"Fool" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... time, when Peggy said she'd forgotten a box of candy in her room and went to get it. We waited for her, and after a while there was a knock on the door—just a little timid knock, as if Peggy were trying to fool us. She knew a knock like that would scare us to death, so we thought we'd fool her. I happened to have a pitcher of water on the stand there, so we opened the door a little way—it was pitch dark—and let her have it, ...
— Blue Bonnet in Boston - or, Boarding-School Days at Miss North's • Caroline E. Jacobs
... said: "The picture is already boxed and in its lead coffin. No doubt by now it is on its way to Liverpool. I am sorry." But his thoughts, as Philip easily read them, were: "Fancy my letting this vulgar fool into the Tate Street workshop! Even HE would know that old masters are not found in a half-finished state on Chelsea-made frames and canvases. Fancy my letting him see those two half-completed Van Dycks, the new Hals, the half-dozen Corots. He would even ...
— The Red Cross Girl • Richard Harding Davis
... was not quite such a fool as I looked, mind or body. I had once had a hardish struggle with Snuffy himself when he was savage, and I was strong and agile beyond my seeming. I dived deeply into my trousers-pocket, as if feeling for ...
— We and the World, Part II. (of II.) - A Book for Boys • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... about foreign politics. My line has been the other way. Never mind; I will read the 'Debats' and the 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' and make out something. Foreign affairs are all the future, and my views may be as right as anybody else's; probably more correct, not so conventional. What a fool I was, Ferrars! I was asked to remain here to-night and refused! The truth is, I could not stand those powdered gentlemen, and I should have been under their care. They seem so haughty and supercilious. ...
— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli
... 'A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,' or in 'The Soldier's Funeral,' in the declamation of which I was held to have surpassed myself. 'Robert's voice,' said the master on this memorable occasion, 'is not strong, but impressive': an opinion which I was fool enough to carry home to my father; who roasted me for years in consequence. I am sure one should not be so deliciously tickled by ...
— Essays of Travel • Robert Louis Stevenson
... "I will not be caught like a fool at a first disclosure by a rendezvous under the clock, as they say at the opera-balls. If the fair peasant wishes to carry matters any further, we shall find her, or rather, she will find us to-morrow; then she will give ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... a wondrous fashion. Poor fool! His food and drink are not of earth. An inward impulse hurries him afar, Himself half conscious of his frenzied mood; From heaven claimeth he the fairest star, And from the earth craves every highest good, And all that's near, and all that's far, Fails to allay ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... 'Go to the church?' he repeated. 'I would as soon go to—' He checked himself there. 'How can you ask?' he added in lower tones. 'I have never spoken to Montbarry, I have not even seen him, since he treated you like the scoundrel and the fool ...
— The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice • Wilkie Collins
... a fool—his life would pay the penalty for a pretty girl's whim. Unfortunately, perhaps, my life is too precious to some one other than myself, to admit of the sacrifice. I am willing to do much for Lady Ruth, but I decline to be made a ...
— Miss Caprice • St. George Rathborne
... down the line I had kept an eye for suspicious characters with an eye upon me; but even my self-consciousness failed to discover one; and I reached my haven of peace, and of fresh fell air, feeling, I suppose, much like any other fool who has spent his money ...
— Dead Men Tell No Tales • E. W. Hornung
... he walked on down the street, and straightway found that he was walking himself out of town altogether. He turned his head and looked back, saw the tall man glancing after him, and went on briskly, with some effort holding himself back from running like a fool. He felt that he had blundered in coming down this way, where there was nothing but a blacksmith shop and a few small cottages set in trim lawns. The tall man would know that he had no business down here, and he would wonder who he was and what he was after. And once that tall ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... must seem like the Great Sahara to you, coming into it for the first time and directly from the Puget Sound country. I remember how I felt when I struck the Hesperides. Why, it looked like the front door of Hades to me; I said so, and I called myself all kinds of a fool. But I had sunk an even thousand dollars in a twenty-acre tract; bought it off a real estate map over in Seattle, without seeing the ground." He laughed, half in embarrassment at the confession, and moved ...
— The Rim of the Desert • Ada Woodruff Anderson
... brought them to Sodom, and they charged him to flee from the city with his wife and his four daughters, two of them married, and two betrothed.[177] Lot communicated their bidding to his sons-in-law, and they mocked at him, and said: "O thou fool! Violins, cymbals, and flutes resound in the city, and thou sayest Sodom will be destroyed!" Such scoffing but hastened the execution of the doom of Sodom.[178] The angel Michael laid hold upon the hand of Lot, and his wife and his daughters, while with his little finger ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg
... first, it was a blunder rather than a fault. Peter the Great caused his heir to be tried and sentenced to death, because he was a sot, a liar, and a fool. He dared not intrust the interests of his Empire to so unworthy a son; the welfare of Russia was more to him than the interest of his family. In that respect this stern and iron man was a greater prince than Marcus Aurelius; for the ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume IV • John Lord
... they spill in covetousness and care about the world. If thou sawest a man have precious stones wherewith he might buy a kingdom, if he gave them for an apple, as a child will do, rightly mightest thou say that he was not wise but a great fool. Just so, if we will, we have precious stones: Poverty and penance and ghostly travail, with the which we may buy the kingdom of heaven. For, if thou lovest poverty and despisest riches and delights of this world, and holdest thyself vile and poor, and thinkest thou hast naught ...
— The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises • Richard Rolle of Hampole
... "Fool that I was!" cried the Frenchman. "Had I kept my presence of mind in Steinberg's hut our position would not be so desperate. It was my salute ...
— The boy Allies at Liege • Clair W. Hayes
... that the youth of that place had been slightly in awe of Phillis. One or two had even hinted that they thought her strong-minded. "She has stand-off ways, and rather laughs at a fellow, and makes one feel sometimes like a fool," they said; which did not prove much, except that Phillis showed herself above nonsense, and had a knowledge of shams, and would not be deceived, and, being the better horse of the two, showed it; and no man likes to be taken down in ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey
... he replied, with strong, vibrant passion. "I was a fool not to carry y'u off long ago. But I waited. I was hopin' y'u'd love me! ... An' now that Isbel gang has corralled us. Somers seen the half-breed up on the rocks. An' Springer seen the rest of them sneakin' around. I run back after my ...
— To the Last Man • Zane Grey
... "He was a fool," said the scientist softly, as he rose, "to plan on removing his scientist. Are there any ...
— Invaders from the Infinite • John Wood Campbell
... to the bottom, of course, where I told you she would go. You were a fool to leave her out there in the deep water. She has gone down where you ...
— Haste and Waste • Oliver Optic
... a wry face; his little heart was beating tremulously; dark shadows crossed his mind. Two portentous stars had appeared in the horoscope of his destiny: he who had been the foreign fool; she who was the daughter of the constable. Almost fiercely the hunchback surveyed the beautiful woman before him. With her downfall would come his own, and he believed the king had wearied of her. How hateful was her fair face to him at that moment! Already in imagination he experienced ...
— Under the Rose • Frederic Stewart Isham
... herself of some of her superfluous finery, and her husband quietly takes the opportunity to don his shaggy coat and light his pipe, and while she fancies him safe within their own walls, he is striding swiftly toward Jerry Doolan's to tell him what an old fool he made of himself in the morning, and to remove the heaviness from his friend's heart by an ...
— The Elm Tree Tales • F. Irene Burge Smith
... whitened, but I kept on singing. I nodded at Labarthe, and sang, I think, of spring and running brooks. Then I flung a jeer at him and ate my breakfast. I ate it systematically and stolidly, though it would not have tempted any but a starving man. I was a fool and a dullard. I had slept away my opportunities, and I could not see that my strength was important to any one. But I determined to ...
— Montlivet • Alice Prescott Smith
... of course, you rustic cub," was the scornful reply, for politeness did not distinguish Tom's new friends. "Any fool about town ...
— Tom Tufton's Travels • Evelyn Everett-Green
... were arrayed vainly against those of cigarettes and petits verres. Rose was the only woman who remained at table. She hung over her lover, desirous that he should listen to her. Mildred thought, 'What a fool.... We ...
— Celibates • George Moore
... to send it into town to be made for ye, and couldn't put a button on a pair of breeches for fear of 'urtin' yer delicate fingers! Well! God 'elp ye when the man comes as ye're lookin' for! He'll be a fool anyhow, for all men are that,—but he'll be twice a fool if he takes you for a life-satchel on ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli
... or the great roots of Christian faith; ending with the latest joke in the town or the West Raw, the last effusion by Affleck, tailor and poet, the last blunder of AEsop the apothecary, and the last repartee of the village fool, with the week's Edinburgh and Glasgow news by their respective carriers; the whole little life, sad and humorous—who had been born, and who was dying or dead, married or about to be, ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown
... has never received the sanction of any political organisation in Great Britain."[898] "No Socialist entertains the remotest idea of 'abolishing' the family, whether by law or otherwise. Only the grossest misrepresentation can fasten upon them such a purpose; moreover, it takes a fool to imagine that any form of family can either be created or abolished ...
— British Socialism - An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals • J. Ellis Barker
... boy in perfectly good English, turning to look at Hastings, "and she's such a fool she calls me Rene because mamma calls ...
— The King In Yellow • Robert W. Chambers
... Medicine, jurisprudence too, And, to my cost, theology With ardent labour studied through, And here I stand with all my lore, Poor fool, no ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... fool headed straight for the devil," answered the officer succinctly. "Now listen to me, Nucky. I've knowed you ever since you started into the school over there. I mind how the teacher told me she was glad to see one brat that looked ...
— The Enchanted Canyon • Honore Willsie Morrow
... to London," I said, firmly, "I was most desperately in love. I was to make a fortune, incidentally my name, marry, and live happily ever after. There seemed last year nothing complex about that programme. It seemed almost too simple. I even, like a fool, thought to add an extra touch of piquancy to it by endeavouring to be a Bohemian. I then discovered that what I was attempting was not so simple as I had imagined. To begin with, Bohemians diffuse their brains in every direction except that ...
— Not George Washington - An Autobiographical Novel • P. G. Wodehouse
... produced. Quite so. But they will get produced some day, for I believe he's an extremely clever fellow in his way—in everything except the diplomatic 'trade' which his father would have him take up, and got him into, through Heaven knows what influence. No; Du Laurier's no fool, and is said to be a fine sportsman, as well as almost absurdly good-looking. Mademoiselle Maxine has plenty of excuse for her infatuation—for I assure you it's nothing less. She'd jump into the fire for this young man, and grill ...
— The Powers and Maxine • Charles Norris Williamson
... tales to the effect that he made his will as follows: "I have nothing—I owe much—I leave the rest to the poor." And also that he sent a message as follows, to Cardinal du Ballay. "Tell the cardinal I am going to try the great 'perhaps'—you are a fool—draw the curtain—the farce is done." These were fictions invented by the very pious Catholics, who hated him for his satires upon ...
— Paris: With Pen and Pencil - Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business • David W. Bartlett
... Mary, perhaps I was. At any rate I was a great fool for my pains. I might have known by this time that you would catch me ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes
... was a damned lie, and no one but a damned fool would believe it," shouted Peter Rolls, Sr. "My boy a deceiver of women? Why, he's a Gala-what-you-may-call-it! He'd die any death sooner than harm a woman. I'm his father, and I know what I'm talking about. Who the devil warned you? Some beast, ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson
... "Curse that fool Benson," he growled. "What the blazes is keeping him all this time? I had better go and hurry him up. If they've got hold of Archer, it's time ...
— The Pit Prop Syndicate • Freeman Wills Crofts
... robes, and vehicles, and teams, and goats, and sheep, and multitudes of steeds and mares and mules would not have sustained any diminution. But now deprived of prosperity by the rivalry of dice, he sits dumb like a fool, reflecting on his own misdeeds. Alas, he who, while sojourning, was followed by ten thousand elephants adorned with golden garlands now supports himself by casting dice. That Yudhishthira who at Indraprastha was adored by kings of incomparable prowess by hundreds of thousands, that mighty monarch ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... this critical moment a fresh comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good ...
— The Short-story • William Patterson Atkinson
... Ghaist, ghost. Ghastness, ghastliness. Gibbet-airn, gibbet-iron. Gie, gi'e, give. Gie's, give us, give me. Giftie, gift. Gill, glass of whisky. Gin, if, by. Glaikil, foolish. Glint, flash. Glommed, gloomy. Gloure, glory. Gowan, wild daisy.' Gowd, gold. Gowk, fool. Grane, groan. Grat, wept. Gre, grow. Gree, prize. 'Gree, agree. Greet, weep. Grein, long for. Grozet, gooseberry. Gude, guid, good. Gudeman, Guidman, husband. Guidwife, married woman, mistress of the house. Guidwillie, full of good will. Gusty, ...
— English Poets of the Eighteenth Century • Selected and Edited with an Introduction by Ernest Bernbaum
... came out. "Well, if you won't, you won't," he was saying as Julia opened the door. "I think you are making a mistake; in fact, if you weren't a lady I should say you were acting rather like a fool; but, of course, you must please yourself. If you think better of it you can always write to me. Just name the price, a reasonable price, that's all you need do. We understand one another, and we can do business without any fuss—you have ...
— The Good Comrade • Una L. Silberrad
... at all times. If the big mirror were ever to present its blackened rear surface to the sun for more than a few minutes, the rise in temperature would totally destroy the entire project. Therefore, these servos had been designed as the ultimate in fail-safe, fool-proof control to maintain the orientation of the mirror always within one tenth of one degree of ...
— Where I Wasn't Going • Walt Richmond
... fool under the tree there, who has come so far without finding what he seeks. He is trying to find King ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Various
... mother, with a much relieved expression, "then let your mind rest, my son, for Blackbeard must be a fool if he laughed ...
— The Giant of the North - Pokings Round the Pole • R.M. Ballantyne
... carry me home without my knowing it was Dave. Dave was to make out that he was Bud and make a dash of some sort to find out how Bud stood with me. On our way home Dave didn't talk much. That helped to fool me, because Bud and I have gone along not saying a word; only looking at each other now and then. But that night Dave, whom I was taking to be Bud, was unusually quiet. And I thought then that he was meditating something. When Dave got home with me, he stood between me and the gate and ...
— The Hindered Hand - or, The Reign of the Repressionist • Sutton E. Griggs
... quitted Aggie's company on that occasion. He knew why Aggie always contrived to meet him in the street, and he thought that she was a poor fool of a girl to do it. And her brother Willie was a "great gumph of a fellow," to go capering up and down the road in the evenings after any girl that would say a civil word to him or ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine
... bird, a winter's day Thou standest by the margin of the pool; And, taught by God, dost thy whole being school To Patience, which all evil can allay: God has appointed thee the fish thy prey; And giv'n thyself a lesson to the fool Unthrifty, to submit to moral rule, And his unthinking course by thee to weigh. There need not schools nor the professor's chair, Though these be good, true wisdom to impart; He, who has not enough for these to spare Of time, or gold, may yet amend ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron
... poet lives in a world apart from the vulgar, the most lenient apprehension of him is that his is a sort of fool's paradise. One of the most curious features in the relation of literature to life is this, that while poetry, the production of the poet, is as necessary to universal man as the atmosphere, and as acceptable, the poet is regarded ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... back to back, then," said the fairy, snappishly. "I should think any fool might have known enough to ...
— Prince Vance - The Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box • Eleanor Putnam
... and effrontery is the grand secret of fame. You are an Englishman and a philosopher,"—the latter expression uttered with a curl of the lip and an elevation of the brow, which evidently translated the word, a fool. "You take things circuitously, while success lies in the straight line; thus you ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various
... a naturalist of long and high standing; we naturally, therefore, credited him with the same good faith as a writer that we knew in ourselves as readers; it never so much as crossed our minds to suppose that the head which he was holding up all dripping before our eyes as that of a fool, was not that of a fool who had actually lived and written, but only of a figure of straw which had been dipped in a bucket of red paint. Naturally enough we concluded, since Mr. Darwin seemed to say so, that if ...
— Luck or Cunning? • Samuel Butler
... that school life is to some extent responsible; "the holidays," he adds, "are sufficiently long to counteract it, however, provided the boy has sisters and they have friends; the change from school fare and work to home naturally results in a greater surplus of nerve-force, and I think most boys 'fool about' with servants or their sisters' friends." Moll (Kontraere Sexualempfindung, 1889, pp. 6 and 356) does not think it proved that a stage of undifferentiated sexual feeling always occurs, although we have to recognize that it is of frequent occurrence. In his later work (1909, ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... as he stood in his dressing-gown. "This is life!" He did not know whether Grace was awake or not, and he would not turn his head to ascertain. "Ah, fool," he went on to himself, "to clip your own wings when you were free to soar!...But I could not rest till I had done it. Why do I never recognize an opportunity till I have missed it, nor the good or ill of a step till it is ...
— The Woodlanders • Thomas Hardy
... might prove troublesome, fell at his refusal to leave. John urged, but Laramie only asked Belle again for the ink. Lefever tried to coax Belle to go to the train with him. Belle would do almost any fool thing—as John bluntly averred—but this time she must have had pity on Kate and would not leave her unprotected. Lefever went his way. From a shelf near where Kate, with clasped hands, sat in silence Belle took paper ...
— Laramie Holds the Range • Frank H. Spearman
... event has proved that no law is obsolete until it is repealed. It has also proved Lord Coleridge's observation that there is, in the case of some laws, a "discriminating laxity," as well as Professor Hunter's remark that the Blasphemy Laws survive as a dangerous weapon in the hands of any fool or fanatic who likes to set them ...
— Prisoner for Blasphemy • G. W. [George William] Foote
... ivy-grown ruins of the castle in which Duke William was residing when the news was brought to him of the insurrection of his barons under the Viscount of the Cotentin. It was at this place that William's fool revealed to him the danger in which he stood, and it was from here that he rode in hot haste to the castle of Falaise, a stronghold the Duke seemed to regard as safer than any ...
— Normandy, Complete - The Scenery & Romance Of Its Ancient Towns • Gordon Home
... caught up by her questions. I tried to explain; but it was difficult. If I had told her that a maiden's mind ought to be as pure as the dewy rose she would not have understood me. Probably she would have thought me a fool. And indeed I am inclined to question whether it is an advantage to a maiden's after career to be dewy-roselike in her unsophistication. In order to play tunes indifferently well on the piano she undergoes the weary training of ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke
... keepers, and they began to banter the old man, thinking to have beaten him off it. But he stood up tightly to them: "Come come," said he, "though you have made a fool of me in bringing me in hither, ye shall not find a child of me now I am here. Mistake not yourselves: I understand my place and your duty; and I require you to conduct me and my brethren to the place where this man died: ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood
... heard of how Joel Fox fared when his wife got home. The lady arrived "as mad as a hornet," to use a popular saying. "You're the worst old fool ever was, Joel Fox!" were her first words, and a bitter quarrel followed that ended only when the man was driven out of the house with the ever-trustworthy broom. Joel Fox wanted to go over to the Rover farm, to have it out with ...
— The Rover Boys on the Ocean • Arthur M. Winfield (Edward Stratemeyer)
... his head. "No. Not respectable enough for James. And he's not fool enough to run his head into a trap. But I'd bet my head Big Tim gave him a tip it was to be pulled off. J. K. had to know. Otherwise he wouldn't have been in a position to play the game for them. But he didn't ...
— The Vision Spendid • William MacLeod Raine
... but they prefer to hold on as they have begun, rather than launch out into new courses, which they feel they have not the moral force to continue. "May I die," said the Cynic, "rather than lead a life of pleasure." "May I die," says the Epicurean, "rather than make a fool of myself." The Idealist is to them, if not {227} a hypocrite, at least a visionary,—if not a Tartuffe, at least a Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Yet even for poor Don Quixote, with all his blindness and his follies, the world retains a sneaking admiration. It can spare a few ...
— A Short History of Greek Philosophy • John Marshall
... I am not sick,—and this means that I am a fool. Even a little boy like Billy puts me to shame. I feel humbled to the very dust. I wish I'd been a missionary and got massacred by savages. Oh that I'd been permitted to wear damp stockings in childhood, or ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various
... the king first whence he knew that the interpretation given by the wise men of his country was not true, and Pharaoh replied, "I saw the dream and its interpretation together, and therefore they cannot make a fool of me."[172] In his modesty Joseph denied that he was an adept at interpreting dreams. He said, "It is not in me; it is in the hand of God, and if it be the wish of God, He will permit me to announce tidings of peace to Pharaoh." And for such modesty he was rewarded by sovereignty ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg
... exclaimed. "You Dutchman! You thought you'd fool me, did you? You are my prisoner. One false move and you are a ...
— The Boy Allies On the Firing Line - Or, Twelve Days Battle Along the Marne • Clair W. Hayes
... boys—meaning Rogers and I—would try to surprise the party by letting them get very near the house before they knew how near they were. "Be patient Mr. Arcane," said we, "we can tell you just how many camps there must be before we reach it, and we won't fool you or surprise you in any way." "Well," said he. "I was almost in hopes you would, for I like to be disappointed in that way." "What do you think the folks will say when we tell them that our little mule packed ...
— Death Valley in '49 • William Lewis Manly
... out there, away on the western plains; And yet there are spots of blood on the floor, they can't wash out the stains. What is it the lawyers call it? "Accessory to the fact?" Ha! ha! old boy, I was wide awake; they could not catch me in the act, So we put that poor young fool of a lad, just out from the motherland, Made him just drunk enough to fight when we needed a helping hand; A helping hand with a bowie knife and a corpse to be stowed away, We were sober enough not to be on hand when called upon next day. Who's that? Who are you? Stop! stop! coming whispering into ...
— Victor Roy, A Masonic Poem • Harriet Annie Wilkins
... "don't be a fool. You'll take my whole heart and soul and life—all that I have been and all that I'm going to be—and be glad to get it, and now you're balking at ten cents that I happened to have in my stocking when ...
— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed
... the better it would be. There is always betrayal and there are always counter-revolutionary agents within the ranks of an organization such as this. What was the old Russian proverb? When four men sit down to discuss revolution, three are police spies and the third a fool. ...
— Revolution • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... cue,' writes Haydon, 'and we had a glorious set-to-on Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Virgil. Lamb got exceedingly merry, and exquisitely witty, and his fun, in the midst of Wordsworth's solemn intonations of oratory, was like the sarcasm and wit of the fool in the intervals of Lear's passion.' Although the specimens of wit recorded no longer seem inspired, we can well believe Haydon's statement that it was an immortal evening, and that in all his life he never passed a more ...
— Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century • George Paston
... understand me. That sketch is a libel on a poor cow and an unfortunate oak-tree. I did them at the Academy. They had never done me any wrong, poor things; they suffered unjustly. You take them to a shop, swear they are a tree and a cow, and some fool, that never really looked into a cow or a tree, will give you ten shillings ...
— Christie Johnstone • Charles Reade
... prospect of getting about, or the diversion of the dog was responsible for the change, Dick's cheerfulness markedly increased in the next few days. For hours he would fool with the animal, whom he had named Billy, after a hunting companion, teaching him to shake hands, to speak, to wrinkle his nose in a doggy grin, to lie down at command, and all the other tricks useful and ornamental that go to make up the fanciest kind of a dog education. The mistakes and successes ...
— The Silent Places • Stewart Edward White
... throwing away and wasting my pains, I shall support with all the strength I have; but if I see that they are not appreciated, I shall not allow you—the very person benefited[74]—to think me a fool for my pains. What the meaning of all this is you will be able to learn from Pomponius. In commending Pomponius to you, although I am sure you will do anything in your power for his own sake, yet I do beg that if you have any affection for me left, you will display it all in Pomponius's ...
— The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 - The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... eye! I tell thee, fool, it is the kingdom's nose, By which she smells out all these rich transgressors; Nor is't of flesh, but merely made of wax, And 'tis within the power of us lawyers, To wrest this nose of wax ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853 • Various
... were long years when you were not demented. That was your chance for heaven, and you missed it." Oh, better be, as the Scotch say, a little "daft," nevertheless having grace in the heart; better be like poor Richard Hampson, the Cornish fool, whose biography has just appeared in England—a silly man he was, yet bringing souls to Jesus Christ by scores and scores—giving an account of his own conversion, when he said: "The mob got after ...
— New Tabernacle Sermons • Thomas De Witt Talmage
... down. He was shy of his father, and, indeed, Ivan Petrovitch on his side never caressed him; his grandfather sometimes patted him on the head and gave him his hand to kiss, but he thought him and called him a little fool. After the death of Malanya Sergyevna, his aunt finally got him under her control. Fedya was afraid of her: he was afraid of her bright sharp eyes and her harsh voice; he dared not utter a sound in her ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev
... misery, must await her? He for a season had left the magic circle of her life, and perhaps it was well. He was a man, and so he should know all. But he had returned, thank Heaven! he had returned, and never again would he quit her. Fool that he had been ever to have neglected her! And for a reason that ought to have made him doubly her friend, her solace, her protector. Oh! to think of the sneers or the taunts of the world calling for a moment the colour from that bright cheek, or dusking for an instant the radiance ...
— Venetia • Benjamin Disraeli
... I ought to say that the woman snubbed me when I was young, and later cared more for my money than she did for me. But I loved that woman thirty years ago, and was fool enough to think I might win her if I could strike it rich here in California. I'm older now, and wiser, I hope. If a woman won't marry a man 'for richer or poorer'—especially poorer—she oughtn't to marry him at all. There's my nephew who was out here ten years ...
— Forty-one Thieves - A Tale of California • Angelo Hall
... justified the President's choice, and under his strong if ruthless hand the War Department became sternly efficient. The whole story of Stanton's relations to his chief is packed, like the Arabian genius in the fisherman's vase, into one remark of Lincoln's. "Did Stanton tell you I was a fool?" said Lincoln on one occasion, in the odd, smiling way he had. "Then I expect I must be one, for he is almost always right, and generally says ...
— Abraham Lincoln and the Union - A Chronicle of the Embattled North, Volume 29 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Nathaniel W. Stephenson
... preceptor's disciple. It is for this that the preceptor protecteth this youth. Disciples and sons and their sons are always dear to the virtuous people. Protected by Drona, the youthful son of Arjuna regardeth himself valourous. He is only a fool entertaining a high opinion of himself. Crush him, therefore, without delay." Thus addressed by the Kuru king, those warriors, O monarch, excited with rage and desirous of slaying their foe, rushed, in the very sight of Drona at the son of Subhadra that daughter of the Satwata race. ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... much grieved at the count's disappointment," continued Mademoiselle Marguerite, "but suddenly he exclaimed, joyfully: 'That address—why, such a person will give it to me—what a fool I am!'" ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau
... interruption to the higher aims of life and destruction to family joys. Romance in her eyes was the exaltation of woman out of reach, and Maura's communications inclined her to glorify Kalliope as a heroine, molested by a very inconvenient person, 'Spighted by a fool, spighted and angered both,' as ...
— Beechcroft at Rockstone • Charlotte M. Yonge
... you mean?" asked Mr. Abernethy. "Why," said the other, "of course you will brush up the lectures which you have been so long delivering at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and let us have them in an improved form."—"Do you take me for a fool or a knave?" rejoined Mr. Abernethy. "I have always given the students at the Hospital that to which they are entitled—the best produce of my mind. If I could have made my lectures to them better, I would certainly have made them so. I will give ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19, Issue 530, January 21, 1832 • Various
... way promote a brother's spiritual welfare. But we are too apt to forget, if not to disbelieve, the solemn declarations of the bible; and forgetfulness to all practical results is as pernicious as downright infidelity. The man who forgets God is as little influenced by his law as the fool, who in his heart says there is no God at all. Now, this forgetfulness paralyzes our energies, damps our zeal, checks our benevolence. We do not consider that sinners are heaping up wrath against the ...
— The Church of England Magazine - Volume 10, No. 263, January 9, 1841 • Various
... conventional acceptance as truth. As to the future, we can conceive nothing but the continuation of just what we see about us in the present. Norman, practical man though he was, living in and for the present, had yet an imagination. He thought Hallowell a kind of fool for thinking only of the future and working only for it—but he soon came to think him n divine fool. And through Hallowell's spectacles he was charmed for many an hour with visions of the world that is to be when, in the slow but steady processes of evolution, the human race ...
— The Grain Of Dust - A Novel • David Graham Phillips
... death-warrant and delivered it to the Lord Chancellor, who dropped it by accident, and the person who found it carried it to the Queen herself. She was actually in conversation with the King when the Lord Chancellor came to take her to the Tower, for which the King called him a knave and a fool, bidding him "Avaunt from my presence." The Queen interceded for the Chancellor; but the King said, "Ah, poor soul, thou little knowest what he came about; of my word, sweetheart, he has been to ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... Aunt Maria emphatically. May laughed. "I lived with him for twelve years, and I'm not a fool any more than he is. If you ask him about me, you'll get the truth, and you get it when you ask me about him. After twelve years ...
— Quisante • Anthony Hope
... he was a fool? It didn't to me. I was young, and had not the clarity of judgment that Rothenstein already had. Soames was quite five or six years older than either of us. Also—he had written a book. It was wonderful to ...
— Enoch Soames - A Memory of the Eighteen-nineties • Max Beerbohm
... be a fool. When he comes, say: "I am the only man here ever had an affair with your wife. What have you ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page
... Amelie. Listen! The Intendant has made love to me with pointed gallantry that could have no other meaning but that he honorably sought my hand. He has made me talked of and hated by my own sex, who envied his preference of me. I was living in the most gorgeous of fool's paradises, when a bird brought to my ear the astounding news that a woman, beautiful as Diana, had been found in the forest of Beaumanoir by some Hurons of Lorette, who were out hunting with the Intendant. She was accompanied by a few Indians of a strange tribe, the Abenaquais ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... dost thou? in what arrogance Darest thou thus insult Pelasgia's realm? Deemest thou this a woman-hearted town? Thou art too full of thy barbarian scorn For us of Grecian blood, and, erring thus, Thou dost bewray thyself a fool in all! ...
— Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays • AEschylus
... which mariners assert to have witnessed at times, appears at the last moment before the sun dips below the horizon.... The ancients must have known the Green Gleam.... I do not know whether that be true, but I feel a longing within me to behold it. I can imagine some Pure Fool, whose life consisted but in seeking it over lands and seas, in order to perish at last in the radiance of that strange and splendid light. Are we not all, perhaps, upon a similar quest? Are we not beings who have exhausted the realm of ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann
... "That's where you fool yourself," says I. "I said I didn't know him; but if it'll relieve your mind any, I've heard him mentioned. He used to handle Pyramid Gordon's ...
— Shorty McCabe on the Job • Sewell Ford
... Mrs. Peters told her that Mr. Browning's only sister, a Mrs. Van Vechten, who lived South, was coming to Riverside, together with her son Ben. The lady Mrs. Peters had never seen, but Ben, who was at school in Albany, had spent a vacation there, and she described him as a "great, good-natured fool," who cared for nothing but dogs, cigars, fast horses and ...
— Rosamond - or, The Youthful Error • Mary J. Holmes
... requireth it, as it appeareth Matt. xviii.; if by the Canon, Civil Law, and God's Word, it be required, that there must be two Witnesses at the least, bear with me if I desire one. I would not desire to live, if I were privy to Cobham's proceedings. I have been a slave, a villain, a fool, if I had endeavoured to set up Arabella, and refused so gracious a lord and sovereign. But ...
— State Trials, Political and Social - Volume 1 (of 2) • Various
... Hanging? Wait till I show you. Here, Terry, give us a pony. That bloody old fool! Ten thousand pounds. You should have seen long John's eye. ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... packing my box, one of my chums came in, and I told him all about it. He is rather a good fellow that, sir; but he laughed, and said, 'What a fool you are, Weir! YOU'll never make your daily bread, and you needn't think it. If you knew what I know, you'd have known better. And it's very odd it was about shawls, too. I'll tell you. As you're going away, you won't let it ...
— Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood • George MacDonald
... slide shut, the top-coat buttoned, not a ray escaping, whether to conduct your footsteps or to make your glory public,—a mere pillar of darkness in the dark; and all the while, deep down in the privacy of your fool's heart, to know you had a bull's-eye at your belt, and to exult ...
— Talks To Teachers On Psychology; And To Students On Some Of Life's Ideals • William James
... messieurs," rejoined Deroulede. "The whole thing is a farce, and that young man is a fool; but I have ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... of money, his relatives could find a commission of physicians anywhere, who would honestly have him into custody for lunacy ... yet, in some respects, he is the wisest and kindest man I have ever known ... though, in others, he is often such a fool as to try my patience ...
— Tramping on Life - An Autobiographical Narrative • Harry Kemp
... want to be robbed put their money into an iron chest, that thieves may know exactly where to find it; they might as well ticket it 'cash,' and advertise to Newgate—come and steal. I know a little better than to be such a fool." ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... lay a long time for dead. By and by he began to revive, and, feeling very hungry, called out to a passing Sheep and said, "Would you kindly bring me some water from the stream close by? I can manage about meat, if only I could get something to drink." But this Sheep was no fool. "I can quite understand", said he, "that if I brought you the water, you would have no difficulty about ...
— Aesop's Fables • Aesop
... a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused, but we have no dread in meeting ...
— The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. • Euripides
... "What d'ye say?" When the child repeated the observation. "Bless the child!" said the astonished parent, "what odd things ye are always saying; what can you mean by liptical pancakes? Why, you little fool, don't you know they are made of flour and eggs, and did you not see me put the milk into the large pan and stir all up together?" "Yes," said the little fellow, "I know what they are made of, and I know what bread is made of, but that ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin
... a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Fern'd grot— The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that God is not— Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign; 'Tis very sure God walks ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy
... with fever. But these are precious moments; devil as I am become, yet that is my Mathilda before me whom I love as one was never before loved: and she knows it now; she listens to these words which I thought, fool as I was, would blast her to death. Come, come, the worst is past: no more grief, tears or despair; were not those the words you uttered?—We have leapt the chasm I told you of, and now, mark me, Mathilda, we are to find flowers, and verdure and delight, or is it hell, and ...
— Mathilda • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
... of the way; and what a fool you must have been not to find that out! Why, the birds could not have been sillier, if they had let you put the salt upon ...
— The Settlers at Home • Harriet Martineau
... at this prevention more Incensed, and thus securely him defied. Proud, art thou met? thy hope was to have reached The highth of thy aspiring unopposed, The throne of God unguarded, and his side Abandoned, at the terrour of thy power Or potent tongue: Fool! not to think how vain Against the Omnipotent to rise in arms; Who out of smallest things could, without end, Have raised incessant armies to defeat Thy folly; or with solitary hand Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow, Unaided, could have finished thee, and whelmed Thy legions under ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton
... in having some sense? Too bad about the boy. He set his teeth and didn't make a sound when that fool of an Irishman was sawing at him as if he was a log. I never saw such grit. If they've got many like him they'll be a great ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner
... I have," answered the fox, waking from a revery; "but she must be wonderfully rich. I dare say that fool the dog will ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... interrupted my discourse. I nevertheless continued; but having a thorough knowledge of the African character, and knowing that if a negro gets an idea into his head, that idea can only be eradicated by cutting the head off, I was not fool enough to persist in swimming against a torrent. The "Forty Thieves" now joined the tumult by declaring that "THEY would draw the carts, or do anything ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker
... eye-witness: "When it was announced in the New York papers that the boat would start from Cortlandt street at 6:30 a. m., on the 4th of August, and take passengers to Albany, there was a broad smile on every face as the inquiry was made if any one would be fool enough to go?" One friend was heard to accost another in the street with: "John, will thee risk thy life in such a concern? I tell thee she is the most fearful wild fowl living, and thy father should ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis
... five years ago. I liked Tanith for a base. There's one moon, almost solid nickel iron, and fissionable-ore deposits. Then, like a fool, I hired out to the Elmersans on Durendal and lost my ship. When I came here, your Duke was thinking about Xipototec. I convinced him that Tanith was a better ...
— Space Viking • Henry Beam Piper
... last year on all our business came to thirty seven and a half per cent. Ah! A fine gain. We could not borrow from the banks at ten per cent. They would want at least fifteen, and many gifts for silence. It is better to fool the husband, and to let them go back to England. After all, ten per cent is a good rate. And we want all our money now for the new brothels in Osaka. If we make much money there, then afterwards ...
— Kimono • John Paris
... of red ran into her cheeks; that fool, Ed Masters, had not told Crowdy to refrain from the old-fashioned, deadly treatment! Almost before her horse had set his four feet at the command of a quick touch upon the reins, the girl was down and hurrying into ...
— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory
... all kinds of arrogance, looked at the cat from head to foot, and for a long time did not know whether he would give any answer or not. At last he said: 'Oh, you wretched beard-cleaner, you piebald fool, you hungry mouse-hunter, what can you be thinking of? Have you the cheek to ask how I am getting on? What have you learnt? How many arts do you understand?' 'I understand but one,' replied the cat, modestly. 'What art ...
— Grimms' Fairy Tales • The Brothers Grimm
... be remembered that a man who in war-time talks sedition and disloyalty in public is not a spy. He is too big a fool to be ever employed in a service that requires, above all things, secrecy and the ability to avert suspicion. The first thing a spy seeks to do is to find a suitable cloak to cover his designs, and also to place himself ...
— "Over There" with the Australians • R. Hugh Knyvett
... thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this ...
— Cosmic Consciousness • Ali Nomad
... very foolish to spend all your hard earnin's that way! There's no fool like a young fool," said Mrs. ...
— In A New World - or, Among The Gold Fields Of Australia • Horatio Alger
... said of the elder Wertheimer that, when some one expressed his astonishment at the price which he had given for an item, and even insinuated his want of wisdom, he retorted pleasantly that he might be a fool, but he thought that he knew ...
— The Book-Collector • William Carew Hazlitt
... cajoling the veterans of Irish government, who knew perfectly well what he was, and yet let him amuse them with false expectations—men like Sir John Norreys, who broke his heart when he found out how Tyrone had baffled and made a fool of him. Wishing to gain time for help from Spain, and to extend the rebellion, he revolted, submitted, sued for pardon but did not care to take it when granted, fearlessly presented himself before the English ...
— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church
... doing wrong. Why should he? He had been forced at the point of the bayonet to destroy the sacred places of his own piety; when he had recoiled from the task, he had been jeered at for a superstitious fool. And now it is supposed he will respect our European ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... wouldn't talk such nonsense!" said Lavender impetuously. "You know you are bound to marry; and the woman you ask to marry you will be a precious fool if she refuses. I don't know, indeed, how you ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Vol. XI, No. 27, June, 1873 • Various
... thought so; and that is the same thing. Well! if I fall, take my word as truth, I shall not pass a single day without saying to myself, as I strike my brow, 'Fool! fool!—stupid mortal! You had a Monsieur d'Artagnan under your eye and hand, and you did not employ him, you ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas
... in silence, his thoughts whirling, dancing insanely to a chorus of "Fool! fool!" All that he alone knew, all that he guessed and suspected of this affair rushed through his brain in a rout; but the touch of her unnerved hand upon his arm never for an instant left his consciousness, filling him with an exaltation that enraged and bewildered him. He was ...
— The Woman in Black • Edmund Clerihew Bentley
... hands of other masters that are in that place, he strove to surpass them all; wherefore, in truth, he acquitted himself very well, and was praised by all who saw it, save only by the Guardian of that convent, who, like the boorish and solemn fool that he was, reproved Giovan Francesco with biting words, saying that he had made Christ show such little reverence to His Mother as to kneel only upon one knee. To which Giovan Francesco answered by saying: "Father, first do me the favour of ...
— Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 06 (of 10) Fra Giocondo to Niccolo Soggi • Giorgio Vasari
... Coucou." In another form, the cow or other article is exchanged for some worthless, or apparently worthless, commodity, as in Jack and the Bean-stalk; Hans im Gluck; or as in the case of Moses in the Vicar of Wakefield. The incident of the fool finding a treasure occurs in Cazotte's ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... they To Yama's kingdom sink to-day. Seven hundred times shall they be born To wear the clothes the dead have worn. Dregs of the dregs, too vile to hate, The flesh of dogs their maws shall sate. In hideous form, in loathsome weed, A sad existence each shall lead. Mahodaya too, the fool who fain My stainless life would try to stain, Stained in the world with long disgrace Shall sink into a fowler's place. Rejoicing guiltless blood to spill, No pity through his breast shall thrill. Cursed by my wrath ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI
... See Murray's Introduction to the Autobiography; Auerbach, Dichter und Kaufmann; Zangwill, Nathan the Wise and Solomon the Fool.] ...
— The Haskalah Movement in Russia • Jacob S. Raisin
... said. "That fool would only squander his inheritance! To every poor beggar that comes along he'd give an alms until soon my poor father's savings would be all gone! No! I'll give him three golden ducats and a horse and tell him to get out and if he makes a fuss I ...
— The Laughing Prince - Jugoslav Folk and Fairy Tales • Parker Fillmore
... trash—novel and quite useless. What easy prey these poor people are to the wiles of the trader! Said one of them to me recently, when I asked the purpose of an "annex" to his store with a huge billiard-table in it—at an exclusive native village—"It's to get their money; there's no use trying to fool you; if we can't get it one way we've got to get it another." This gorgeous silk umbrella was concrete expression of the same sentiment. It was bought outside, it was brought into the country, it was set on exhibition in the store, because some trader judged ...
— Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled - A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska • Hudson Stuck
... come to the conclusion," another member said, "that a man may be excused for making literature his practice, but that he is a fool to make it his profession. It does very well as an amusement, but it's no good as ...
— The Philistines • Arlo Bates
... impossible," says Baron Dupotet, "to conceive the sensation which Mesmer's experiments created in Paris. No theological controversy, in the earlier ages of the Catholic Church, was ever conducted with greater bitterness." He was called a quack, a fool, and a demon, while his friends were as extravagant in his praise as his foes in their censure. After this great excitement, his life may largely be summed up in his challenges to different societies, the appointment of commissions, ...
— Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing • George Barton Cutten
... turned to his companion and said, "See! this man was once full of wisdom. He was the guide of my youth. But his reason has departed, and now, poor lunatic, he is wandering over the earth not knowing where he is going. How has the wise man become a fool!" ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston
... was a fool? She knew everything that was going on around her. He was a rake, a false husband, she had discovered it a few months after their marriage; a Bohemian without any other education than the low associations of his class. And the woman was as ...
