"Confess" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... censer, to the day. The Athole pipers high-breastedly strutted with a vain port up and down their lines and played incessantly. Alasdair laid out the clans with amazing skill, as M'Iver and I were bound to confess to ourselves,—the horse (with Montrose himself on his charger) in the centre, the men of Clanranald, Keppoch, Locheil, Glengarry, and Maclean, and the Stewarts of Appin behind. MacDonald and O'Kyan led the ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... other Pieces of Ancient and Modern Authors, which are read and commented upon; and about which even celebrated Jesuits and other religious Persons, as eminent for their Piety as their Erudition, have employed their Studies. Yet who has condemn'd or complain'd of them? We must confess, such Things should be managed with Address; and those of them who have meddled with any of the Authors I have named, have shewn that it may be done so, by their succeeding so happily ...
— The Lovers Assistant, or, New Art of Love • Henry Fielding
... woods, and we shortly entered the tract known by the name of the Black Forest, a great haunt for banditti, and a beautiful specimen of forest scenery, a succession of lofty oaks, pines, and cedars, with wild flowers lighting up their gloomy green. But I confess that the impatience which I felt to see Mexico, the idea that in a few hours we should actually be there, prevented me from enjoying the beauty of the scenery, and made the road ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca
... order that the jinn and evil spirits may be diverted from the horses and enter into the boar. Amongst the Caffres of South Africa, when other remedies have failed, "natives sometimes adopt the custom of taking a goat into the presence of a sick man, and confess the sins of the kraal over the animal. Sometimes a few drops of blood from the sick man are allowed to fall on the head of the goat, which is turned out into an uninhabited part of the veldt. The sickness is supposed to be transferred to the animal, and to become ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer
... Come, come, be reasonable! I always thought you a good sort of fellow, though I was rough on you, I confess. There! take the money, ...
— A Rough Shaking • George MacDonald
... to consult his wife; but he was ashamed to confess that weakness. Suddenly he remembered Harley, and said, as Randal took up the letters ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... Proctor sneers at these theories also on the ground that these spots do not appear to revolve so fast as the sun. This, however, I am prepared to explain upon the theory that this might be the result of delays in the returns However, I am free to confess that speculative science is ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... justice meted out to them, in exact accordance with the evidence; negroes were promptly punished, when there was the slightest preponderance of testimony against them; but Chinamen were punished always, apparently. Now this gave me some uneasiness, I confess. I knew that this state of things must of necessity be accidental, because in this country all men were free and equal, and one person could not take to himself an advantage not accorded to all other individuals. I knew that, and yet in spite of ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... confess," remarked James. "However, I ought to be satisfied if you are." Perhaps his conscience might have troubled him somewhat, and caused him to think how much better off his young brother would have been, if he had given him the ...
— From Boyhood to Manhood • William M. Thayer
... the present political leaders in South Carolina with those of the Reconstruction Period I must confess that we have retrograted politically. They may be due to conditions. Not only in South Carolina, but where would you find in any State at the present time, political leaders who can measure up to the ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 • Various
... with Nero's elevation. She would make known the arts by means of which her marriage with Claudius had been effected, and the adoption of Nero as Claudius's son and heir had been secured. She would confess the murder of Claudius, and the usurpation on her part of the imperial power for Nero her son. Nero would, in consequence, be deposed, and Britannicus would succeed him, and thus the base ingratitude and treachery ...
— Nero - Makers of History Series • Jacob Abbott
... example, than the great and incomparable Urfe; certainly it must be acknowledged that he hath merited his reputation; that the love which all the earth bears him is just; and that so many different Nations, which have translated his Book into their tongues, had reason to do it: as for me, I confess openly, that I am his adorer; these twenty years I have loved him, he is indeed admirable over all; he is fertile in his inventions, and in inventions reasonable; every thing in him is mervellous, every thing ...
— Prefaces to Fiction • Various
... is said, are not good judges of their own works, and for that reason, and other reasons, maybe, it is considered to be unbecoming for a writer to praise himself. So to make atonement for the sins I have committed in this preface, I will confess to very little admiration for 'Evelyn Innes' and 'Sister Teresa.' The writing of 'Evelyn Innes' and 'Sister Teresa' was useful to me inasmuch that if I had not written them I could not have written 'The Lake' or 'The Brook Kerith.' It seems ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... natives surprise when they are feeding or dig them from their burrows. They are all cooked by having their fur singed off and being roasted on the fire; to the taste of a native the skinning a small animal would be an abomination, and I must really confess that a kangaroo-rat, nicely singed and cooked by them, is not a bad dish ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 2 (of 2) • George Grey
... has been propitiated by gifts and appropriate rites. How can all this be interpreted other than most darkly—other than as a general hostility—and a discouragement from an enterprise upon which I would found my glory. This has come most unlooked for. I confess myself perplexed. I have openly proclaimed my purpose—the word has gone abroad and travelled by this to the court of Persia itself, that with all Rome at my back I am once more to tempt the deserts ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware
... strike me as peculiar, I confess," said Lucian, taking a chair to which she pointed, "but on considering the matter I fancied that Mrs. ...
— The Silent House • Fergus Hume
... playing a principal part in effecting some of the most distressing of "the thousand natural ills that flesh is heir to." But heedless of such a singular explanation of a final cause, the practical surgeon will readily confess the fitting application of the interpretation, such as it is, and rest contented with the proximate facts and proofs. As physiologists, however, it behooves us to look further into nature, and search for the ultimate fact in her prime moving law. The prostate is ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise
... one, Donald, but I confess that I cannot comprehend it," said Alec, with a groan, produced by the pain he was suffering, then he added, in his old careless and somewhat sarcastic tone, "Tell me, old fellow, is ...
— Janet McLaren - The Faithful Nurse • W.H.G. Kingston
... of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father! ...
— Journal of a Voyage from Okkak, on the Coast of Labrador, to Ungava Bay, Westward of Cape Chudleigh • Benjamin Kohlmeister and George Kmoch
... had never married, and even now, at the age of forty and odd, in particularly mellow moments he was liable to confess that, while matrimony no doubt offered a far wider field for both general excitement and variety, as far as he himself was concerned, he felt that his bachelor condition had points of excellence too obvious to be treated with contumely. Perhaps the fact that Sarah Hunter, four ...
— Then I'll Come Back to You • Larry Evans
... head. "I think I can see through a stone slab as well as any one," he said. "It is as I have said; but you're too proud to confess it. ...
— Callista • John Henry Cardinal Newman
... am not indeed; and by this evening I shall have forgotten all about it. But confess, Marquis," she added, with a coquettish laugh, "that this is a droll way of making ...
— The Champdoce Mystery • Emile Gaboriau
... Curly. "I wouldn't go at it that way at all. I got something real on Fowler and Brown and I want to use it to make them confess." ...
— The Enchanted Canyon • Honore Willsie Morrow
... unselfish devotion to her husband's interests, whose warm love for him was always mingled with discretion, it was simply an act of pietas—of wifely duty. Yet he could not for a moment think so himself: his indignation at the bare idea of it lives for ever on the marble in glowing words. "I must confess," he says, "that the anger so burnt within me that my senses almost deserted me: that you should ever have thought it possible that we could be separated but by death, was most horrible to me. What was the need ...
— Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero • W. Warde Fowler
... all that the party calling itself Democratic, after months of deliberation, after four years in which to study the popular mind, have to offer in the way of policy. It is neither more nor less than to confess that they have no real faith in popular self-government, for it is to assume that the people have neither common nor moral sense. General McClellan is to be put in command of the national citadel, ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell
... nations resort to such artifices, more or less, especially in southern Europe. The Chinese ladies carry the practice of painting their faces so far as to amount to caricature; and if the Japanese ladies do not so generally follow the example, they do blacken their teeth, which one must confess is more objectionable still. In these faithful notes it must be admitted that even the Japanese ladies paint cheeks and lips with such a tinge of vermilion as is thought to be becoming, and enamel their faces and necks. This, ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou
... a great relief—for the strain had been greater than either of us had been willing to confess to the other. So, easy in mind, we ordered lunch. Of course, we would have no news of George until we met in London. We had no anxiety about him; we felt certain he would come out all right. While waiting for the train we discussed the ...
— Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison - Fifteen Years in Solitude • Austin Biron Bidwell
... a certain nobleman, one of the king's friends, died. The king accused a priest, who was in Clarence's service, of having killed him by sorcery. The priest was seized and put to the torture to compel him to confess his crime and to reveal his confederates. The priest at length confessed, and named as his accomplice one of Clarence's household named Burdett, a gentleman who lived in very intimate and confidential relations with ...
— Richard III - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... closing his eyes to the danger of his situation as long as possible. He would not confess, nor even admit his confessor into his chamber. [27] He showed similar jealousy of his grandson's envoy, Adrian of Utrecht. This person, the preceptor of Charles, and afterwards raised through his means to the papacy, had come into Castile some weeks before, with the ostensible ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott
... way, I am sorry to confess. I fear, indeed, in every way, except bodily strength, and obstinate, ignorant endurance, miscalled 'courage,' and those rough qualities—whatever they may be—which seem needful for the making of a seaman. But in good manners, justice, the sense of what is due from one man to another, in dignity, ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... in this struggle between the blood-guilty Hun, and the civilized nations of the earth, that we must keep even our minds impartial seemed an impossible command. School-boys throughout the country must have wondered why President Wilson, with every means for getting information, should have to confess that he did not know what the war was about! And when Mr. Wilson declared in favor of a peace without victory, his friends and admirers were kept busy explaining, some of them, that he meant without victory ...
— Theodore Roosevelt • Edmund Lester Pearson
... Roman Catholic, but I must confess that if I could be assured any particular piece of wood had really formed a part of the Cross I should think it the most valuable thing in the world, to which Koh-i-noors ...
— Amaryllis at the Fair • Richard Jefferies
... ordinances. Although I blamed the too great resistance which they made, ever since I have excused them somewhat, through having experienced the great inconvenience and embarrassments which some of the ordinances contained; and I confess how prudent they were in the exercise of their authority before they experienced the present damage. Matters are in such condition that while I am trying to adjust myself to the new ordinances and not to depart ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIV, 1630-34 • Various
... prouder of it than she is," Dick proclaimed. "You see, I taught her, though I confess it was an easy task. She coordinates almost effortlessly. And that, along with her will and sense of time— why her first attempt was ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... a thief. "I chanced to see him pull something out that he had been hiding under his coat, and recognized your nickel-mounted skates. So I beckoned to Chief Wambold, and told him about it; he made Nick come back here to face you, and confess to the theft." ...
— The Chums of Scranton High at Ice Hockey • Donald Ferguson
... felt the same toward her Mr. Lacon and the child of that union. But she would never admit it—not directly, at any rate. He might gather it from hints, or read it between the lines; but he could never make her say so. Why should she say so? What good would it do? Were she to confess to him that she hated the man toward whom she was traveling, he would experience an unholy satisfaction—but, after all, it ...
— The Letter of the Contract • Basil King
... to a large extent, the world does confess this true supremacy. For, let me ask, who among these crowds of citizens are really honored? Not those who are so eagerly and vainly striving in their narrow, conventional circle, heedful merely of the rules ...
— Humanity in the City • E. H. Chapin
... forgotten, in quitting the world, what the word sufficient means? Do you not remember that it includes everything necessary for acting? . . . How, then, do you leave it to be said, that all men have sufficient grace for acting, while you confess that another grace is absolutely necessary for acting, and that all have not this? . . . Is it a matter of indifference to say that with sufficient grace we can really act?’ ‘Indifference!’ said he; ‘why, it is heresy—formal heresy. The necessity of efficacious ...
— Pascal • John Tulloch
... man clutching at a straw, I confess that I accepted the offer of treatments, made by a pleasant lady "Christian science" doctor. I found it tolerably agreeable to sit by her side, holding her soft hand while she assumed an attitude of supplication, but my malady was in nowise benefited thereby. ...
— The Gentleman from Everywhere • James Henry Foss
... restrict their debauch to dandelion coffee and Graham bread. Moreover, the age of conviviality is gone, as much as the age of chivalry. Petits soupers are impossible in this part of the world. Let us manfully confess one reason: they cost too much. And we have not the wit, nor the wicked women, nor the same jolly paganism. Juno Lucina reigns here in the stead of Venus; and Bacchus is two ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 • Various
... listed for the flight to Ferrok-Shahn tonight," Halsey said slowly. "And some may not be what they seem." He raised his thin dark hand. "We have information...." He paused. "I confess, we know almost nothing—hardly more than enough to ...
— Brigands of the Moon • Ray Cummings
... should be driven to look for his friends elsewhere? Would he not associate with Father Brosnan, or, worse again, with Pat Carroll? "Ada," said Edith that night as they sat together, "Florian must be made to confess." ...
— The Landleaguers • Anthony Trollope
... of those coincidences which would be thought appropriate for romance, but which are more common, in fact, than the unobservant are disposed to confess, these two most brilliant events in the painter's life—his first successful work of art and the triumph of his scientific discovery—were brought together, as it were, in a manner singularly fitted to impress the imagination. Six copies of his "Dying Hercules" ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various
... ready for me on my arrival; and, in answer to that, I had sent an epistle somewhat longer, and, as I then thought, a little more to the purpose. Her turn of mind was more practical than mine, and I must confess my belief that she did ...
— John Bull on the Guadalquivir from Tales from all Countries • Anthony Trollope
... chuckled, "you are hard hit! I will confess that I was a bit stuck on the girl, but I did ...
— Frank Merriwell's Bravery • Burt L. Standish
... hours, to be sure, but those visits to the little old weather-stained house, in which I found my first friends after leaving home, cheered me from week to week. I knew, too, that Hetty enjoyed those long evenings as much as I did, which meant more to me than I would have dared confess to her. I thought of her a good deal, but it always resulted in the wretched feeling that we were both very young after all. It is not likely that I would have decided to go home for a fortnight, but that I thought it would be pleasant to observe the effect of ...
— The Master of Silence • Irving Bacheller
... silence, though the very walls seemed to be crying out: "Tell him! Tell him! Confess, and purge your guilty soul!" The clock ticked loudly, the blood roared in his ears. His hands were cold and almost lifeless; his body seemed paralysed, but he heard, so acutely that it ...
— A Spinner in the Sun • Myrtle Reed
... scarcely written the last word of the previous sentence, when the first stroke of twelve, peals from the neighbouring churches. There certainly—we must confess it now—is something awful in the sound. Strictly speaking, it may not be more impressive now, than at any other time; for the hours steal as swiftly on, at other periods, and their flight is little ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens
... way, and not do what his rider required of him; it was necessary that either the horse or the man should give up; and as John has no fancy for giving up, he carried his point partly by management, partly, I confess, by a judicious use of the whip and spur; but there was no such furious flagellation as Sophia seems to mean, and which a good horse-man would scarce ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Elizabeth Wetherell
... impossible to miss the contagion of the general joy. I knew how we felt, not as individuals, but as Tivertonians alone. We were tolerant potentates, waiting, in gracious majesty, to receive a deputation from the farther East. It grieves me much to stop here and confess, with a necessary honesty, that this was but a sorry circus, gauged by the conventional standards; else, I suppose, it had never come to Tiverton at all. The circus-folk had evidently dressed for travelling, not for us. The chariots, some of them still hooded in canvas, were very ...
— Meadow Grass - Tales of New England Life • Alice Brown
... her he wedded whom he wisely loved. No more he needs assistance—but, alas! He fears the money will for liquor pass; Or that the Seaman might to flatterers lend, Or give support to some pretended friend: Still he must write—he wrote, and he confess'd That, till absolved, he should be sore distress'd; But one so friendly would, he thought, forgive The hasty deed—Heav'n knew how he should live; "But you," he added, "as a man of sense, Have well consider'd danger and expense: I ran, alas! into ...
— Tales • George Crabbe
... the sake of showing you what I could do," answered Denis. "Besides, I just honestly confess that I thought you would have inspanned and come along this way, when I hoped you would not have refused to take ...
— Hendricks the Hunter - The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand • W.H.G. Kingston
... task, it might be just as well to say frankly: If you have a mind that is entirely bromidic, if you are lacking in humor, all power of observation, and facility for expression, you had best join the ever-growing class of people who frankly confess, "I can't write letters to save my life!" and confine your literary efforts to picture post-cards with the engaging captions "X is my room," or "Beautiful ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post
... was educated repaired. But there was a warm contest whether I should enter as a commoner, or a gentleman commoner. My mother was eager for the latter, which the lawyer opposed. She could not endure that her dear Hugh should, as it were publicly, confess the superiority of his rival and sworn foe, the insolent Hector. He contended that to affect to rival him in expence were absurd, and might lead to destructive consequences. The lawyer had the best of ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... villages, picturesque parks, and elegant casinos. With the exception of Constantinople, there is no city in the world that can for a moment enter into competition with it. For himself, though in his time something of a rambler, he is not ashamed in this respect to confess to a legitimate Cockney taste; and for his part he does not know where life can flow on more pleasantly than in sight of Kensington Gardens, viewing the silver Thames winding by the bowers of Rosebank, or inhaling from its terraces the refined ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli
... impersonal approval he gave to all dogs who did not prove themselves hopelessly bad. But it seemed at least a step in the right direction when "Scotty" had said, replying to criticism of the Woman, "No, he is certainly not fierce, and by no means so morose as he looks. So far I must confess he's proving himself a pretty ...
— Baldy of Nome • Esther Birdsall Darling
... I tell falsehoods now? I have determined that you should know everything,—but I could better confess to you my own sins when I had shown that you too have not been innocent. Not think of it! Do not men think of high titles and great wealth and power and place? And if men, why should not women? Do not men try to get them;—and are they not ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope
... must confess, you there have touched my weakness. I have a friend—hear it; and such a friend! My heart was ne'er shut to him. Nay, I'll tell you, He knows the very business of this hour; [All start But he rejoices in the cause, and loves it: We've changed a vow to live and die together, ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Thomas Otway
... the literal or allegorical or spiritual meaning of this poem, nor into that of its age. A very particular though succinct account of all these theories, ancient and modern, may be found in a work by Dr. Ginsberg. I confess that Dr. Ginsberg's theory, which is rather tinged with the virtuous sentimentality of the modern novel, seems to me singularly out of harmony with the Oriental and ancient character of the poem. It is adopted, however, though modified, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1 • Various
... almost rejoiced," continued the Colonel, "to know that he is dead. But for our young man of the cream tarts I confess my heart bleeds." ...
— New Arabian Nights • Robert Louis Stevenson
... of seven colours," said the prince at the same moment, "could not, of course, produce this surface. I confess that until I came to this country I did not know that you had so few colours. Our spectrum already consists of twelve colours visible to the naked eye, and at least five more are distinguishable through our ...
— Romance Island • Zona Gale
... call by the general name of Karman, comprehends all influences which the past exercises on the present, whether physical or mental.(7) It is not my object to examine or even to name all these influences, though I confess nothing is more interesting than to look upon the surface of our modern life as we look on a geological map, and to see the most ancient formations cropping out everywhere under our feet. Difficult as it is to color a geological map of England, it would be still ...
— Chips From A German Workshop, Vol. V. • F. Max Mueller
... where these new methods of treatment come in. We explore that failure. Together. What the psychoanalyst does-and I will confess that I owe much to the psychoanalyst—what he does is to direct thwarted, disappointed and perplexed people to the realities of their own nature. Which they have been accustomed to ignore and forget. They come to us with high ambitions or lovely illusions ...
— The Secret Places of the Heart • H. G. Wells
... shadow of an obligation. At St. Andrews, had he chosen to work hard in certain branches of study, he might probably have gained an exhibition, gone to Oxford or elsewhere, and, by winning a fellowship, secured the leisure which was necessary for the development of his powers. I confess to believing in strenuous work at the classics, as offering, apart from all material reward, the best and most solid basis, especially where there is no exuberant original genius, for the career of a man of letters. The mental discipline is invaluable, the training ...
— Robert F. Murray - his poems with a memoir by Andrew Lang • Robert F. Murray
... free to confess that neither was exactly pleasant. When they caught Chunky I thought it was all up with ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico • Frank Gee Patchin
... Weyden designed a set of tapestries representing the History of Herkinbald, the stern uncle who, with his own hand, beheaded his nephew for wronging a young woman. Upon his death-bed, Herkinbald refused to confess this act as a sin, claiming the murder to have been justifiable and a positive virtue. Apparently the Higher Powers were on his side, too, for, when the priest refused the Eucharist to the impertinent Herkinbald, it is related that the Host descended ...
— Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages • Julia De Wolf Addison
... human; yet has He condescended to take our humanity into union with His Divine Person, to assume it as His own." He who was from all eternity a single Divine Person took upon Him our nature, and was "made man;" and if this be so, what other entrance into our condition is imaginable save that which we confess in the Creed—that He was "conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary"? "The Creeds pass immediately from confessing Jesus Christ to be 'the only Son of God' to the fact that He was 'born of the Virgin Mary,' and neither of ...
— The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord - A paper read (in substance) before the confraternity of the Holy - Trinity at Cambridge • B. W. Randolph
... street, extended into open order, and fired. Bob's men fired. More infantry came. They deployed along the front of the City Hall. The rifle fire from both ends of the street was rapid and continuous. It was the first time in my life that I had ever been in danger of being killed by a bullet. I confess that for a few minutes I was so nervous that I was unable to give any attention to the fighting going on in front of me. So many rifles were going off at the far end of the street that it seemed certain that not only Bland and I but every one of ...
— The Red Hand of Ulster • George A. Birmingham
... and all sensibility within. The mind of the vile jester, the tongue that had pursued Duncan Jopp with unmanly insults, the unbeloved countenance that he had known and feared for so long, were all forgotten; and he hastened home, impatient to confess his misdeeds, impatient to throw himself on the mercy of ...
— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson
... name, his faith, his hair, features, and stature—whatever his blood might be. We can classify languages, and as languages presuppose people that speak them, we can so far classify mankind, according to their grammars and dictionaries; while all who possess scientific honesty must confess and will confess that, as yet, it has been impossible to devise any truly scientific classification of skulls, to say nothing of blood, or bones, or hair. The label on one of the skulls in the Munich Collection, ...
— Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. • F. Max Mueller
... of destroying a public right, consecrated by the constitutional compact. Never had insolence and bad faith been displayed so prominently: Raynouard, the reporter of the committee, exclaimed in the language of grief and indignation, "Minister of our King, confess, at least, that your law is contrary to the constitution, since you cannot refute the evidence adduced against it: your obstinacy in contesting such an indisputable truth would not then inspire us ...
— Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. I • Pierre Antoine Edouard Fleury de Chaboulon
... were set immovably Never to let me long again the wedding bond to tie, Since love betrayed me first of all with him my darling dead, And were I not all weary-sick of torch and bridal bed, This sin alone of all belike my falling heart might trap; For, Anna, I confess it thee, since poor Sychaeus' hap, 20 My husband dead, my hearth acold through murderous brother's deed, This one alone hath touched the quick; this one my heart may lead Unto its fall: I feel the signs of fire of long agone. And yet I pray the ...
— The AEneids of Virgil - Done into English Verse • Virgil
... cause for trepidation,—but now his chief, his only anxiety was the bonds. They were not insured. They would be a dead loss. And what added sharpness to his pangs, they would be a loss which he must keep a secret, as he had kept their existence a secret,—a loss which he could not confess, and of which he could not complain. Had he not just given his neighbors to understand that he held no such property? And his wife,—was she not at that very moment, if not serving up a lie on the subject, at least paring the truth very ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 • Various
... as 'Yara Mayau,' and the 'Guisa,' are perhaps the most celebrated made upon the Island. Of the 'Yara,' which has some considerable reputation, particularly in the London market, I confess I cannot speak favorably. Cigars that I smoked made from this leaf, and which are much smoked in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba, I found had a peculiar saline taste which was very unpleasant, as also a slight ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings
... might rise so much higher and because at last it fails; for God must enter into every thought and sentiment and purpose in order to make it genuine, and truly beautiful, and altogether right. That God may be in your thoughts; that you may learn to confess Him in all your ways, to serve and fear and know and love him—this is the wish with which I greet you to-day, and the prayer that I ...
— Bible Stories and Religious Classics • Philip P. Wells
... "Drowned!...I must confess that at first I was somewhat afraid. Not so much of dying, for I'm somewhat tired of life—as you will realize after you've known me a little longer. But a death like that, suffocated in that mud, that ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... exposure of ignorance and fraud is not always sufficient to open the eyes, and enlighten the understandings, of mankind. Some perverse dupes are not to be reasoned out of their infatuation; they had rather hug the impostor, than confess the cheat; and quacks, speculating upon this infirmity of human nature, will sometimes court even an ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 10, Issue 285, December 1, 1827 • Various
... felt his father's death, and he regretted Valentine's absence more than he cared to confess. He lost his temper rather often, at that particular season, for he did not know where to turn. The housekeeper and the governess insisted frequently on appealing to him against each other, about all sorts of matters that he knew nothing of, and the children took advantage ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... could he say? He feared to confess that he already had escaped from Indians, it would not be a helpful introduction, to say the ...
— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane
... there would be good reason to believe that he did not practically reckon with any. But this is similarly and independently true of the imagination, the most familiar means with which man clothes and vivifies his convictions, the exuberance with which he plays about them and delights to confess them. The imagination of religion, contributing what Matthew Arnold called its "poetry and eloquence," does not submit itself to such canons as are binding upon theology or science, but exists and flourishes in its ...
— The Approach to Philosophy • Ralph Barton Perry
... associates that the Kitangule and Katonga rivers ran out of the Ukerewe Lake (Victoria N'yanza), and that another river, which is the Nile, but supposed by them to be the upper portions of the Jub river, ran into the N'yanza. Further conversation explained this away, and I made them confess that all these rivers ran exactly contrary to the way they first stated; as it was obvious, if the N'yanza was the source of the Jub, the last river alluded to must flow out of the lake instead of into it, as they had ...
— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke
... tell the Abbe Picot her difficulty, under the seal of confession. She went to him one day and found him in his little garden, reading his breviary among the fruit trees. She talked to him for a few minutes about one thing and another, then, "Monsieur l'abbe, I want to confess," she said, with ...
— The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5 (of 8) - Une Vie and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893
... alma mater. The truth was that as I sat in the Tyler library at Santa Monica I commenced to feel a trifle foolish and to wish that I had merely forwarded the manuscript by express instead of bearing it personally, for I confess that I do not enjoy being laughed at. I have a well-developed sense of humor—when the joke is not ...
— The People that Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... up and we move down into the crowd. Men come up and ask for private talks, some to confess their sins and others to request prayer. Here is a boy who is friendless and homeless and in need; the next man has just lost his wife, his home, and his money, but here in the war he has been driven to prayer and has found God. He has lost everything, but he tells us with a brave ...
— With Our Soldiers in France • Sherwood Eddy
... think that it is this fairy spirit that keeps all the world alive and hot with motion; think how excellent a servant it is, doing all sorts of gigantic works, like the genii of old; and yet, if you let slip the talisman only for a moment, what terrible advantage it will take of you! and you will confess that steam has some claims both to the beautiful and the terrible! For our own part, when we are down among the machinery of a steamboat in full play, we conduct ourselves very reverently, for we consider it as a very serious neighborhood, and every time the steam whizzes ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn
... the men told truth, he had not had to pay any taxes for the water, and he had built the icehouse out of city lumber, and had not had to pay anything for that. The newspapers had got hold of that story, and there had been a scandal; but Scully had hired somebody to confess and take all the blame, and then skip the country. It was said, too, that he had built his brick-kiln in the same way, and that the workmen were on the city payroll while they did it; however, one ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair
... the 1st Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, 'O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man,' etc. 'Let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly,' etc. This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray. In prayer confess your sins by name—going over those of the past day, one by one. Pray for your friends by name—father, mother, etc. etc. If you love them, surely you will pray for their souls. I know well that there are prayers constantly ascending ...
— The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne • Andrew A. Bonar
... and if it is twelve years since you shrived me at first, perhaps you shall shrive me at last,—for I doubt if I am ever brought out to this sunshine again, if I do not die in the prison-damps to-night,—and you, with all your change, are Father Anshmo, I think.—Stay, I will confess to you, confess this. Man! man! this infinite pity of your soul for mine throws a light on my dark ways; God's curse has fallen on me through man's curse, why not God's love through man's love? Anselmo, though you became priest, and I went to become hero, we were children together; I was dear ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various
... forgotten sin, sure to be disclosed? Then if they could not fly from the testimony of His works, if they could not evade even their fellow-man, why did they not first turn to Him? Why, from the penitent child at his mother's knee to the murderer on the scaffold, did they only at THE LAST confess unto Him? ...
— A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... on talking and talking, and prepared food was being brought to us all that afternoon; and we kept on eating each time it was brought, until I had eaten even to repletion, and the Doctor was obliged to confess that he had eaten enough. Still, Halimah, the female cook of the Doctor's establishment, was in a state of the greatest excitement. She had been protruding her head out of the cookhouse to make sure that there were really two white men sitting down in the veranda, ...
— How I Found Livingstone • Sir Henry M. Stanley
... while to teach Jim to pray, he would have prayed with all his might that his father might never come out. But no one did, so that he was spared that sin. I suppose that was what it would have been called. I am free to confess that I would have joined Jim in sinning with a right good will, even to the extent of speeding the benevolent intentions of Providence in that direction—anyhow, until Jim should be able to take care of himself. I mean with his fists. He was in a way ...
— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis
... righteous, the indignation sincere, is a question hard to answer. There is no denying the power with which they are expressed. But to submit to this power is one thing, to sift its author's heart is another. After a long and careful study of Juvenal's poems, we confess to being able to make nothing of Juvenal himself. We cannot get even a glimpse of him. He never doffs the iron mask, the "rigidi censura cachinni;" he has so long hidden his face that he is afraid to see it himself or to let it be seen. Some have thought that in the ...
— A History of Roman Literature - From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius • Charles Thomas Cruttwell
... also the advent message was proclaimed, and a wide-spread interest was kindled. Many were roused from their careless security, to confess and forsake their sins, and seek pardon in the name of Christ. But the clergy of the state church opposed the movement, and through their influence some who preached the message were thrown into prison. In ...
— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White
... of matters of fact, such as you may for the most part try with much ease, and possibly not without some delight: And lest you should expect any thing of Elaborate or Methodical in what you will meet with here, I must confess to you before-hand, that the seasons I was wont to chuse to devise and try Experiments about Colours, were those daies, wherein having taken Physick, and finding my self as unfit to speculate, as unwilling ...
— Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) • Robert Boyle
... them announcing "Her Golden Hair was Hanging Down her Back" by Richard Harding Davis and Somerset kicked at their introducing "God Save the Queen" as sung by "His Grace the Duke of Bedford" which they insist in thinking his real title and his name; if he would only confess the truth. You cannot have any idea of how glad I am that I took this trip, just this particular trip, not for any interest it will be to the gentle reader but for the benefit it has been to me. All ...
— Adventures and Letters • Richard Harding Davis
... speedily assembled. "My beloved," said he, "you will soon lose your friend and protector. My strength is gone: I am stolen from myself. But I am not afraid to die. When life grows tedious death is welcome. To-day I shall confess before you the many errors of my life. Think not that I wish to solicit a prolongation of my existence. My request is that you protect my departure by your prayers, and place your merits in the balance against my defects. When my soul shall have quitted my body, honor your father's ...
— Purgatory • Mary Anne Madden Sadlier
... even, in growing such plants as the lamb's tongue, to gratify, curiously, the sense of touch. They loved the scented herbs, and appropriately called them simples. Some of these old simples I am greatly fond of, and like to snip a leaf as I go by to smell or taste; but many of them, I here confess, have for me a rank and culinary odour—as sage and thyme and the bold ...
— Great Possessions • David Grayson
... philosophers who are paupers.' Nevertheless we bear her no ill-will, and will gladly allow her to return upon condition that she makes a defence of herself in verse; and her supporters who are not poets may speak in prose. We confess her charms; but if she cannot show that she is useful as well as delightful, like rational lovers, we must renounce our love, though endeared to us by early associations. Having come to years of discretion, we know that poetry is not truth, and that a man should be careful how he introduces ...
— The Republic • Plato
... without you, I must know first where you will go,' said Hazel with one of her pretty shy looks. 'And as some occasions demand But I am in inextricable confusion about my dress!'she said, breaking off with a laugh. 'I may as well confess it at once.' ...
— The Gold of Chickaree • Susan Warner
... hang a man, and discussed the probability of the event being public. They speculated on the manner in which Joe would go to his death, whether boldly, with his head up that way, or cringing and afraid, his proud heart and spirit broken, and whether he would confess at the end or carry his secret with him to the grave. Then they branched off into discussions of the pain of hanging, and wondered whether it was a "more horribler" death than drowning or burning in a haystack, ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden
... till I grew malignant. I confess it. And, feeling malignant, I began to long more and more passionately to vent myself on someone or something. I looked at the cat, which, as usual, was ...
— The Return Of The Soul - 1896 • Robert S. Hichens
... no need to raise the question of the genuineness of this strange relic, though I confess to having had my doubts about it, or to wonder for what nefarious purposes the impious weapon was designed—whether the blade was inserted by some rascal monk who never told the tale, or whether it was ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds
... shook their little fingers at me, when I solemnly declared that there was not, and one or two of them cajoled me aside to obtain my acknowledgment of what they really believed to be the truth, although I would not confess it. ...
— The Privateer's-Man - One hundred Years Ago • Frederick Marryat
... affected the fashion of short hair. The loyalists called them Croppies, and if a Croppy prisoner stood silent when it was certain [without a trial] that he could confess with effect, paper or linen caps smeared with pitch were forced upon his head to bring him to his senses. Such things ought not to have been, and such things would not have been had General Lake been supplied with English troops, but assassins and their accomplices will not always be delicately ...
— The Life of Froude • Herbert Paul
... and tints of many of the zoophytes were admirable. It is excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite numbers of organic beings with which the sea of the tropics, so prodigal of life, teems; yet I must confess I think those naturalists who have described, in well-known words, the submarine grottoes decked with a thousand beauties, have ...
— The Voyage of the Beagle • Charles Darwin
... against it a trellis that would be in line with the terrace. Between the trellis and the terrace there was to be a smooth expanse of greensward, bordered with flowers. It seemed very simple, but I hereby confess that I built and tore down the trellis three times before it pleased me! I had to make it worthy of the statue by Pradier that was given us by Sardou, and finally it was done to please me. Painted a soft green, with ivy growing over it, and a fountain flanked by white marbles ...
— The House in Good Taste • Elsie de Wolfe
... put on her spectacles and took up the letter. "There is a word," she said, "that I did not understand, I must confess. If you will allow me, Doctor Strong, I will read you a portion of my brother's remarks. A—yes! 'Vesta seems very far from well. She cries, and will not eat, and she looks like a ghost. The doctor ...
— Geoffrey Strong • Laura E. Richards
... egg of chalk, Thought,—sure, I feel life stir within, each day with greater strength, When lo, the chick! from former chicks he differed not a jot, 70 But grew and crew and scratched and went, like those before, to pot!' So muse the dim Emeriti, and, mournful though it be, I must confess a kindred thought hath sometimes come to me, Who, though but just of forty turned, have heard the rumorous fame Of nine and ninety Coming Men, all—coming till they came. Pure Mephistopheles all ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... severe in your self-reproaches while you are so feeble, dear Henry; it is right to repent, but I have no doubt in my own mind she led you wrong with her artifices. But, as you say, everything should be done handsomely. I confess I was deeply grieved when I first heard of the affair, but since I have seen the girl— Well! I'll say no more about her, since I see it displeases you; but I am thankful to God that you see the ...
— Ruth • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... this incorrigible one. Did he discern—the sublime Olympian—what a cunning flute player lurked under the queer mask? "Something between a Jew, a Gentleman and an Angel" he liked to fancy he looked; and one must confess that in the subtlest of all senses of that word, a ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys
... with honest mind, Told what reward he hoped should quit his pain, False Polinesso, who before designed To make Geneura hateful to her swain, Began — 'Alas! you yet are far behind My hopes, and shall confess your own are vain; And say, as I the root shall manifest Of my good fortune, I ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto
... It was my desire that they should believe it. The hour of the French advance had not yet come, and I could not defend myself without producing the letter which would reveal it. But now it is over—gloriously over—and so my lips are unsealed at last. I confess my fault—my very grievous fault. But it is not that for which you are trying me. It is for murder. I should have thought myself the murderer of my own countrymen if I had let the woman pass. These are the facts, gentlemen. I leave my future in your hands. If you ...
— Danger! and Other Stories • Arthur Conan Doyle
... her to confess the deed, I'm innocent she cry'd! In vain her Blaisot tried to plead, ...
— The Maid and the Magpie - An Interesting Tale Founded on Facts • Charles Moreton
... let's talk it over quietly. I confess I can't see any difficulty at all—if you care for me a little. That's ...
— Penny Plain • Anna Buchan (writing as O. Douglas)
... "I confess I don't. You've been neglecting my education, young lady, since you began your own. What does the ...
— Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party • C. E. Jacobs
... Indeed, I confess that it is with a strange emotion that I recall these times and try to realize the life of our forefathers, men who were named like ourselves, spoke nearly the same tongue, lived on the same spots of earth, and therewithal were as different from us ...
— Signs of Change • William Morris
... untutored child of the desert, and his words were a spur to her quick pride. She rose at once, her bosom rising and falling fast. She would never confess that—never. ...
— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine
... this fact, and the similarity of the names, Croch and Corch, as the kingdom of Cork is elsewhere called by him, led me to believe that a landing in the territory of Cork was meant. "Crook," "Hook Point," or "The Crook," is only supposed to have been the place of landing on this occasion. I confess that I was not aware that "Erupolis" was an alias of the diocese of Ossory: I cannot find it mentioned as such in the dictionaries at my command. My Note, however, was worded in such a way as to give offence to no reasonable person: and, among ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 189, June 11, 1853 • Various
... forced to confess, though reluctantly, that the case against Chester was falling to the ground. But he did not like ...
— Chester Rand - or The New Path to Fortune • Horatio Alger, Jr
... bear witness to the excellence of virtuous and holy living, they consent to all that their teachers tell them, what they hear in church, and read in religious books; but all this is a very different thing from acting according to their knowledge. They confess ...
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII (of 8) • John Henry Newman
... homes; that Mr. Pickwick and his friends once more took their seats on the top of the Muggleton coach; and that Arabella Allen repaired to her place of destination, wherever it might have been—we dare say Mr. Winkle knew, but we confess we don't—under the care and guardianship of her brother Benjamin, and his most intimate and particular ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens
... given by Bluet and Moore on the evidence of one Job Ben Solomon, a native of Bunda in Futa. 'Though Job had a daughter by his last wife, yet he never saw her without her veil, as having been married to her only two years.' Excellently as this prohibition suits my theory, yet I confess I do not ...
— Custom and Myth • Andrew Lang
... that scholars so eminent as Professors Sprenger and Blochmann have considered the original suggestion lawful and probable. Indeed, Mr. Blochmann says in a letter: "After studying a language for years, one acquires a natural feeling for anything un-idiomatic; but I must confess I see nothing un-Persian in rudbar-i-duzd, nor in rudbar-i-lass.... How common lass is, you may see from one fact, that it occurs in children's reading-books." We must not take Reobarles in Marco's French as rhyming to (French) Charles; every syllable sounds. It is remarkable ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... me home first," said Annie. "I know it's foolish and there isn't a bit of danger, but I must confess to being rather frightened." ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 • Various
... meditated these things, in spiritless fashion. She would have to confess to her fabrications—that was plain. M. P.'s precise mind would bring back a precise account of how matters stood in the Shepherd household: not by an iota would the truth be swerved from. Why, oh why, had she not foreseen this possibility? What evil spirit ...
— The Getting of Wisdom • Henry Handel Richardson
... Dan would never put a dollar into the plan for a suit, and it had never gone beyond Eldred's talk—and yet he had made them suspicious. Dan was forced to confess that Clement was becoming an "a-ristocrat." And Biddy acknowledged that he "sildom dairkened her dure these days." They had always felt his superiority and refinement, and they rose as ...
— The Spirit of Sweetwater • Hamlin Garland
... grounds, it will mean the removal of the most serious enemy Christianity has to deal with, and especially within its own borders, at the present day. The religion of Jesus has probably always suffered more from those who have misunderstood than from those who have opposed it. Of the multitudes who confess Christianity at this hour how many have clear in their minds the cardinal distinction established by its Founder between "born of the flesh" and "born of the Spirit?" By how many teachers of Christianity even is not this fundamental postulate persistently ...
— Natural Law in the Spiritual World • Henry Drummond
... obliged to confess that we had no spirits, though we had still some of the tea the missionaries had given us. He looked much disappointed, and made a remark about the missionaries which I need not repeat. They were evidently ...
— The Cruise of the Dainty - Rovings in the Pacific • William H. G. Kingston
... that the fact of your living showed you had not yet paid your debt to life," he said drily, "and I confess that I cannot see any great value in realizing these things you speak of. If they are so, they ...
— In the Border Country • Josephine Daskam Bacon
... to the King than I myself,—that I am very partial to his merits and blind to his defects;—and that, in short, I would be the last man in the world to give up his cause where it was tenable. Nevertheless, I must confess, that if all his grandfather of Navarre's morals have not descended to him, this poor King has somehow inherited a share of the specks that were thought to dim the lustre of that great Prince—that Charles is a little soft-hearted, or so, where beauty is concerned.—Do not blame him ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott
... respectively the sole business of their lives. I was puzzled to think which had the harder time of it, and whether it were more painful to be under contract for the delivery of so many tears per diem, or to compel that [Greek: anerithmon gelasma][1] I confess, I pitied them both; for if it be difficult to produce on demand what Laura Matilda would call the "tender dew of sympathy," he is also deserving of compassion who is expected to be funny whether he will or no. As I grew older, and learned to look on the ...
— The Function Of The Poet And Other Essays • James Russell Lowell
... only, but instructs our seeing; Taught by him a twelvemonth, we confess Earth once robed in crude barbaric splendor, Has put on a softer ...
— Behind the Arras - A Book of the Unseen • Bliss Carman
... gladly believe in such a being, if things were so that I could. As they are, I confess it seems to me the best thing to doubt it. I do doubt it very much. How can I help doubting it, when I see so much suffering, oppression, and cruelty in the world? If there were such a being as you say, would he permit the horrible things we ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... charming idea of a lover I once adored, thou wilt be no more my happiness! Dear image of Abelard! thou wilt no longer follow me, no longer shall I remember thee. Oh, enchanting pleasures to which Heloise resigned herself—you, you have been my tormentors! I confess my inconstancy, Abelard, without a blush; let my infidelity teach the world that there is no depending on the promises of women—we are all subject to change. When I tell you what Rival hath ravished my heart from you, you will praise my inconstancy, and pray ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IX. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
... was tea, which, I confess, was welcome, and then the missionary put me through a kind of catechism. Finding out who I was, and that we had some friends in common, he frowned deeply. He had heard of my existence in the land, ...
— Oriental Encounters - Palestine and Syria, 1894-6 • Marmaduke Pickthall
... such delicate order. — The trees are planted in prudish rows, which have not such an agreeable natural effect, as when they are thrown into irregular groupes, with intervening glades; and firs, which they generally raise around their houses, look dull and funereal in the summer season. — I must confess, indeed, that they yield serviceable timber, and good shelter against the northern blasts; that they grow and thrive in the most barren soil, and continually perspire a fine balsam of turpentine, which must render ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett
... Everybody knew the captain, and everybody liked him. He was a mysterious sort of person,—here to-day and there to-morrow,—coming and going all the time, until he fairly tired out the public curiosity and people's patience altogether, so that even the greatest gossips in the town had to confess at length that there was no use trying to make anything of Captain Jack, and they prudently gave up inquiring and bothering their heads about him; but they were glad to see him always, ...
— Cast Away in the Cold - An Old Man's Story of a Young Man's Adventures, as Related by Captain John Hardy, Mariner • Isaac I. Hayes
... a very early practice in the Church. Innocent III and the fourth Lateran Council made it obligatory by requiring the faithful to confess at least once a year, at Easter time. For sacraments, ...
— An Introduction to the History of Western Europe • James Harvey Robinson |
