destitution of the poor, and who can never look upon a promising spring or an abundant harvest, without an inward sense of ingratitude against God for his goodness, or upon a season of drought, or a failing crop, unless with a thankful feeling of ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton
... relations with Shirakawa had been over-intimate and that Sutoku was illegitimate. Therefore, immediately after Shirakawa's demise, Toba took to himself an Empress, Kaya-no-in, daughter of Fujiwara Tadazane; and failing offspring by her, chose another Fujiwara lady, Bifuku-mon-in, daughter of Nagazane. For this, his third consort, he conceived a strong affection, and when she bore to him a prince, Toba placed the latter on the throne at the ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... Jean, and keeping him before us we hurried him into the presence of the fair-haired commander to whom we told our story, failing not to report on the incident witnessed by O'mie on the river bank two nights before, when Jean sent his murdered father's body into the ...
— The Price of the Prairie - A Story of Kansas • Margaret Hill McCarter
... "I am failing," thought Henry. "She does not like me. I am not being intelligent. They will talk of things above my ...
— Mystery at Geneva - An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings • Rose Macaulay
... Something, such as a program or a computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy manner. "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!" 2. A person who has caused you some trouble, inadvertently or otherwise, typically by failing to program the computer properly. Synonyms: {loser}, {cretin}, {chomper}. 3. 'bite the bag' /vi./ To fail in some manner. "The computer keeps crashing every five minutes." "Yes, the disk controller is really biting the bag." The original loading ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0
... lay blame on the few fine gifts that should gild our lives. But Cuckoo had been very pretty and had soon learnt the first foul lesson of her mtier, to wake swift desire. As time went on and she wasted her gift of beauty along the pavements of London, she found this poor power failing in strength and in certainty. As to the power of wakening that slower, deeper, kindred, yet opposed desire of love, Cuckoo had never known whether she possessed it. She had had many lovers, but nobody to love ...
— Flames • Robert Smythe Hichens
... Mississippi River between 41 and 42 north latitude, the Missouri River about the mouth of the Platte, thence to the Rocky Mountains near the source of the last named river, crossing them and down the valley of the Oregon to the Pacific. It further suggested that it be made a national project, or this failing the grant of three millions of acres to a Company organized for the purpose of constructing it. No name was signed to the article, but the probabilities are that it was written by S. W. Dexter, the Editor of ...
— The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad - Its Projectors, Construction and History • W. F. Bailey
... art offended, because I said, when the spirit of Christ convinceth, it convinceth of more sins than the sins against the law. Friend, will the law shew a man that his righteousness is sin and dung? No, for though the law will shew a man that his failing in the acts of righteousness is sin; yet I question, whether the law will shew, that a man's own righteousness is sin. For there is in scripture [that which] saith ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... and returned to his desk. Clarisse and Lupin stood choking, looking at him in stupefaction, failing to understand this sudden change. Was he mad? Was it a trick on his part? A breach of faith? And was he refusing to keep his promise, now that he possessed ...
— The Crystal Stopper • Maurice LeBlanc
... servants have some never-failing good qualities. They are the perfection of civility-humble, obliging, excessively good-tempered, and very easily attached to those with whom they live; and if that rara avis, a good Mexican housekeeper, can be found, and that such may be met with I from experience ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca
... not give up, but held the raft bravely on its course, till at last the water in the river shifted again and floated them the way they wanted to go. But now the captive fish found its strength failing. Seeking a refuge, it began to drag the raft toward the shore. As they did not wish to land in this place the boy cut the rope with his pocket-knife and set the fish free, just in time to prevent ...
— The Patchwork Girl of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... might, but with no effect. He then applied his head to the tree, and pushed for several minutes, but with no better success. He then trampled with his feet all the projecting roots, moving, as he did so, several times round and round the tree. Lastly, failing in all this, and seeing a pile of timber, which I had lately cut, at a short distance from us, he removed it all (thirty-six pieces) one at a time to the root of the tree, and piled them up in a regular ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent
... her, but he promised to procure a small biography of the saint. She received the book a few days after, and as she turned over the leaves she heard the children coming home from school, and she took the book out to them, for her sight was failing, and they read bits of it aloud, and she frightened them by dropping on her knees and crying out that God had ...
— The Untilled Field • George Moore
... necessity forbids is wicked; otherwise it is virtuous. Hence Cicero says a little earlier: "Perhaps one should make allowances for those who by reason of their exceptional talents have devoted themselves to learning; as also to those who have retired from public life on account of failing health, or for some other yet weightier motive; when such men yielded to others the power and renown of authority." This agrees with what Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xix, 19): "The love of truth demands a hallowed leisure; charity necessitates good works. If no ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas
... asked each of my men if they'd fight for you. They said yes. You sent them to cut my throat. They didn't. But they're not disgraced! I want that clear! They're good men! They're not disgraced for failing to ...
— The Pirates of Ersatz • Murray Leinster
... from both breaches thorow a narrow lane) were many of our men hurt: and Captaine Dolphin, who serued very well that day, was hurt in the very breach. The failing of this attempt, in the opinion of all the beholders, and of such as were of best judgement, was the fall of the mine; which had doubtlesse succeeded, the rather, because the approch was vnlooked for by the enemy in that place, and therefore not so much defence made there as in the other; ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, v. 7 - England's Naval Exploits Against Spain • Richard Hakluyt
... endeavouring, and failing, to find courage to put a little sharpness into his tone, "I couldn't marry on seventeen-and-six a week, ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett
... killed I shall at any rate have died unselfishly, sacrificing my life for my companions"; and in time all the most noble birds would be dead. What they really do is to try and persuade a companion of weaker mind to plunge: failing this, they hastily pass a conscription act and push him over. And then—bang, helter-skelter, in ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard
... armies in detail till they sued for peace, (3) to dominate the continent and organise it for the settlement with England. We ought to be devoutly thankful that (1) failed: but Instead we assumed that the worst was over and that (2) would fail as signally. As a matter of fact (2) looks like failing after all; but it has been near success for much longer than (1) was and consequently has achieved more. But if you remember, both Papa and K. said at the outset it would be a three years' war: which clearly meant ...
— Letters from Mesopotamia • Robert Palmer
... this by-play had been lost on Miss Wildmere, and she smiled satirically. "They thought to dupe me with delusions about Mr. Muir. He has no more idea of failing than I have, and before very long he shall be Brother Henry to me as well as ...
— A Young Girl's Wooing • E. P. Roe
... heirs, Tiberius for two (147) thirds of his estate, and Livia for the other third, both of whom he desired to assume his name. The heirs in remainder were Drusus, Tiberius's son, for one third, and Germanicus with his three sons for the residue. In the third place, failing them, were his relations, and several of his friends. He left in legacies to the Roman people forty millions of sesterces; to the tribes [263] three millions five hundred thousand; to the pretorian troops a thousand each man; to the city cohorts five hundred; and to the legions and soldiers three ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus
... attainments gained for him international recognition. Dr. Blyden was born in St. Thomas in 1832, of purest Negro parentage. He early felt an ardent love for Africa, the fatherland, and came to the United States hoping to prepare himself for work in Africa. Failing in this, he went to Liberia and was among the first pupils enrolled in the State College. He served after graduation as professor in the college and was appointed Secretary of State in 1864. In 1877, ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various
... often seemed to me that the reason for failure, or the ultimate failing to attain success, in a vast number of "Faith cures," is simply because the people who seek them, being generally of a gushing, imaginative nature, are lacking in deep reflection, application, or earnest attention. ...
— The Mystic Will • Charles Godfrey Leland
... sudden she cried out, soft and pitiful, for blood was upon him, upon his brow, upon his golden hair. And still as one a-dream he felt her slip from his failing clasp, felt her arms close about ...
— Beltane The Smith • Jeffery Farnol
... night of death Our being's brief eclipse, When faltering heart and failing breath Have bleached ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... And, with a failing voice, Sohrab replied:— "Ah yes, he had! and that lost son am I. 580 Surely the news will one day reach his ear, Reach Rustum, where he sits, and tarries long, Somewhere, I know not where, but far from here; ...
— Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems • Matthew Arnold
... reached Berlin in the last few days of February, had caused all this growth and blossoming like sunshine and warm rain. There was no repressing it, and the authorities felt daily more and more that their old measures of restraint were failing. ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers |
