"Gainful" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... money?" He smiled. "Alas! how much thy age deceives thy wit," he said; "As if sweet honey by the touch of gold were sweeter made. Even in good Saturn's day, 'twas hard to find a heart all pure, From the infection of base gain, and gainful lust secure. Small at the birth, it grew apace the thirst of yellow ore, Till heap on heap ye pile so high, that ye can pile no more. Not so the measure was of wealth in Rome's primeval time, When all was poor that now is rich, and low that's now sublime; When a small hut was all ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various
... to force their way in spite of the elements, with ships crazed and worm-eaten, and continually in need of repair. Few of his companions could sympathize with Columbus in his zeal for mere discovery. They were actuated by more gainful motives, and looked back with regret on the rich coast they had left behind, to go in search of an imaginary strait. It is probable that Columbus himself began to doubt the object of his enterprise. If he knew the details of the recent voyage of Bastides, ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving
... nearly every branch of industry and business. How many of them worked at gainful occupations before 1870 we do not know; but from that year forward we have the records of the census. Between 1870 and 1900 the proportion of women in the professions rose from less than two per cent to more than ten per cent; in ...
— History of the United States • Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard
... Britain found herself. "At a time when her floating bulwarks were her whole safeguard against slavery, she could not view without alarm and resentment the warriors who should have manned those bulwarks pursuing a more gainful occupation in American vessels. Our merchant ships were crowded with British seamen, most of them deserters from their ships of war, and all furnished with fraudulent protections to prove them Americans. To us they were not necessary." On the contrary, "they ate the bread and bid down the ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 1 • Alfred Thayer Mahan
... Mary Stuart thought she had had one of those dreams so gainful to prisoners, when waking they see again the bolts on their doors and the bars on their windows. So the queen, unable to believe the evidence of her senses, ran, half dressed, to the window. The courtyard was filled with soldiers, and these soldiers ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MARY STUART—1587 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... before mine eye The time prepar'd for thee. Such as driv'n out From Athens, by his cruel stepdame's wiles, Hippolytus departed, such must thou Depart from Florence. This they wish, and this Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there, Where gainful merchandize is made of Christ, Throughout the livelong day. The common cry, Will, as 't is ever wont, affix the blame Unto the party injur'd: but the truth Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find A faithful witness. Thou shall leave each thing Belov'd most dearly: ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante
... abundant, bounteous, copious, profuse, exuberant, luxuriant. Plunder, rifle, loot, sack, pillage, devastate, despoil. Pretty, beautiful, comely, handsome, fair. Profitable, remunerative, lucrative, gainful. Prompt, punctual, ready, expeditious. Pull, draw, drag, haul, tug, tow. Push, shove, ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor
... before? I make no doubt but there is as much trade now, and as much gotten by trading, as there ever was in this nation, at least in our memory; and if we will allow other people to judge, they will tell us there is much more trade, and trade is much more gainful; what, then, must be the reason that the tradesmen cannot live on their trades, cannot keep open their shops, cannot maintain themselves and families, as well now as they could before? Something extraordinary must be ...
— The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) • Daniel Defoe
... one's advantage in; reap the benefit of &c (be better for) 658. render useful &c (use) 677. Adj. useful; of use &c n.; serviceable, proficuous^, good for; subservient &c (instrumental) 631; conducive &c (tending) 176; subsidiary &c (helping) 707. advantageous &c (beneficial) 648; profitable, gainful, remunerative, worth one's salt; valuable; prolific &c (productive) 168. adequate; efficient, efficacious; effective, effectual; expedient &c 646. applicable, available, ready, handy, at hand, tangible; commodious, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... woman of fifteen or thereby, to be her guest at the same time. Alice was not so stout in proportion to her years as my Waller; but there was a certain gracefulness about her when she moved, and a sweet smile when she spoke, which was very gainful on the affections, as Charles could testify; for he loved her, and made no secret thereof, better than any of his sisters, and also, I really and unfeignedly believe, better than that excellent woman his mother. And ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various
... since to a distant town He had repaired to ply a gainful trade: [21] What tears of bitter grief, till then unknown! 255 What tender vows our last sad kiss delayed! To him we turned:—we had no other aid: Like one revived, upon his neck I wept; And her whom he had loved in joy, he said, He well could love in grief; his faith he kept; 260 ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight
... passions; many unworthy have been and are advanced in both; many worthy not regarded. And as for abuses, which they pretend to be in the law themselves; when they inveigh against non-residence, do they take it a matter lawful or expedient in the Civil State, for a man to have a great and gainful office in the North, himself continually remaining in the South? "He that hath an office let him attend his office." When they condemn plurality of livings spiritual to the pit of Hell, what think they of the infinity of ...
— Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, - &C, Volume Two • Izaak Walton
... kingdom. I write in this manner, not from petulance, but from the analogy of the yellow fever, where this very game I am now describing, has so often been played with success in the south of Europe; and will be played off again, for so long as lucrative boards of health and gainful quarantine establishments, with extensive influence and patronage, shall continue to be resorted to for protection against ...
— Letters on the Cholera Morbus. • James Gillkrest
... Commerce and Labor should also make a thorough investigation of the conditions of women in industry. Over five million American women are now engaged in gainful occupations; yet there is an almost complete dearth of data upon which to base any trustworthy conclusions as regards a subject as important as it is vast and complicated. There is need of full knowledge on which to base action looking toward State ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... no use—none at all. Nature was too strong for him; and a higher force than even potent Nature. In vain Sir Thomas pish'd, and tush'd, and bah'd; in vain he buried himself chin-deep amongst the century of ledgers that testified of gainful years gone by, and were now mustily rotting away in the stagnant air of St. Benet's Sherehog: interest had lost its interest for him, profits profited not, speculation's self had dull, lack-lustre eyes, and all the hard realities of utilitarian life were become weary, flat, and stale. Sir Thomas ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... the subject of girls' work outside the home or work in the home for financial return must begin with a general survey of the field of industry, discovering what women have done and are doing, together with the effects of gainful occupation upon the character ...
— Vocational Guidance for Girls • Marguerite Stockman Dickson
... to him, his income would have been considerably greater. It will be a distinct advantage to have superior young people get established earlier, and this can be done if they are directly taught efficiency in what they can do best, the boys being fitted for gainful occupations, and the girls for ...
— Applied Eugenics • Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson
... no saying, so gainful the trade, How fast immortalities now may be made; Since Helicon never will want an "Undying One," As long as the public continues a Buying One; And the company hope yet to witness the hour. When, by strongly applying the mare-motive[1] power, A three-decker novel, midst ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... was a man of the world. The witches guessed that, with a man of his sort, there were means of saving themselves. The league between them was broken. A beggar-girl of seventeen, La Murgui, or Margaret, who had found witchcraft gainful, and, while herself almost a child, had brought away children as offerings to the Devil, now betook herself, with another girl, Lisalda, of the same age, to denouncing all the rest. By word of mouth or in writing she revealed all; with the liveliness, the noise, the emphatic gestures of ...
— La Sorciere: The Witch of the Middle Ages • Jules Michelet
... other countries, as may be proved with ease. For where are oxen commonly made more large of bone, horses more decent and pleasant in pace, kine more commodious for the pail, sheep more profitable for wool, swine more wholesome of flesh, and goats more gainful to their keepers than here with us in England? But, to speak of them peculiarly, I suppose that our kine are so abundant in yield of milk, whereof we make our butter and cheese, as the like any where ...
— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed
... not sufficiently figure in general affairs to expect much notice in the histories that will appear. Another sentiment has extended my recital. I am drawing near a term I fear to reach, because my desires cannot be in harmony with the truth; they are ardent, consequently gainful, because the other sentiment is terrible, and cannot in any way be palliated; the terror of arriving there has stopped me—nailed ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon
... of 1890 shows that not quite four million women are "engaged in gainful occupations." Of these more than one and a half million are in domestic service, and nearly half a million in professional service, mainly as teachers. The most striking gain has been made in the lighter forms ...
— Woman and the Republic • Helen Kendrick Johnson
... the builders of his furnace. With all respect for Mr. Flerlie's pluck in attempting, night after night, to dislodge clinkers caught in the grate, it must be admitted, even by his host of friends, that he might much better be engaged in some gainful occupation. The grate tackled by the doughty challenger last night was one of the fine-tooth comb variety (the "Non-Sifto" No. 114863), in which the clinker is caught by a patent clutch and held securely until ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley
... evidently entitled. The second clause is of greater difficulty; for how can a provincial law secure privileges or immunities to a province? Provincial laws may grant, to certain individuals of the province, the enjoyment of gainful, or an immunity from onerous offices; they may operate upon the people to whom they relate; but no province can confer provincial privileges on itself. They may have a right to all which the king ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... establishment of this kind takes into the account the cost of the necessary number of slaves, in the same manner as he calculates the cost of the land. The uncertainty, too, of this species of employment, affords another ground of resemblance to commerce. Although gainful on the whole, and in a series of years, it is often very disastrous for a single year, and, as the capital is not readily invested in other pursuits, bad crops or bad markets not only affect the profits, but the capital itself. ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster
... light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (Isa 50:10). It is no small advantage, you know, when men have to deal in difficult matters, to have a patent or license to deal; now to trust in the Lord is a difficult thing, yet the best and most gainful of all. But then, some will say, since it is so difficult, how may we do without danger? Why, the text gives a license, a patent to them to trust in his name, that have his fear in their hearts—"Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... been brought up; what teachers of the liberal sciences he has had; what admonitors to encourage him to a proper course of life; with what friends he is intimate; in what business, or employment, or gainful pursuit he is occupied; in what manner he manages his estate, and what are his domestic habits. With reference to his fortune we inquire whether he is a slave or a free man; whether he is wealthy or poor; whether ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero
... of his life were seen. Through all the different stages that he went, He still appeared both wise and diligent: Firm to his word, and punctual to his trust, Sagacious, frugal, arable, and just. No gainful views his bounded hopes could sway, No wanton thought led his chaste soul astray. In short, his thoughts and actions both declare, Nature designed him her philosopher; That all mankind, by his example ...
— Dickory Cronke - The Dumb Philosopher, or, Great Britain's Wonder • Daniel Defoe
... heads shook, and young brows knit, the while the sheriff read That law the wicked rulers against the poor have made, Who to their house of Rimmon and idol priesthood bring No bended knee of worship, nor gainful offering. ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
... that if your hair was as mine, if you could recollect, like me, the days that are gone by, the days when it needed no bride to prove we were princes,"the glorious days when we led captivity captive; I was thinking, I say, my son, what a gainful heritage it is to be born after the joys that ...
— Alroy - The Prince Of The Captivity • Benjamin Disraeli
... "He works in the dark, and he is in luck if he happens to do any good. In waging his battle with mysterious nature, he only unfits himself by seeking gain. In the same way, to a lesser degree, the law and the ministry should not be gainful professions. When the question of personal gain and advancement comes in, the frail human being succumbs to selfishness, and then to error. Like the artist, the doctor, the lawyer, the clergyman, ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick
... arts, virtues, be slavishly obnoxious to some illiterate potentate, and live under his insolent worship, or honour, like parasites," Qui tanquam mures alienum panem comedunt. For to say truth, artes hae, non sunt Lucrativae, as Guido Bonat that great astrologer could foresee, they be not gainful arts these, sed esurientes et ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... Protestant divine Richard Baxter, "for you are bound to improve all your talents." And again, "If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way, if you refuse this and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith
... of fourteen years the German youth is no longer under the control of the compulsory school law, the value of the system of continuation schools is realized. Of necessity the great mass of boys are at this age, forced to enter some gainful pursuit. It was clearly evident to the German people that boys should not be cut off from school education at this early age. Dr. James H. Russell in ...
— The Condition and Tendencies of Technical Education in Germany • Arthur Henry Chamberlain
... you. If you mean to go to college for the principal purpose of idling around, wearing a small cap and good clothes, and being the adoration of your mother and your sisters on your vacation, you had a good deal better be at work at some gainful occupation. College is not helping you if that is what you are doing. It is ...
— The Young Man and the World • Albert J. Beveridge
... business a woman is a woman and a man is a man. Here the women are restricted by convention to housekeeping, which on large farms is quite enough for them; and the men have the outdoor life, the "trading," and the gainful occupations—except the boarding of city people. There is no especial respect for the "managing woman" who "runs a farm"; the community expects such a ...
— Quaker Hill - A Sociological Study • Warren H. Wilson
... Amiell, who cannot endite [Sidenote: See his, p. 28.] Of his Thin Value won't disdain to write? The very Him with Gown and Mace did rule The Sanedrim, when guided by a Fool. The Him that did both Sense and Reason shift, That he to gainful Place himself might lift. The very Him that did adjust the Seed Of such as did their Votes for Money breed. The Mighty Him that frothy Notions vents, In hope to turn them into Presidents. The Him of Hims, ...
— Anti-Achitophel (1682) - Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden • Elkanah Settle et al.
... "Nu tekst umraedha at nyju um Vinlandsferdh, thviat su ferdh thikir baedhi godh til fjar ok virdhingar," i. e. "Now they began to talk again about a voyage to Vinland, for the voyage thither was both gainful and honourable." ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske
... the company that made the Strathcona Horse famous in South Africa—famous for such daring abandon in their charges that the men could hardly be held within bounds of official orders. He is of the very class of men who have forsaken gainful occupations in the West to clamor a hundred-thousand strong for the privilege of fighting to the last ditch for the empire under the rain of death ...
— The Canadian Commonwealth • Agnes C. Laut
... expense of food and raiment in rearing a child may be stated at about 8, 9, or 10 dollars; and the age at which it begins to be gainful to its owner about 9 ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 • Various
... what I said to be true. No Man living will ever be able to make these Heathens sensible of the Happiness of a future State, except he now and then mentions some lively carnal Representation, which may quicken their Apprehensions, and make them thirst after such a gainful Exchange; for, were the best Lecture that ever was preach'd by Man, given to an ignorant sort of People, in a more learned Style, than their mean Capacities are able to understand, the Intent would prove ineffectual, and the Hearers would be left in a greater ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson
... away from thee, i.e., until thou ceasedst to do good. The word "rabih" is not found in Dictionaries, but it is evidently an intensive of "rabih" (tijarah rabihah a profitable traffic) and its root occurs in the Koran, ii. 15: "Fa-ma rabihat Tijaratuhum" but their traffic has not been gainful.—ST.] ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... showing for the United States, in 1880, the ratio between the total population over ten years of age and the number of persons reported as engaged in each principal class of gainful occupations. Compiled from the returns of the Tenth Census, by the Editor. NOTE.—The interior square represents the proportion of the population which is accounted for as engaged in gainful occupations. The unshaded space between the inner and outer squares represents the ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill
... Census Bureau classes the gainful occupations of the people in four great divisions: (1) Agriculture. (2) Professional and Personal Service. (3) Trade and Transportation. (4) Manufacturing, Mining, and Mechanical Industries. The monopolies which we have studied in the preceding ...
— Monopolies and the People • Charles Whiting Baker
... devils, they say, We really hold with you, and only mock at those people: God shall mock at them, and continue them in their impiety; they shall wander in confusion. These are the men who have purchased error at the price of true direction: but their traffic hath not been gainful, neither have they been rightly directed. They are like unto one who kindleth a fire, and when it hath enlightened all around him, God taketh away their light and leaveth them in darkness, they ...
— Sacred Books of the East • Various
... the trade and commerce of these kingdoms is that navigation-act, the rudiments of which were first framed in 1650[e], with a narrow partial view: being intended to mortify the sugar islands, which were disaffected to the parliament and still held out for Charles II, by stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with the Dutch[f]; and at the same time to clip the wings of those our opulent and aspiring neighbours. This prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone
... thus drag England into a war, and of course this country, against their will. But it is certain they will do everything they can to prevent it; and that in this at least they agree. Though such a war might be gainful to us, yet it is much to be deprecated by us at this time. In all probability, France would be unequal to such a war by sea and by land, and it is not our interest, or even safe for us, that she should be weakened. The great improvements in ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson
... wicked, and the scant measure that is abomination? {109c} Are they there yet, notwithstanding Gods forbidding, notwithstanding Gods tokens of anger against those that do such things? O how loth is a wicked man to let goe a sweet, a gainful sin, when he hath hold of it! They hold fast deceit, they ...
— The Life and Death of Mr. Badman • John Bunyan
... on Thorfinn's return the "talk began to turn again upon a Vinland voyage, as both gainful and honourable," and a daughter of Red Eric, named Freydis, talked men over—especially two brothers, Helge and Finnboge—to a fresh attempt in the country where all the House of Eric had tried and failed; though Leif lent his booths ...
— Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery, 1394-1460 A.D. • C. Raymond Beazley
... can forget about that, Moncure. Freer Enterprises comes to a halt as of today. Do you realize that your business tactics would lead to a complete collapse of gainful employment and eventually to a depression such as this nation has never ...
— Subversive • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... universal use of Machinery might then be safely sanctioned, and the British Manufacturers would be enabled so to reduce the price of Woollen Cloths, as would assure throughout the world the most Monopoly that any people ever possessed. We also should largely participate in the profits of this gainful Trade and should enjoy the pleasing Consolation that our Labours were contributing to the Support and Prosperity of that parent Country to whom our debt of ...
— A Source Book Of Australian History • Compiled by Gwendolen H. Swinburne
... during all this time, conducting itself with its usual duplicity, contrived to make a gainful traffic by the sale of dispensations from the penalties incurred by such as fell under the ban of the Inquisition, provided they were rich enough to pay for them, and afterwards revoking them, at the instance of the Castilian ...
— History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella V1 • William H. Prescott
... new religious orders, chiefly the Dominicans and Franciscans, who proceeded with all the zeal and success that attend novelties; were better qualified to gain the populace than the old orders, now become rich and indolent; maintained a perpetual rivalship with each other in promoting their gainful superstitions; and acquired a great dominion over the minds, and, consequently, over the purses of men, by pretending a desire of poverty and a contempt for riches. The quarrels which arose between these orders, lying still under the control of the sovereign pontiff, ...
— The History of England, Volume I • David Hume
... wounded heart and a sad face, yet not so much for fear as for unkindness. The wrong of his sin troubles him more than the danger. None but he is the better for his sorrow; neither is any passion more hurtful to others than this is gainful to him: the more he seeks to hide his grief, the less it will be hid; every man may read it not only in his eyes, but in his bones. Whilst he is in charity with all others, he is so fallen out with himself that none but God can ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various
... company with him for this night at least; and to learn, if possible, who he really was, and to what party in the estate he was attached. The boldness and freedom of his talk seemed almost inconsistent with his following the perilous, though at that time the gainful trade of an informer. No doubt, such persons assumed every appearance which could insinuate them into the confidence of their destined victims; but Julian thought he discovered in this man's manner, a wild and reckless frankness, which he could not but connect ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott
... the part of others. Thus the character unconsciously tends to grow suspicious and ungenerous. The best corrective of such influences is always the domestic; by withdrawing the mind from thoughts that are wholly gainful, by taking it out of its daily rut, and bringing it back to the sanctuary of home for ...
— Character • Samuel Smiles
... to extend their commerce among the numerous tribes of Indians who hunted on the banks of the great lakes, and the upper branches of the Mississippi. They excluded the people of New York from any share in this gainful commerce; in consequence of which Dongan solicited and obtained permission to aid the five nations. This order, however, was soon countermanded; and a treaty was concluded, stipulating that no assistance should be given to the savages by the English colonists; soon after which ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall
... the hospitals I heard of casualties. Fingers had been mashed. A hand had been mashed. An arm had been dragged out. Unguarded machinery was, of course, a striking inconsistency, more inexcusable in the hospitals than in hotels or in commercial laundries. For hospitals are not engaged in a gainful pursuit, regardless of all humanitarian considerations. On the contrary, they are not only avowedly philanthropic in aim, but are carried on solely in the ...
— Making Both Ends Meet • Sue Ainslie Clark and Edith Wyatt |
