"Rare" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... was only sich," said he, "Rare wines I'd quaff from the far countree, I'd cloth myself in dazzling garb, I'd mount the back of the costly barb, And none should ask me wherefore or which— Did it chance that ...
— The Universal Reciter - 81 Choice Pieces of Rare Poetical Gems • Various
... to Norton, but it was really meant for Kennedy. I know Craig shared my own feelings. It was a rare pleasure to work for her. She seemed most appreciative of anything that was done for her in her ...
— The Gold of the Gods • Arthur B. Reeve
... purely traditional. The Tanite Pharaoh had come to accept with resignation the change in the fortunes of Egypt, and he therefore contented himself with forwarding to the Assyrian conqueror, by one of the Syrian coasting vessels, a present of some rare wild beasts and a few crocodiles. In olden times Assyria had welcomed the arrival of Thutmosis III. on the Euphrates by making him presents, which the Theban monarch regarded in the light of tribute: the case was now reversed, ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... started to travel, and came to London only at rare intervals. I did write to Selina, asking her to see me, but she always refused, so I became philosophic and ...
— The Secret Passage • Fergus Hume
... erring votes "Of Grecians giv'n to thee, cause would it be "The foe would strip thee; not thy prowess fear. "And flight, in which, O trembler! erst alone "Thou all surpass'd, slow would'st thou then pursue; "Such ponderous armor dragging. Those, thy shield "Which bears so rare the brunt of battle, shines "Yet whole: a new successor mine demands, "Which gash'd by weapons, shews a thousand rents. "To end, what need of words? let actions shew "Each one's deserts. Amid the foe be thrown "The ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... middle of the island, encompassed by mountains the highest in the world. Rubies and several sorts of minerals abound, and the rocks are for the most part composed of a metalline stone made use of to cut and polish other precious stones. All kinds of rare plants and trees grow there, especially cedars and cocoa-nut. There is also a pearl-fishing in the mouth of its principal river; and in some of its valleys are found diamonds. I made, by way of devotion, a pilgrimage to the place where Adam was confined after his banishment ...
— The Arabian Nights - Their Best-known Tales • Unknown
... lord of Leon, one of fair report Among the vassal barons of his court, Own'd for his son a youth more bravely thew'd Than aught both countries yet had seen of good. Dame Nature gave the mould; his sire combin'd Due culture, exercise of limbs and mind, Till the rare strippling, now no longer boy, Chang'd his fond parents' fearful ...
— The Lay of Marie • Matilda Betham
... Jeanie lay in the tiny garden with her face to the sea, gazing forth with eyes that were often heavy and wistful but always ready to smile upon Avery. The holiday-task was put away, not because Mr. Lorimer had remitted it, but because Avery—with rare despotism—had insisted upon removing it from her ...
— The Bars of Iron • Ethel May Dell
... wish that I could send you this jar of flowers, containing, as it does, many which, in New England, are rare exotics. Here you will find in richest profusion the fine-lady elegance of the syringa; there, glorious white lilies, so pure and stately; the delicate yet robust beauty of the exquisite privet; irises of every ...
— The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe
... feeling. Yet that was in her mind. The existence of such a fear meant, of course, that she did not entirely trust him, and viewed his character as something less than noble. Very seldom indeed is a woman free from such doubts, however absolute her love; and perhaps it is just as rare for a man to credit in his heart all the praises he speaks of his beloved. Passion is compatible with a great many of these imperfections of intellectual esteem. To see more clearly into Jasper's personality was, for Marian, to suffer the more intolerable dread ...
— New Grub Street • George Gissing
... the eleven!" said the master; "what a post is his in our School-world! almost as hard as the Doctor's—requiring skill and gentleness and firmness, and I know not what other rare qualities." ...
— Tom Brown's Schooldays • Thomas Hughes
... Sapt! Yet the man is little without the opportunity, and Rupert by himself could hardly have troubled our repose. Hampered by his own guilt, he dared not set his foot in the kingdom from which by rare good luck he had escaped, but wandered to and fro over Europe, making a living by his wits, and, as some said, adding to his resources by gallantries for which he did not refuse substantial recompense. But he kept himself constantly before our eyes, and never ceased to contrive how he might ...
— Rupert of Hentzau - From The Memoirs of Fritz Von Tarlenheim: The Sequel to - The Prisoner of Zenda • Anthony Hope
... shown such rare poetic gifts that his fame spread beyond the circle of his clan and in due course of time he was selected as a contestant in those poetic trials that were peculiar to the Arabs in the pre-Islamic days. So successful was Antar's ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various
... her amidst these struggles inward and from without? She could not make him out. She had much need of support, and yet he never came, except for one moment at rare intervals, ...
— La Sorciere: The Witch of the Middle Ages • Jules Michelet
... lipoma, myoma—are comparatively rare. When sessile they cause inconvenience only by their bulk; when pedunculated they may hang down into the pharynx and interfere with swallowing and breathing. They may be shelled out, or ligated at the base and ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles
... the showman, and, while he found three small dogs, there was no sign of a monkey, and by adroit questioning he learned that they had had a monkey, but that it had died at Leadville, because the air in that altitude was too cold and rare ...
— Ted Strong's Motor Car • Edward C. Taylor
... are boiled rare, taken out and drained off. White sauce and spices are boiled thick and the egg dotters and cheese mixed with it. The cauliflowers are cut to pieces and put in layers with sauce between, on a dish or silver saucepan, are sprinkled with grated bread and ...
— The Cauliflower • A. A. Crozier
... unconscious; their minds a blank; and their worst actions only the impulse of a gross or savage instinct. There are many in this town who are ignorant of their very names; very few who can spell them. It is rare that you meet with a young person who knows his own age; rarer to find the boy who has seen a book, or the girl who has seen a flower. Ask them the name of their sovereign, and they will give you an unmeaning stare; ask them the name of their religion, ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli
... early moment of my literary enthusiasms, I have known such utter satisfaction in any writer, and this supreme joy has come to me at a time of life when new friendships, not to say new passions, are rare and reluctant. It is as if the best wine at this high feast where I have sat so long had been kept for the last, and I need not deny a miracle in it in order to attest my skill in judging vintages. In fact, I prefer to believe that my life has been full of miracles, ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... Such duels are rare indeed; in most engagements the man fights between crowds of his own comrades and the other side, in wild confusion, under clouds of dust. He must attack at one moment to the right, at the next to the left, and guard himself. The essential here is not so much the skilful ...
— Cavalry in Future Wars • Frederick von Bernhardi
... radium selenate!" Arcot exclaimed. "Why, we have no radium salts whatever on Earth that we could use for that purpose. Radium is exceedingly rare!" ...
— The Black Star Passes • John W Campbell
... there is a great deal of money-value in old crockery which lies idle in pantries, and that collectors who have money to spend do a great deal of good in a small way by giving the money for the crockery. And, strange as you may think it, it is very rare to find an owner of old pottery in the country, whatever be the family associations, who would ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various
... illustrious name, the guerdon of a mighty deed, and branches taken from the wild pine of Corinth, or the olive of Olympia, or the bay that flourished like a weed at Delphi. What was indigenous and characteristic of his native soil, not rare and costly things from foreign lands, was precious to the Greek. This piety, after the lapse of centuries and the passing away of mighty cities, still bears fruit. Oblivion cannot wholly efface the memory of those great games while the fir-trees rustle to the sea-wind as of old. Down ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... She thinks there is no harm in it, because she will pay the whole out of her own allowance, year by year; and the diamonds are so rare and wonderful that she thinks she has a good bargain. What should she know ...
— The Peasant and the Prince • Harriet Martineau
... Love is only root and crop of care, The body's foe, the heart's annoy and cause of pleasures rare The sickness of the mind and fountain of unrest, The gulf of guile, the pit of pain, of grief the hollow chest; A fiery frost, a flame that frozen is with ice, A heavy burden light to bear, a virtue fraught with vice; It is a worldlike peace, a ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 387, August 28, 1829 • Various
... with its multitudinous changes and activities, its work—the glorious sweating with the brown labourers in the sand flats at the edge of the Fayyum—its sport, its friendships, its strenuous and its quiet hours, so dearly valued because they were rather rare. It was a good life. It was almost a grand life. London now, Scotland presently; then the late autumn, the train, the sight of the sea, the cry of the siren, the throbbing of the engines, and presently—Egypt! And then the winter ...
— Bella Donna - A Novel • Robert Hichens
... you, too, Mr. Heigham," said Mrs. Carr, as soon as she had recovered from her fit of laughing; "the beetle is really very rare; it is not even in the British Museum. But come, let ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... all agreed Had shut within him the rare seed Of learning. We could understand, But none of us could lift a hand. The man Flammonde appraised the youth, And told a few of us the truth; And thereby, for a little gold, ...
— The Second Book of Modern Verse • Jessie B. Rittenhouse
... left in the hall; and Dr Drummond profited by the instant. He stepped across and laid a hand on the younger man's shoulder. Had they both been standing the gesture would have been impossible to Dr Drummond with dignity; as it was, it had not only that, but benignance, a kind of tender good will, rare in expression with the minister, rare, for that matter, in feeling with him too, though the chord was always there to ...
— The Imperialist • (a.k.a. Mrs. Everard Cotes) Sara Jeannette Duncan
... unknown or unused prior to 1862—chain cable testing-machines are of old date, and were employed by our past President, Mr. Barlow, and by others, in their early experiments upon steel; but I speak of it as a matter of congratulation that, in lieu of such machines being used by the few, and at rare intervals upon small specimens, for experimental purposes, they are now employed in daily practice and on a ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 • Various
... claimed as a privilege. Good-breeding was a science in France; natural to a peasant, even, it was studied as an epitome of all the social virtues. 'N'etre pas poli' was the sum total of all dispraise: a man could only recover from it by splendid valour or rare gifts; a woman could not hope to rise out of that Slough of Despond to which good-breeding never came. We were behind all the arts of civilization in England, as Francois de Rochefoucault (we give the orthography of the ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton
... in the dust of the Grinding-Mills, And rare beyond the telling the fragrance each distils. Some grow up tall and stately, and some grow sweet and small, But Life out of Death is in each one—with ...
— Bees in Amber - A Little Book Of Thoughtful Verse • John Oxenham
... own country west of the Atlantic seaboard, Jack had wandered North, South, West. As for Mary, she had hardly left Boston in her life, except to go to the Massachusetts coast in summer and to pay a rare visit now and then to New York. It was of such a visit that she had been talking to them and of the friend who, since her own return home only a few days before, had suffered a sudden bereavement in ...
— A Fountain Sealed • Anne Douglas Sedgwick
... right. The apparently trifling incidents of the day were fraught with mournful consequences to the queen. Heretofore she had been remarked for her simplicity of dress; from the introduction of Bertin and Leonard into her household she dressed with rare magnificence. Not only the ladies of the court, but those of the city, followed her extravagance at a distance. They must wear the same jewels, the same flowers, the same costly silks and laces. Ostrich-feathers became the rage, and they were soon so scarce that ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... resume our reflections upon men, their characters, their manners, in a word, our reflections upon the world. They may help you to form yourself, and to know others; a knowledge very useful at all ages, very rare at yours. It seems as if it were nobody's business to communicate it to young men. Their masters teach them, singly, the languages or the sciences of their several departments; and are indeed generally incapable of teaching them ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... "I had the rare good fortune to be born in the country upon a farm and to share in the duties and responsibilities of farm life. My poor grandson John is not so lucky in this respect and he has not had to pick up potatoes and stone and gather apples ...
— My Boyhood • John Burroughs
... he had a call to the Church. His family did everything possible to dissuade him—his father with harshness, and his uncle, Duke William of Mantua, with tenderness—from his vocation. The latter even sent a "bishop of rare eloquence" to labor with the boy at Castiglione; but everything was done in vain. In due time Luigi joined the Company of Jesus, renounced this world, and died at Rome in the odor of sanctity, after doing such good works as surprised every one. His brother Ridolfo succeeded ...
— Italian Journeys • William Dean Howells
... Jacopo knelt by the wayside and prayed for an easy ankle and a snoring pillow and no wakeners. After this he was refreshed. The sun sank; the darkness spread around; the air grew icy. 'Does the Blessed Virgin ever consider what patriots have to endure?' Jacopo muttered to himself, and aroused a rare laugh from Angelo, who seized him under the arm, half-lifting him on. At the inn where they rested, he bathed ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... that soft hand I adore, Feigning with some rare ring or seal to play, And plied thee with strong wine till thou didst snore, While I, with wine and water, won ...
— The Elegies of Tibullus • Tibullus
... communications, had been hastily projected. It is called the head of ocean navigation, and the terminus of many proposed but as yet imaginary railroads. While the titles to all the land are still in litigation, the wilderness shades its streets, and, saving the rare arrival of the Indian mail carrier on snow shoes, during six months of intense cold, they are isolated from all humanity. Its grand prospectus, some five years before, had drawn there about three thousand people; and soon afterward, ...
— Continental Monthly, Volume 5, Issue 4 • Various
... my advice is to pull th' owd thing down, stick and stone, and mend your roads with it. It's a capital heap o' stone in it, that one must allow,—and your roads are pestilent bad. Down with the old daw-house, I say, and mend th' roads wi' 't, and set th' parson here up for a guide-post. Oh! it's a rare 'un he'd make; for he's always pointing th' way to the folks, but I never see that he ...
— Stories of Comedy • Various
... the charred and leafless trees, she picked up with her numb and nerveless fingers the relics of the autumn nuts or feebly dug in the frost-stiffened ground for roots. But these were rare; here and there she found a nut shielded by a decayed log, and the edible roots were almost hidden by the ashes of the grass. She returned to the fire, around which her innocent children had begun to frolic with childlike thoughtlessness. The coarse morsels which she ...
— Woman on the American Frontier • William Worthington Fowler
... resolution was strengthened since it received a spur from his own avarice, and that also of those who at that time were about the palace, and were constantly seeking new sources of gain; while if on any rare occasion any mention was made of humanity, they styled it slackness; and by their bloodthirsty flatteries perverted the resolution of a man who bore men's lives on the tip of his tongue, guiding it in the worst direction, and assailing everything with unseemly confusion, ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus
... Interpreter," a man who once lived and reigned amongst them and who wrote his laws in what we would call, by interpretation, "The Book of Gold." The leaves of this book are made from an element costly and rare, more precious to them than gold is to us. From this book all their sacred books are copied. The civil powers also accept this book as their authority, and enforce ...
— Life in a Thousand Worlds • William Shuler Harris
... Such a dear, simple-minded child! Report engaged her to at least ten different people at Simla. She had a crowd of cavaliers there—I was one of them. The whole place adored her. She is a very rare little creature, but well looked after, I can tell you—a long array of guardians ...
— Lady Rose's Daughter • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... are rare. The range is a limited one—Platonic love in its conventional form, or the still more conventional form of chivalric love, imported bodily from the Troubadours. Scattered here and there are some noble poems; as, for instance, the one attributed to Fazio degli ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various
... vacation, they discover Maid Mary, the orphan of the orchids, a child of strange fancies and queer tropical influences, who has been made a victim of the orchid seekers to the extent of being kept from her relations until the rare bulb is found ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis
... by Louis XIII, who built here a humble hunting-lodge for the disciples of Saint Hubert of whom he was the royal head. So humble an erection was it that the monarch referred to it simply as a "petite maison" and paid for it out of his own pocket, a rare enough proceeding ...
— Royal Palaces and Parks of France • Milburg Francisco Mansfield
... delightful news to Frank. European travel in those days was rare, and to have the opportunity of visiting Constantinople, as well as being present at the tremendous encounter about to take place, was an unexpected ...
— Through Russian Snows - A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow • G. A Henty
... clearly as it is possible to do: "From close personal observation, embracing a professional life of nearly forty years among the Negroes and from data obtained from professional brethren in different sections of the South, I have no hesitancy in declaring that insanity and tuberculosis were rare diseases among the Negroes of the South prior to emancipation. Indeed, many intelligent people of observation and full acquaintance of the Negro have stated to me that they never saw a crazy or consumptive Negro of unmixed ...
— A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 1 • Kelly Miller
... when fishing for schnapper, in thirty fathoms off Camden Haven, on the coast of New South Wales, a mottled black and grey rock cod, which weighed 83 lbs., and was assured by the Sydney Museum authorities that such a weight for a rock cod was rare in that part of the Pacific, but that beche-de-mer fishermen on the Great Barrier Reef had occasionally captured fish of the same variety of double that size ...
— By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories • Louis Becke
... BOSWELL. Voltaire, speaking of the King and Mlle. de La Valliere (not Valiere, as Lord Hailes wrote her name), says:—'Il gouta avec elle le bonheur rare d'etre aime uniquement pour lui-meme.' Siecle de Louis XIV, ch. 25. He describes her penitence in a fine passage. ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell
... minutes later I've led him into a side street and parked him opposite me at a chop house table. "How about a slice of roast beef rare, with mashed potatoes and turnips and a cup ...
— Torchy As A Pa • Sewell Ford
... eyes became A second-sight procession, such as glides Over still mountains, or appears in dreams; And once, far-travelled in such mood, beyond 635 The reach of common indication, lost Amid the moving pageant, I was smitten Abruptly, with the view (a sight not rare) Of a blind Beggar, who, with upright face, Stood, propped against a wall, upon his chest 640 Wearing a written paper, to explain His story, whence he came, and who he was. Caught by the spectacle my ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III • William Wordsworth
... no man is a hero to his valet. I have never had a valet except on ship-board, and I have no desire to compete with the heroes of the average steward; but I have had a typist, and I suppose it is equally rare for an author to be interesting to his amanuensis. And when I climbed one day (the elevator being out of order) to the eyrie where my elderly henchman had his nest, his bald head was shining in the westering sun, ...
— Aliens • William McFee
... drink, and curse the mosquitoes as systematically as your friends in England eat, drink, and sleep. If you are wise, you will not look upon the long period of time thus occupied in actual movement as the mere gulf dividing you from the end of your journey, but rather as one of those rare and plastic seasons of your life from which, perhaps, in after times you may love to date the moulding of your character—that is, your very identity. Once feel this, and you will soon grow happy and contented in your saddle-home. As for me and my comrade, however, in this part of our journey we often ...
— Eothen • A. W. Kinglake
... quaint corner of New England where bygone romance finds a modern parallel. The story centers round the coming of love to the young people on the staff of a newspaper—and it is one of the prettiest, sweetest and quaintest of old fashioned love stories, * * * a rare book, exquisite in spirit and conception, full of delicate fancy, of tenderness, ...
— The Grell Mystery • Frank Froest
... yet that cur, Petronius by name, Enkindled in his master's heart a flame Of love, affection, reverence, so rare That had he been an angel bright and fair The homage paid him had been less; you see The red-haired boy who owned him had a bee— There was no other dog on land or sea. Petronius was solid; he just ...
— The Dog's Book of Verse • Various
... lit by rare electric lights, were thronged with hurrying shapes of soldiers and workmen, some bent under the weight of huge bundles of newspapers, proclamations, printed propaganda of all sorts. The sound of their heavy boots made a deep and incessant thunder on the wooden floor.... ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed
... a political ignorance quite common in rural districts ten years ago and not conspicuously rare to-day. He laboured under uneasy suspicions that the support of monarchy was a direct and dismal tax upon the ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts
... withered leaves all skip and hop; There's not a breeze—no breath of air— Yet here, and there, and every where 15 Along the floor, beneath the shade By those embowering hollies made, The leaves in myriads jump and spring, As if with pipes and music rare Some Robin Good-fellow were there, 20 And all those leaves, in festive glee, Were dancing to the ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight
... channels, forming large islands of a mile and a mile and a-half in length, covered with scrub, and over which freshes had swept. All at once, the water disappeared; the deepest holes were dry; the Melaleucas were not to be found; the flooded-gums became very rare, and the rich green grass was replaced by a scanty wiry grass. The whole river seemed to divide into chains of dry water-holes, scarcely connected by hollows. Two miles farther we came to a fine large water-hole, ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt
... Carlscrona, Nelson became involved in a pen-and-ink controversy about Commodore Fischer, who had commanded the Danish line at the Battle of Copenhagen,—one of two or three rare occasions which illustrate the vehemence and insolence that could be aroused in him when his vanity was touched, or when he conceived his reputation to be assailed. Fischer, in his official report of the action, had comforted himself and his ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. II. (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
... the great nobles of that period, Athos rode and fenced to perfection. But still further, his education had been so little neglected, even with respect to scholastic studies, so rare at this time among gentlemen, that he smiled at the scraps of Latin which Aramis sported and which Porthos pretended to understand. Two or three times, even, to the great astonishment of his friends, he had, when Aramis allowed some rudimental error to escape him, replaced ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... salient characteristics of the Amniotes is the complete loss of the gills. All Amniotes, even if living in water (such as sea-serpents and whales), breathe air through lungs, never water through gills. All the Amphibia (with very rare exceptions) retain their gills for some time when young, and have for a time (if not permanently) branchial respiration; but after these there is no question of branchial respiration. The Protamniote itself must have entirely ...
— The Evolution of Man, V.2 • Ernst Haeckel
... open to the Romans. The soldiers on account of their superstition would not immediately rush in, but at last, as Titus forced them, they made their way inside. Then the Jews carried on a defence much more vigorous than before, as if they had discovered a rare and unexpected privilege in falling near the temple, while fighting to save it. The populace was stationed in the outer court, the senators on the steps, and the priests in the hall of worship itself. And though they were ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio
... contribution to the "English Spy," R—— A——ys of Genius Reflecting on the True Line of Beauty at the Life Academy, is described by Mr. Grego under date of 1825. This is not the only time in which the artist was associated in work with Rowlandson. There is a rare work (one of an annual series)—"The Spirit of the Public Journals," for the year 1824, with explanatory notes by C. M. Westmacott, a collection of whimsical extracts from the press, which appeared in print in the previous season, which has ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt
... the cyclone belt, so severe storms are rare; short droughts possible; no fresh water, catchments collect rain; 40 granitic and about 50 ...
— The 1991 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... ran through a gorge less than half a mile to the east of their camp, and they had an idea that the spy, Garay, might pass that way, two of them always abiding by the trail, while the third remained in their secluded camp or hunted game. Willet shot a deer and Tayoga brought down a rare wild turkey, while Robert caught some wonderful lake trout. So they had plenty of food, and they ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler
... for granted. Nature is very rarely right to such an extent, even, that it might almost be said that Nature is usually wrong; that is to say, the condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is rare, and not common ...
— Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures • Henry Rankin Poore
... clearing away obstacles to improvement which might have lasted indefinitely if the subject population had been left unassisted to its native tendencies and chances. In a country not under the dominion of foreigners, the only cause adequate to producing similar benefits is the rare accident of a monarch of extraordinary genius. There have been in history a few of these who, happily for humanity, have reigned long enough to render some of their improvements permanent, by leaving them under the guardianship of a generation which had grown up under their influence. ...
— Considerations on Representative Government • John Stuart Mill
... large jewelled case shaped like a bell. Flowers scattered on the floor or piled on other tables fill the chamber with their heavy perfume. Inside the bell are six other bells of diminishing size, the innermost of which covers a golden lotus containing the sacred tooth. But it is only on rare occasions that the outer caskets are removed. Worshippers as a rule have to content themselves with offering flowers[73] and bowing but I was informed that the priests celebrate puja daily before the relic. The ceremony comprises the consecration and distribution of ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot
... terrors, is no such great thing after all, but merely a bubble upon the surface of a river, a thing that one may toss about and play with as a juggler tosses his golden balls, a thing that one may quaff, like a goblet of rare red wine. Thus having known himself for the master of things, a man could go back to his toil and live upon the memory all ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair
... the further encroachments of the white people. In this letter the governor remarks, "I wish I could say the Indians were treated with justice and propriety on all occasions by our citizens; but it is far otherwise. They are often abused and maltreated; and it is very rare that they obtain any satisfaction for the most unprovoked wrongs." He proceeds to relate the circumstance of a Muskoe Indian having been killed by an Italian innkeeper, in Vincennes, without any just cause. ...
— Life of Tecumseh, and of His Brother the Prophet - With a Historical Sketch of the Shawanoe Indians • Benjamin Drake
... dust-choked. The trees were thirsty, and their leaves shriveling. The river bed was bare its width in places, and while the Kingfisher made merry with his family, and rattled, feasting from Abram Johnson's to the Gar-hole, the Black Bass sought its deep pool, and lay still. It was a rare thing to hear it splash in ...
— At the Foot of the Rainbow • Gene Stratton-Porter
... superlatives in which world-travelers generally—in fact, invariably—agree? There must be some reason for it. Nay, there are many. To thousands the chief charm of Lake Tahoe is in the exquisite, rare, and astonishing colors of its waters. They are an endless source of delight to all who see them, no matter how insensible they may be, ordinarily, to the effect of color. There is no shade of blue or green that cannot here ...
— The Lake of the Sky • George Wharton James
... frequent blizzards form near the foot of the plateau; cyclonic storms form over the ocean and move clockwise along the coast; volcanism on Deception Island and isolated areas of West Antarctica; other seismic activity rare and weak; large icebergs may calve from ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... replied in the ironical manner which is so characteristic of him:—'Alcibiades, my friend, you have indeed an elevated aim if what you say is true, and if there really is in me any power by which you may become better; truly you must see in me some rare beauty of a kind infinitely higher than any which I see in you. And therefore, if you mean to share with me and to exchange beauty for beauty, you will have greatly the advantage of me; you will gain true beauty in return for appearance—like Diomede, ...
— Symposium • Plato
... won immense local fame, and the supplies for its manufacture were always giving out and having to be replenished. For various reasons, the seclusion and uninterrupted days which had been looked forward to proved to be very rare in this otherwise delightful corner of the world. My hostess and I had made our shrewd business agreement on the basis of a simple cold luncheon at noon, and liberal restitution in the matter of hot suppers, to provide for which the lodger might sometimes be seen hurrying ...
— The Country of the Pointed Firs • Sarah Orne Jewett
... I am sure of it. And I think, moreover, that if it were discarded entirely from the government and merchant service, insubordination and floggings would be of rare occurrence in the one, and trouble and mutiny in the other. And there would be fewer vessels and lives lost in the ...
— Select Temperance Tracts • American Tract Society
... It is so rare and new a thing to see Aught that belongs to young nobility In print, but their own clothes, that we must praise You, as we would do those first show the ways To ...
— The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 • Edward Abbott Parry
... "Not so rare as you'd fancy," his friend answered. "There's not a season goes by that some of the cutters don't have to take a hand in settling mutiny. Why, only last year, a crew seized a vessel, in the real ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... futility at every step whichever way you turned, that ledger in the road, with none to read it, was the gospel promising that life should rise again; the suggestion of a forgotten but surviving virtue which would return, and cover the dread we knew, till a ploughman of the future would stop at rare relics, holding them up to the sun, and dimly recall ancient ...
— Old Junk • H. M. Tomlinson
... face, and brought forward so as to hide in some degree the hollowness of her jaws. Her eyes had a peculiar brightness, but now they left on those who looked at her cursorily no special impression as to their colour. They had been blue,—that dark violet blue, which is so rare, but is sometimes so lovely. Her forehead was narrow, her mouth was small, and her lips were thin; but her nose was perfect in its shape, and, by the delicacy of its modelling, had given a peculiar grace to her face in the days when things had gone well with ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... the others would have been of no avail, was, indeed, mutual sympathy. When the treaty was signed the three negotiators, Barbe-Marbois, Monroe, and Livingston, who had known each other in America at the time of the war of Independence, rose, and, what is rare on such occasions, one of them was able to express in a single sentence the intimate feelings of the three. "The treaty which we have just signed," said Livingston, "will cause no tears; they prepare centuries of happiness ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
... a picture entirely different in kind from the comments and criticisms of those who can judge only from Mr. Keble's writings and religious line, or from the rare occasions in which he took a public part. These appearances, to many who willingly acknowledge the charm which has drawn to him the admiration and affection of numbers externally most widely at variance with him, do not always agree together. ...
— Occasional Papers - Selected from The Guardian, The Times, and The Saturday Review, - 1846-1890 • R.W. Church
... "v", non-initial "u" is followed consistently. The spelling "they" is more common than "thei". The form "then" is normally used for both "then" and "than"; "than" is rare. The most common spelling is "wyll", but "wyl", "wil" and "will" ...
— A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes • Richard Sherry
... we all felicitate ourselves upon the art and gift of forgetting; that art which the great Athenian [Footnote: "The great Athenian"—Themistocles.] noticed as amongst the desiderata of human life—that gift which, if in some rare cases it belongs only to the regal prerogatives of the grave, fortunately in many thousands of other cases is accorded by the treachery of a human brain. Heavens! what a curse it were, if every chaos, which is stamped upon the mind by ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey
... a long time been very friendly with King Bardondon, who was a most accomplished Prince, and whose court was the model of what a court should be. His Queen, Balanice, was also charming; indeed it is rare to find a husband and wife so perfectly of one mind about everything. They had one little daughter, whom they had named 'Rosanella,' because she had a little pink rose printed upon her white throat. From her earliest infancy she had shown the most astonishing ...
— The Green Fairy Book • Various
... man was chaff. And you, wherever you are, you may be just about to be carried away. Cry to God! This is my last word—Poor chaff, cry to God! And He will make thee wheat that shall command a rare price. ...
— Broken Bread - from an Evangelist's Wallet • Thomas Champness
... given in the 1763 edition of Hocus Pocus. Examination of the different editions of this book in my library discloses the fact that there are no fire formulas in the second edition, 1635, which is the earliest I have (first editions are very rare and there is only one record of a sale of that edition at auction). From the fact that this formula was published during the time that Powell was appearing in England I gather that that circumstance may account for its addition to the book. It does not appear ...
— The Miracle Mongers, an Expos • Harry Houdini
... rare month of it, said my father, turning his head from Obadiah, and looking wistfully in my uncle Toby's face for some time—we shall have a devilish month of it, brother Toby, said my father, setting his arms a'kimbo, and shaking his head; fire, water, women, ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne
... ready to their hand, and, as they crept, the dark figure that had seemed to be spying over their movements crept too, but on toward the quarter-deck, where the captain and the first lieutenant were lolling over the rail, and talking gently as they smoked—rather a rare custom in ...
— The Adventures of Don Lavington - Nolens Volens • George Manville Fenn
... failure, and unfitted to command, in proportion as he is high in rank. Rash personal conduct which might be tolerated in a lieutenant would in a lieutenant- general be conclusive of his unfitness to hold any general command. Of course, there are rare emergencies when an officer, let his rank be what it may, should lead in an assault or forlorn hope, or rush in to stay a panic ...
— Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 • Joseph Warren Keifer
... you have a mind to marry again. If you do, I am sure it will very much surprise me: after the experience you have had of the small satisfaction there is in marriage, is it possible you dare venture a second time? You know how rare it is to meet with a husband that is a really honest man. Believe what I say, and let us live together as comfortably as we can.' All my persuasion was in vain; they were resolved to marry, and so they did. But after some months were past they came back again, and begged my pardon a thousand ...
— Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights • E. Dixon
... the naturalists knows nothing of these tribulations. Agile and lively, careless of slope or precipice, he trundles his load, which is sometimes food for himself, sometimes for his offspring. He is very rare hereabouts; I should never have succeeded in obtaining a sufficient number of specimens for my purpose but for an assistant whom I may opportunely present to the reader, for he will be mentioned ...
— Social Life in the Insect World • J. H. Fabre
... Marg'ret, and rare Marg'ret, "And Marg'ret o' veritie, "Gin ere ye love another man, "Ne'er love him as ye ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. II (of 3) • Walter Scott
... fooling? Do you think that I want to lose the opportunity to taste such a rare fish? A Marionette fish does not come very often to these seas. Leave it to me. I'll fry you in the pan with the others. I know you'll like it. It's always a comfort to find ...
— The Adventures of Pinocchio • C. Collodi—Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini
... of friar's brains. A most rare delicacy, and rendered costly by virtue of the scarcity of the ingredients." And with that answer Peppe was gone, leaving the monk with an ugly look in his eyes, and an unuttered imprecation ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini
... 1905 with Mrs. Edward O. Janney as president. In the spring of 1909 this league, in order to broaden its scope, became the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore. Mrs. Elisabeth King Ellicott was elected president and filled this office with wisdom and rare executive ability until her death in May, 1914. The league, as a branch of the State Suffrage Association, sent Miss Julia Rogers as a delegate to the national convention held in Seattle in 1909. This year a mass meeting was ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various
... other aquatic birds fetched fabulous prices, and their purchase was the occasion of many banquets in houses where such entertainments had become rare. Still there were no signs that the time when Paris was to make its attempt to burst its bonds was at hand. Among the National Guard complaints at the long inaction were incessant, but there was good reason for doubt whether the discontent was as ...
— A Girl of the Commune • George Alfred Henty
... Veronese, or a hundred yards of Rubens? Artists from England, who have a national gallery that resembles a moderate-sized gin-shop, who may not copy pictures, except under particular restrictions, and on rare and particular days, may revel here to their hearts' content. Here is a room half a mile long, with as many windows as Aladdin's palace, open from sunrise till evening, and free to all manners and all varieties of study: the only puzzle to the student is to select the one he shall begin upon, ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray
... enjoy the rare luxury of a table regularly well served in the best style, must treat his cook as his friend—watch over her health[26-*] with the tenderest care, and especially be sure her taste does not suffer from her stomach being deranged by ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner
... so. Prowling among the rocks and shooting those who cannot tell whence the bullet comes, there is no wide gap between him and the assassin. His victims never see him, and in the ordinary course he incurs no personal danger. I believe such cases to have been very rare, but if the soldiers have occasionally shot such a man without reference to the officers, can it be said that it was an inexcusable action, or even that it was outside the strict rules ...
— The War in South Africa - Its Cause and Conduct • Arthur Conan Doyle
... king, still with a cunning smile on his lips, "I have a little adventure to propose to you; and, as you are a brave and enterprising youth, you will doubtless look upon it as a great piece of good luck to have so rare an opportunity of distinguishing yourself. You must know, my good Perseus, I think of getting married to the beautiful Princess Hippodamia; and it is customary, on these occasions, to make the bride a present of some far-fetched and elegant curiosity. I ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various
... been a great delight to me to read Mr. Thackeray's work; and I so seldom now express my sense of kindness that, for once, you must permit me, without rebuke, to thank you for a pleasure so rare and special. Yet I am not going to praise either Mr. Thackeray or his book. I have read, enjoyed, been interested, and after all, feel full as much ire and sorrow as gratitude and admiration. And still one can ...
— Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries) • Various
... upon them as they were floundering in the mud. The 14th Infantry eventually swam across the Zapote River, and under cover of artillery charged the insurgents, who retreated into the woods. The Filipinos displayed a rare intelligence in the construction of their defences near the Zapote River and its neighbourhood, and but for the employment of artillery their dislodgement therefrom would have been extremely difficult. After the battle was over General Lawton declared that it was the toughest contest ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... Gratitude is a rare grace. The lack of it was one of the costly defects in Roderick's character. No longer hungry, sitting before a good fire with a well-filled pipe, even the cunning which usually supplies the vacancy ...
— Labrador Days - Tales of the Sea Toilers • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... confidence, to the equally manifest dismay of the chief and the disgust of his adjutant-general, neither of whom could check the volume of the good lady's words of woe. Loring found his soldierly commander grinning whimsically when he dropped in to say good-morning. The General was that rare combination—a devout churchman and a stalwart fighter. Time and money had he devoted to the building up of this little church in the wilderness, and the communion service was his gift. More than once had he knelt to receive the sacred ...
— A Wounded Name • Charles King
... but what he does realize is that he must hit the animal in a vital spot at the right moment or else run the risk of being clawed and bitten. The confidence, however, which he has in his gun gives him all the requisite nerve, and mishaps are of very rare occurrence. Those lion hunts used to be very profitable, not only for the valuable skins, but especially when a number of young cubs were also caught, which would realize considerably high prices from ...
— Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) - The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked • C. H. Thomas |
