"Worse" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... again or go anywhere where I oughtn't, or have any fun. I couldn't see any use of going and saving my money to send out to the Objecks if it was going to make good boys of 'em. It was awful hard for me to have to be a good boy, and it must be worse for them 'cause they ain't used to it. So when there wasn't anybody upstairs I went and shook a lot of pennies out of my chimney and bought ever so much taffy and marbles and popcorn. Was ...
— A Brace Of Boys - 1867, From "Little Brother" • Fitz Hugh Ludlow
... only believe in the mysterious qualities of this wonderful organ of his he would try to bring them out; and in the meantime the happy Nicolo would be meeting Nina continually. A lover's stratagem—nothing worse than that! What is the harm of saying that you could take the high C if you were in ordinary health, but that your voice has been ill-used by a recent fever? It was Nina he was thinking of. Don't I remember how I used to hear ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black
... After all, he was a man. But his distinguishing the child did not add to the delights of her position—rather made it worse. I put myself in her place as well as I could, and felt her feelings when von Francius introduced her to one of the young ladies near her, who first stared at him, then at her, then inclined her head a little ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill
... discretion and secrecy that drove her half mad with worry. Suppose he should boast of it! Or, if he were not bad enough for that, only suppose he should be carried away into carelessness about it! He had nothing to fear worse than what he would call "a wigging" and perhaps summary dismissal to a tutor's: she had more at risk than she could bear to think of. Probably, by now, he recognized his foolishness, and laughed at himself and her. This thought made her ...
— Frivolous Cupid • Anthony Hope
... reason. After what I saw and heard in that room, I should be worse than a criminal myself if I didn't inform the police about the existence of the place. I believe it's one of ...
— The Wharf by the Docks - A Novel • Florence Warden
... "No worse off, I presume, than any of the rest of us," growled Mr. Fyshe, who was feeling in the sourest of democratic moods; "a man doesn't need to be a duke to have ...
— Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich • Stephen Leacock
... Another difference between the notions of the Orphic poets and those of the early Greeks was that the former did not limit their views to the present state of mankind, still less did they acquiesce in Hesiod's melancholy doctrine of successive ages, each one worse than the preceding; but they looked for a cessation of strife, a state of happiness and beatitude at the end of all things. Their hopes of this result were founded on Dionysus, from the worship of whom all their peculiar religious ideas were derived. This god, the son of Zeus, is to succeed him in ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta
... Malay like a monkey is in charge of your ship—and no one else. Just listen to his feet pit-patting above us on the bridge—real officer in charge. He's taking her up the river while the great man is wallowing in the chair—perhaps asleep; and if he is, that would not make it much worse either—take my ...
— End of the Tether • Joseph Conrad
... might be worse if you came with me, For all of Allah's Chosen would desire you. And if Mahomet threw his handkerchief And took you up and loved you ...
— The Garden of Bright Waters - One Hundred and Twenty Asiatic Love Poems • Translated by Edward Powys Mathers
... providence," he said whimsically, "bulls can't climb trees. The situation might be worse if it ...
— The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone • Richard Bonner
... scenes wherein Cade and his followers play the chief parts. Notwithstanding this, the revision was most thorough. Half the lines in the "Second Part of Henry VI." are new, and by far the greater number of these are now ascribed to Shakespeare on good grounds. But some of the changes are for the worse, and as my argument does not stand in need of corroboration, I prefer to assume nothing, and shall therefore confine myself to pointing out that whoever revised "The Contention" did it, in the main, as we should have expected our youthful Shakespeare to do it. For example, when Humphrey ...
— The Man Shakespeare • Frank Harris
... according to the Gaelic idiom, would be, Blessed is he that will consider, &c. A wise son maketh a glad father, in Gaelic would run, A wise son will make, &c. Your patient, I am told, is in a bad way; he neither enjoys rest, nor takes medicine. Nay, his situation is worse than you know of; yesterday, he became delirious, and is now almost unmanageable; he tosses his arms, and endeavours to beat every one within his reach. In Gaelic, will enjoy—will take—will toss—will endeavour. ...
— Elements of Gaelic Grammar • Alexander Stewart
... the priests of Kondaro. Some remain, to find a quick death. But I stop here. I prefer to deal with honorable men. When I face the thief or the bandit, I prefer to have a weapon in my hand. A book of strange laws can be worse than any bandit born." ...
— The Players • Everett B. Cole
... ancient saying," said Grettir, "that one evil is mended by a worse one. There is more in the heart of man than money can buy; Atli may yet be avenged. As for me, there will be some who think they have had enough in their dealings ...
— Grettir The Strong - Grettir's Saga • Unknown
... not for you, nor such as you. They are not for sale or barter, even though the price were a real throne. And as for using them to win your worse than futile power—" She ended her sentence with a shrug of her shapely shoulders, and ...
— Thuvia, Maid of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... from civil spies—the Government are to blame for that. But there are plenty of people who go blustering about, declaring that two of our Cabinet Ministers ought to be hung, who'd turn round and give you the life if you hinted for a moment that the same sort of thing in a far worse degree was going on amongst men who are wearing the ...
— The Kingdom of the Blind • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... frequent, and sometimes very striking, illustration in the experience of most people. That the day may begin with calm and sunshine, yet end in clouds and tempest—or vice versa—is a truism which need not be enforced. Nevertheless, it is a truism which men are none the worse of being reminded of now and then. Poor Billy Towler was very powerfully reminded of it on the day following his night-adventure with the ravens; and his master was taught that the best-laid plans of men, as well as ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne
... Revolution; their activity, in their remote provincial retreats, had turned into a passionately held and immovable conviction; and almost all of them were shut in by the enervating, easy round of daily life in the country. Could worse luck befall a political party than this—to be represented by old men at a time when its ideas are already ...
— The Jealousies of a Country Town • Honore de Balzac
... did. Another of our men got laid out. Oh, this is only makin' it all ther worse fur you, Young Wild West. You don't stand no livin' show, so there's no use ...
— Young Wild West at "Forbidden Pass" - and, How Arietta Paid the Toll • An Old Scout
... free, wild, high-spirited Sybil! even the sense of innocence could not save you from imprisonment, or support you during its degrading tortures! You could not bear—I could not bear for you, such loss of liberty and honor for one hour—even if nothing worse should follow! But, Sybil, worse may, worse must follow! Yes, the very worst! Your only safety is in flight—instant flight! And oh! Heaven! how the time is speeding away!" exclaimed the husband, ...
— Cruel As The Grave • Mrs. Emma D. E. N. Southworth
... a bag outside there, that's all. My visit is likely to be a very short one. If I should have a wire that Mr. Griffin was worse it might be shorter still. I should have to go at once. But we won't worry about that. Dinner? No, thank you, I ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... off tonight for Salonica. I am not very cheerful for I miss you very, very terribly, and the further I go, the worse I feel. But now I am nearly as far as I can get, and when you receive this I will—thank God—be turned back to Paris, and London, and HOME! I thought so often of you this morning when I took a holiday and climbed the Acropolis. On the top of it I picked a dandelion ...
— Adventures and Letters • Richard Harding Davis
... dear. He caught something worse. When he tumbled back he must have fallen on the other fellows, for there was a great snapping and snarling and yelping all ...
— Old Man Savarin and Other Stories • Edward William Thomson
... at the Labour Corps Captain, who nodded, and they two turned off together. "There's not much to do," he said. "One gets sick of cinemas, and the music-hall is worse, except when one is really warmed up for a razzle-dazzle. I don't wonder these chaps go after wine and women more than they ought. After all, most of them are just loose from home. You must make allowances, padre. It's human ...
— Simon Called Peter • Robert Keable
... allow to be a Titian, and in good preservation; the woman is an indifferent and a damaged picture; but as I want them for furniture for a particular room, companions are necessary; and therefore I am willing to take the woman for better for worse, upon account of the man; and if she is not too much damaged, I can have her tolerably repaired, as many a fine woman is, by a skillful hand here; but then I expect that the lady should be, in a manner, thrown into the ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... it, then," said Cnut, "though I love not the place. Sir John of Wortham is a worse neighbour by far than the earl. Against the latter we bear no malice, he is a good knight and a fair lord; and could he free himself of the Norman notions that the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, ...
— Winning His Spurs - A Tale of the Crusades • George Alfred Henty
... to an argument," said he, "if you will not hear what he has to say? If you have no arguments to oppose to his, violence only makes your cause worse, and you do more harm than good to our religion. But if on the other hand your arguments are better than his, and he can bring no answer to them, then indeed he is a kafir, an infidel; and according to our law is ...
— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier
... said. 'I thought I smelled gas, and I have been hunting round for it. There is nothing worse to breathe than gas, whether from the furnace, the pipes, or the drain. I hope that is ...
— Tracy Park • Mary Jane Holmes
... prepare for disaster and death; the warning has come. I would I could know more. Oh! mother, mother, look down upon thy child, and in a dream reveal the mystic arts which I have forgotten,—then should I know more; but I have promised Philip, that unless separated—yes, that idea is worse than death, and I have a sad foreboding; my courage fails me only when ...
— The Phantom Ship • Frederick Marryat
... for. Baby was a bad sleeper. That night he cried as he had never cried before. Not violently; he was too weak for that, but with a sound like the tongue-tied whimper of some tiny animal. Swinny had slept through worse noise many a night. Now he cried from midnight to cock-crow; and on Tuesday morning Swinny was crying too. He had had one of his "little attacks," after which he began to show signs of ...
— The Tysons - (Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson) • May Sinclair
... driven off during this conversation, but without his previous success. This time he had pulled his ball into some long grass. Gossett's drive was, however, worse; and the subsequent movement of the pair to the hole resembled more than anything else the manoeuvres of two men rolling peanuts with toothpicks as the result of an election bet. Archibald finally took the hole in twelve after Gossett had played ...
— The Man Upstairs and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... than what others share with them in, to which they pay less attention than is incumbent on every one: let me add also, that every one is more negligent of what another is to see to, as well as himself, than of his own private business; as in a family one is often worse served by many servants than by a few. Let each citizen then in the state have a thousand children, but let none of them be considered as the children of that individual, but let the relation of father and child be common ...
— Politics - A Treatise on Government • Aristotle
... nineteen years of age, Alfred was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge. He remained there three years, but left without a degree, and what was worse, with the ill-will of his teachers, who seemed to regard his as a hopeless case. He wouldn't study the books they wanted him to, and was never ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... they swung into the drive, and drew up in the courtyard. And there was Adam, waiting to take the mare's head,—Adam, as good-natured, and stolid as though there were no abominations called, for want of a worse name,—sales. ...
— The Money Moon - A Romance • Jeffery Farnol
... far," said Mr. Edson, "little better than four miles, but a mighty mean road at any time and a heap worse since the rains. For a spell you can get on right smart, but then, again, you'll ...
— Tempest and Sunshine • Mary J. Holmes
... to be. If you see any way you can help me, or I can help you, let me know. In the mean time don't take in bad part what I've just said. I'm in the position of a man with his hack to the wall. I'm fighting for my life. Naturally, I'm going to fight. But you and I needn't be the worse friends for that. We may become the ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... deeply that he brought small furrows into his forehead by sheer force of reverie. Where the issue of an interview is as likely to be a vast change for the worse as for the better, any initial difference from expectation causes nipping sensations of failure. Oak went up to the door a little abashed: his mental rehearsal and the reality had had no ...
— Far from the Madding Crowd • Thomas Hardy
... head consolingly. "Nothing at all but a shell. They sound much worse than they really are. Don't be ...
— The Littlest Rebel • Edward Peple
... fearful," said Almah, with a sigh. "Every season it grows worse, and I shall grow at length to hate life and love death as these people do. They can never understand us, and we can never understand them. Oh, if I could but once more stand in my own dear native land but for ...
— A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder • James De Mille
... deck. It can't be much worse there, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to see what the ocean ...
— The Search for the Silver City - A Tale of Adventure in Yucatan • James Otis
... about the poor girl, which I did not dare to answer, for after Leo's first awakening She had sent for me, and again warned me solemnly that I was to reveal nothing of the story to him, delicately hinting that if I did it would be the worse for me. She also, for the second time, cautioned me not to tell Leo anything more than I was obliged about herself, saying that she would reveal herself to ...
— She • H. Rider Haggard
... but lambs' wool, truly, and fleeces, shalt thou tread here, if thou wilt but come,—fleeces more soft than sleep, but the goat-skins beside thee stink—worse than thyself. And I will set a great bowl of white milk for the nymphs, and another will I offer ...
— Theocritus, Bion and Moschus rendered into English Prose • Andrew Lang
... up the receiver and turned fiercely upon her sister. "Now, what nonsense is this," she said, "and she being so nice about the car, and that poor man suffering there, and we never even heard that he was worse? He was doing so splendidly, getting about all right. Blood-poisoning is so awful. Why, you remember the Mills boy? He almost ...
— The Major • Ralph Connor
... obtained by a few completions of contact than by the current which could pass in a much longer time if the contact was continued. This I attribute to the act of induction in the wire ABD at the moment of contact rendering that wire a worse conductor, or rather retarding the passage of the electricity through it for the instant, and so throwing a greater quantity of the electricity which the electromotor could produce, through the cross wire passage NP. The instant the induction ceased, ABD resumed its full ...
— Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 • Michael Faraday
... There don't seem to be anything else for us, the worse luck!" growled the fellow who crouched there on his knees and stared into the twin tubes of the threatening Marlin ...
— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel
... it," warned the Secretary. "Congress won't, and the voters won't, any more than they bought birth-control. And this is worse." ...
— This Crowded Earth • Robert Bloch
... a silver-painted stovepipe hat and a silver cape and carrying a torch, came in, looking much the worse for wear. The hat was dented, the cape was torn, and there were marks on Mr. ...
— Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War • Finley Peter Dunne
... now in the hands of the triumvirs. The last contest was decisive. Future struggles were worse than useless. Destiny had proclaimed the extinction of Roman liberties for ever. It was vice and faction which had prepared the way for violence, and the last appeal to the sword had settled the fate of the empire, henceforth to be governed by ...
— Ancient States and Empires • John Lord
... practically it is that which first strikes the eye. New fronts mask old buildings, as new manners do old virtues; and if we come to the frame and adjuncts of daily life, we must confess that nineteenth-century trivialities are intrinsically no worse than mediaeval trivialities. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various
... struggle. Jeremiah Banks wrote to Williamson on September 16, 1655: "At the playhouse this week many were put to rout by the soldiers and had broken crowns; the corporal would have been entrapped had he not been vigilant."[514] And in the Weekly Intelligencer, September 11-18, we read: "It never fared worse with the spectators than at this present, for those who had monies paid their five shillings apiece; those who had none, to satisfy their forfeits, did leave their cloaks behind them. The Tragedy of the spectators was the Comedy of the soldiers. There was ...
— Shakespearean Playhouses - A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration • Joseph Quincy Adams
... possibly men can be imagined to make it. And though of so unlimited a Power, men may fancy many evill consequences, yet the consequences of the want of it, which is perpetuall warre of every man against his neighbour, are much worse. The condition of man in this life shall never be without Inconveniences; but there happeneth in no Common-wealth any great Inconvenience, but what proceeds from the Subjects disobedience, and breach of those Covenants, from which the Common-wealth had its ...
— Leviathan • Thomas Hobbes
... the Lord, leavin' a' her blood relations howlin' vainly after her from their roastin' fires down below. Ma certes! she'll give ye a good rousin' curse if ye like! She's cursed me ever since I can remember her,—cursed me in and out from sunrise to sunset,—but I'm no the worse for't as yet,—an' it's dootful whether she's ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli
... this hill beats me out of heart! And I see now that what I have been told is true; the land of bliss is up steps; but still, Sir, it is worse to go down hill to death than up hill ...
— The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin
... human mind able to create? In a certain sense this question may seem idle, childish, and even worse. We might just as well ask why does man have eyes and not an electric apparatus like the torpedo? Why does he perceive directly sounds but not the ultra-red and ultra-violet rays? Why does he perceive changes of odors but not magnetic changes? And so on ad infinitum. ...
— Essay on the Creative Imagination • Th. Ribot
... saw expressed around him, in the world, and he was told that there was nothing for it—that the lease of the farm had expired, that the landlord wanted it for himself, and that though his father was willing to pay an increased rent, still out he had to go—and, what was worse, to have all his improvements confiscated, to have the fruits of the blood and sweat and energy of his forefathers appropriated by a man who had no right under heaven to them, save such as the iniquitous laws of those ...
— Ireland Since Parnell • Daniel Desmond Sheehan
... glancing around the glade, he now beheld the fierce brute crouching among the grass, and evidently coming towards him! What was to be done? Would the puma attack him in the tree? Surely he would; but what better would he be on the ground? No better, but worse. At all events he had not time for much reflection, for before two seconds the fierce puma was close to the tree. Leon was helpless—he gave himself up for lost. He could only cry for help, and he raised his voice to ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid
... shouting—"Stand by there to reef topsails!" This was followed by the command to close-reef. Then, as the squall drew rapidly nearer, a hurried order was giving to take in all sail. The squall was evidently a worse one than had at first ...
— Sunk at Sea • R.M. Ballantyne
... he invariably adhered to the costume of the age in which he was born. A three-cocked hat, and a plum-coloured coat, both rather the worse for wear, in which we have seen him frequently, invariably designated his person and habits; while a penurious economy, that bid defiance to all vulgar imitation, accompanied him to his grave. His death occurred in 1819, in the 80th or ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... result, in the future, of the experiment of erecting a French nationality in Canada, it is only right to say that the builders are building well, and setting an example of energy, courage and unity which we, in this richer province, might do worse than follow. ...
— Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886 • Various
... protested, "be careful how you turn away custom. Mr. Parker is, I should think, no better or any worse than a great ...
— An Amiable Charlatan • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... sent an agent to the Governor of North Carolina, to ask for special aid in supplying Lee's army with meat—which is deficient here—or else it cannot be maintained in the field in Virginia! Very bad, and perhaps worse coming. ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones
... that, Isa. xxii, 14. For as their hearts were then hardened against God's call by his word and providence to that important and most necessary duty; so, ever since, they, have been so much the more so, and have gone on from evil to worse. ...
— Act, Declaration, & Testimony for the Whole of our Covenanted Reformation, as Attained to, and Established in Britain and Ireland; Particularly Betwixt the Years 1638 and 1649, Inclusive • The Reformed Presbytery
... large assortment of pipe-clay and putty-powder. Bingham Blake, of Castletown, ordered a new set of girths to his hunting saddle; and his brother Jerry, who was in no slight degree proud of his legs, but whose nether trappings were rather the worse from the constant work of a heavy season, went so far as to go forth very early on the Monday morning to excite the Ballinrobe tailor to undertake the almost impossible task of completing him a pair of doeskin by the Tuesday morning. ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope
... State or for cities and towns, but for public-service corporations, or often other private corporations, and associations of persons, who are permitted by legislation to take land under eminent domain, or, what is often worse, to acquire easements over it. Most of the States give damages for land not actually taken, but damaged, though our Federal courts have not held this to be necessary under the Fourteenth Amendment; but although land can still, ...
— Popular Law-making • Frederic Jesup Stimson
... the Emperor of Brazil and claimant king of Portugal, made matters worse in Portugal. Diego Antonio Fergio set himself up as Regent. Monasteries were suppressed and the Society of Jesus was expelled from the kingdom. Dom Miguel continued his fight for the throne. Don Carlos, the Spanish pretender, remained ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson
... ground, as a huge, shy boy might stand when anxious to express sympathy of which he was somewhat ashamed. "I know it must be a sort of abiding trial to you." After a moment he added, "I wouldn't like to make it worse by having you think that I was goin' to preach any strange doctrine. I'd sometimes give a good deal if the Lord would raise me up a friend that I could speak to concerning the lights that come to me that I know that it wouldn't do to speak of in the ...
— The Mormon Prophet • Lily Dougall
... don't imploy so many men Upon the land as work'd upon it then, Vor all they midden crop it worse, nor stock it. The lan'lord, to be sure, is into pocket; Vor half the housen been down, 'tis clear, Don't cost so much to keep em up, a-near. But then the jobs o' work in wood an' morter Do come I 'spose, you know, a ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes
... propensity is a characteristic feature is a matter of some consequence. It affects the economic life of the collectivity both as regards the rate of economic development and as regards the character of the results attained by the development. For better or worse, the fact that the popular habits of thought are in any degree dominated by this type of character can not but greatly affect the scope, direction, standards, and ideals of the collective economic life, as well as the degree of adjustment of the collective ...
— The Theory of the Leisure Class • Thorstein Veblen
... better death than the slow lingering of years in these grim walls. Many have entered here younger and fairer than she, and endured worse than death in a lifetime imprisonment. Grieve not, but the rather rejoice that she will be freed ...
— In Doublet and Hose - A Story for Girls • Lucy Foster Madison
... smiling, "my situation is critical enough to take all my attention; believe me, I have considered all my resources, and they are now exhausted. It is true that the bickerings are getting worse and worse. As Monsieur de Mortsauf and I are always together, I cannot lessen them by diverting his attention in other directions; in fact the pain would be the same to me in any case. I did think of advising ...
— The Lily of the Valley • Honore de Balzac
... existed only in the brains of harpers and gleemen. Away from law, from self-restraint, from refinement, from elegance, from the very sound of a church-going bell, they were sinking gradually down to the level of the coarse men and women whom they saw; the worse and not the better parts of both their characters were getting the upper hand; and it was but too possible that after a while the hero might sink into the ruffian, the lady into a ...
— Hereward, The Last of the English • Charles Kingsley
... is bad, society is worse. [3337] For this could not have been established except by destroying primitive equality, while its two principal institutions, ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine
... and they then made their way, alas! to the many public-houses near, and one of them we must enter with John Barker, and see the Sixpence, that little messenger of good—that talent committed to his care—far worse than wasted by its responsible owner. Happily, the payment was not long delayed, and glad shall we be to hide our eyes and stop our ears from all that goes on without in the till with ...
— Adventures of a Sixpence in Guernsey by A Native • Anonymous
... are your children and your dogs now? Is not the wall of partition henceforth destroyed? No; you too have to be made whole of a worse devil, that of personal and national pride, before you understand. But the day of the Lord is coming for you, notwithstanding ye are so incapable of knowing the signs and signals of its approach that, although its banners are spread across the flaming ...
— Miracles of Our Lord • George MacDonald
... Gadshill robbery,—stealing stolen goods. The following epigram is said to be by Mr. Hole, in a MS. collection made by Spence (penes me), and it appeared first in print in Terrae Filius, from whence Dr. Salter copied it in his Confusion worse ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 36. Saturday, July 6, 1850 • Various
... States and both the southwest coast and the east coast of South America is to go by way of Europe, crossing the Atlantic twice. It is impossible that trade should prosper or intercourse increase or mutual knowledge grow to any great degree under such circumstances. The communication is worse now than it was twenty-five years ago. So long as it is left in the hands of our foreign competitors in business, we cannot reasonably look for any improvement. It is only reasonable to expect that European steamship lines shall be so managed as to promote European trade in South America, ...
— Latin America and the United States - Addresses by Elihu Root • Elihu Root
... haven't told you yet. I talked right out to Mr. Dunham in that parlor about our not wanting her, you and I; and how we wished she'd stayed West. Oh, I've gone over it dozens of times since, and it keeps growing worse. Every word I said was true, and it was perfectly compatible with our intention to help her all the time; but she couldn't realize that, and I was just sort of explaining to Mr. Dunham your coolness in the matter by ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham
... constitutional preference of the true over the agreeable; and I am satisfied, that, if I had had an only son, or what is dearer, an only daughter,—which God forbid!—I say, God forbid, for she might bring her father's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; she might break my heart, or worse than that—what? Can anything be worse than that? Yes, sir, I might ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton
... eighteen. Mrs. Broad had, of course, discovered what was in the wind, and her pride suffered a severe shock. She had destined Priscilla, as the daughter of a Flavel, for a London minister, and that she should marry a tradesman was intolerable. Worse still, a tradesman in Cowfold! What would become of their influence in the town, she continually argued with Mr. Broad, if they became connected with a member of their congregation? She thought it would be a serious hindrance to their usefulness. ...
— The Revolution in Tanner's Lane • Mark Rutherford
... the worse for any man that dare accuse her!" I cried. "She is the victim of some devilish seeming! My armor, Maugert! Frojac, to horse! You and I ride at once! Blaise, marshal the men, and follow when you ...
— An Enemy To The King • Robert Neilson Stephens
... old woman had told him. Twelve o'clock struck, the coffin lid fell to the ground, the Princess jumped up and began tearing from side to side, and threatening the youth. Then she conjured up horrors, this time worse than before. It seemed to him as if a fire had broken out in the church; all the walls were wrapped in flames! But he held his ground and went on reading, never once looking behind him. Just before daybreak the Princess rushed to her coffin—then the fire ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston
... worse than all, Edward Flint joined the popular side, and laughed and swore with the rest. Poor Harry was almost discouraged before dinner time, and began very seriously to consider whether he had not entirely mistaken his calling. Dinner, however, seemed to inspire him with new courage and new energy; ...
— Try Again - or, the Trials and Triumphs of Harry West. A Story for Young Folks • Oliver Optic
... I must see them myself. It is a great deal worse to have a gun explode than to have the men wounded by the enemy's shot, for they lose confidence. I have protested again and again to the Department against using these old thirty-two-pounders, which have been weakened by being rifled; but I had to take them or none. I had to pick them up wherever ...
— My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field • Charles Carleton Coffin
... of flaws," Thomasina would say with a prim chin. She had seen the farm-bailiff himself "the worse" for more than his ...
— Tales from Many Sources - Vol. V • Various
... cold bath very unpleasant in such weather. The ascent on the other side was nearly as difficult. In a little while the passage of the horses rendered the approach to the river even more difficult. The ford was not often used, and the unbeaten path became cut up and muddy. It grew worse and worse. The cold (after the ducking in the river) affected the men horribly; those who got across first built fires, at which they partially warmed themselves while the others were crossing. Only fifteen, ...
— History of Morgan's Cavalry • Basil W. Duke
... Denmark, becoming a widow by the sudden death of King Hamlet, in less than two months after his death married his brother Claudius, which was noted by all people at the tim for a strange act of indiscretion, or unfeelingness, or worse; for this Claudius did no way resemble her late husband in the qualities of his person or his mind, but was as contemptible in outward appearance as he was base and unworthy in disposition; and suspicions did not fail ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb
... primarily responsible for British inaction. "The nominal conduct of Foreign Affairs is in the hands of a diplomatic Malaprop, who has never shown vigour, activity, or determination, except where the display of these qualities was singularly unneeded, or even worse than useless[832]." ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams
... facts: first, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it through him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to shift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force pure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is defeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at his command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply cannot withstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It was on this moral ground, in ...
— Quiet Talks on Prayer • S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon
... be, Mistress Elspeth, when it suits with my discretion; that is, if discretion be none the worse for ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... exclaimed Hendrik, suddenly pulling up his horse, "I am willing to do anything in reason, but I think we have already gone on this worse than wild-goose chase, a good many miles too far. We can scarce get back to the camp before nightfall, and I shall ...
— The Giraffe Hunters • Mayne Reid
... press the necessity of reformation according to Thy holy law.' And even now, with the two pulpits, God's and the devil's, and the two preachers, and the two pastors, in our own city,—how many of you see any difference, or think that the one is any worse or any better than the other? Or, indeed, that the ministry of the last card is not the better of the two to your interest and to your taste, to the state of your mind and to the need of your heart? Let us proceed, then, ...
— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte
... to 'ave a bad cold and talk in 'usky whispers," he said slowly, as they walked along. "You caught a cold travelling in the train from Ireland day before yesterday, and you made it worse going for a ride on the outside of a 'bus with me and a couple o' ladies. See? Try 'usky ...
— Short Cruises • W.W. Jacobs
... accursed, excommunicated, and anathematized." Vertanes was denounced in the usual style of such documents, as "a contemptible wretch," "a vagabond," "a seducer of the people," "a traitor and murderer of Christ," "a child of the devil," "an offspring of Antichrist," and "worse than an infidel or a heathen." "Wherefore," says the Patriarch, "we expel him, and forbid him, as a devil and a child of the devil, to enter into the company of our believers; we cut him off from the priesthood, as an amputated member of the spiritual ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson
... her pages there should be A wealth of prose and verse, With now and then a jeu d'esprit— But nothing ever worse! ...
— John Smith, U.S.A. • Eugene Field
... honor," said another, "that it was only to keep the life in some poor sick crathur that wanted it more nor you or the farmers, that they did it. There's some o' the same farmers desarve worse, for they're keepin' up the prices o' their male and praties upon the poor, an' did so all along, that they might make money by our ...
— The Poor Scholar - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton
... Lindore was courted and caressed in circles where the dull, precise Duke of Altamont was wholly overlooked. Months passed in this manner, and every day added something to Adelaide's feelings of chagrin and disappointment. But it was still worse when she found herself settled for a long season at Norwood Abbey a dull, magnificent residence, with a vast unvaried park, a profusion of sombre trees, and a sheet of stillwater, decorated with leaden deities. Within doors ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
... you'd never have crossed the Blands' threshold when they lived down on James River. There isn't much of that nonsense left now, but Miss Mitty has got it and Theophilus has got it; and, when all's said, they, might have something considerably worse. Why, look at Miss Matoaca. When I first saw her you'd never have imagined there was an idea inside ...
— The Romance of a Plain Man • Ellen Glasgow
... to last me the rest of the summer," soliloquized Jerry. "I hate them worse than anything else in the ...
— The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview • Ralph Bonehill
... of trouble sooner or later," replied Belding, gloomily. "Why, you can stand on my ranch and step over into Mexico. Laddy says we'll lose horses and other stock in night raids. Jim Lash doesn't look for any worse. But Jim isn't as well acquainted with Greasers as I am. Anyway, my boy, as soon as you can hold a bridle and a gun you'll be on the ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey
... don't know as I would. It might make him thirstier and worse. Better wait for sundown. When the cool time comes he ...
— The Black Bar • George Manville Fenn
... there the ends of the birch would be scattered, and the blood flowing freely. Of course the birch is not in such frequent demand as the cane; only the boy who is insolent to his instructor, or who breaks a day's leave, or worse still, if he be committed for theft, is birched. In the case of the thief he has to wear a badge with the word 'T H I E F' printed in large, black letters on it, in front and behind for six months or even longer. During this time he is cut off from the company of ...
— From Lower Deck to Pulpit • Henry Cowling
... were I to make my own cries heard in heaven, I would pray God to demand at your hands the blood of his servants. Never had religion, never had the church of Christ a worse enemy than you have been; now therefore, when you are about to suffer the just reward of your deeds, think no more to excuse yourself; confess your sins, like the penitent ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude
... residence at a resort for cure of inebriates—the one condition exacted by Barnard—and prompt relapse, when discharged, into his former habits,—disgraceful arrest because of some trouble into which he had been led while drinking. This, all this she had borne, but never dreamed, said she, that worse still could follow,—that he could sink so low ...
— Under Fire • Charles King
... to relate to me the history of his wife's long illness, dilating on his own unhappiness in being so afflicted. It never seemed to occur to him that it might be worse to be ill one's self, even than to inflict one's illnesses on others. He had tried every imaginable remedy, and now, as a last expedient, was about to take her to her paternal home in the South, to see what native air might do. Poor lady! ill and ...
— The Roof of France • Matilda Betham-Edwards
... house and all it contains: then, if I die leaving children, he will be less and less welcome. His future, my lord, is a dismal one, unless some strange piece of luck turn up on which we were fools to speculate. Henceforth he is doomed to dependence, and I know no worse lot than to be dependent on a self-willed woman like our mother. The means he had to make himself respected at home he hath squandered away here. He has flung his patrimony to the dogs, and poverty and subserviency are now his only portion." Mr. Warrington delivered this speech with considerable ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... scheme which appeared to him a thousand times worse than anything his imagination had ever painted, poor Henry stood in speechless consternation; while "Charming! Excellent! Delightful!" was echoed by the aunts, as they crowded round, wishing him joy, and ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
... have only the pleasantest memories of the Ecole Feminine had it not been for the mosquitoes. I do not believe that New Jersey ever had a worse record than Paris that summer. Every leaf of every one of those beautiful trees beyond my window, over whose tops I used to gaze at the airplanes darting about on the lookout for taubes, was an incubator. ...
— The Living Present • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... continuing the process not less delicately, through all its swift dramatic gradations,—the direct abatement of the regal dignities,—the knightly train diminishing,—nay, 'fifty of his followers at a clap' torn from him, his messenger put in the stocks,—and 'it is worse than murder,' the poor king cries in the anguish of his slaughtered dignity and affection, 'to do upon respect such violent outrage,'—so bent is the Poet upon this analytic process; so determined that this shaking out of a 'preconception,' shall be for once a thorough one, ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon
... much: genial air: pleasant Country: good Harbour, Piers, etc.: and the Company, though overflowing, not showy, nor vulgar: but seemingly come to make the most of a Holiday. I am surprized how little of the Cockney, in its worse ...
— Letters of Edward FitzGerald in Two Volumes - Vol. II • Edward FitzGerald
... is so often the case in England, ran between high stone walls and restrained the wayfarer from straying into the gentlemen's parks on either hand. The sun shone overhead with the fierce heat of a British July; and to make matters worse in my case, I seemed to be the loadstone of what traffic was in progress on the highway. A load of hay stuck to me with obstinate determination; if I walked slowly, the hay lagged beside me; if I quickened my pace, the hay whipped up his horses; when I rested and mopped ...
— Love, The Fiddler • Lloyd Osbourne
... tease the mate As they had teased the hero; But when the Dove in judgment sate They found her worse than Nero! Each look a frown, each word a law; The little subjects shook with awe. In thee I find the same deceit— Too late, alas! a learner! For where a mien more gently sweet? And ...
— The Last Days of Pompeii • Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
... represent. It was made up, the character, of definite elements and touches—things all perfectly ponderable to criticism; and the way for her to meet criticism was evidently at the start to be sure her make-up had had the last touch and that she looked at least no worse than usual. Aunt Maud's appreciation of that to-night was indeed managerial, and the performer's own contribution fairly that of the faultless soldier on parade. Densher saw himself for the moment as in his purchased stall at the play; the watchful manager was in the depths of a box and ...
— The Wings of the Dove, Volume II • Henry James
... general who lay over yonder, nor did we ask him the name. To ask would not have been etiquette, and for him to answer would have been worse. Rarely in our wanderings did we find a German soldier of whatsoever rank who referred to his superior officer by name. He merely said "My captain" or "Our colonel." And this was of a piece with the plan—not entirely confined to the Germans—of making ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb
... "I often think of the strange inequality in the lot of men. Living in the country, I see around me hundreds of men who are by nature as worthy as I am, or thereabouts. Yet they must toil and labor, and indeed fight, for bare food and clothing, all their lives, and worse off at the close of their long labor. That is what grieves me to the heart. All this time I revel in plenty and luxuries—not forgetting the luxury of luxuries, the delight of giving to those who need and ...
— The Woman-Hater • Charles Reade
... captain, "and it don't want a man o' genous to find that out. I always say this is the hottest place there is, for I never found a hotter. I dessay it is worse in our cook's oven, ...
— Old Gold - The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig • George Manville Fenn
... he groaned—"lost it utterly. I am not even a 'well-meaning man.' I purpose evil against this freshest, purest spirit I have ever known since in this house I looked into my mother's eyes. I am worse than the wild Arab of the desert. I have eaten salt with them; I have partaken of their generous hospitality, given so cordially for the sake of one that is dead, and in return have wounded their most sacred feelings, and now propose to prove the daughter a creature that I can go ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe
... foible. I verily believe if an angel should come to chant the chorus of the moral law, he would eat too much gingerbread, or take liberties with private letters, or do some precious atrocity. It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine traits. He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come near without appearing a cripple. The men of fine parts protect themselves by solitude, or by courtesy, or by satire, ...
— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... bloom of joy. And through it all Mr. Linden drove her, himself in a "holiday humour." Bread and milk may be stimulating, but health and happiness are more stimulating yet; and Faith came home after a ride of some length looking not a bit the worse, and ready ...
— Say and Seal, Volume II • Susan Warner
... not try him, my cherished one?' he said. 'Towards you he may mean well' (which makes me think that Virginie had never repeated to Clement the conversation which she had overheard that last night at Madame Babette's); 'you would be in no worse a situation ...
— My Lady Ludlow • Elizabeth Gaskell
... there possibly be, my dear sir? I fancy there could be nothing worse than a warm welcome ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... duffer of the family. Most of the talk goes over my head at the table. I catch only words, not phrases. When Italian comes to be substituted I shall be even worse off than I am ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... fancy &c. (desire) 865; be persuaded &c. 615. take a decided step, take a decisive step; commit oneself to a course; pass the Rubicon, cross the Rubicon; cast in one's lot with; take for better or for worse. Adj. optional; discretional &c. (voluntary) 600. eclectic; choosing &c. v.; preferential; chosen &c. v.; choice &c. (good) 648. Adv. optionally &c. adj.; at pleasure &c. (will) 600; either the one or the other; or at the option ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget
... of the sort," rejoined the banker. "The ridicule that this affair has brought upon my family has gone far enough already. You are my son, but a most foolish one, if not worse, and I feel that I am under obligations to the men or boys who carried you to the horse trough and endeavored to cure you of ...
— The High School Boys' Fishing Trip • H. Irving Hancock
... intelligence that Prince Eugene, with the Imperialist forces, and the Duke of Marlborough with the English were coming to meet them. Our generals had, however, all the day before them to choose their ground, and to make their dispositions. It would have been difficult to succeed worse, both with the one and the other. A brook, by no means of a miry kind, ran parallel to our army; and in front of it a spring, which formed a long and large quagmire, nearly separated the two lines of Marshal Tallard. It was a strange ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon
... Side unseen of herdsman, huntsman, steersman— Blank to Zoroaster on his terrace, Blind to Galileo on his turret, Dumb to Homer, dumb to Keats—him, even! Think, the wonder of the moonstruck mortal— When she turns round, comes again in heaven, Opens out anew for worse or better! Proves she like some portent of an iceberg Swimming full upon the ship it founders, Hungry with huge teeth of splintered crystals? Proves she as the paved work of a sapphire Seen by Moses when he climbed the mountain? Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu Climbed and saw ...
— Robert Browning: How To Know Him • William Lyon Phelps
... the dewy morning from the cove on the other side to see the wonders for herself. She had never been up there before. She had no business there now, and, if she were found out when she got back, she would get a scolding and maybe something worse from her step-mother—and all that trouble and risk for nothing but smoke. So, she lay back and rested—her little mouth tightening fiercely. It was a big world, though, that was spread before her and a vague ...
— The Trail of the Lonesome Pine • John Fox, Jr.
... to disappear in the face of disaster to one's plans, a tonic is often enough the reflection, "it might have been worse" or "there are others worse off."[1] Though one rebels against the encouraging effect of the last statement, it does console, it does renew hope. For hope and energy and desire are competitive, as is every other measure of value. So long as one is not ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson
... he whispered. "For—Lord love you, Mart'n, 'tis worse than ghosts as I do fear! Dog bite me, pal, here's been black and bloody doings aboard ...
— Black Bartlemy's Treasure • Jeffrey Farnol
... Ethel could think of a worse predicament," grinned Appleton. "She'll be a regular sourdough before spring; won't want to ...
— The Promise - A Tale of the Great Northwest • James B. Hendryx
... to the means by which comprehensive information of this specific kind could be collected I was still more or less at a loss; and from the vague and conflicting character of the statistics adduced it was evident that other people were in the same or in a worse condition. That the required information existed somewhere in the form of official and other records I was convinced. The problem was how to get at these and recast the information in a digested ...
— Memoirs of Life and Literature • W. H. Mallock
... Alas! It is woman's word never used by men; and foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of incurring something worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the Bombay Army who, having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of himself in the feminine and hugely ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... points so easily settled as this question respecting the posterior lobes can be authoritatively propounded, it is no wonder that matters of observation, of no very complex character, but still requiring a certain amount of care, should have fared worse. Any one who cannot see the posterior lobe in an ape's brain is not likely to give a very valuable opinion respecting the posterior cornu or the hippocampus minor. If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted ...
— Lectures and Essays • T.H. Huxley
... agents, advanced and took the town of Tongres, killed some few people, and made prisoner there the bishop of Liege and the lord of Humbercourt. The fugitives who brought this news to Peronne made the matter even worse than this, reporting that the bishop and lord had probably been killed. Charles believed them, and broke into a fury that augured badly for ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 6 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality. French. • Charles Morris
... his punishment, Mr. Balfour was even worse. It is seldom that the House of Commons has seen a more remarkable or more effective retort than the happy, dexterous, delightful—from the literary point of view, unsurpassable—parody which Mr. Asquith made of Mr. Balfour's flagitious incitements ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor
... poor Helmore's grave lately. Had my book been searched for excellencies, they might have seen a certain cure for African fever. We were curing it at a lower and worse part of the river at the very time that they were helplessly perishing, and so quickly, that more than a day was never lost after the operation of the remedy, though we were marching on foot. Our tramp was over 600 miles. We dropped down stream again in canoes ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie
... would be the result I well knew; but as the Portuguese party in the administration could scarcely treat me worse than they had done, I had made up my mind to encounter their displeasure. Of His Majesty's approval I felt certain; and, in return for the uninterrupted favour and reliance, which, notwithstanding the self-interested hostility of his ...
— Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, - from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 2 • Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald
... sentiment, and wrought on the other side to an impatience almost maddening, by the injuries, follies, treacheries, and universal provocation of her unworthy husband, until the force of the bewildering current carried her in a disastrous moment over a precipice worse than any Niagara, in a headlong course of mingled misery, exasperation, love, and despair. Before she had even accomplished the terrible circle of events, and become Bothwell's wife, it requires no strong effort of the imagination ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant
... he had made no answer. Yet he was the Earl of Scroope,—the thirteenth Earl of Scroope,—a man in his own country full of honours. Why had he come there to be called a villain? And why was the world so hard upon him that on hearing himself so called he could only weep like a girl? Had he done worse than other men? Was he not willing to make any retribution for his fault,—except by doing that which he had been taught to think would be a greater fault? As he left the house he tried to harden his heart against Kate ...
— An Eye for an Eye • Anthony Trollope
... wanted is to remove the full stop after sunt. The contrast Cicero is drawing is between the interruption to literary work of a crowd of visitors and of one or two individuals always turning up. The second is the worse—and here I think all workers will agree with him: the crowd of visitors (vulgus) go at the regular hour, but individuals ...
— The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 - The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... a modern school of poetry is, that it is an experiment to reduce poetry to a mere effusion of natural sensibility; or what is worse, to divest it both of imaginary splendour and human passion, to surround the meanest objects with the morbid feelings and devouring egotism of the writers' own minds. Milton and Shakspeare did not so understand poetry. They gave a more liberal interpretation ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin
... Place because of the extreme narrowness of the streets. They are only fifteen feet wide or even less,—intolerable alleys a later age would call them,—and dirty to boot. Sometimes they are muddy, more often extremely dusty. Worse still, they are contaminated by great accumulations of filth; for the city is without an efficient sewer system or regular scavengers. Even as the crowd elbows along, a house door will frequently open, an ill-favored slave boy show his head, and with ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis
... slingin' that scare into me; I'd like to know what's worse than starvin' to death in a single night?" ...
— The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods - The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter
... bell-flower and the sheep's-scabious, who had never lived through the winter, wondered if it could really be worse than this. And the linnet dreamt of the south, where he spent the winter; and the blades of grass had quite thrown ...
— The Old Willow Tree and Other Stories • Carl Ewald
... sent back with howls, their little shirts stripped up, and marks of a switch behind. Even the old woman, when Ivan Ivanovitch ventured to ask her about something, did something so insulting that Ivan Ivanovitch, being an extremely delicate man, only spit, and muttered, "What a nasty woman! even worse than her master!" ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... "Gee, you're worse than Mr. Poe's crow! Or was it a raven? What's the difference, anyhow? Now don't tell me they're both anthropeds or pods, or whatever it is, because I'm onto you as a disseminator of knowledge! I never got even with ...
— Left Guard Gilbert • Ralph Henry Barbour |