— Woman Triumphant - (La Maja Desnuda) • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... triflin' niggah on de mule claims he's organizin' a new lodge—gits folks wild to jine, and den lif's de 'nitiation money. Nex' day mebbe turns up in Vicksburg o' some place else whah some mo' fool niggahs craves to jine on wid him. He sho' don' ...
— Lady Luck • Hugh Wiley
... expose themselves to the most inclement weather for years and experience no visible injurious effects; however, slowly, but surely, such negligence is undermining the general health, and the pains of his old days will repay him for the fool-hardiness of ...
— The Gospel Day • Charles Ebert Orr
... creating internal bonds. We live, in any great society, always over smoldering fires, however highly civilized the society, and we are always threatened with the eruption of volcanic forces. It is fatuous to ignore this, and to make a fool's paradise of our democracy. Our problem is to produce such a social life as shall keep us safe through all dangers—dangers from enemies without, and within, and underneath. A democracy, or indeed any society after ...
— The Psychology of Nations - A Contribution to the Philosophy of History • G.E. Partridge
... went directly to Aladdin's palace. As he approached, he began crying, "Who will exchange old lamps for new?" And as he went along, a crowd of children collected, who hooted, and thought him, as did all who chanced to be passing by, a madman or a fool to offer to exchange ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Anonymous
... Garcilasso de la Vega relates that upon their project being known, they became the objects of general derision; Ferdinand de Luque was the most laughed at, and was called by no other name than Hernando el Loco, Ferdinand the Fool. The terms of partnership were soon agreed upon between these three men, of whom two at least were without fear, if they were not all three without reproach. Luque furnished money needed for the armament of the vessels and the pay of the soldiers, and ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part I. The Exploration of the World • Jules Verne
... He's magnificent. She could see that the lieutenant and the soldiers thought he was magnificent. Supposing she had gone out with some meek fool who would have gone back when ...
— The Romantic • May Sinclair
... impulse to cuff him was cooled by a sudden frost. He said as carelessly as possible: "You are a churlish fool; but it is likely you have seen Robert Sans-Peur in Nidaros. He was there shortly before ...
— The Thrall of Leif the Lucky • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... really got it! A nice fool I had made of myself! Larkins had, of course, announced it to all the lodgers at Mrs Nash's, to my employers and fellow-clerks, and here was I all the while as right as a trivet, with nothing but a bruised ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... "I have been thinking that I am a fool. My life is swept as bare as a hermit's cell. There is nothing in it but a dream, a thought of God, ...
— The Blue Flower, and Others • Henry van Dyke
... more reserved; they did not know what to make of him. But none of them openly called him a fool—a sort of negative praise not without its value. Nor was this forbearance misplaced—as was seen when, along in March, Jared's father ended his fifty unprofitable years of farm routine by dying suddenly and leaving things more or less at loose ends. Farming was not his forte—perhaps ...
— Under the Skylights • Henry Blake Fuller
... not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the ...
— Phaedrus • Plato
... thinks me such a fool, that it may be indifferent to him in what particular manner I ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge
... He lays low 'n' keeps dark,—and, I tell you, there's a good many of the boarders would like to get into his chamber, but he don't seem to want 'em. Biddy could tell somethin' about what she's seen when she's been to put his room to rights. She's a Paddy 'n' a fool, but she knows enough to keep her tongue still. All I know is, I saw her crossin' herself one day when she came out of that room. She looked pale enough, 'n' I heard her mutterin' somethin' or other about the Blessed Virgin. If it hadn't been for ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 21, July, 1859 • Various
... delight went beyond the bounds of expression, and therefore was compressed into an almost grim 'Whatever you will, my Lord;' but two hot tears were gushing from his eyes. He dashed them away, and added, 'What a fool I am! You'll believe me, my Lord, though I can't speak, that, though there may be many nearer and more your equals, there's none on earth more glad and happy to see you ...
— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. II) • Charlotte M. Yonge
... he thought was an outcurve. It didn't fool the coach. He deliberately struck the ball, sending it rolling along the floor as ...
— The High School Pitcher - Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond • H. Irving Hancock
... himself, but he did not know how. Ricker went on: "Those charming little sarcasms and innuendoes of yours would have killed your article for really intelligent readers. They would have suspected a young fellow having his fling, or an old fool speaking out of the emptiness of his heart. As it is, we have got something unique, and I don't mind telling you I'm very glad to have it. I've never made any secret of my ...
— The Quality of Mercy • W. D. Howells
... exactly what I mean, Travers. Damme, I have n't thought of anything else for a week. Oh, I know now I was an old fool even to conceive of such a trip, but when I first wrote her I had no conception of what it was going to be like out here. There was not a rumor of Indian trouble a month ago, and when the tribes did break out it was too late for me to get word back East. The fact is, I am in the devil of ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish
... danger, Cuthbert and I had spent but three weeks of wedded happiness, when, without premonition, the sun of my joy was suddenly blotted out. A letter arrived, speedily followed by a telegram summoning him to the bedside of his father, who was dangerously ill. Oh, fool that I was! I fancied heaven designed to remove a cruel parent, and thus obliterate all obstacles to the completion of my bliss. What blind dolts young people are! Cuthbert was restless, suspicious, unwilling to leave me, or appeared so, and when we parted, he took me in ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... popular, but soon forfeited all confidence by his favouritism; he governed through creatures like Carr, Earl of Somerset, and the infamous Buckingham, whose indiscretion brought about a war with Spain in 1624; James died immediately afterwards; he has been described by Sully as "the wisest fool in Christendom"; his conduct was certainly much less creditable than his conversation; he held absurdly high views of the royal prerogative; but he sold patents of nobility, and was careless of the misdeeds of his ministers; he did not live to see revolution, but he saw its precursor ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... he respected the little god Cupid when he saw him perched on the Dun of Singleside. And is poor Lucy to keep house with that old fool and his wife, who is just the knight himself ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott
... railroad work. I'll have something to say to you next week on the damage question. Got all the reports in last night. I tell you, my old chief, Mr. Morris, is a corker! What he doesn't know about masonry isn't worth picking up;—can't fool him! That's what's the matter with half of our younger men; they sharpen lead-pencils, mix ink, and think they are drawing; or they walk down a stone wall and don't know any more what's behind it and what holds it up than a child. Mr. Morris can ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith |
