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Constant   /kˈɑnstənt/   Listen
Constant

noun
1.
A quantity that does not vary.  Synonyms: constant quantity, invariable.
2.
A number representing a quantity assumed to have a fixed value in a specified mathematical context.



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"Constant" Quotes from Famous Books



... "No; Constant was away then, taking a letter to the Empress Josephine. Instead of him there were always a couple of orderlies—and that was all, excepting, of course, the generals and marshals whom Napoleon always took ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... queenly power of women should be, until we are agreed what their ordinary power should be. We cannot consider how education may fit them for any widely extending duty, until we are agreed what is their true constant duty. And there never was a time when wilder words were spoken, or more vain imagination permitted, respecting this question—quite vital to all social happiness. The relations of the womanly to the manly nature, their different capacities ...
— Sesame and Lilies • John Ruskin

... Bernard Shaw overboard the same day, it looked like we'd got everything all straightened out. Why not? Mr. Robert seems to have decided that his lady-love wa'n't such a confirmed highbrow as he'd suspected, and he was doin' the steady comp'ny act constant and enthusiastic, just the way he does everything he tackles, from yacht racin' to puttin' a crimp in an independent. In fact, he wa'n't ...
— Torchy, Private Sec. • Sewell Ford

... amount of good which Mr. Wilson did, by his constant, unwearied superintendence, that I cannot help feeling sorry that, in his old age and declining health, the errors which he was believed to have committed, should have been brought up against him in a form which received ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Volume 1 • Elizabeth Gaskell

... Scale. When we talk, the pitch of the voice changes constantly and adds variety and beauty to conversation; a speaker whose tone, or pitch, remains too constant is monotonous and dull, no matter how ...
— General Science • Bertha M. Clark

... cards for the mere pleasure of knocking it down again. He is ever unexpected and surprising. And with this curious mental activity, this play and linked dance of discordant elements, his page is alive and restless, like the constant flicker of light and shadow in a mass of foliage which ...
— Dreamthorp - A Book of Essays Written in the Country • Alexander Smith

... almost in despair. This was not one of his ordinary moods; this was the culminating point,—the culmination of all his old sufferings and pangs. He had been working slowly toward this through all the old unhappiness and self-reproach. The constant droppings of the bygone years had worn away the stone at last, and he could not bear much more. Aimee was frightened now. Her habit of forethought showed her all this in a very few seconds. His nervous, highly strung, impassioned temperament had broken down at last. Another blow would ...
— Vagabondia - 1884 • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... fish is the basis of the alimentation of the Tahitians, that in the Papeete public market, fish has been monopolized with the result that its price has been raised steadily, and a situation created injurious to the working people, the cost of living necessitating a constant increase in salaries, orders that after a date fixed, fish be sold by weight and at the following prices per kilo, according ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien

... utensils employed in the work of the dairy, such as tubs, cans, cheese presses, moulds, and other such things. These were all beautifully made, and being mounted with brass, which had received the highest polish by constant rubbing, they gave to the whole aspect of the place an ...
— Rollo in Holland • Jacob Abbott

... the counts of Santa Fiore (see Canto VI.) in the Sienese Maremma. Little is known of them, but that they were in constant feud with Siena. The one who speaks was murdered in his own stronghold of ...
— The Divine Comedy, Volume 2, Purgatory [Purgatorio] • Dante Alighieri

... the way of the transgressor is hard. He felt a decided repugnance to becoming Billings' constant companion, but he dared not go home, and it seemed as if there was no other course ...
— Down the Slope • James Otis

... extremely cold winds, during the days. At one time the exuding sap gave, I am told by two different observers, icicles a foot long. A much warmer, almost summer, temperature has prevailed during the past three days, and no wind. This morning the temperature of the sap as it escaped was constant at 52 F., while that of the surrounding air ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 • Various

... to quite other voices and was deaf to her cry for help. But Hillyard was on the road along which Millicent Splay had already travelled. More and more he felt the case for compassion. He carried the picture of Stella's face home with him. It troubled his sleep; by constant gazing ...
— The Summons • A.E.W. Mason

... carefully considered sentences. I breathed more easily, and, looking up at our new friend as we stepped out together, remembered that we had been counting on something altogether more arid, scholastic, and severe. A boyish eager face and a petulant pince-nez,—untidy hair,—a head of constant quick turns like a robin's, and a voice that kept breaking into alto,—these were all very strange and new, but not in ...
— The Golden Age • Kenneth Grahame

... Quite to the contrary, my father used to boast that they had been just simple, God-fearing folk, Presbyterians in every branch for generations, and sometimes he delighted in the idea that he was a self-made man. As he always chose a large company to make this boast in, it was to my mother a constant source of irritation, and she would contradict him with heat, and point out that his father before him had farmed three hundred acres of land, while his grandfather on his mother's side had been for fifty years the pastor of the ...
— David Malcolm • Nelson Lloyd

... from these parties, our hero was sometimes frightfully alarmed by suddenly finding himself face to face with a dreadful apparition, to which, by constant familiarity, he gradually became accustomed, and learned to look upon as the proctor with his marshal and bulldogs. At first, too, he was on such occasions greatly alarmed at finding the gates of Brazenface closed, obliging him ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede

... the empire, without attempting to enlarge its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added weight and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and no longer, as in the days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome herself, were preserved in their allegiance to the emperor, and their invincibility before ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... w^th the natives aboute them; and ther was an other Indean called Hobamack come to live amongst them, a proper lustie man, and a man of accounte for his vallour & parts amongst y^e Indeans, and continued very faithfull and constant to y^e English till he dyed. He & Squanto being gone upon bussines amonge y^e Indeans, at their returne (whether it was out of envie to them or malice to the English) ther was a Sachem called Corbitant, ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... that we might be saved and enjoy the rewards of His house forever. May God give us all that child-like trust in our heavenly Master which the sheep display toward their shepherd; may He grant us that vivid constant faith of the Saints which will enable us to see in every event of life, in adversity as well as in prosperity, in our pains as well as in our joys, the designs of a loving Father who is ever wishing and trying to lead His children to His home of ...
— The Shepherd Of My Soul • Rev. Charles J. Callan

... in the remote parishes of Poitou. The country had been agitated for some time. The peasants, for there were no large towns in that region, had resented the overthrow of the nobility, of the clergy, and of the throne. The expulsion of their priests caused constant discontent. And now the demand that they should go out, under officers whom they distrusted, and die for a government which persecuted them, caused an outbreak. They refused to draw their numbers, and on the following day they gathered in large crowds ...
— Lectures on the French Revolution • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... runs the ship, and looks after the crew's morals. Thet's why we're short-handed. But she'll take to you like lightning—when she hears that you've been 'expanding your mind.' Buy a second-hand copy of Longfellow's, poems, and tell her that it has been your constant companion in all your wanderings among vicious cannibals, and she'll just decorate your cabin like a prima-donna's boudoir, darn your socks, and make you read some of ...
— By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories • Louis Becke

... replied. If this was a stimulus to exertion during the years spent in mastering and pondering the immense materials, it served less to promote originality and care than premature certitude and the craving for quick returns. Apart from the constant duty of teaching, his knowledge might not have been so extensive, but his views would have been less decided and therefore ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... tired, and hungry fellows, all young boys, working with two picks and three shovels through a short night. Such as it was, we fought behind it, all through the Spottsylvania battles, and it stood some heavy battering. This gem of engineering skill,—by reason of the pretty constant courtesies we felt it polite to pay to the unceasing attentions of our friends, the enemy, for the next six days, in the shape of shells and bullets, we called ...
— From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign - A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw • William Meade Dame

... also hollow out shelters for their eggs, with the double object of maintaining them at a constant temperature and of concealing them. Most reptiles act in this manner. The way in which a Tortoise, the Cistudo lunaria, prepares its nest is extremely curious. When the time for this labour arrives, the tortoise chooses a site. It commences by boring in the earth with the end of its ...
— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay

... on the right horse. redound to one's honor. Adj. upright; honest, honest as daylight; veracious &c. 543; virtuous &c. 944; honorable; fair, right, just, equitable, impartial, evenhanded, square; fair and aboveboard, open and aboveboard; white * [U.S.]. constant, constant as the northern star; faithful, loyal, staunch; true, true blue, true to one's colors, true to the core, true as the needle to the pole; "marble-constant" [Antony and Cleopatra]; true-hearted, trusty, trustworthy; as good as one's word, to ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... a famous lot. Some died of hunger, some of rot, For the devil a drop of rain they got, In this flourishing land of Australia. My convict men were always drunk, They kept me in a constant funk. Says I to myself, as to bed I slunk, How I wish I ...
— The Old Bush Songs • A. B. Paterson

... mouth to her ear and said to her, 'O seduction of the universe, have a care for thy life and mine and be patient and constant; for we have need of patience and skilful ordinance to make shift for our delivery from this tyrannical King. To begin with, I will now go out to him and tell him that thou art possessed of a genie, and hence thy madness; but, that if he will loose thee from thy bonds, ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume IV • Anonymous

... The burden of those fondly cherished hopes, Once vivid, then rejected, long since faded. The glances of my parents rested ever Upon me, and their whole existence.—Well, Too well I knew each quiver of an eyelash, And over all there was the constant pressure Of thy commanding will, that on my soul Lay like a coverlet of heavy sleep. 'Twas common, that I yielded at the last: I seek no other word. And yet the common Is strong, and all our life is full of it. How could I thrust it down and trample on it, ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... all theocratic architecture are immutability, horror of progress, the preservation of traditional lines, the consecration of the primitive types, the constant bending of all the forms of men and of nature to the incomprehensible caprices of the symbol. These are dark books, which the initiated alone understand how to decipher. Moreover, every form, every deformity even, has there a sense which renders ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

... been wrought out with a constant progress and a signal success even beyond anything their framers could have foreseen. The people of the country are justly proud of the distinctive beauty and government of the capital and of the rare ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents • William McKinley

... Scipio in the East. He made a campaign against the Gauls, who had settled in Galatia about a century before, and had become wealthy by means of constant plunderings. The excuse for the campaign was, that they had served in the Syrian army; the reason was, their wealth, and the ambition ...
— History of Rome from the Earliest times down to 476 AD • Robert F. Pennell

... rivalries seemed very small Beside that courage constant to the end; And even Death, last enemy of all, Came ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 15, 1914 • Various

... manure. The expense of its construction and use is no greater than that of the common water-closet; indeed, when the outlays for plumber's work, the almost inevitable troubles and disorders of water-pipes in a house, and the constant stream of petty repairs consequent upon careless construction or use of water-works are considered, the earth-closet is in itself much cheaper, besides being an accumulator ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

... birth: The average number of years to be lived by a group of people all born in the same year, if mortality at each age remains constant in the future. ...
— The 1992 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... vehemently for them and trying to forget other things, remembered suddenly how Uncle James had hated cigarettes, and that Harvey himself disapproved of them. Somehow Harvey seemed, those days, to present a constant figure of disapproval. He ...
— The Amazing Interlude • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... detest, Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made Of such quicksilver clay that in his breast No permanent foundation can be laid; Love, constant love, has been my constant guest, And yet last night, being at a masquerade, I saw the prettiest creature, fresh from Milan, Which gave me ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... is impossible," said the other solemnly; "she begged me to keep her communication very secret. I have written to my wife and asked her to come home. I feel the constant strain to which I am being subjected is more than ...
— The Clue of the Twisted Candle • Edgar Wallace

... of blood from the vagina, whether in the form of a sudden hemorrhage or a constant ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • W. Grant Hague, M.D.

... very long ago that They were as we are, plunged down in the trivialities of earth; that They have climbed above them by the unfolding of the God within. And what They have done, you and I may also do. They are a constant inspiration and encouragement for humanity. They are men, and only God as we are God; the only difference being that They have God more manifest in Them than He is in us. They also in Their day were weak and foolish; They also strove and struggled, as we strive and struggle now; They also ...
— London Lectures of 1907 • Annie Besant

... I like these constant rains less than I liked being snowbound up at Cedar Lodge," put ...
— The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck - Stirring Adventures in the Oil Fields • Edward Stratemeyer

... personage I have mentioned is young and green, and not bright, not learned, and not wise. He will be, though, someday if he recollects the answers to all his questions. He is known about the ship as the "Interrogation Point," and this by constant use has become shortened to "Interrogation." He has distinguished himself twice already. In Fayal they pointed out a hill and told him it was 800 feet high and 1,100 feet long. And they told him there was a tunnel 2,000 feet long and ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... Hardy. Generosity is seldom an attribute of youth, while egotism, on the other hand, is seldom absent. So far from realizing that the captain would have scorned such lowly game, Master Hardy believed that he lived for little else, and his Jack-in-the-box ubiquity was a constant marvel and discomfort to that irritable mariner. Did he approach a seat on the beach, it was Master Hardy who rose (at the last moment) to make room for him. Did he stroll down to the harbour, it ...
— At Sunwich Port, Complete • W.W. Jacobs

... reached home, October 1, after seven months' constant travel and hard work, and on the 17th went to the National Woman's Rights Convention at Philadelphia and gave the report for New York. It was through her determined efforts, overcoming the objection that she was an atheist and declaring that every religion or none should have an equal right on their ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... Huns the Belgian army had been reduced to its lowest ebb; the manpower of France and England had been sapped by constant call for reserves, and the Allied forces, while resisting and fighting heroically, were without reserves to draw upon to effect a decisive ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller

... shortages are a major problem in rural areas. A high per capita GDP, relative to the region, hides the great inequality of income distribution; nearly one-third of Namibians had annual incomes of less than $1400 in constant 1994 dollars, according to a 1993 study. The Namibian economy is closely linked to South Africa with the Namibian dollar pegged to the South African rand. Privatization of several enterprises in coming years may stimulate ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... friends desert, he remains, when riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast into the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of ...
— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens

... the confusion became almost a riot, so it seemed to Billy. The shouts of the fighting men grew hoarse with constant repetitions, for naturally they had to give vent to their emotions, or else much of their efforts would have lacked in the genuine feeling. How those swords did whack and beat upon each other as slowly but surely the ...
— The Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players • Robert Shaler

... all this lay the trouble, that the best regular officer from the very fact of his superior training was puzzled to know how much to demand of volunteer troops, or what standard to enforce upon them. It was a problem in the Differential Calculus, with the Army Regulations for a constant, and a raw volunteer regiment for a variable, and not a formula in Davies which suited the purpose. Unfortunately, these perplexities were quite as apt to end in relaxation as in rigor, so that the regiments ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 • Various

... hair will be found to be wholly free from all encumbering oils and other impurities, and assume a glossy softness, equal to the most delicate silk. This process tends to preserve the tone and natural color of the hair, which is so frequently destroyed by the too constant use of ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs

... great mind bear up against public opinion, and push back its hurrying stream. Therefore should every man wait;—should bide his time. Not in listless idleness,—not in uselesspastime,—not in querulous dejection; but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavours, always willing and fulfilling, and accomplishing his task, that, when the occasion comes, he may be equal to the occasion. And if it never comes, what matters it? What matters it to the world whether I, or you, or another ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... poor; they may live near or at a distance of more than ten thousand miles; they may give much or little; they may have often given before or never; they may be well known to us or not at all; in these and many other things there may be constant variations; but God continually helps us; we are never confounded. And why not? Simply because we are enabled, by time grace of God, to put our trust in Him for what ...
— A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, Fourth Part • George Mueller

... Institute, 83. Regent Street, Quadrant, LADIES of taste for fancy work,—by paying 21s. will be received as members, and taught the new style of velvet wool work, which is acquired in a few easy lessons. Each lady will be guaranteed constant employment and ready cash payment for her work. Apply personally to Mrs. Thoughey. N.B. Ladies taught by letter at any ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853 • Various

... fortunate for us we had the sun to guide us through all this forest waste, as otherwise we could not possibly have steered in any constant direction, but would probably have gone round in a circle like a horse in a mill. As it was, however, even amidst the depth of brushwood and jungle by the side of the salt-water lagoon where we were camping for the time, we could ...
— The Penang Pirate - and, The Lost Pinnace • John Conroy Hutcheson

... into his inside and the assistance of the carpenter, he was once more set on his legs. Many a day, however, passed before the sound of his once merry fiddle was heard on the forecastle of the Fame, for the crew loved their gallant commander too well to allow them to foot it as had been their constant custom during ...
— True Blue • W.H.G. Kingston

... The constant delays, the grinding, blasting toil of the day's march, and particularly the ever-recurring crises of ford and steep, made serious inroads on the morale of the three men. Just the work of urging on the exhausted horses drained their nervous energy in a frightful stream: the uncertainty ...
— The Sky Line of Spruce • Edison Marshall

... generally higher than 75%, and machines must be used to charge them, it is not directly economical to use cells alone for public supply. Yet they play an important and an increasing part in public work, because they help to maintain a constant voltage on the mains, and can be used to distribute the load on the running machinery over a much greater fraction of the day. Used in parallel with the dynamo, they quickly yield current when the load increases, and immediately begin ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... leave their poor child in peace, seeing that nothing did her any good, but rather made her worse. I was therefore forced to desist, and only admonished the parents to seek for help like the Canaanitish woman, in true repentance and incessant prayer, and with her to sigh in constant faith, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed of a devil" (Matt. xv.); that the heart of our Lord would then melt, so that He would have mercy on their child, and command Satan to depart from her. Item, I promised to pray for the little child on ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... year is so simply and yet so artistically told as this one. It portrays the development of a sweet and natural girl's character, amid a community of strict Wesleyan Methodists in a Staffordshire town. How her upright nature progresses with constant rebellions against the hypocrisy and cant of the religionists, by whom she is surrounded, is brought out by the author faithfully and with great delicacy of insight. Many will love Anna, and not a few will ...
— Red Saunders • Henry Wallace Phillips

... nobly repaid the hospitality England was proud to show him by adopting her nationality in her hour of greatest need, said shortly before his death that nothing grieved him more than the constant loss of England's "best blood, seed and breed." The mothers of England "give their sons," but they know that the choice did ...
— Mr. Punch's History of the Great War • Punch

... front, in the feverish effort to catch the words of the speech. It was so dark in the little room that no inmate of it could be sure of the identity of any other unless she was close beside her; and it was pervaded by a constant soft frou-frou of silk and satin, as persons from an inner room moved in and out, or some lady silently gave up her seat to a new-comer, or one of those in front bent over to whisper to a friend behind. The background ...
— The Coryston Family • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... ready. Eastern carpets and cushions, placed upon a bank under the trees, would afford a place where the company, after dining, might linger for hours, enjoying the gay give- and-take of conversation, the songs of artists who knew their art, and the constant musical undertone of winds, birds and waters. The surprise which Ranulph had planned was designed for the moment when the guests began to dally with nuts and wine, reluctant to leave the table. Some one called upon the troubadour to sing. He had counted ...
— Masters of the Guild • L. Lamprey

... Margaret's constant companion in her rambles was the faithful dog Trot, who highly enjoyed this new phase of life, and with him at her side ...
— Dawn • Mrs. Harriet A. Adams

... to keep it holy; your children, of course, will accompany you to the house of God, but let not your servants absent themselves from his ordinances, and endeavor, on your return home, to explain and bring home the word that may have been spoken to their consciences. Above all, let it be your constant aim to set before them a godly, consistent example, and be much engaged in prayer for them—I mean for your servants as well as for your children, and God will, in all probability, make you a mother in Israel, the mother ...
— The Power of Faith - Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham. • Isabella Graham

... by the young girl paled and drooped, and when the brief period of betrothal drew toward a close the mother's ingenuity must have been taxed to find excuses for the wayward moods and manifest misery of her unhappy child. She fell into melancholy, and sought in solitude opportunity for constant tears. Her favorite resort was a hill overlooking the road to Fontainebleau and Paris, and here she would sit for hours, gazing steadily toward the north, as if expecting some ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 • Various

... persons—chiefly girls, to be sure. For as Milly was wont to confess in her palmiest days when men flocked around her, she was a "woman's woman" (and hence inferentially a man's woman, too). Milly very sincerely preferred her own sex as constant companions. They were more expressive, communicative, rational. Men were useful: they brought candies, flowers, ...
— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... the head of her table, and Wolf at the foot. Rose, a gentle, quiet copy of her handsome mother, was nearest the kitchen door, to which she made constant flying trips. Norma was opposite Rose, and by falling back heavily could tip her entire chair against the sideboard, from which she extracted forks or salt or candy, as the case might be. The telephone was ...
— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris

... constant companion of the emperor, had also become an intimate member of the family circle, and Charlemagne entrusted him with the education of his favourite child Emma, daughter of his wife Gismonda. This dark-eyed maiden was considered ...
— Legends of the Rhine • Wilhelm Ruland

... some eight hundred strong, and were embarked in two ships, very large, but old and crazy; a storm overtook us when off Beachy Head, in which we had nearly foundered. I was awakened early in the morning by the howling of the wind and the uproar on deck. I kept myself close, however, as is still my constant practice on similar occasions, and waited the result with that apathy and indifference which violent sea-sickness is sure to produce. We shipped several seas, and once the vessel missing stays—which, to do it justice, it generally did at every third or fourth tack—we escaped almost by a miracle ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... nature are irreconcileable, namely, dignity and drollery. However, we find even in his prosaic pieces traces of that didactical and satirical vein which is peculiarly alien to Comedy; for example, in his constant attacks on physicians and lawyers, in his disquisitions upon the true correct tone of society, &c., the intention of which is actually to censure, to refute, to instruct, and not merely to ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black

... present moment, paper is made of a mixture of hemp and linen rags, but the raw material is dear, and the expense naturally retards the great advance which the French press is bound to make. Now you cannot increase the output of linen rags, a given population gives a pretty constant result, and it only increases with the birth-rate. To make any perceptible difference in the population for this purpose, it would take a quarter of a century and a great revolution in habits of life, trade, and agriculture. And if the supply of linen rags is not enough to meet one-half ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... hath not the old Spanish Comedy-writer, GONZALES, used it three times? hath not his fellow-countryman, VEGA MORVEGA, used it in his now obsolete play of The Distressed Mother? and hath not VODENDOL, the Norwegian dramatist, absolutely nauseated us with it, not to mention its constant use by that imitation of GOLDONI, Count ERFITO D'ALUMINIO? And to come nearer home, did not the German—but why pursue the "motive" until you run it to earth, and even then it won't be killed, but will be flourishing thousands of years hence, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, November 5, 1892 • Various

... a week, in the midst of the most glorious October landscape, surrounded by the scarlet and gold and crimson branches of the maples and the deep-reds and bronze-greens of the oaks, she and I walked and rode and boated in almost constant companionship. Idyllic days! Days of a quality I had lost all hope of ever again reliving. Days of quiet happiness and almost perfect content, for on an afternoon of dreamlike beauty, in a glade radiant with ...
— A Daughter of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland

... year before he died he cut two large ones with great pain. His food was generally a few spoonfuls of broth, after which he ate some little thing roasted; his breakfast and supper, bread and fruit; his constant drink, distilled water, without any addition of wine or other strong liquor to the very last. He was a man of strict honor, of great abilities, of a free, pleasant, and sprightly temper, as we are told by many travellers, who were all struck ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, September 1887 - Volume 1, Number 8 • Various

... clergy, instead of learning their prayers by heart, read them out of a book, which is in a great measure inconsistent with such an elevated posture, and which seems to me to have been only a later practice, introduced under the corrupt state of the church; though the constant use of divine forms of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, appears to me to have been the practice of God's people, patriarchs, Jews, and Christians, in all the ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus

... supernatural and marvelous life. What the sober realities might have actually been, was of no interest or moment to them whatever. There were no scholars then as now, living in the midst of libraries, and finding constant employment, and a never-ending pleasure, in researches for the simple investigation of the truth. There was in fact no retirement, no seclusion, no study. Every thing except what related to the mere daily ...
— Romulus, Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... deeply seated, inasmuch as new molecular species appear. These new substances, if well-defined chemical compounds, have a perfectly definite composition and contain a definite, generally small, number of elementary atoms, and therefore the law of constant proportions follows at once, and the fact that only an integral number of atoms of any element may enter into the composition of any molecule determines ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 - "Chtelet" to "Chicago" • Various

... corner of the realm was subjected to a constant and minute inspection. Every little congregation of Separatists was tracked out and broken up. Even the devotions of private families could not escape the vigilance of his spies. Such fear did his ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 • Various

... calls for mental effort in the solution of the problem of supervising the action, requires a constant, close observation of the unfolding of the original situation. The procedure employed is customarily termed The Running Estimate of the Situation. Only an alert commander can invariably determine whether the situation ...
— Sound Military Decision • U.s. Naval War College

... power and a constant flow of humor.... Has the warm human glow of sympathy and understanding, and it is written with real ...
— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... The constant affection felt for these not very worthy relatives by Michelangelo is one of the finest traits in his character. They were continually writing begging letters, grumbling and complaining. He supplied them with funds, stinting himself ...
— The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti • John Addington Symonds

... It was Dr. David Throckmartin—"Throck" he was to me always, one of my oldest friends and, as well, a mind of the first water whose power and achievements were for me a constant inspiration as they were, I know, for ...
— The Moon Pool • A. Merritt

... such as the story told by Old Sophy might well awaken. She understood, as never before, the singular fascination and as singular repulsion which she had long felt in Elsie's presence. It had not been without a great effort that she had forced herself to become the almost constant attendant of the sick girl; and now she was learning, but not for the first time, the blessed truth which so many good women have found out for themselves, that the hardest duty bravely performed ...
— Elsie Venner • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... another of the Guards, who, on the same day, received a gunshot wound from the brigands in another part of the Chateau. These two officers, who were attended and cured together at the infirmary of Versailles, were almost constant companions; they were recognised at the Palais Royal, and insulted. The Queen thought it necessary for them to quit Paris. She desired me to write to M. de Miomandre de Sainte-Marie, and tell him to ...
— Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete • Madame Campan

... liking for donkeys, principally, I believe, because of the delightful things that Sterne has written of them. But this was not after the pattern of the ass at Lyons. He was of a white color, that seemed to fit him rather for rare festal occasions than for constant drudgery. Besides, he was very small, and of the daintiest proportions you can imagine in a donkey. And so, sure enough, you had only to look at him to see he had never worked. There was something too roguish ...
— English: Composition and Literature • W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

... A constant supply of clean soft water is an absolute necessity for the dyer. Rain water should be collected as much as possible, as this is the best water to use. The dye house should be by a river or stream, so that the dyer can wash with ...
— Vegetable Dyes - Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information Useful to the Dyer • Ethel M. Mairet

... families in Christchurch—namely, the Bishop, the Chief Justice Gresson, and some others. The following day we made our calls and were most hospitably received, especially by Mr. and Mrs. Gresson, who from that time during my stay in New Zealand were my constant and valued friends. We were introduced to many of the best up-country people, and a month was passed pleasantly visiting about to enable us to decide on what line we would take up as a commencement. We possessed very little ...
— Five Years in New Zealand - 1859 to 1864 • Robert B. Booth

... had any sense of humour, it must amuse her that he should place her on a pedestal and worship her with such an honest idolatry, but even while she laughed she must have been pleased and touched. He was the constant lover, and though she grew old, losing her rounded lines and her fair comeliness, to him she would certainly never alter. To him she would always be the loveliest woman in the world. There was a pleasing grace in the orderliness ...
— The Moon and Sixpence • W. Somerset Maugham

... day I spent with my friends, walking a great deal about the streets and watching their busy life. The great energy of the Baron demanded constant nervous activity from himself and every one round him. He was everywhere, seeing everything but never, interfering with the work of his subordinate administrators. Every ...
— Beasts, Men and Gods • Ferdinand Ossendowski

... back from the high road. Seated at her drawing-room window, she could see all those who came or went, and thus kept a watch over the morals of the village. This window was called "Mrs. Parry's eye," and everyone sneaked past it in constant dread of the terrible old lady who looked through it. Beyond Mrs. Parry's cottage were the houses of the gentry and the church; therefore she knew that Steel would pass her house on the way to The Elms, where he would doubtless go ...
— A Coin of Edward VII - A Detective Story • Fergus Hume

... so. Was it not rather due to his inability to control without dominating personally—without standing out fully and clearly in the sight of all men? Sometimes he thought so. The humdrum conventional world could not brook his daring, his insouciance, his constant desire to call a spade a spade. His genial sufficiency was a taunt and a mockery to many. The hard implication of his eye was dreaded by the weaker as fire is feared by a burnt child. Dissembling enough, he was not ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser

... been a delightful experience for Jack and his face showed it, but it was not until after I left that the story of why he had come late was told. He had started several times to explain but the constant interruption of members anxious to shake Peter's hand, ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith

... there was a very close connection—nay, almost a constant intercourse—between the goldsmiths and the painters; wherefore Sandro, who was a ready fellow and had devoted himself wholly to design, became enamoured of painting, and determined to devote himself to that. For this reason he spoke out his mind freely to his father, who, recognizing ...
— Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 3 (of 10), Filarete and Simone to Mantegna • Giorgio Vasari

... from her lips; nor during the same space of time had that personage made his appearance at the rectory. Some suspicion of clandestine meetings haunted his mind. Having but an indifferent opinion of women, he always suspected them. He thought they needed constant watching. It was in a tone dryly significant he desired her to cease her daily visits to the Hollow. He expected a start, a look of depreciation. The start he saw, but it was a very slight one; no look whatever was ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... young boy Desmond kept as much as possible out of his brother's way. But as he grew older he came more directly under Richard's control, with the result that they were now in a constant state of feud. Their mother, a woman of sweet temper but weak will, favored her younger son in secret; she learned by experience that open intervention on his behalf did more ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang

... streets was thinner, it was greater in the Coliseum than on the second day; and matters had settled there into regular working order. The limits of individual liberty had been better ascertained; there was no longer any movement in the aisles, but a constant passing to and fro, between the pieces, in the promenades. The house presented, as before, that appearance in which reality forsook it, and it became merely an amazing picture. The audience supported the notion of its unreality ...
— Suburban Sketches • W.D. Howells

... left a son called Deorao, who reigned twenty-five years. He determined to collect great treasures, but owing to constant warfare he could not gain more than eight hundred and fifty millions of gold, not counting precious stones. This was no great sum, seeing that in his time the King of Coullao,[496] and Ceyllao, and Paleacate,[497] and Peguu, and Tanacary[498] ...
— A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India • Robert Sewell

... they were removed thither from the Feuillans on the 13th of August, 1792, in the charge of Potion, Mayor of Paris, and Santerre, the commandant-general. Twelve Commissioners of the general council were to keep constant watch at the Temple, which had been fortified by earthworks and garrisoned by detachments of the National Guard, no person being allowed to enter without ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... difficulties, and in His good time bring you out of them, purified as gold. I am exceedingly fearful that we shall have more, and great difficulties, at our next Conference. Every article and word in the Guardian is criticised and noted, and made the subject of a large and constant correspondence, especially with the local preachers, in different parts of the Province. We shall be much embarrassed about the editorship of the Guardian. Perhaps Providence will point out some ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson

... having no impediment, hangeth dangling at liberty as far as it can reach, with a wiggle-waggle down to their knees, as women carry their paternoster beads. and the cause wherefore they have it so correspondently great is, that in this constant wig-wagging the humours of the body descend into the said member. For, according to the Legists, agitation and continual motion is cause ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... supposed to leave their idiosyncrasies on one side, and to represent the feeling of the community. The ideal average prudent man, whose equivalent the jury is taken to be in many cases, and whose culpability or innocence is the supposed test, is a constant, and his conduct under given circumstances ...
— The Common Law • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

... Harassed by constant onslaughts, never out of danger, he had successively hurried to their deaths Marie Fauville and Gaston Sauverand, two innocent people sacrificed to the cruel laws of war. Was he at last about to fight the real enemy, or would he himself ...
— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... of the long wars he had waged with Frederic and Peter of Aragon, against Henry VII and Louis of Bavaria; and felt their hearts beat high, remembering the glories of campaigns in Lombardy and Tuscany; priests would gratefully extol his constant defence of the papacy against Ghibelline attacks, and the founding of convents, hospitals, and churches throughout his kingdom; in the world of letters he was regarded as the most learned king in Christendom; Petrarch, indeed, would receive the poet's crown from no other hand, and had ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... must therefore deserve it, and that one day whatever was incomprehensible in the conduct of the prince would be explained to his advantage. At other times, on the contrary, she felt ashamed of excusing Djalma, and the consciousness of this weakness was for Adrienne a constant occasion for remorse and torture. The victim of all these agonies, she lived in ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... have another skirmish." "Judging from your state of mind at the first, one would not deem it advisable to enter the lists a second time," said Captain Douglas. "Bear in mind the Major has too much on his hands already." "Constant practice only serves to sharpen his wits," said Mr. Howe, with a vein of sarcasm in his tones. "It grows late, or, I should say, early," said Douglas, without taking notice of the last sentence. "Howe, good morning, I ...
— Lady Rosamond's Secret - A Romance of Fredericton • Rebecca Agatha Armour

... that we might stay on. We were, they declared with one voice, not putting them to the smallest inconvenience. But I knew different, and besides, I had a constant and consuming desire for a house of mine own, ...
— The Dew of Their Youth • S. R. Crockett

... far easier said than done, however, for she was more in my mind as I crept forward than the indistinct figure below in the boat. It was becoming a constant struggle already—indeed, had been from the first—to hold her for what I actually knew her to be—negress, a slave, desperately seeking to escape from her master. The soft, refined voice, the choice use of language, the purity of her ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish

... firm, yet cautious mind; Sincere, though prudent; constant, yet resign'd; Honour unchang'd, a principle profest, Fix'd to one side, but mod'rate to the rest: An honest courtier, yet a patriot too; Just to his prince, and to his country true; Fill'd with the ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson

... more conciliating, Irene," he would often say to his daughter. "Hartley is earnest and impulsive, and you should yield to him gracefully, even when you do not always see and feel as he does. This constant opposition and standing on your dignity about trifles is fretting both of you, and bodes evil ...
— After the Storm • T. S. Arthur

... the hearing of one's well-wishers and friends and of one's obedient and devoted disciples. Angiras possessed of great ascetic merit, had imparted this discourse to Gautama. Angiras himself had obtained it from Kasyapa of great intelligence. The great Rishi regard this discourse as worthy of constant repetition. It is the foremost of all cleansing things. If one recites it regularly every day, one is sure to become cleansed of every sin and to proceed to heaven after the termination of this life. One who listens to this discourse recited in his hearing,—this ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... that, in all impeachments of the Commons of Great Britain for high crimes and misdemeanors before the Peers in the High Court of Parliament, the Peers are not triers or jurors only, but, by the ancient laws and constitution of this kingdom, known by constant usage, are judges both of law and fact; and we conceive that the Lords are bound not to act in such a manner as to give rise to an opinion that they have virtually submitted to a division of their legal powers, or ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. XI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... suffered constant pin-pricks of jealousy, despising herself all the time, and trying to be friendly with the disturber of her peace. As if prompted by an evil spirit, Kitty unconsciously tried and tormented her from morning to night, and no one saw or guessed it unless Mrs. Sterling's motherly heart ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott

... who were apprehended by the patrollers, who kept a constant watch for escaped slaves, besides being flogged, would be branded with a hot iron on the cheek with the letter 'R'." Simms claimed he knew two ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Maryland Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... middle ages insist on the close and mystical relation which they assure us existed between Christ and his mother: however far separated, there was constant communion between them; and wherever he might be—in whatever acts of love, or mercy, or benign wisdom occupied for the good of man—there was also his mother, present with him in the spirit. I think we can trace the ...
— Legends of the Madonna • Mrs. Jameson

... delivering himself from the iron tutelage of his foreign mercenaries. Montreal executed, his brothers imprisoned, (though their lives were spared,) a fear that induced respect was stricken into the breasts of those bandit soldiers. Removed from Rome, and, under Annibaldi, engaged against the Barons, constant action and constant success, withheld those necessary fiends from falling on their Master; while Rienzi, willing to yield to the natural antipathy of the Romans, thus kept the Northmen from all contact with the city; and as he boasted, was the only chief in Italy who reigned ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... those gleams were golden; but life's hands Have given more constant gifts in changing lands; And when I count those gifts, I think them such As no man's bounty could have bettered much: The gift of country life, near hills and woods Where happy waters sing in solitudes, The gift of being near ships, of ...
— Georgian Poetry 1911-12 • Various

... more to be learned from the position he occupied, and so he moved on, always keeping to the right of the campfire, blazing dimly in the rain and requiring constant care, until he came out in a thicket close to the rear of the shelter where the men he believed to be prisoners lay. In five minutes he was at the canvas wall of the ...
— Boy Scouts in the Philippines - Or, The Key to the Treaty Box • G. Harvey Ralphson

... walked up from the wharf to "Aunt Maria's." He was recognised by a number of citizens, who showed him the greatest deference and respect. So many of his friends called upon him at Mrs. Fitzhugh's that it was arranged to have a reception for him at the Mansion House. For three hours a constant stream of visitors poured into the parlours. The reception was the greatest ovation that any individual had received from the people of Alexandria since the days of Washington. The next day, in Bishop Johns' carriage, he drove out to Seminary Hill to the home ...
— Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee • Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son

... was playing with little Virginia, teasing her about her "new Papa." The little girl smiled rather dubiously. She had the animal-like loyalty of childhood, and glanced suspiciously at the "New Papa." However, she had already learned from the constant mutations of her brief life to accept the New and the Unexpected without complaint. At last perceiving Ernestine, who was hurrying breathlessly down the long platform in search of the party, a huge bunch of long-stemmed roses hugged close ...
— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... all was plain, and together with the discovery there came the pangs of remorse and terror and anguish. She could understand all. He, the escaped convict, had come to England, and was supposed to be dead. He had lived, under a false name, a life of constant and vigilant terror. He kept his secret from all the world. Oh, if he had only told her! Now the letter of Miss Plympton was all plain, and she wondered how she had been ...
— The Living Link • James De Mille

... and well for this purpose: The captain lines up his players and numbers them, taking any number that he chooses for himself. Those having odd numbers are sent to guard one goal, and those having even numbers to guard the other goal. Each guard should remember well his number, as there is a constant rotation of ...
— Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium • Jessie H. Bancroft

... palace and in the meanest hovel, there lives and reigns a dead young man in the glory of his strength. He fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with a splendour of which it had never ventured to dream. His constant presence, imperious and inevitable, diffuses and maintains a religion and ideas which it had never known before, hallows everything around it, makes the eyes look higher, prevents the spirit from descending, purifies the air that is breathed and the speech that is held and the thoughts ...
— Over the Fireside with Silent Friends • Richard King

... contemplate their numberless tricks and frauds, and the thefts they all commit from the time they are out of leading-strings and can walk alone. You know what a multitude there is of them dispersed all over Spain. They all know each other, keep up a constant intelligence among themselves, and reciprocally pass off and carry away the articles they have purloined. They render less obedience to their king than to one of their own people whom they style ...
— The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... was really glad to give them up to the sheriff this morning [he writes from Dickinson], for I was pretty well done out with the work, the lack of sleep, and the constant watchfulness, but I am as brown and as tough as a pine knot and ...
— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn

... the natural developement of new branches of industry, were working quietly for the relief of the glutted labour market; but a vast mass of disorder still existed in England, which found a constant ground of resentment in the enclosures and evictions which accompanied the progress of agricultural change. It was on this host of "broken men" that every rebellion could count for support; their mere existence was an encouragement to civil war; while in peace their presence was ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green

... Kentucky settlers were continually harassed. Small parties of Indians were constantly lurking round the forts, to shoot down the men as they hunted or worked in the fields, and to carry off the women. There was a constant and monotonous succession of unimportant forays ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume One - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 • Theodore Roosevelt

... were aided by their comrades on the wall, who shot with guns and arquebuses against the Spaniards, while the later were similarly assisted by their friends along the outer edge of the moat, and received constant reinforcements by ...
— By England's Aid or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) • G.A. Henty

... of literary and fashionable society. I, who in 1853 was but two years old, had to be satisfied with a glance and a smile, which were so much less than he had been able to give to my brother and sister in their happier childhood days, for they had enjoyed hours of his companionship as a constant pastime. I was, moreover, much younger than the others, and was never allowed to grow, as I wished, out of the appellations of Rosebud, Baby, and Bab (as my father always called me), and all the infantine thought which those pet ...
— Memories of Hawthorne • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

... earnestness, until culture turns it into intelligent interests, will naturally breed a new mythology. It will try to place some world of Afrites and shadowy giants behind the constellations, which it finds too distinct and constant to be its companions or supporters; and it will assign to itself vague and infinite tasks, for which it is doubtless better equipped than for those which the earth now sets before it. Even these, however, since they are parts of an infinite whole, the mystic may (histrionically, perhaps, ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repair'd in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement I allow'd myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolicks of any kind; and my industry ...
— Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin

... Champagne, a liberal allowance of liqueur brandies, and two or three tumblers of whiskey-and-seltzer to round off the night. As the hours advance, his face assumes a ruddier glow. With the progress of years, being compelled to conceal the increasing girth of his lower chest by the constant inflation of his upper, he wears frock-coats. The point which is lacking in his conversation is conspicuous in his boots, whilst his collars possess an elevation ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 22nd, 1890 • Various



Words linked to "Constant" :   Avogadro number, number, constancy, coefficient, continuous, Hubble's parameter, Hubble parameter, inconstant, parameter, staunch, unchangeable, unswerving, steadfast, quantity, unfailing, uninterrupted, factor of proportionality, parametric quantity, light speed, faithful, Avogadro's number, unflagging, stability, ionic charge, stable, r, g, Planck's constant, speed of light, c



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