"Ask" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... me. If we stick up Wild Water for ten dollars a egg we stand to win, clean net an' all to the good, just exactly six thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars. Now that's a book-makin' what is, if anybody should ride up on a dog-sled an' ask you. An' I'm in half on it! Put her there, Smoke. I'm that thankful I'm sure droolin' gratitude. Book-makin'! Say, I'd sooner run with the chicks than the ...
— Smoke Bellew • Jack London
... third term, the only successful candidate on her ticket at the last election." She began by saying: "Gentlemen, this is a very peculiar position for a Colorado woman. It seems just as strange to me as it would be to my husband to be coming here before a body of women and saying: 'We men ask from you equal rights under the Constitution of the United States.'" After showing the interest felt in elections by women she said: "I have been an office-holder, which has involved running for office, and I think it is right for me to tell ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper
... where was he! Ask of the winds that far around With fragments strewed the sea; With mast and helm, and pennant fair That well had borne their part: But the noblest thing that perished there Was that young ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge
... said that often to myself: and I hope, sometimes, that it may be true. But a man who gives up anything of the truth, as he sees it, for reasons however good—can he ever be sure of himself again?... It's a new thing for me to ask another man if I have done wrong. But that's the way I feel: I don't myself know. And once, once, I was so sure—that I was right, and that I ...
— Angels & Ministers • Laurence Housman
... because the Bible contradicts you. It is because we believe the Bible itself that we reject your theory. We believe that the Bible is an inspired book, nay, that it is by eminence The Inspired Book; but when you ask us 'What is an inspired book?' instead of making up a definition of inspiration out of our own heads, we only say, 'It is such a book as the Bible is,' and then we proceed to frame our definition of inspiration by the study of the Bible. Therefore, when you say that inspiration ...
— Who Wrote the Bible? • Washington Gladden
... I will ask my female readers of every degree to tell their brothers and husbands all the young noble did: how she sat on the floor, and had her child on her bosom; how she smiled over it through her tears; how she purred over it; how she, ...
— White Lies • Charles Reade
... threatening Columbus, and another the Tennessee River. Grant went with the latter. The object of the expedition was attained; troops were not sent to reinforce Buckner. Grant was now eager to move against the forts on the Tennessee. This is his errand to St. Louis, to ask permission of General Halleck to move against them. He had long been convinced that the true line of operations was up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Once these rivers were held by the Union troops, the Confederates would be forced to evacuate Kentucky altogether. ...
— Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, - 1857-78 • Ulysses S. Grant
... had no cause to complain. There was a sergeant in charge of us "number fours," and he was as cool as any fellow I ever saw. The sergeant was a nice man, but he was no musician. He was an Irishman, also, and when any bugle-call and when any bugle-call sounded he had to ask some one what it was. There was a great deal of uncertainty about bugle-calls, I noticed, among officers ...
— How Private George W. Peck Put Down The Rebellion - or, The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit - 1887 • George W. Peck
... know at once how they should converse with a young man and try him. I, on my side, was likewise not particularly skilful in adapting myself to people. I generally won their favor, but not their approbation. Whatever occupied me was completely present to me, but I did not ask whether it might be also suitable to others. I was mostly too lively or too quiet, and appeared either importunate or sullen, just as persons attracted or repelled me; and thus I was considered to be indeed full of promise, but at the same time was ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
... father George, and Aunt Martha. "Most the first thing I did," said she, "was to inquire after Billy Bender! I guess Aunt Martha was shocked, for she looked so queer. George laughed, and Mr. Selden said he was doing well, and was one of the finest young men in Boston. But why don't you ask about George? I heard him talking about you to Rose, just ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes
... visit. "Slumkey for ever," roared the honest and independent. "Slumkey for ever!" echoed Mr. Pickwick, taking off his hat. "No Fizkin," roared the crowd. "Certainly not," shouted Mr. Pickwick. "Who is Slumkey?" whispered Mr. Tupman. "I don't know," said Mr. Pickwick, in the same tone. "Hush! don't ask any questions. It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do." "But suppose there are two mobs," suggested Mr. Snodgrass. "Shout with the largest," replied Mr. Pickwick. Volumes could not have said more. On asking for rooms at the Town Arms, which was the Great White Horse, Mr. Pickwick ...
— Pickwickian Manners and Customs • Percy Fitzgerald
... knowing that we could not get through Broadway while the troops were passing," said Bell Crawford, "with orders to have it call for us late in the afternoon, at a friend's house near Union Square. We were just going down to Taylor's for a little lunch, when this awkward affair occurred: may we ask you to ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford
... bandages, I concluded it to be an ill time for any joking. After a day or two's rest and unceasing attention to his wounds on my part, I was pleased to find him greatly improved both in body and spirits, and therefore felt that I might ask him a little about himself. What information he gave me I ...
— Jethou - or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles • E. R. Suffling
... no existence but in the crazed imagination of a profuse dreamer, who fancied argosies and made the world believe he possessed them. It was enough that the drama was ended, and no one cared now, after so long a time, to ask what was become of the ...
— Barn and the Pyrenees - A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre • Louisa Stuart Costello
... they ask us to do, let's not make a fuss," said Hinpoha. "Here comes Miss Judy. Put that letter out of ...
— The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin • Hildegard G. Frey
... yes and we go, not to Leyden, but to seek the treasure, and live through it, that you will take me away from this land of bloodshed and murder and torments, to some country where folk may live at peace, and see no one killed, except it be now and again an evil-doer? It is much to ask, but oh! Foy, ...
— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard
... "Don't ask me any more about it to-night," begged the girl in response to the amazed questioning in her lover's eyes. "I can't speak of it just yet. ...
— The Return of Peter Grimm - Novelised From the Play • David Belasco
... will not come again, those lads of ours, Who left this land so gallantly to do their best— And so I ask that You will send gay springtime flowers, To deck each shell-torn meadow where their bodies rest. I ask that You will let them hear the joyous singing, Of some deep-throated bird whose heart tones ...
— Cross Roads • Margaret E. Sangster
... father," she said, "whether he wishes me to have such words from you. If he does, you shall say what you please to me. But as to Walter, I will ask nobody. Till he is able to take care of himself, I shall not let you plague him. I will fight you ...
— Home Again • George MacDonald
... in some surprise, for it consisted of six white whale's teeth, and two of the same dyed bright red, which seemed to me very paltry things. However, I did not dare to hesitate, or to ask any questions; so gathering them up, I left the cabin, and was soon on my way to the chief's house, accompanied by Bill. On expressing my surprise at ...
— The Coral Island • R.M. Ballantyne
... Cetinje market on a non-market day, and passing through the crowd of people I admired the produce of various parts of the country—melons, tomatoes, dried fish, onions, peaches, nuts and cheese, lemons from Antivari and so forth. I happened to ask a comely woman called Petrie[vc]evi['c] from near Podgorica whether she had a permit; she looked surprised at such a question. It is very true that the more mountainous parts of Montenegro are far from prosperous, but to insinuate that this ...
— The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 • Henry Baerlein
... at the epoch of the visit from the archbishop to the convent—one of the young girls, Mademoiselle Bouchard, who was connected with the Montmorency family, laid a wager that she would ask for a day's leave of absence—an enormity in so austere a community. The wager was accepted, but not one of those who bet believed that she would do it. When the moment came, as the archbishop was passing in front of the ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... justice of peace resides more in folk anecdotes than in chroniclings. Horace Bell's expansive On the Old West Coast so represents him. A continent away, David Crockett, in his Autobiography, confessed, "I was afraid some one would ask me what the judiciary was. If I knowed I wish I may be shot." Before this, however, Crockett had been a J. P. "I gave my decisions on the principles of common justice and honesty between man and man, and relied on natural born sense, and not on law learning to guide me; ...
— Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest • J. Frank Dobie
... negligence, regarding it, as they say, living nobly.[1347] "Monsieur the archbishop," said Louis XVI. to M. de Dillon, "they say that you are in debt, and even largely." "Sire," replied the prelate, with the irony of a grand seignior, "I will ask my intendant and inform Your Majesty." Marshal de Soubise has five hundred thousand livres income, which is not sufficient for him. We know the debts of the Cardinal de Rohan and of the Comte Artois;[1348] their ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine
... be nothing from me," she replied. "I gave you a thousand pounds three months ago, and you promised you would ask for no more." ...
— The Coquette's Victim • Charlotte M. Braeme
... "I didn't ask no questions, sir. And when the hares was done, they rolled the red-hot clay out, gave it a tap, and it cracked from end to end, an' come off like a shell with the skin on it, and leaving the hares all smoking hot. I never ate anything so good ...
— Blue Jackets - The Log of the Teaser • George Manville Fenn
... wondering," said Grace slowly, "that perhaps that man might know something of the labor contractor who has Will in the toils. I wish I had thought to ask." ...
— The Outdoor Girls in Florida - Or, Wintering in the Sunny South • Laura Lee Hope
... well ask that—if I could only tell you. It can't be any relation to ice, as it doesn't melt even when the sun shines on it. Maybe—no, I daren't try explaining it to you. 'Tis a pity not to have learned things properly; ...
— Ditte: Girl Alive! • Martin Andersen Nexo
... do any ropin' without them. If you try 'n' rope on a small saddle the girth'll pretty near cut a pony in two. But you ain't got any ropin' to do, so I sh'd think an army saddle-tree would be about right. There's Rifle-Eye Bill comin' out of the bunk-house now. Ask ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Foresters • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... agitation? Miss Burney is frighted, but she says better times will come; she made me date my letter so, and persists in hoping that ten years hence we shall all three read it over together and be merry. But, perhaps, you will ask, "who is consternated,"? as you did about the French ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... meditation. "Wife," said I, "whose boards and timbers are those I see near the orchard there? Do you know anything about them, wife? Who put them there? You know I do not like the neighbors to use my land that way, they should ask permission first." ...
— I and My Chimney • Herman Melville
... victories. Her last thought was for their success. She spoke to Edward of a king's true vocation, to Pedro of his knightly duties in the help of widows and orphans, to Henry of a general's care for his men. On the 13th, the last day of her illness, she roused herself to ask "What wind was blowing so strong against the house?" and hearing it was the north, sank back and died, exclaiming, "It is the wind for your voyage, that must be about St. James' Day." It would have been false respect to delay. ...
— Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery, 1394-1460 A.D. • C. Raymond Beazley
... hopeless. I could only be sure that at least it was not love. Having assured myself of this and being certain that she was quite as whole-hearted, I ventured one evening (I remember it was on the 3d of July) as we sat on deck to ask her, laughingly, if she could assist me ...
— Can Such Things Be? • Ambrose Bierce
... all lands taken from them during the late war, and they were thus incited to rise in vindication of their alleged rights. What Nicholls was aiming at came out when, in company with several chieftains, he returned to England to ask for an alliance between the "mother country" and his buccaneer state. He met no encouragement, however, and in reply to an American protest the British Government repudiated his arts. His role was nevertheless promptly taken ...
— The Reign of Andrew Jackson • Frederic Austin Ogg
... economic problems, on the correct solution of which the welfare of millions, whose toil leaves them little leisure for study, depends. Is it not the supreme moral duty of those few to give their conclusions to the public? I have always thought so, and in that spirit I present this little work, and ask the laboring producers to give a candid consideration to the views herein presented. It may be that some of these views will be successfully controverted, but the duty remains the same. If they should aid ...
— If Not Silver, What? • John W. Bookwalter
... steaming out of his clothes, and making him look like an awkward genie just let out of his bottle. He will come down here and print impressions of his muddy boots all over the carpet, and he'll sit on your Gobelin tapestry, my lady, in his wet overcoat; and he'll abuse you if you remonstrate, and will ask why people have chairs that are not to be sat upon, and why you don't ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon
... Regulations lay down that every man's capacity for command must be tested to the uttermost. We construe that very literally when we're on the 'heef.' F'r instance, any man can apply to take the command next above him, and if a man's too shy to ask, his company officer must see that he gets his chance. A sergeant is given a wing of the battalion to play with for three weeks—a month, or six weeks—according to his capacity, and turned adrift in an ...
— Traffics and Discoveries • Rudyard Kipling
... just coming to: I assert that my property in slaves is therefore as legally mine as my property in land or money; and that any attempt to deprive me of either is equally a robbery, whether it be made by the nation, or by an individual. But now, sir, allow me to ask you a question; show me where liberty is?—Run over all the classes of society, and point out one man who ...
— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat
... Georgia; the linen from Ireland; the silver from Mexico; the glassware from Pennsylvania; the paper from Maine; the paint from Missouri; the clock from Connecticut—and so on." Finally I got the courage to ask if there was a single thing in the room that did not originate from some state other than Massachusetts. Those men were absolutely helpless in finding ...
— Fundamentals of Prosperity - What They Are and Whence They Come • Roger W. Babson
... breaks in, "you wouldn't ask him to climb over freight-cars and dodge switch-engines just for ...
— The House of Torchy • Sewell Ford
... hers, whom she had met for a moment in the Grand Central Station before the train started. Calling Colonel Harris aside, she said, "Father, Mrs. Nellie Eastlake, my classmate at Smith College, is going with friends to the Pacific Coast; shall I ask ...
— The Harris-Ingram Experiment • Charles E. Bolton
... whose own affairs were always his first consideration, took an opportunity of whispering to Jasmine, "Don't forget your honoured sister's promise, I beseech you. Whether we succeed or not, I shall ask for her in marriage ...
— Stories by English Authors: Orient • Various
... time he sent down a royal yard. Once or twice he had seen it done. He got an old hand in the crew to coach him. And then, the first anchorage at Monterey, being pretty thick with the second mate, he got him to ask the mate to be sent up the first time the royal yards were struck. "Fortunately," as Dana describes it, "I got through without any word from the officer; and heard the 'well done' of the mate, when the yard reached the deck, with as much satisfaction as I ever felt at Cambridge ...
— The Human Drift • Jack London
... moment, after a nudge or two from Trenton, Kitson and he came suddenly down on their knees, with an impetus that must have tried the boards of the bottom of the barge. 'Sir,' said Kitson, always the spokesman, 'we have a grace to ask of you.' ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge
... editions), have become objects of desire, and their old modest price is increased twenty fold. It is not always easy to account for these freaks of fashion; but even in book-collecting there are certain definite laws. "Why do you pay a large price for a dingy, old book," outsiders ask, "when a clean modern reprint can be procured for two or three shillings?" To this question the collector has several replies, which he, at least, finds satisfactory. In the first place, early editions, published during a great author's lifetime, and under ...
— The Library • Andrew Lang
... many years, to bear fruit in the scourging of them and their abuses from the land. While he was at work upon "Nicholas Nickleby," he sent one of his characteristic letters in reply to a little boy—Master Hasting Hughes—who wrote to ask him to make some changes in the story. As some of you may not have read this letter, and as it is so extremely amusing, I shall quote ...
— My Father as I Recall Him • Mamie Dickens
... few minutes, quiet was sufficiently restored among us four, who remained at the seat, to ask questions, and receive intelligible answers. Glad was I to ascertain that the girls had been spared the news of our loss. As for Mr. Hardinge, he was well, and busied, as usual, in discharging the duties of his holy office. He had told Grace and Lucy the name ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper
... felt that she was under scrutiny, and her eyes felt hot and restless. She wished to run away and cry, but she dared not. She stayed, while Will began to tell her of his life and to ask questions ...
— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland
... away," she said. "And I realized what folly it was in me to tell you as much as I have. Back there, for just one insane moment, I thought that you might help me in a situation which is as terrible as any you may have faced in your months of Arctic night. But it is impossible. All that I can ask of you now—all that I can demand of you to prove that you are the man you said you were—is that you leave me, and never whisper a word into another ear of our meeting. Will you ...
— God's Country—And the Woman • James Oliver Curwood
... natural way. He went to see Caffie, to ask him for a letter of recommendation, saying that he had been his clerk for several years. Caffie gave it to him, and then, in the course of conversation, Caffie spoke of a bundle of papers that he could not find. Florentin had had charge of these papers, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... do such a thing," affirmed Raynor. "My instructions are to give you any sum of money you ask. In fact, the Government of the United States is instructed to assume full responsibility for you until your father arrives. May I go on and clarify matters for these gentlemen, for Mr. Torrence at least is ...
— Lady Larkspur • Meredith Nicholson
... She does lots of embroidery and work of all kinds when she is waiting for him or sitting with him, and luckily it has never occurred to him to ask ...
— Nuttie's Father • Charlotte M. Yonge
... just in time," said Mead, "and I'm mighty glad. I'll have to ask you to sit on this man's chest and hold him down while I tie him ...
— With Hoops of Steel • Florence Finch Kelly
... cement roof, and, rebounding, fallen quite close to her. "If my people will not fight," she went on, with bitter sarcasm, "at least they understand the other arts of war, for this trick of theirs is clever. They are cruel also. Listen to them mocking us in the square. They ask whether we will roast alive or come out and have our throats cut. Oh!" she went on, clenching her hands, "oh! that I should have been born the head of such an accursed race. Let Sheol take them all, for in the day of their tribulation no finger will ...
— Queen Sheba's Ring • H. Rider Haggard
... charms he ask'd her name Of the first man he saw; From whom, with shrugs, no answer came ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt
... men; for even for strangers he laid down an insulting ordinance, that none should depart till they had made trial of him in boxing; and he had slain many of the neighbours. And at that time too he went down to the ship and in his insolence scorned to ask them the occasion of their voyage, and who they were, but at once spake ...
— The Argonautica • Apollonius Rhodius
... Be my reply, Challenge to poets who, with tinkling tricks, Meet life and pass it by. "Beauty," they ask, "in politics?" "If you ...
— The New World • Witter Bynner
... your house, Enos," responded Joseph. "My own is so full that I dared not ask Mistress Starkweather to take the child in; and I knew your wife ...
— A Little Maid of Province Town • Alice Turner Curtis
... are a few accounts which I must pay," he said. "So I'm going to ask Plimsoll to do it for me. He's a decent fellow of his sort, you know! Lots ...
— A Monk of Cruta • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... it very long," she said, mildly. "But we won't argue about respectability; and I won't even ask you whether you will marry her, if she gets ...
— The Iron Woman • Margaret Deland
... gathered round while we were looking at the huge blocks: these people Miss Martin called her TAIL. Sir Culling wished to obtain an answer to a question from some of these people, which he desired Miss Martin to ask for him, being conscious that, in his English tone, it would be unintelligible. When the question had been put and answered, Sir Culling objected: "But, Miss Martin, you did not put the question exactly as I requested you ...
— The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... that it is often read without conveying any actual familiarity with the people it is ostensibly engaged with. The soldiers and magistrates of whom we have ourselves been reading were but few, and we may well ask what the millions of other citizens were doing all these ages. How did they live? What were their joys and griefs? We have, it is true, not failed to get an occasional glimpse of the intimate life ...
— The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic • Arthur Gilman
... certain authorities, only additions should be made which are strictly in keeping with the spirit of the age in which the music was written. Some, on the other hand, would bring the music up to date; they think it better to clothe eighteenth-century music in nineteenth-century dress, than to ask musicians with nineteenth-century ears to listen to patched-up eighteenth-century music. The second plan would not be approved by musicians who hold the classical masters in veneration; with a little modification, the first one, however, ought to meet with general acceptance. We may write in ...
— The Pianoforte Sonata - Its Origin and Development • J.S. Shedlock
... Long in thy shackels, liberty I ask not from these walls, but thee; Left for awhile anothers bride, To fancy all the ...
— Lucasta • Richard Lovelace
... grief, and one leaping pulse of anxiety went round. They kneeled for prayer; and the venerable father bore their petitions before the Lord. He prayed for grace to sustain them in the trial. He acknowledged their errors; but bending at the feet of Infinite Kindness, he was encouraged to ask for a Father's blessing. He prayed for more faith in Providence. He prayed that they might have resignation, and that comfort might come to their hearts in the ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee
... whose duty it is to be patient. My father is so good at heart, gentler possibly, in his true self, than is my mother. She indeed, absorbed in her political ambitions, often turns from me with a harshness that accords ill with mother-love. It is my fate to endure this life. Ask yourself, dear friend, how could I trust to a chance adventurous stranger whom my brother sends to me from out of his wild, artistic circle in Rheinsberg—sends to me to be my knight and paladin? Such a thought could have been conceived only in the brains of that group of poets. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... mistake," said Mrs. Choate afterward when he came to the house to report, and ask how Alston was, and the three sat eating one of Mary's quick suppers. "You're really the candidate. Those men know it. They know it's you behind Alston, and they're going to take him patiently because you tell them to. But ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown
... are the worst. I spend the summers on the open road. Ask Marion if she remembers the days when we read Stevenson together in the garden? Tell her it is like that—under the stars—Tell her that I am getting more out of ...
— The Gay Cockade • Temple Bailey
... if you were a man I should ask to shake hands with you. It so exactly describes him. That's just what he is. As handsome as the dew—I beg your pardon!—as frank as a boy, as gentle as a woman, as staunch, as a bull-dog, as brave—he would have stopped a drayman's team just ...
— At Love's Cost • Charles Garvice
... you ask such silly questions," retorted the Lefthandiron. "What do we sit on? Why, you might just as well ask a dog what he barks with, or a lion what he eats his breakfast with—and that would be as stupid as the ...
— Andiron Tales • John Kendrick Bangs
... again. An odd smile came into his eyes. He nodded to me as he approached, and, with a quaint shake of the head, said: "I just made a wager with myself. I bet that if I encountered you in the lobby, without actually seeking you, and you saw me, I'd speak to you—and ask a favor of you. I am ...
— Told in a French Garden - August, 1914 • Mildred Aldrich
... she sighed, 'the Queen wishes to kill me, and if I must die I must. I cannot ask Percinet to help me again, for if he really loved me he would not wait till I called him, he would come ...
— The Red Fairy Book • Various
... of many visitors. I regret exceedingly to have to report that a majority of these names had an American sound to them. Indeed, many of the signatures were coupled with the names of towns and states of the Union. There were quite a few from Canada, too. What, I ask you, is the wisdom of taking steps to discourage the cutworm and abate the gypsy-moth when our government permits these two-legged varmints to go abroad freely and pollute shrines and wonderplaces with their scratchings, and give the nations over there a ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... this not the reason of many a humble believer's creed and faith—who may be all unlettered and unlearned in the evidences of the schools—the external and internal bulwarks of our impregnable Christianity? Ask them why they believe? why their faith is so firm—their love ...
— Memories of Bethany • John Ross Macduff
... "I assure you, Joe, the particular assignment was quite important. We simply cannot afford to move, here in the West, until we know what the Sov-world will do. Your task was a delicate one, obviously. You simply couldn't go to their government and ask. There are strong elements in not only the Upper caste, but even the middle and Lower ones, here in this country, who would spring to the defense of present West-world society if they thought an attempt was being made to alter its structure. If the Sov government ...
— Frigid Fracas • Dallas McCord Reynolds
... may be disappointing to the reader who hopes to find in Scot a scientific rationalist. That, of course, he was not; and his leaning towards superstition on these points makes one ask, What did he really believe about witchcraft? When all the fraud and false testimony and self-deception were excluded, what about the remaining cases of witchcraft? Scot was very careful never to deny in toto the existence of witches. That would have been to deny the ...
— A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 • Wallace Notestein
... for Slovenia's Hungarian and Italian minorities; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the National Council or Drzavni Svet (40 seats; this is primarily an advisory body with limited legislative powers; it may propose laws, ask to review any National Assembly decisions, and call national referenda; members - representing social, economic, professional, and local interests - are indirectly elected to five-year terms by an electoral college) elections: National Assembly - last ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States
... such a throng of arriving guests pressed round the entrance, decorated with a kind of tent with scallopings of red velvet, that he deemed the house unapproachable. How could he manage to get in? And how in his cassock could he reach the Princess, and ask for a minute's conversation with Baroness Duvillard? Amidst all his feverishness he had not thought of these difficulties. However, he was approaching the door on foot, asking himself how he might glide unperceived through the throng, when the sound of a merry voice ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... together so I shall be presentable. Now for the Washington convention: Before settling upon the Universalist church, you would better pocket the insults and refusals of the Congregational church powers that be and send your most lovely and winning girls to ask for that. If you can't get it or the Metropolitan or the Foundry or the New York Avenue or any large and popular church, why take the Universalist, and then tell the saints of the fashionable churches that we dwell there because ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper
... selective; especially does this appear in respect to the dialectical world, which is in itself infinite, while the sum of human logic and mathematics, though too long for most men's patience, is decidedly brief. If we ask ourselves on what principle this selection and foreshortening of truth takes place in the mind, we may perhaps come upon the real bond and the deepest contrast between mind and its environment. The infinity of formal truth is disregarded ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana
... so anxious to know what the flour was for I did not dare ask. And besides I did not want her to know that I remembered that it was Shrove Tuesday for fear ...
— Nobody's Boy - Sans Famille • Hector Malot
... "What we ask," said Gizur, "is that thou shouldst not be hard on Otkell, but we beg this of thee, on the other hand, that ...
— Njal's Saga • Unknown Icelanders
... stones and fallen boughs is soon to ask, what may be done with them, can they be piled and fastened together for shelter? So begins architecture, with the hut as its first step, with the Alhambra, St. Peter's, the capitol at Washington, as its last. In like fashion the amassing of fact ...
— Little Masterpieces of Science: - The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer • Various
... note crept into his voice,—"please consider the circumstances under which I came here last night; think of the tragedy which followed so swiftly; consider the story I have to tell, and then ask yourself, Who is going to believe it? God help us both, dear girl, but this thing has all got to be brought out ...
— The Paternoster Ruby • Charles Edmonds Walk
... might say something more of the same nature, Alice hastened to ask if he had seen her mother, and what he thought ...
— Bad Hugh • Mary Jane Holmes
... said last night that politics had sunk to such a pass in this town that no decent man would touch the City Hall with a pair of tongs," said Mrs. Mason. "That's the answer he gave a couple of men who came from Headquarters to ask him to stand. And he said that whatever decent man accepted the nomination was sure to be defeated. He doesn't care to be the ...
— A Woman for Mayor - A Novel of To-day • Helen M. Winslow
... to hear my thanks, and to know what made me dare to ask you, after all you had done for me already, to begin again for me. But I am such an outcast that I never should ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore
... thee, ask not; but by all 170 Thou holdest dear on earth or Heaven—by all The Souls of thy great fathers, and thy hope To emulate them, and to leave behind Descendants worthy both of them and thee— By all thou hast of blessed in hope or memory— By all thou hast to fear ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... in the nature of a last confession," said Father Michael to Dannie, "I shall have to ask you to leave ...
— At the Foot of the Rainbow • Gene Stratton-Porter
... its own. The blood runs freely through every vein and artery of the American body corporate. Every single citizen feels his share in the life of his nation. Great Britain leaves her Colonies to take care of themselves, refuses what they ask, and forces on them what ...
— Newfoundland and the Jingoes - An Appeal to England's Honor • John Fretwell
... time, so the story goes, a French publisher, planning an elaborate volume on the streets of Paris, went to Honore de Balzac, then at the height of his fame, to ask him to contribute the chapter on a particular thoroughfare—let us say, the Rue Une Telle, or the Avenue Quelque-Chose. The idea appealed to the fancy of the great man, and matters were going along swimmingly, until it came to the point of settling upon a price to be paid the novelist ...
— Fifth Avenue • Arthur Bartlett Maurice
... psychotechnical knowledge might be subdivided under either of the two aspects. Either we might start from the various mental processes and ask for what end each mental factor can be practically useful and important, or we can begin with studying what significant ends are acknowledged in our society and then we can seek the various psychological facts which are needed as means for the realization of these ends. The first way offers many ...
— Psychology and Industrial Efficiency • Hugo Muensterberg
... absurdity uttered, as if my lords, the man who could meet with firm tranquillity and peaceful thankfulness the event itself, was likely to be raised to rebellion and rioting by the recollection of it a year afterwards. My lords, in considering this matter, I ask you, then, to be guided by your own experience, and nothing else; profit by it, my lords, and turn it to your own account; for it, according to that book which all of us must revere, teaches even the most foolish of a ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... would, I confess, rather dine with them, if they ask me," answered Reginald. "You would excuse me if you ...
— The Young Rajah • W.H.G. Kingston
... honoured guests, but a really good housemaid is sometimes more ready to say 'Don't' than even a general. So the girls had to chuck it. Jane only let them put flowers in the pots on the visitors' mantelpieces, and then they had to ask the gardener which kind they might pick, because nothing worth gathering happened to be growing in our own gardens ...
— The Wouldbegoods • E. Nesbit
... chase each other like sun patches, and the nights like cloud-shadows, on a windy day; content to see them go and no wise reluctant for the cool evening, with its dew and stars and fading strain of tragic red. And I ask myself why I ever leave this humour? What I have gained? And the winds blow in the trees with a sustained "Pish"! and the birds answer me in a long ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 23 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... inquisitive? Had I been in your place, my tongue, I fancy, had been curious too. I should have asked her where she lived—yet still without design—who was she, pray? Love. Indeed I cannot tell. Aman. You will not tell. Love. Upon my honour, then, I did not ask. Aman. Nor do you know what company was with her? Love. I do not. But why are you so earnest? Aman. I thought I had cause. Love. But you thought wrong, Amanda; for turn the case, and let it ...
— Scarborough and the Critic • Sheridan
... Roger from afar Tryppynge over the lea; Ich ask whie the loverds[20] son Is moe than ...
— The Rowley Poems • Thomas Chatterton
... our boat a subaltern, coming to France for the first time. He wanted me to tell him all about it. How well I know these subalterns who want to know all about it. I was one myself once. Does he ask you what it's like in the mud? Does he listen if you give him details of bloodshed? Does he inquire about the food, the washing facilities, parapet or parados; what a time-fuse does when its time has expired, or even as to the use and abuse of the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. CL, April 26, 1916 • Various
... almost thought him sincere as he spoke, so kindled was his face—"for myself I should ask no more than to live and die in this place, as I had hoped. Every stone here is as dear to me as to you, and I think more dear, for I have been in a special sense the lord of it all; but I dare not think of that. ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson
... sovereignties, as you continue to call them, insisting much rather on the conservation of America and of American ideas. They say that the only thing which can individualize or perpetuate a commonwealth is to have a history; and they ask which of the States lately in rebellion, except Virginia and South Carolina, had anything of the kind? In spite of my natural sympathies, gentlemen, my reason compels me to agree with them. Your strength, such as it ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell
... made up my mind what to ask, dear queen," whispered Billy as he returned, breathless, three minutes later and laid the parasol in Lady Ingleby's lap. "You promised me anything, up to the half of your kingdom. I will have the head of Mrs. Parker Bangs in ...
— The Rosary • Florence L. Barclay
... who have dishonored the word compromise, who trampled, without a moment's hesitation, upon a compromise, when they expected to gain by it, now ask us to again compromise, by securing slavery south of a geographical line. To this we might fairly say: There is no occasion for compromise. We have done no wrong; we have no apologies to make, and no concessions to offer. You chose your ground, and we accepted your issue. We have beaten you, and ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... Some people ask: "What cruel chance Made Martin's life so sad a story?" Martin? Why, he exhaled romance, And wore an overcoat of glory. A fleck of sunlight in the street, A horse, a book, a girl who smiled, Such visions made each moment sweet For this receptive ...
— The Haunted Hour - An Anthology • Various
... gallant friend has been most grossly insulted. I think," continued he, addressing the colonel, who had quitted the sofa, in his anxiety to know the issue of their debate, "that I should most decidedly ask him what ...
— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat
... the saddle-bags. Toby had cured me of asking questions. He stopped my fiddling if I did. Besides, Indians don't ask questions much and I ...
— Rewards and Fairies • Rudyard Kipling
... "I'll ask him," gravely replied Worth, and sought to accustom the puppies to their new names with chanting—Poor Qua—Nessa Pa. The chant grew so melancholy that the puppies subsided; oppressed, overpowered, perhaps, with the sense of ...
— The Visioning • Susan Glaspell
... Indians to raise the tomahawk and scalping knife against American citizens, had let loose the Algerines upon their unprotected commerce, and had insulted their flag, and pillaged their trade in every quarter of the world. These facts being notorious, it was astonishing to hear gentlemen ask how had ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5) • John Marshall
... win. I could have given what she asked, but my own heart was a niggard. It was from me more than from her that the restraint came; it was with me to move, and I could not stir. She was lovable, but I did not love her; she had love to give, but I could not ask for it. To marry her was my duty, to seem to desire the marriage my role. There obligation stopped; inclination refused to carry on the work. I had driven a bargain with fate; I would pay the debt to the last farthing, ...
— The King's Mirror • Anthony Hope
... stranger to your writings, to which I have been indebted for much useful instruction. And as I have heard from my friends, Sir David Dalrymple and Mr. Davidson, that your disposition to oblige was equal to your knowledge, I now presume to write to you and to ask your assistance ...
— Literary Character of Men of Genius - Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions • Isaac D'Israeli
... And chaste Penelope extends his care. At the Coracian rock he now resides, Where Arethusa's sable water glides; The sable water and the copious mast Swell the fat herd; luxuriant, large repast! With him rest peaceful in the rural cell, And all you ask his faithful tongue shall tell. Me into other realms my cares convey, To Sparta, still with female beauty gay; For know, to Sparta thy loved offspring came, To learn thy fortunes from the voice ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope
... is to enjoy it. I see a thing and it tempts me; but if I see not the thing itself but only the means of acquiring it, I am not tempted. Therefore it is that I have been a pilferer, and am so even now, in the way of mere trifles to which I take a fancy, and which I find it easier to take than to ask for; but I never in my life recollect having taken a farthing from any one, except about fifteen years ago, when I stole seven francs and ten sous. The story is worth recounting, as it exhibits a concurrence of ignorance and stupidity I should scarcely credit, did it relate ...
— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau
... referred to her becoming self-supporting, but it was a part of her new realization to see that a parasite could never be a healthy growth. She was not sure enough how much substantial worth was indicated by her talent to ask money from Thinkright for its development, and certainly there was no one else to whom she would turn. She reminded herself that right here came an opportunity to apply the trust and confidence that her guardian was teaching ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham
... either the ministers of their lust or their supporters in the perpetration of wrong; and they who refuse to do so, it matters not however virtuously, yet are accused of discarding the claims of friendship by those persons whom they are unwilling to oblige; but they who dare to ask anything of a friend, by their very request seem to imply that they would do anything for the sake of that friend; by the complaining of such persons, not only are long-established intimacies put an end to, but endless animosities are engendered. All these many causes, like so many fatalities, ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome • Various
... have been a good friend to us all; without your assistance I might never have been here to bid you good-bye. May the great good Spirit bless and help you on the big, broad waters and in the lonely woods. You, Paul, ask him to guide you. I shall always ask the Great Spirit to look after you, and, if it be the Great Chief's will, I may come back to see you again." A smile played over his face as she uttered the last words, and he brushed the ...
— Young Lion of the Woods - A Story of Early Colonial Days • Thomas Barlow Smith
... if the rain comes in, just burrow down under the straw," said the peasant. "Very glad I am that you have come to me, that you have done me the honour. Much better to ask hospitality ...
— A Tramp's Sketches • Stephen Graham
... blame stuff has got to be transferred from our New York bank to here, which (because we went about it wrong in the first place), can't be done for another two weeks. We will make the first payment on Quien Sabe before October 1st—$250. Will you ask Lloyd to let us know—or I mean to bear us in mind—if he hears of a horse for sale so we could buy the beast when we come up next February. Meanwhile will keep you informed as to 'lightning change' programme we ...
— The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson • Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez
... ask not if thine eye Be on them; who, in love and truth Where no misgiving is, rely Upon the genial sense of youth: Glad hearts! without reproach or blot, Who do thy work, and know it not; Long may the ...
— The World's Best Poetry Volume IV. • Bliss Carman
... We may ask why Newton allowed himself to be thus bandied about instead of settling himself down to the work in which he was so pre-eminently great. Well, I expect your truly great man never realizes how great he is, and seldom knows where his real strength lies. Certainly Newton did not know it. He several ...
— Pioneers of Science • Oliver Lodge
... the room in the morning in her night wrapper, smiling, all powdered and perfumed, and would ask as she ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... just the same. I have several things to buy at the stores, and then I am going for a walk. I would ask you to go with me, only you are ...
— Marjorie Dean - High School Sophomore • Pauline Lester
... can't stand associating with tourists any longer, he packs his war bags and journeys back to the Northern Range and enjoys the company of cows a spell. Cows are not exactly exciting, but they don't ask ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories • Various
... and put upon the judgment-seat? save, for the reason, that they may have been thoroughly purged, as it were, by fire—which Varus has not been. What with him was necessary and forced when young, is now chosen and voluntary. Vice is now his by election. Now, I ask, why has the life of Varus been such? and why, being such, is he here? Because you are so! Yes, because you are all like him! It is you, Roman citizens, who rear the theatres, the circuses, and the thousand temples of vice, which crowd the streets ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware |
