"Can't" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... express it, but it seems somehow as though only the very little things of Life are offered in open packages—that all the big things come sealed very tight. You can poke them a little and make a guess at the shape, and you can rattle them a little and make a guess at the size, but you can't ever open them and prove them—until the money is paid down and gone forever from your hands. But goodness me!" she cried, brightening perceptibly; "if you were to put an advertisement in the biggest newspaper ...
— The Indiscreet Letter • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
... sick man, "it is not because I fear to die that I ask you this, but rather because I fear I shall not die, for I can't reconcile myself to the idea of recovering from ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus
... People—I mean the people who count in Lichfield—are charitable enough to ignore almost any crime which is just a matter of common knowledge. In fact, they are mildly grateful. It gives them something to talk about. But when detraction is printed in the morning paper you can't overlook it without incurring the suspicion of being ...
— The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck - A Comedy of Limitations • James Branch Cabell
... He has not the ghost of a chance; and government—if it is the government who put him on—must be a pack of fools; they can't know the influence of Carlyle. Bethel, is that style of costume the fashion where you ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood
... found the poker, she applied it gently to the Liverpool coal with such good effect that a bright ruddy blaze sprang up and lighted the whole room. Ellen smiled at the result of her experiment. "That is something like," said she to herself; "who says I can't poke the fire? Now, let us see if I can't do something else. Do but see how those chairs are standing—one would think we had had a sewing circle here—there, go back to your places,—that looks ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner
... you with Norse myths, with runes and scalds and sagas? You can't have the book. I carried it to my room yesterday, and I am in no mood to-night to play ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans
... Cathcart burst out with the loud answer before the other had time to move his lips. "Of course it is! Of course it is! Only—can't you see—he's nearly dead with exhaustion, cold and terror! Isn't that enough to change a man beyond all recognition?" It was said in order to convince himself as much as to convince the others. The overemphasis alone proved that. And continually, while he spoke and ...
— The Wendigo • Algernon Blackwood
... aid-post, sticking a second flag above the railway, for the solitary company that was supporting the Sikhs' attack. Wounded began to come in, the first cases being not bad ones. 'Give you five rupees for that wound, sergeant,' said Mester Dobson. 'You can't have it for seventy-five,' said Sergeant Hayes, as he limped off in search of the ambulances, smiling happily. Perhaps nothing will stir the unborn generations to greater pity than this knowledge, that for youth in our generation wounds and bodily ...
— The Leicestershires beyond Baghdad • Edward John Thompson
... you can't. I suppose we cannot comprehend infinity, because we are essentially finite ourselves. But it by no means follows that we cannot apprehend and believe in attributes which we are unable to comprehend. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 • Various
... I can't stand the blue lights; they make a hypocrite of you, or a sniveller. Now, I don't profess to be a good person, but I think, after all, my neighbors know about where to find me. As to the Episcopalians, they give us good music, good prayers, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... said one of the workmen. "By the looks of 'ee you must be one of the new Artillerymen from Looe that can't die however hard they want to. But didn' Jackson tell you to ...
— Merry-Garden and Other Stories • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... some amiable exclamations, 'The oaf!' 'What a bore!' 'He has spoilt my sky!' 'I shan't finish this to-day!' 'Shall we order a carriage and take him to the office; we can't have him on our hands all the afternoon?' 'And we might get the new number of ...
— Chantry House • Charlotte M. Yonge
... of saying that I'm boring you, eh? I can't help it. I shall be just the same to my dying day. The wound is too ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc
... gaining their point by entreaty, and continue their supplications till at last his patience is exhausted and he says to them in a paternal tone, "Now, enough! enough! you are blockheads—blockheads all round! There's no use talking; it can't be done." And with these words he enters the house, so as ...
— Russia • Donald Mackenzie Wallace
... fluttered with fresh ribbons. "How much of this outside business is right, and how much wrong, I should be glad to know? It all takes time and thoughts; and those are life. How much life must go into the leaves? That's what puzzles me. I can't do without the things; and I can't be let to take 'clear comfort' in them, as grandma says, either." She was on the floor, now, beside her little fineries; her hands clasped together about one knee, and her face turned up to Cousin ...
— A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... know anyone in Florida I would want to take a chance on for a long trip. I only know two fellows I would like to have along, and we can't get them. One is Walter Hazard, the Ohio boy who chummed with us down here for so long. The other is that little Bahama darky, Chris, whom Walter insisted on taking back north with him and putting in a school. There wasn't a yellow streak in either one, and ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... Contessina shouldn't live with her Dario without troubling any further. Haven't they loved one another ever since they were children? Aren't they both young and handsome, and wouldn't they be happy together, whatever the world might say? Happiness, mon Dieu! one finds it so seldom that one can't afford ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... mate? Well, I'm sorry, but I can't help that. I've enough to do without going into private matters. Do you mind keeping the youngster for a time? He wouldn't have much of a chance if I ...
— Colonial Born - A tale of the Queensland bush • G. Firth Scott
... "By the way, that book of his, it's in an appalling muddle. I hadn't time to do much to it before I left. If you can't get it straight you must come to me and ...
— Mr. Waddington of Wyck • May Sinclair
... it to the servant, exclaiming: "Now keep your promise to Katterle like an honest man. The poor thing will have a hard time at her employer's. I make but one condition: you are to remain in my service. I can't do without you." ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... are members of the finest house in Fernhurst. Last year we had the two finest athletes, Wincheston and Lovelace, who played cricket for Leicestershire, and is now captain of the House. We had also the two finest scholars, Scott and Pembroke, both of whom won scholarships. Now we can't all be county cricketers, we can't all win scholarships, but we can all work to one end with an unfailing energy. You will find prefects here who will beat you if you play the ass. Well, I don't mind ragging much and it is no disgrace to be caned ...
— The Loom of Youth • Alec Waugh
... "We can't tell yet; perhaps the Butterfly will prove to be a faster boat than the Zephyr, and some of Tony's members are a good deal larger and stouter than ours. I think ...
— All Aboard; or, Life on the Lake - A Sequel to "The Boat Club" • Oliver Optic
... can't leave any too soon, sir, I think. It's going to be pokerish work for us before morning, and I shall be mighty glad to see a few of old Company F ...
— Captured by the Navajos • Charles A. Curtis
... whole thing yet," said an old landowner who knew the region well. "There is something serious behind all this which I can't yet make out. The Abbe Troubert is too deep to be fathomed at once. Our dear Birotteau is at the beginning of his troubles. Besides, would he be left in peace and comfort even if he did give up his lodging to Troubert? I doubt it. If Caron ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac
... left us flat in the thick of his Middle Western trip and went back to the Sans-Silk Skirt Company. I wanted him to know I had seen him. As I passed, I said, 'You'll mow 'em down in those clothes, Meyers.'" Buck sat down in his leisurely fashion, and laughed his low, pleasant laugh. "Can't you see him, ...
— Emma McChesney & Co. • Edna Ferber
... "I can't burn these. You see, I shall not be able to have long conversations with Marie Antoinette. I must give her my suggestions in writing, that she may study them and not fail me, through lack of knowledge ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... "they've got plenty of it. They pay me two groschen a week, besides my keep. And they live on the fat of the land, I can tell you; the prince himself can't beat their table." ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... efficiency of integration, they hastened to protect themselves against a change of heart. General Edwards gave the committee a caveat on integration: "if it comes to a matter of lessening the efficiency of the Air Force so it can't go to war and do a good job, there isn't any question that the policy of non-segregation will have to go by the boards. In a case like that, I'd be one of the first to recommend it."[14-44] Secretary of the Navy Sullivan also supported this view and cautioned the committee ...
— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.
... wife, "you are pleased to be facetious: but I wish I were a queen, and then I know where my eldest daughter should look for an husband. But now that you have put it into my head, seriously, Mr. Thornhill, can't you recommend me a proper husband for her? She is now nineteen years old, well grown and well educated, and, in my humble opinion, does not want ...
— The Ontario High School Reader • A.E. Marty
... have done it long ago, but I can't let her go until we have paid her wages. We're several ...
— A Little Garrison - A Realistic Novel of German Army Life of To-day • Fritz von der Kyrburg
... try you out?" Dick answered laughingly. "Why, we don't have to do that. We shall be ready to hand you a beating, though, at any time you ask for it. We can't help beating you, you ...
— The High School Boys' Canoe Club • H. Irving Hancock
... "I can't betray military secrets which I don't know myself, even to interest the newspaper readers," he said. He gave me the impression, however, that, east or west, he would be found fighting for the Fatherland so long as the ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... Rule, or that the Passions alter it. Rightly to clear this Truth, I believe I may lay down this Maxim, that all sensible Objects are of two sorts; some may be judged of, by Sense independantly from Reason. I can Sense that Impression which the animal Spirits make on the Soul, others can't be judged of but by Reason exercised in Science, Things simply agreeable, or disagreeable, are of the first Sort, all the World may judge alike of these, for example the most Ignorant in Musick, perceives very well, when a Player on the Lute strikes one String for another, because he judges ...
— The Preface to Aristotle's Art of Poetry • Andre Dacier
... standing on a great advertisement of a universal history—"now that I am not damaging the furniture, pull yourself together and think. How am I to get to the stable? I can't stop here." ...
— The Lowest Rung - Together with The Hand on the Latch, St. Luke's Summer and The Understudy • Mary Cholmondeley
... interest; while her mate follows her about somewhat impatiently, and with a good deal of talk, which is plainly intended to hasten the decision. "Come, come," he says; "the season is short, and we can't waste the whole of it in getting ready." I never could discover that his eloquence produced much effect, however. Her ladyship will have her own way; as indeed she ought to have, good soul, considering that she is to have the discomfort ...
— Birds in the Bush • Bradford Torrey
... in their hands yet, and if we make a good fight of it, maybe we never shall," exclaimed Captain Hassall. "My lads, if you'll stand by me, I'll hold out as long as the craft can float. We beat off this same fellow once before—let's try if we can't ...
— James Braithwaite, the Supercargo - The Story of his Adventures Ashore and Afloat • W.H.G. Kingston
... I can't quite recall what the plot of "Ask Dad" was about, but I do know that it seemed able to jog along all right without much help from Cyril. I was rather puzzled at first. What I mean is, through brooding ...
— Death At The Excelsior • P. G. Wodehouse
... trained to please, but they were never educated to be a man's intellectual companion. No Eastern man ever thought of a companion in a wife. But stopping thoughtfully for a moment, and seizing one of our idioms in his hesitating English, he said, "Yet I can't see for the life of me why it would not be better that ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett
... "Can't you use the pole or the oars?" said the bank director petulantly; "you kept me waiting half an ...
— Haste and Waste • Oliver Optic
... propound a problem that can only be solved by clever heads—if at all. A child asked, "Can God do everything?" On receiving an affirmative reply, she at once said: "Then can He make a stone so heavy that He can't lift it?" Many wide-awake grown-up people do not at once see a satisfactory answer. Yet the difficulty lies merely in the absurd, though cunning, form of the question, which really amounts to asking, "Can the Almighty destroy His own omnipotence?" It is somewhat similar ...
— The Canterbury Puzzles - And Other Curious Problems • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... nerves were exposed. I was unsatisfied—I kept hold of his hand. "I won't make use of the expression then," I said, "in the article in which I shall eventually announce my discovery, though I dare say I shall have hard work to do without it. But meanwhile, just to hasten that difficult birth, can't you give a fellow a clue?" I felt much ...
— The Figure in the Carpet • Henry James
... Patron to acconnt such a Consecrated Person, as if he belong'd to him as a Servant, is in effect to challenge Divine Honours, and set himself up for a God. [Footnote: Ib. p. 185.] Here's Ambition, here's Perfection, here's old Bonner for ye. Now by his Hollidame, for I can't forbear that Oath now, what can a squeamish Critick, that would make Remarks upon the Remarker call this? But stay, he's at it again, Dolopion, says he, was Priest to Scamander, and regarded ...
— Essays on the Stage • Thomas D'Urfey and Bossuet
... as I have said, to the last year or two of my five years of life in the place of my birth. Further back my memory refuses to take me. Some wonderful persons go back to their second or even their first year; I can't, and could only tell from hearsay what I was and did up to the age of three. According to all accounts, the clouds of glory I brought into the world—a habit of smiling at everything I looked at and at every ...
— Far Away and Long Ago • W. H. Hudson
... easiest chair, the softest cushion, the middle of the bed, and the front of the fire, not only undisturbed, but caressed. This is a veritable history, beloved reader, and I offer it as a warning and an example: if you will be an old maid, or if you can't help it, take to petting children, or donkeys, or even a respectable cow, but beware of domestic tyranny ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various
... had not quite lost his fortitude. My hay-fever was obviously annoying him, but he only commented, "Don't you think you ought to see a doctor about that distressing nasal complaint, my dear?" I knew, however, that he was longing to bark out, "Can't you stop that everlasting sniffing? It's ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, July 28th, 1920 • Various
... thar's a sight o' hoein'," put in an alert, nervous-looking countryman. "If I lay my hoe down for a spell, the weeds git so big I can't find the crop." ...
— The Voice of the People • Ellen Glasgow
... and chicks, And the hay not yet in ricks, And the flower-show'll be presently and hop-picking's to come, And the fruiting and the harvest home, And my new white gown to make, and the jam all to be done. Can't you leave a girl alone? Your love's too hot for me! Can't you leave a girl be Till the evenings do draw in, Till the leaves be getting thin, Till the fires be lighted early, and the curtains drawed for tea? ...
— Many Voices • E. Nesbit
... began again, somewhat querulously, "I can't see why Jacob Dolph shouldn't give up business, if he's so minded. He's a monstrous fortune, from all I ...
— The Story of a New York House • Henry Cuyler Bunner
... note from the table, took it to put away in safety, and said: "I have no supper for you. We can't feed all the ...
— What Men Live By and Other Tales • Leo Tolstoy
... to his ma like he was her beau—reg'lar and plenty. Funny thing, you can't get a word out of him about wimmin-folk, neither. He ain't that kind of a colt. But I reckon when he sees the gal he wants he'll saddle up and ride out and ...
— Jim Waring of Sonora-Town - Tang of Life • Knibbs, Henry Herbert
... afraid of thieves; and you see, if I have the door with me, they can't break it open ...
— Fifty Famous Stories Retold • James Baldwin
... may be necessary or desirable for people under social order to live in common, we may differ pretty much according to our tendencies toward social life. For my part I can't see why we should think it a hardship to eat with the people we work with; I am sure that as to many things, such as valuable books, pictures, and splendor of surroundings, we shall find it better to club our means together; and I must ...
— Socialism: Positive and Negative • Robert Rives La Monte
... come, Aunt Charlotte, 'cause he can't get off the dickey.' 'What's the matter with him?' sez she. I was afraid I'd tell a lie, but I thought a bit, an' then ...
— The Weans at Rowallan • Kathleen Fitzpatrick
... only men to fight; I am face to face with ideas," resumed the king. "We can kill men, but we can't kill words! The Emperor Charles V. gave up the attempt; his son Philip has spent his strength upon it; we shall all perish, we kings, in that struggle. On whom can I rely? To right, among the Catholics, I find the Guises, who ...
— Catherine de' Medici • Honore de Balzac
... exultation. "If," he continues, "that weak-minded fellow-that Mullholland we have shown some respect to, hasn't got a pistol! He's been furbishing it up while in the parlor, and swears he will seriously damage you with it. Blasted assurance, those Northerners have. Won't fight, can't make 'em gentlemen; and if you knock 'em down they don't understand enough of chivalry to resent it. They shout to satisfy their fear and not to maintain their ...
— Justice in the By-Ways - A Tale of Life • F. Colburn Adams
... "They can't hit us, Te Manu," I cried to the Gilbert Islander, whose inborn fighting proclivities were showing in his gleaming eyes and short, panting breaths, "most of them have no cartridges in their guns, and they are all too drunk to shoot straight. Let ...
— The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait - From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other - Stories" - 1902 • Louis Becke
... me. I remember distinctly my thoughts and reasoning. They were somewhat as follows: "The current on the south side is far less strong than on this side. Therefore it will be much easier to go back than to try to reach the north shore, which seems to be and is so much the nearer. If, however, you can't make it, what then? You'll go into the rapids. If you are dashed headlong or sideways against any of the five hundred and one waiting rocks, that will doubtless be the end of you; but there is a good chance that you may get through without hitting anything. A minute, or two minutes ...
— The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It, • George Wharton James
... holding your point of view which would be more within my range of understanding than Hegel? I can't understand free will as independent of our physical being and I don't see how will can be something different from a kind of complicated reflex. I am afraid there is no help for it. I will have to inform myself somehow. ...
— Nelka - Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch • Michael Moukhanoff
... I can't see that we were really to blame because Miss Wortley suffered from insomnia, missed her early train next morning and had to pay an extra half franc for having breakfast in her bedroom. She was very unpleasant about it ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 25, 1914 • Various
... his head, and told the man to fetch a good bran mash and put some meal into it. How good that mash was! and so soft and healing to my mouth. He stood by all the time I was eating, stroking me and talking to the man. 'If a highmettled creature like this,' said he, 'can't be broken in by fair means, she will never be good ...
— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten
... he said to himself. "I must get out of this. A fellow can't work in London. I'll go down to some farmhouse in the country. I can't think here. You might just as well try to work at a musical ...
— Love Among the Chickens - A Story of the Haps and Mishaps on an English Chicken Farm • P. G. Wodehouse
... creature in his strange husky accents; and the change—nay, indeed, the degradation, of the voice was as complete as the degradation of the man. "Yes, George, it's I; your brother Phil. You're surprised to see me fallen so low in the world, I suppose; but you can't be more surprised than I am myself. I've tried hard enough to hold my head above water. There's scarcely any trade that mortal man ever tried to earn his bread by, that I haven't tried—and failed in. It has been the experience of Fitzgeorge-street over and over again, in every trade and every profession. ...
— Charlotte's Inheritance • M. E. Braddon
... Mahdi, supposed to have descended from heaven on a white horse, which, like its master, was bullet-proof; and both of them lived on air, without food to support them. There are some that say they saw them; but I can't give you any reasons to make you certain about that. The rulers of Arabia and the Mamelukes tried to make their troopers believe that the Mahdi could keep them from perishing in battle; and they pretended he was an angel sent from heaven to fight ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... Jefferson," said Franklin, "is the fair copy made?" "All ready, doctor," replied Jefferson. "Will you hear it through once more?" "As many times as you wish," responded the smiling doctor, with a merry twinkle in his eyes. "One can't get too much of a good thing, you know." Jefferson then read to Franklin the Declaration of Independence, which has been pronounced one of the world's greatest papers. "That's good, Thomas! That's right to the point! That will make King George wince. I wish I had done it myself." It ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America
... putting the eighty francs which he had received into a drawer, "we have got nearly money enough for another cow, and we must see if we can't raise the remainder, that we may have at least milk ...
— Harper's Young People, December 9, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... morning Nikky took him to the roof. "We can't go out, old man," Nikky said to him, rather startled to discover the unhappiness in the boy's face, "but I've found a place where we can see more than we can ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... entreaties to remove the whiskers being of no avail, Bunyip decided to leave home without more ado. The trouble was that he couldn't make up his mind whether to be a Traveller or a Swagman. You can't go about the world being nothing, but if you are a traveller you have to carry a bag, while if you are a swagman you have to carry a swag, and the question is: ...
— The Magic Pudding • Norman Lindsay
... hesitatingly. "I can't say for certain, but I seem to remember hearin' Dad say something about buyin' some planks as a stand-by in case of repairs of any sort bein' needed; and I believe I saw some planks and scantlin' down in the fore hold a bit later, while the ship was still in dock. If the timber's aboard ...
— The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn • Harry Collingwood
... run in the garden, eh?" went on the farmer. "Well, I don't blame you, for it isn't much fun to stay cooped up in a pen all the while. But still I can't have you out. But I'll give you a nice lot of pig weed, just the same, ...
— Squinty the Comical Pig - His Many Adventures • Richard Barnum
... is you? 'cause you can't think to find it a-looking down. I lives in the tree-top when weather's good like to-night, and when it ain't, I go into the hollow. I've a better house than Guy Rivers—he don't take the ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... degrading it; only it would be a much greater degradation to give its colour falsely. Diminish beauty as much as you will, but do not misrepresent it. So again, when we are sculpturing a face, we can't carve its eyelashes. The face is none the better for wanting its eyelashes—it is injured by the want; but would be much more injured by a clumsy representation ...
— The Two Paths • John Ruskin
... ten paces. The ardor on both sides was extreme; and, during nearly three hours, victory seemed to twice shift her colors. Henry at one time found himself entangled amongst some squadrons so disorganized that he shouted, "Courage, gentlemen; pray, courage! Can't we find fifty gentlemen willing to die with their king?" At this moment Chatillon, issuing from Dieppe with five hundred picked men, arrived on the field of battle. The king dismounted to fight at his side in the trenches; and then, for a quarter of an hour, there was a furious combat, man ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... and playfully slapping Louis on the back with his sword. "This good Cuffin has a friendly face and can take a joke. Can't you, old rabbit?" ...
— If I Were King • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... here, you two. Pull off your gloves and get out of those caps and things. Man alive"—this to Number Five—"why didn't you come before? This is no time to stand on ceremony—or stay on post, either. My striker's stormbound somewhere. I'd help you if I could, but I can't. Help yourselves now, best you can; rub and kick all you want to; dance if it'll warm you." And all the time he was crowding them up about a roaring stove, where presently he made them sit while he bustled ...
— Lanier of the Cavalry - or, A Week's Arrest • Charles King
... money, it is not in your blood; or, if you do, you will not keep it. We are an old race, and I know our record, up to the time of Henry VIII. at any rate. Not one of us was ever commercially successful. Let us suppose, however, that you should prove yourself the exception to the rule, it can't be done at once, can it? Fortunes don't grow ...
— Marie - An Episode in The Life of the late Allan Quatermain • H. Rider Haggard
... said. "But I am not so stupid that I can't apply modifications of Betan techniques to ...
— The Lani People • J. F. Bone
... "Ah, well! Daresay he can't help his ugly make-up. All the same, he's spoiling my afternoon. Be a good fellow, do, and ...
— Red Masquerade • Louis Joseph Vance
... quid detrimenti Res capiat publica—To censure Doctrines or Facts, Persons or Things, which we don't like; To settle the Nation at home, and to carry on the War abroad, where and in what manner we see fit: If other People are not of our Opinion, we can't help that. 'Twere better they were. Moreover, we now and then condescend to direct, in some measure, the little Affairs of our ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... 'I can't act contrary to the wishes of the majority,' he said, since we've made a Compact; but I wish to say that I think you are making a great mistake and that I think we shall all have cause to regret what ...
— The Adventure League • Hilda T. Skae
... be dressing for dinner, and he would not pass the Clubs. 'I couldn't suggest it,' he said. 'But Dannisburgh's an old hand. But they say he snaps his fingers at tattle, and laughs. Well, it doesn't matter for him, perhaps, but a game of two . . . . Oh! it'll be all right. They can't reach London before ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... boy can interest a crowd with a little kite, why can't a man interest a whole nation?' thought Cody—and so the idea of man-lifting ...
— The Mastery of the Air • William J. Claxton
... neither stoical nor mystic. I feel no sort of call to vindicate the Ways of Providence; and on the whole there seems something rather ill-bred in crabbing the unattainable, and pretending that what we can't have can't be good for us. Happiness is good for us, excellent for us, necessary for us, indispensable to us. But ... how put such transcendental facts into common or garden (for it is garden) language? But we—that is to ...
— Hortus Vitae - Essays on the Gardening of Life • Violet Paget, AKA Vernon Lee
... easily be that. Upon my word I can't understand you. These two years you have been working like a gang of niggers for your degree, and now you have got it you don't seem to care a bit. You have won a smile from Flamaran and do not consider yourself a spoiled child of Fortune! What ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... can't, Sophie!" I said; "it's such a length of days since I sat in the grated window!"—and I ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various
... was no need to ask forgiveness. 'It's Mrs. Ormonde that has done everything for me, and she doesn't want anybody to know—nobody except you. She's very kind, but—she's a little hard in some things, and she thinks—I can't quite explain it all. Will you promise not to tell any one when ...
— Thyrza • George Gissing
... "Can't help it if I have, Burroughs," retorted the autocrat of the river-boat. "These troopers are recruits for the North West ...
— A Man of Two Countries • Alice Harriman
... long drawn face, Who thinks that he has so much grace He should be throned on highest place To which saints may aspire, And yet, when dealing with a man, Will use some vicious, subtle plan By which a vantage he may gain, Is character I can't admire. ...
— Our Profession and Other Poems • Jared Barhite
... clear out of the class-room, puts his hands in his pockets and whistles, and thanks Heaven that he will see no more of the boys for so many hours. I do not know what the corresponding action on the part of a mistress may be, as I believe they have no pockets and can't whistle, but there is probably a corresponding state of mind. I venture, therefore, to suggest that in our High Schools there should be a greater rapprochement than is usual between parents and mistresses ...
— Three Addresses to Girls at School • James Maurice Wilson
... You can't get out of a chair without bending your body forward or putting your feet under it, that is, if you are sitting squarely on the chair and not on ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson
... given, we have epitomised many of our particular words to the detriment of our tongue, so on other occasions we have drawn two words into one, which has likewise very much untuned our language, and clogged it with consonants, as "mayn't," "can't," "shan't," "won't," and the like, for "may not," "can not," "shall not," "will ...
— Essays and Tales • Joseph Addison
... for the wreck, Jack. But unless the wind changes, he can't beat in to the coast with his ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine
... another, so we expect very soon the news of a great battle but not without fear, Count Saxes army being, by all account of hundred ten thoud. men besides. Prince Counti's army of 50 thd. this latter General is now employ'd at the siege of Charleroy. that can't resist a long while, it is a report that the King of France is arrived in his army, I hope this long account will entertain you for want of news papers: Mr. Dowdeswell being left alone of our club at Leyden I Desir'd him to come and spend with me ...
— Baron d'Holbach • Max Pearson Cushing
... a prisoner for his whole life (unless, indeed, Elizabeth's imprisonment of the Queen of Scots may be considered as one), and that the most solid justification for it was necessity. To quote the language of Lord Eldon, "I believe it will turn out that, if you can't make this a casus exceptionis or omissus in the law of nations, founded upon necessity, you will not really know what to say upon it. Salus Reipublicae suprema lex, as to one state; Salus omnium Rerumpublicarum must be the suprema lex as ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge
... Trollolop," cried the baronet, "I can't bear your clever heads: give me a good heart; that's worth all the heads in the world; d—n me if it is not! ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... Coercion Act. Lord Grey, wearied with political life, resigned the premiership, and Lord Melbourne succeeded him,—a statesman who cared next to nothing for reform; not an incapable man, but lazy, genial, and easy, whose watchword was, "Can't you let it alone?" But he did not long retain office, the king being dissatisfied with his ministers; and Sir Robert Peel, being then at Rome, was sent for to head the new administration in July, 1834. It may be here remarked that Mr. Gladstone first took office under ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume X • John Lord
... Irene, with her head inside a cupboard. "Fact is, I'm looking for my history book. I can't think where the wretched thing has gone to. School begins to-morrow, and I haven't touched my holiday tasks yet; and what Miss Gordon will say if I come without those exercises I can't imagine. I'm sure I flung all ...
— The Jolliest School of All • Angela Brazil
... "Nonsense," he answered, "Can't you see that this is a very superior British officer?" Whereat the whole company further expressed their delight at ...
— My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War • Ben Viljoen
... the captain. "A Scot loves the siller first, his Maker next. Why, a Jew can't make a living ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various
... I can't tell you how much delight and pleasure your reminiscences in the Saturday Evening Post have given me, as well as the many others who have followed them, and I suppose you will put them in a volume when they are finished, so that we may have the pleasure of ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson
... if you were tied to work and every now and then a man came up to you in your club and said, "Old man, do come away with me to the Pyrenees and shoot jummel," or "Can't you spare a month, old fellow, to come stalking ibex in Montenegro with me?" or "Look here, you're just the chap I want to run over to Alaska with me for a ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, November 24, 1920 • Various
... she used to do those 'sylum children? Led 'em into more mischief than all the rest put together, but she always led 'em out, and they were like sheep behind her. Loved her. That was it. Ain't it funny the things folks will do for a person just on account of lovin' 'em? And ain't it funny how you can't love some people to save your life? You know you ought to, specially if they're kin, and you try to, but you can't do it. The very sight of some folks makes the old boy rise up in you, and you wish they was in—well, I ain't sayin' where you wish they was. My grandmother always ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher
... Tim impatiently. "There won't be any time left." And he glanced at the cruel clock that stopped all their pleasure but never stopped itself. "The motor got here hours ago. He can't STILL be having tea." Judy, her brown hair in disorder, her belt sagging where it was of little actual use, sighed deeply. But there was patience and understanding in her big, dark eyes. "He's in with Mother doing finances," ...
— The Extra Day • Algernon Blackwood
... get the other two out during the night. You can take that bar out and work with it, while I use my own picker at the other. You see, the stone is soft, and by grinding it you soon make a groove along which you can slip the bar. It will be mighty queer if we can't clear a road ...
— The Refugees • Arthur Conan Doyle
... "You can't catch the King of Sumatra!" yelled the wild man, and flourished his arms and made a hideous face at them. Then he sat down on the middle seat of the craft, placed the oars in the rowlocks, and commenced to row rapidly down ...
— Dave Porter and the Runaways - Last Days at Oak Hall • Edward Stratemeyer
... banker sprang to the handle and tugged at it for a moment. "The door can't be opened," he groaned. "The clock hasn't been wound nor the ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... in much the manner of a man who has been stabbed by his sweetheart. "I can't see that it's wrong. It's the only sort I can do. What do you see wrong ...
— The Brown Mouse • Herbert Quick
... in your next your candid, sure-enough opinion about it, and say you don't think so. Do you suppose He knows about me already, and that that is why He left me last evening when He saw that I blushed and trembled like a fool under His eyes? You know I can't bribe all the newspapers, and I can't go back on anybody who was civil to Gunny at Redhorse—not if I'm pitched out of society into the sea. So the skeleton sometimes rattles behind the door. I never cared much before, as you know, ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. II: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians • Ambrose Bierce
... only I do hope that it will prove a false alarm, because I just can't believe he'd do such a rotten thing," the other ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren
... you are ill, ma belle," then as he gazed upon her lovely form and face, half affectionately, half in defiance, he suddenly exclaimed: "O Teresa, you're the handsomest woman I ever saw. I could love you so, if you'd let me. Why can't we be friends, Teresa? I know I did wrong, but why need we make an eternal quarrel of the matter. Ah, my charming prize, why not transfer to me the affection you are wasting upon one, who, perhaps ere this, is false to ...
— The Duke's Prize - A Story of Art and Heart in Florence • Maturin Murray
... that the headaxes and spears went to kill all the people in the town. So the spears and headaxes went among the people and killed all of them, and Aponitolau swam in the blood and his son stood on the blood. "What is the matter with you, father, that you swim in the blood? Can't you use your power so you don't have to swim?" Then he took hold of him and lifted him up. As soon as all the people were killed they used their power so that all the heads and valuable things ...
— Traditions of the Tinguian: A Study in Philippine Folk-Lore • Fay-Cooper Cole
... "surely there can't have been any powder aboard? No explosives are carried on these great liners; they only take passengers and the mails." He scanned the list of passengers. "Etienne Rambert's name is given among the first-class passengers, right enough," he said. ...
— Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... said, as soon as she could command herself; "I can't bear it! Think of the handsome allowance papa makes me, and how little of it has been well spent! And then, what was given away did not do a quarter of the good it might have done, because I did not go and give it myself, and kind words with it, which are far more comforting ...
— Adventures of a Sixpence in Guernsey by A Native • Anonymous
... enough work for them all, and there aren't good living places for those who have work. That means that the children—like you—don't have the rights of young American citizens—like you. A great many of them can't go to school, and are growing up ignorant; and they don't have church, with all it means to us. They don't have proper homes or food, so they haven't good health; and because they are not in their home state or county, they cannot get ...
— Across the Fruited Plain • Florence Crannell Means
... this—the Old World can't. We have the money, and we have the men and the women; all that is needed is the desire, and ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard
... "Somehow I can't be angry with the follies and vices of the Arabs," the Count continued. "I love them as they are; idle, absurdly amorous, quick to shed blood, gay as children, whimsical as—well, Madame, were I talking to a man I might dare ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens
... it is all true, and I wish I could read it for myself. I can just remember that my mother put a great store on her Bible, and called it the good book. I can't read myself, and shouldn't have time to do it if I could; so it's all one as far as that goes. I am just a hunter and Indian fighter, and I don't know that for years I have ever stopped so long under a roof as ...
— On the Pampas • G. A. Henty
... not like to meet again," said he, thoughtfully, "and that's the reason I'd like to give you a bit of advice. Hear me now," said he, drawing closer and talking in a whisper; "you can't go far in this country without being known; 'tisn't your looks alone, but your voice, and your tongue, will show what ye are. Get away out of it as fast as you can! there's thraitors in every cause, and there's ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. • Various
... we be, my boy. There's a brace of pistols for every mother's son of us, and if we can't carry this ship, with the crew at our back, it's time we were all sent to a young misses' boarding-school. You speak to your mate upon the left to-night, and see if he is ...
— Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
... five years I was serving in Baron Splini's regiment. Every time (cometh) from God; that old (age) God gave. I wish to go unto Bukarest - from Bukarest, the good country, (it is) a far way unto (my) house. I am sick. Why do you not go to the great physician Because I have no money I can't go Belgrade (is) six miles of land from Colosvar; there is my son. May God help the gentlemen that they let me out (from) in the prison. On the tree (is) the nest of the bird, where makes eggs the female bird. ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow
... discourager. The one kept away the tigers if he could, and collected the wages anyway, and the other kept off the hailstorms, or explained why he failed. He charged the same for explaining a failure that he did for scoring a success. A man is an idiot who can't earn a ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... You are a surgeon, we might saw, who extracts Cupid's darts when he shoots 'em into the wrong parties. You furnish patent, incandescent lights for premises where the torch of Hymen has burned so low you can't light a cigar at it. Am I right, ...
— Whirligigs • O. Henry
... has a reputation for lying, and he never brings discredit upon that reputation. When he lies, which, on an average, is every alternate time he opens his mouth, he does so with great enthusiasm, and the while he is delivering one lie, he is carefully considering the next. When he can't think of any more lies, he starts on the truth, but in this he is a decided failure. He is afraid of being found out. For instance, a merchant will approach a Boer respecting an overdue account. The Boer will at once plead ...
— The Boer in Peace and War • Arthur M. Mann
... this desire of yours to scent Japanese intrigues everywhere, to figure out all politics by the Japanese common denominator, and to see a Japanese spy in every coolie is becoming a positive mania. No, I can't agree with you there," added Webster, who seemed to regret the passionate outburst into which his temperament ...
— Banzai! • Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff
... of Jackson; and my daughter, Cordelia, sang a splendid song of my writing, before eight hundred people, entirely and altogether written in his praise; and would you believe it, my dear madam, he has never taken the slightest notice of me, or made me the least remuneration. But you can't suppose I mean to bear it quietly? No! I promise him that is not my way. The novel I have just mentioned to you was began as a sentimental romance (that, perhaps, after all, is my real forte), but after the provocation I received at Washington, ...
— Domestic Manners of the Americans • Fanny Trollope
... spoke, Dudu turned round And hid her face within Juanna's breast: Her neck alone was seen, but that was found The colour of a budding rose's crest.[hc] I can't tell why she blushed, nor can expound The mystery of this rupture of their test; All that I know is, that the facts I state Are true as Truth has ever ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... answered Diddie. "There are six mules in the wagon, and Sam's jest only one of 'em; I reckon he can't cut up much by hisself; ...
— Diddie, Dumps, and Tot • Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle
... sorry to have changed the gloomy train of Aunt Margaret's thoughts, and replied in the same tone, "Well, I can't help being persuaded that our good king is the more sure of Mrs. Bothwell's loyal affection, that he has the Stuart right of birth, as well as the Act of Succession ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... just can't keep away from the woods, and they do me good, I know they do. I am a whole lot better every way after a good long tramp by myself through the thickest woods I can find. I'd like to camp out in them to-night and I ...
— Dick in the Everglades • A. W. Dimock
... hurrying as fast as I can!" Maggie made answer. "But such an ironing as I have every week can't be ...
— Ester Ried • Pansy (aka. Isabella M. Alden)
... with joy at seeing me again, eh? Ha! I'll have to resign myself to it. No doubt the dogs alone will weep over me! May the deuce take me! But don't you happen to know what is the matter with Kotlicki? He does not come to the theater any more and I can't find him anywhere. He must have ...
— The Comedienne • Wladyslaw Reymont
... jist the man, and the only one, that can help you; for them that would, can't, and them that can, won't. And, secondly and lastly, captain, as the parsons say in the settlements, have you any hankering to be the master of the old major, ...
— Nick of the Woods • Robert M. Bird
... still dwelling on his promise, "It's too beautiful of you! Oh, don't you THINK you'll be able to get seats?" And then, after a pause of brimming appreciation: "I wonder if you'll think me horrid?—but it may be my only chance; and if you can't get places for us all, wouldn't you perhaps just take ME? After all, the ...
— The Reef • Edith Wharton
... Path leads to, my pippin, I'm cocksure can't 'ave a wus smell. Like bad eggs, salt, and tenpenny nails biled in bilge water. Eugh! Old Pump Well? Wy then let well alone, is my motter, or leastways, it would be, I'm sure, But for BLACK—local doctor, a stunner!—who's got me in ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, Sep. 24, 1892 • Various
... feeling. This, too, was Warrington's verdict, when that severe critic, after half an hour's perusal of the manuscript, and the consumption of a couple of pipes of tobacco, laid Pen's book down, yawning portentously. "I can't read any more of that balderdash now," he said; "but it seems to me there is some good stuff in it, Pen, my boy. There's a certain greenness and freshness in it which I like somehow. The bloom disappears off the face of poetry after you begin ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... His wife alone, had, as they termed it, kept him together I'll come as straight as I can Informed him that he never played jokes with money, or on men It was in a time before our joyful era of universal equality It's no use trying to be a gentleman if you can't pay for it Lay no petty traps for opportunity Looked as proud as if he had just clapped down the full amount Man without a penny in his pocket, and a gizzard full of pride Men they regard as their natural prey Most youths ...
— Quotations from the Works of George Meredith • David Widger
... see people, religious people too, do things about money which they know are mean, covetous, cruel, and then excuse themselves by saying,—'Well, of course I would not do so to my own brother; but, in the way of business, one can't help doing these things.' Now, I do not quite believe them. I have seldom seen the man who cheated his neighbour, who would not cheat his own brother if he had a chance: but so they say. And, if they be religious people, they will quote Scripture, and say,—Ah! ...
— Town and Country Sermons • Charles Kingsley
... sir," said she, turning her head negligently from the gramophone and eyeing him seriously. "I'm afraid you can't go in if you're not in evening dress." Evidently from her firm, polite voice, she knew just what she was about, did that young woman. She added: "The rule's very strict ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett
... little aisles between the pupils' seats. One lesson learned that night remained permanently fixed in my memory, and I had no need of a repetition of it. I found that, having no mattress on my cot, the cold was much more annoying below than above me, and that if one can't keep the under side warm, it doesn't matter how many blankets he may have atop. I procured later an army cot with low legs, the whole of which could be taken apart and packed in a very small parcel, and with this I carried ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V1 • Jacob Dolson Cox
... leaning back against the mantelpiece, as his habit is, and yawning slightly. He has just been beaten, and he is a man who can't play a ...
— Six Women • Victoria Cross
... "I can't get interested in Mediaeval History." This illustrates a kind of complaint frequently made by college students. It is our purpose in this chapter to show the fallacy of this; to prove that ...
— How to Use Your Mind • Harry D. Kitson
... now and can't last long," mused the Dewey's commander as he continued to survey the ship in distress. "Her magazines ...
— The Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet • James R. Driscoll
... fine clothes are the only folks that ever see fairies, and that poor folks can't afford them. But in the days of the real old-fashioned "Green Jacket and White Owl's Feather" fairies, it was the poor boy carrying fagots to the cabin of his widowed mother who saw wonders of all sorts wrought by the little people; and it was the poor girl who had a fairy godmother. ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston
... again called out, "Ho Sir, Gowda, Gowda, come here; don't be afraid; I won't do anything to you; you need not give me anything; come here, come and have a talk." On which the shepherd thinking within himself, "If I don't go to him after this, he may get angry, and I can't tell what he will do," delayed a little, as though driving his sheep; when the gentleman again called, "Come." "There is no getting out of it, I must go," said the shepherd to himself; and came near, and stood with the stick across his shoulders, holding ...
— Old Daniel • Thomas Hodson
... painted, and soon, while it's in its prime. If Hepworth can't come, I'll get somebody else. ...
— Patty and Azalea • Carolyn Wells
... which have the blessed faculty of creating laughter as often as you see them. As Diggory says in the play, who is bidden by his master not to laugh while waiting at table—"Don't tell the story of Grouse in the Gun-room, master, or I can't help laughing." Repeat that history ever so often, and at the proper moment, honest Diggory is sure to explode. Every man, no doubt, who loves Cruikshank has his "Grouse in the Gun-room." There is a fellow in the "Points of Humor" who is offering to eat up a certain ...
— George Cruikshank • William Makepeace Thackeray
... she said. "It puts me in rather a difficult position, for I must send out my invitations to my garden-party today, and I really don't know whether I ought to be officially aware of this man's existence or not. I can't write to Daisy Quantock and say 'Pray bring your black friend Om or whatever his names proves to be, and on the other hand, if he is the sort of person whom one would be sorry to miss, I should not like to have ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson
... Louis Exchange, I resolved to attend. The day was dull and dirty. "Please, sir," said I to the first man I met, "to tell me where St. Louis Exchange is?" "Don't know, sir." I walked on a little further, and tried again. "Please to direct me to St. Louis Exchange?" "Can't; but it's somewhere in that direction," pointing with his finger. "Is this the way to St. Louis Exchange?" I asked a third. "I guess it is," was the curt and characteristic reply. "How far is it?" "Three blocks further on; then turn to your right; go a little way down, ...
— American Scenes, and Christian Slavery - A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United States • Ebenezer Davies |
