"Boast" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in the Capitol at Rome, and is still the most charming and most illustrious work of ancient art the world can boast of. But if ever it shall be your fortune to stand before it and go into the customary ecstasies over it, don't permit this true and secret history of its origin to mar your bliss—and when you read about a gigantic Petrified man being dug up near Syracuse, in the State of New York, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... she did with the "subjects" she had previously professed with equal authority; no one had ever yet discovered. 'Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently without paying for their board. It was Mrs. Ballinger's boast that she was "abreast with the Thought of the Day," and her pride that this advanced position should be expressed by the books on her table. These volumes, frequently renewed, and almost always damp from the press, bore names generally unfamiliar to Mrs. Leveret, and giving her, as she furtively ...
— Xingu - 1916 • Edith Wharton
... to place her comfortably here, but beyond a speaking acquaintance with Gerty, who confessed that she was too charitable to be exclusive she had not as yet approached that small shining sphere whose inmates boast the larger freedom no less than the finer discrimination. The larger freedom, it seemed at times, was all of it that she was ever to attain, for, venturing a little too boldly once or twice with a light head, ...
— The Wheel of Life • Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
... Montegnac forest, near Limoges; was an acquaintance of Foedora through Valentin; was a visitor of the Princesse de Cadignan, after the death of their common father-in-law, of whom he had little to make boast, especially in matters of finance. The Duc de Navarrein's mansion at Paris was on the rue du Bac. [A Bachelor's Establishment. The Thirteen. Jealousies of a Country Town. The Peasantry. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Country Parson. The Magic Skin. The Gondreville Mystery. ...
— Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z • Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe
... boast of the indomitable courage, the many self-denials, the homely virtues of our forefathers, think you that we in America are degenerate sons of noble sires? I trow not! ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... under the Republic, is the most complete building of the kind in the world and in many respects the most beautiful. No European capital possesses an opera house so comprehensive in plan and execution, and none can boast an edifice ...
— The Phantom of the Opera • Gaston Leroux
... he continued, 'the Afrikanders would lose. The independence of the country was to them a question of life and death. The Free State would stand by the Transvaal, even to the death. Not only the Free State, but also the Cape Colony.'" Nor was this boast without some foundation. A week before (June 10th), Mr. Schreiner had requested Lord Milner to inform Mr. Chamberlain that, in ministers' opinion, President Krueger's franchise proposal was "practical, reasonable, and a considerable step in the right direction."[88] Four days later ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold
... create a communication that does not depend on mere blood, class, or capricious sympathy. If we all start with the agreement that the sun and moon exist, we can talk about our different visions of them. The strong-eyed man can boast that he sees the sun as a perfect circle. The shortsighted man may say (or if he is an impressionist, boast) that he sees the moon as a silver blur. The colour-blind man may rejoice in the fairy-trick which enables him ...
— A Miscellany of Men • G. K. Chesterton
... multitudes of men in Dublin of all classes and creeds who can boast that they kicked Sheehy Skeffington, or that they struck him on the head with walking sticks and umbrellas, or that they smashed their fists into his face, and jumped on him when he fell. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that these things ...
— The Insurrection in Dublin • James Stephens
... was but a little child she used to boast that she could write her father's name in perfect imitation of his signature; and often signed some trifling receipt for him just for amusement. A dangerous gift in the hands of a conscienceless girl! Yet this ...
— A Voice in the Wilderness • Grace Livingston Hill
... deck about the Russian dancers and Leon Bakst's designs. She had lectured Peter on the amazing beauty of strangely combined colours, mixtures which would not have been tolerated before the "Russian craze." Now Peter seemed to be reminding her of what she had said then, a silly little boast she had made, that with "nothing but a few rags and a Bakst inspiration" she could put together a gorgeous costume for ...
— Winnie Childs - The Shop Girl • C. N. Williamson
... previously existing party. The voters of Britain had refused to consider any other than the one issue of patriotic reform: the all-British policy, as it was called; and the consequence was, that when Parliament assembled it was found that the House of Commons could no longer boast ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson
... of the older States the property rights of married women are now fairly guaranteed, but the proud boast that in America no woman is the slave of her husband will have to be modified when it is known that in at least seventeen States these rights are ...
— What eight million women want • Rheta Childe Dorr
... Browning was known to 'have a temper,' and by instinct every one who came in contact with her shrank from irritating that temper by uttering the slightest syllable against the smallest of those creatures over whom she spread the aegis of her love. She would and did reproach them herself; she used to boast that she never spared them, but no one else might touch them with the slightest slur of a passing word. But Miss Phoebe inspired no such terror; the great reason why she did not hear of the gossip against ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... descendant of the far famed James of Douglas," answered March. "It is his lordship's boast that he never puts foot in stirrup but a thousand horse mount with him as his daily lifeguard, and I believe the monks of Aberbrothock will swear to the fact. Surely, with all the Douglas's chivalry, they ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott
... in a person in two ways. First, because the things that should make him ashamed are not deemed by him to be disgraceful; and in this way those who are steeped in sin are without shame, for instead of disapproving of their sins, they boast of them. Secondly, because they apprehend disgrace as impossible to themselves, or as easy to avoid. In this way the old and the virtuous are not shamefaced. Yet they are so disposed, that if there were anything disgraceful in them ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas
... a boast of "advancing only by short marches; of allowing his soldiers to rest every third day; he would blush, and halt immediately, if they wanted bread or spirits for a single moment." Then, with great self-gratulation, he pretended that "all the ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur
... We can boast a greater assortment of toads and frogs in this country than can any other land. What a chorus goes up from our ponds and marshes in spring! The like of it cannot be heard anywhere else under the sun. In Europe it would certainly have made an impression upon the literature. ...
— The Writings of John Burroughs • John Burroughs
... can't say that I do, in spite of my boast," Joe answered. "It may be a joke, and, again, it may be the real thing. You may be an heiress, Miss Morton," and ...
— Joe Strong on the Trapeze - or The Daring Feats of a Young Circus Performer • Vance Barnum
... though he spoke but seldom, and it was generally thought of him that he might have been something considerable, had it not suited him better to be nothing at all. He was supposed to be a Conservative, and generally voted with the Conservative party; but he could boast that he was altogether independent, and on an occasion would take the trouble of proving himself to be so. He was in possession of excellent health; had all that the world could give; was fond of books, pictures, architecture, and china; had various tastes, and the means ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope
... But my precepts wise Are meant for all whom youthful beauty's eyes Turn from in scorn. Let each his glory boast! Mine is, that lovers, when despairing most, My clients should be called. For them my door Stands hospitably open evermore. Philosopher to Venus I shall be, And throngs of studious youth ...
— The Elegies of Tibullus • Tibullus
... Robert casually, as he surveyed the group. "I was just wondering how it was they had a' gained such reputations. In appearance they are not much to boast about." ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh
... work for the present which he means, I hope it shall be in due time most satisfactorily spoken unto, both by others and by myself. I desire rather solid than subitane lucubrations. In the meanwhile, "Let not him that putteth on his armour boast as he that putteth it off." And let the brother that puts me in mind of other work remember that himself hath other work to do which he hath ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie
... their masters—and the Priests stomp over the clay ridges, (a palpable plagiarism from two lines of a legend that delighted my infancy, and now instruct my maturer years in pretty nearly all they boast of the semi-mythologic era referred to—'In London town, when reigned King Lud, His lords went stomping thro' the mud'—would all historic ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
... stillness of these beautiful fields is broken only by the wild animals which inhabit them; and as far as the eye can reach, it perceives no trace of human existence; not even a canoe is to be seen upon the surrounding waters, which are navigable for large vessels, and boast many excellent harbours;—the large white pelican with the bag under his bill, is the only gainer by the abundance of fish they produce. During the centuries of Spanish supremacy in California, even ...
— A New Voyage Round the World, in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26, Vol. 2 • Otto von Kotzebue
... critics are they all: He sees his branded name with wild affright, And hears again the cat-calls of the night. Such help the STAGE affords: a larger space Is fill'd by PUFFS and all the puffing race. Physic had once alone the lofty style, The well-known boast, that ceased to raise a smile: Now all the province of that tribe invade, And we abound in quacks of every trade. The simple barber, once an honest name, Cervantes founded, Fielding raised his fame: Barber no more—a gay perfumer comes, On whose soft cheek his own cosmetic blooms; Here he appears, ...
— The Village and The Newspaper • George Crabbe
... extent did it corrode him that even when he could boast his $100,000,000 he still persisted in haggling and huckstering over every dollar, and in tricking his friends in the smallest and most underhand ways. Friends in the true sense of the word he had none; those who regarded themselves as such were of that thrifty, ...
— Great Fortunes from Railroads • Gustavus Myers
... fling the water overboard. It was heartbreaking work, for many a barrelful was flung back upon them again; but they persevered, and when night fell the Dazzler, bobbing merrily at her sea-anchor, could boast that her pumps sucked once more. As 'Frisco Kid had said, the backbone of the storm was broken, though the wind had veered to the west, where it ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London
... who are becoming a nuisance to the neighbourhood they infest are quickly broken up if their ring-leader is treated to a dozen strokes that he will not feel inclined to boast about. The mercifulness of this punishment is seen in its power in thus effectively stopping the tendency to crime. Larrikins, unnatural husbands and fathers, brutes and torturers, cattle maimers and stack burners, all see their personal interests lying in a very different direction to that ...
— A Plea for the Criminal • James Leslie Allan Kayll
... find the authorities of these Universities boasting that these godless doctrines were kept away from their students. It is touching to hear such boasts made then, just as it is touching now to hear sundry excellent university authorities boast that they discourage the reading of Mill, Spencer, and Darwin. Nor were such attempts to keep the truth from students confined to the Roman Catholic institutions of learning. Strange as it may seem, nowhere were the facts confirming ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White
... heart, of which he did not understand a word. A young Russian used to make up into a delightful girl, who, with a partner, danced a cake-walk, accompanied by the blare of their new brass band. Mandolines were soon in vogue and most rooms could boast of several. As we were mostly beginners the resulting noise is best left to the imagination. Whist drives, bridge tournaments, etc., helped to pass the time, and a good many of us improved the shining hour by learning French, Russian or ...
— 'Brother Bosch', an Airman's Escape from Germany • Gerald Featherstone Knight
... with it, I may deduce those truths, with which the analogy will furnish me. And first, it will follow, that if every member has performed his office faithfully, though one may have done something more than another, yet no one of them in particular has any reason to boast. With what propriety could the foot, though in the execution of its duty it had become weary, say to the finger, "Thou hast done less than I;" when the finger could reply with truth, "I have done all that ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson
... blessed this feeling of holy servitude to so kind a Master! not like "dumb, driven cattle," goaded on, but led, and led often most tenderly when the yoke and the burden are upon us. The great apostle rarely speaks of himself under any other title but one. That one he seems to make his boast. He had much whereof he might glory;—he had been the instrument in saving thousands—he had spoken before kings—he had been in Caesar's palace and Caesar's presence—he had been caught up into the third heaven,—but in all his letters this is his joyful prefix and ...
— The Words of Jesus • John R. Macduff
... story further. It will be known to all that my love-suit throve in spite of my unfortunate raid on the button of the Marquis D'Almavivas, at whose series of fetes through that month I was, I may boast, an honoured guest. I have since that had the pleasure of entertaining him in my own poor house in England, and one of our ...
— John Bull on the Guadalquivir from Tales from all Countries • Anthony Trollope
... Moreover, the colonel does not deny that the Expedition achieved all possible success. But he considers most objectionable that self-asserting propensity to boast about it associated as it so often is with an unctuous piety. "Of course," he said, "it's only one of the signs of the times; and it is just these times that don't please me. All this outward show in religion is detestable. It was just so ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein
... indubitable fact—that he is but the ninth part of a man. Yet, after all, at this time of day, it seems more of a compliment than a gibe. To be a whole ninth of a man! Few of us, when we ponder it, can boast so much. Take, for instance, that other proverbial case of the fractional-part-of-a-pin-maker. It takes nine persons to make a pin, we were taught in our catechism. Actually that means that it takes nine persons to make one whole pin-maker, which leaves the question ...
— Prose Fancies • Richard Le Gallienne
... while the reverse bore a figure of Christ upon the waters, holding out his hand to S. Peter, with this inscription 'Quare dubitasti?' My design won such applause that a certain secretary of the Pope, a man of the greatest talent, called Il Sanga, [7] was moved to this remark: "Your Holiness can boast of having a currency superior to any of the ancients in all their glory." The Pope replied: "Benvenuto, for his part, can boast of serving an emperor like me, who is able to discern his merit." I went on at my great piece in gold, showing it frequently to the Pope, who was very eager to see it, ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini
... At Alexandria he was surprised by a sudden sally of the besieged, and had to leap into the harbor. He swam two hundred paces to the nearest ship, lifting a manuscript in his left hand to keep it out of the water, and holding his military cloak in his teeth, for he would not have the enemy boast of securing ...
— Roman life in the days of Cicero • Alfred J[ohn] Church
... doubt,— At Stiklestad was none so stout; Spattered with blood, the king, unsparing, Cheered on his men with deed and daring. But I have heard that some were there Who in the fight themselves would spare; Though, in the arrow-storm, the most Had perils quite enough to boast." ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson
... not used in the canonical services, the supply of such material is not encouraged as it would be in other circumstances, and as it is in the West, where the demand for material for congregational hymnaries is so persistent. But the Greek Church can boast of many hymn writers in her communion, whose compositions would do no discredit to our Western hymnaries. Any bookseller in Athens would supply a catalogue of Greek hymnological ...
— Hymns from the Morningland - Being Translations, Centos and Suggestions from the Service - Books of the Holy Eastern Church • Various
... their letters, the more tedious was he in his delivery. Benjafield had been a fisherman in his day, and had a very sharp, withered old face. He had a blind eye, too, and walked by the aid of a crutch but it was his boast that, notwithstanding his one eye and his lameness, no one had ever yet ...
— The Honorable Miss - A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town • L. T. Meade
... a successful expedition, he remarked to the Athenians, in allusion to the previous sarcasms, that in this campaign at least Fortune had no share. Plutarch, who relates the latter {495} anecdote in his Life of Sylla, c. 6., proceeds to say, that this boast gave so much offence to the deity, that he never afterwards prospered in any of his enterprises. His reverse of luck, in consequence of his vainglorious language against Fortune, is also alluded to by Dio Chrysost. Orat., lxiv. Sec. 19., edit. Emper. It will ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853 • Various
... know of any in that direction which extends beyond it. Our bush-farm was situated on the border-line of a neighbouring township, only one degree less wild, less out of the world, or nearer to the habitations of civilisation than the far-famed "English Line," the boast and glory of ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie
... His boast forgotten, the jaeger uttered a cry of dismay, and with a sudden failing of the knees, he moved, and ...
— The Princess Virginia • C. N. Williamson
... and of hers. Passing the market-square he pursued the arm of road to 'Sylvania Castle,' a private mansion of comparatively modern date, in whose grounds stood the single plantation of trees of which the isle could boast. The cottages extended close to the walls of the enclosure, and one of the last of these dwellings had been Avice's, in which, as it was her freehold, ...
— The Well-Beloved • Thomas Hardy
... its incomparable hue, the shade with which Vibert delighted to illumine his rich canvases, the color of the famous hat worn by seventy ecclesiastical princes of the Roman Church, but a richer red than the bird which shares the name can boast, the cardinal flower proclaims its title to all beholders. Because its vivid beauty cannot be hid, and few withstand the temptation to pick it, its extermination goes on as rapidly as its ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan
... first fame rests, therefore, on that great debate. Judge Douglas had long been famous as an experienced politician and an exceptionally skilful debater. As lawyers both ranked high in their State at a time when the bar of Illinois could boast of exceptionally ...
— Fifty Years of Public Service • Shelby M. Cullom
... but one Shakespeare, and in the drama below him Manzoni holds a high place. The faults of his tragedies are those of most plays which are not acting plays, and their merits are much greater than the great number of such plays can boast. I have not meant to imply that you want sympathy with the persons of the drama, but only less sympathy than with the ideas embodied in them. There are many affecting scenes, and the whole of each tragedy is conceived in the highest and ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells
... that a man is (as a great poet says) 'displeasing alike to God and to the enemies of God,' when he comes boldly to the throne of grace, not to find grace and mercy, because he feels that he needs them: but to boast of God's grace, and make God's mercy to him an excuse for looking down upon his fellow- creatures; and worships, like the Pharisee, in self-conceit and pride, thanking God that he is ...
— Discipline and Other Sermons • Charles Kingsley
... toilet for dinner, I amused myself by conjecturing whether there could be any foundation in fact for Mark's boast, that Miss Brandon liked him. Women are so enigmatical—some in everything—all in matters of the heart. Don't they sometimes actually admire what is repulsive? Does not brutality in our sex, and even rascality, interest them sometimes? Don't they often affect ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... Lina: he is not so base as to boast of the ruin he has made; heaven forbid that one who has a drop of my blood in his veins should sink low enough for that; but the facts, your presence here, this cruel desertion of your friends, the insane tenacity with which you cling to this ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens
... long line of chiefs, but he, who will soon he chief, will travel quickly on gathering together my people. With them he will return, and of the twelve who murder from behind trees not one shall return to boast of his deeds. When the buzzards are feeding off their bones, then, may you return and secure that which you have buried, the ponies, and all of that which is yours. That is the counsel of one of a race of chiefs. What is the answer of the ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... on many that the stories told so fully were told by men who escaped from Thorold; but the tale was so scanty about the slighter leader in the glittering mail because men whom he met never came back to boast of it. When once he shot over the side of a long-ship at the head of his men, that was ever but the beginning of the end. Not many minutes later, war would cease on that particular craft, no one being left to defend it. This did not make ...
— The Iron Star - And what It saw on Its Journey through the Ages • John Preston True
... and never told me a word. You're too good to your old father, both of you, for I've brought it on you; it's me the buyers have forsaken, not you. But they'll come round again. We make good cloth and blankets, and they know it,' he said; but he did not boast as he used ...
— Sarah's School Friend • May Baldwin
... highly sensitive ones become imbued in course of time with a painful undesirable conviction that the brutes are their superiors. So you have the spectacle in Germany of Jews seeking Christian society instead of avoiding it; and you hear them boast quite artlessly of their christlicher Umgang. They would really serve their people and even themselves more if they refused all christlicher Umgang until the Christians had learned to behave themselves. An Englishwoman living in Berlin told me that once as she ...
— Home Life in Germany • Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick
... bidden me, I gave money for the pieces of land, of each city; according to written contracts, in silver and bronze, to their owners, in order to do no injustice; and to those who would not take money,(477) a field for a field, where they preferred, I gave." That this was no idle boast is proved from the tablet which records how Sargon, in the year B.C. 713, having taken possession of some lands in Maganuba to form part of his new city of Dur-Sargon, found that he was displacing an old endowment given ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns
... as this was possible; but had not been slow to see afterwards how the possibility was limited, when one came to think, by mysteries she was not to sound. This inability in her was indeed not remarkable, inasmuch as the Princess herself, as we have seen, was only now in a position to boast of touching bottom. Maggie lived, inwardly, in a consciousness that she could but partly open even to so good a friend, and her own visitation of the fuller expanse of which was, for that matter, still going on. They had been duskier still, however, ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James
... gallon of water, each party eventually found themselves in possession of half a gallon of gin and water; and, however either may have enjoyed the mixture, it is historically recorded at Hillmorton that the landlady was never again heard unnecessarily to boast that no navvy ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... avowed aim has been not to progress; the set purpose has been to do as the fathers did; to follow their example even in customs and rites whose meaning has been lost in the obscurity of the past. This blind adherence was the boast of those who called themselves religious. They strove to fulfill their duties to ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick
... side room, overlooking a beautiful lawn which could boast of lovely flowers and rose bushes scattered here and there. They sat down, facing each other. Bernard was a bundle of expectancy. He had passed through ...
— Imperium in Imperio: A Study Of The Negro Race Problem - A Novel • Sutton E. Griggs
... of this town, alluded to in my last, was so effectual in its operation, that, excepting the castle and the two churches, the place can boast of little to arrest the attention of the antiquary, or of the curious traveller. These three objects were indeed almost all that escaped the conflagration; and for this they were indebted to their insulated situations, the first on an eminence unconnected with the ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. I. (of 2) • Dawson Turner
... link'd with thee, Boast of a glory-hallowed land! Hope of the valiant and the free, Home ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce
... than were bestowed upon him. This was young Sir John Oxon, who had found himself among the fair sex that night as great a beau as she had been a belle; but two dances he had won from her, and this was more than any other man could boast, and what other gallants envied him ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... accomplished this, ergo the glaciers must once have been more extensive. Perraudin would probably have said that common-sense drove him to this conclusion; but be that as it may, he had conceived one of the few truly original and novel ideas of which the nineteenth century can boast. ...
— A History of Science, Volume 3(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams
... trotted through the wilds, which were almost thrillingly beautiful. In Africa there is no twilight, and darkness swoops down like a hawk. All afternoon the teapoy men, after their fashion, carried on what was literally a running crossfire of questions among themselves. They usually boast of their strength and their families and always discuss the white man they are carrying and his characteristics. I heard much muttering of Mafutta Mingi and I knew long before we stopped that my weight ...
— An African Adventure • Isaac F. Marcosson
... boy to win back everything we have lost. Lashcairn the Landless whose lands stretched once from—Marcella, what am I saying? O Lord, Thou knowest that in nothing do I glory save in the Cross of Jesus Christ. O Lord, Simon of Cyrene, Thy cross-bearer, has naught to boast save only the burden Thy grace has laid upon him. Be patient with me, O Lord—very hardly dies the vanity ...
— Captivity • M. Leonora Eyles
... said the duchesse, "that we have actors, you authors; of what avail is it that you boast of a Shakspeare, since your Liseton, great as he is, cannot be ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... (called in some old documents parthemen), and vellum, there are no substances which can be said to boast any degree of antiquity, so far as European literature is concerned. We have, as is sufficiently well known, many others of comparatively modern introduction, which tend to impart to the editions or specimens for which they are employed a special value and curiosity. ...
— The Book-Collector • William Carew Hazlitt
... pettiest vanity you expose your sincerity to publicity and ignominy. You doubtlessly mean to say something, but hide your last word through fear, because you have not the resolution to utter it, and only have a cowardly impudence. You boast of consciousness, but you are not sure of your ground, for though your mind works, yet your heart is darkened and corrupt, and you cannot have a full, genuine consciousness without a pure heart. And how intrusive you are, how you insist and ...
— Notes from the Underground • Feodor Dostoevsky
... sovereigns of the world, but thou must be sure to obey me in whatever I may command." Mazin promised to do so, but his heart trembled within him as he beheld the gloomy prospect before him, and recollected the boast which the accursed magician had made of his having sacrificed thirty-nine youthful victims on these mountains, and also his threat on board the ship to make the fortieth offering of himself. He repented of having trusted himself from the ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous
... ye to this! Where are the dreams of the hero when he learns he has a child? Nature is taking him to her bosom. She will speak presently. Every domesticated boor in these hills can boast the same, yet marvels the hero at none of his visioned prodigies as he does when he comes to hear of this most common performance. A father? Richard fixed his eyes as if he were trying to make out the ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... that loiter, of historied claim, Who boast of the heritage shrined in each name— Sting their souls to the quick, till they shrink from the shame Which dishonors the names and the past of their boast; Even now they may win the best guerdon of fame, And retrieve ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... No doubt that each of you has his excellence. One has got a head of gold, another a heart of gold. One has the strength and endurance of iron, another has means, plenty of silver, each has something of which he can boast; but take care not to make golden images of yourselves and set them up, and expect every one to bow down before them and take you at your own estimation. God will humble you. The feet are of clay, and the proud statues will fall some day. Therefore try to see yourselves as you really are, "Let ...
— The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent • S. Baring-Gould
... this witness's evidence; and when Dr. Mulhaus was acquitted, delivered a stinging reproof to the magistrates for wasting public time by sending such a trumpery case to a jury. But, on the other hand, Dr. Mulhaus' charge of assault with intent fell dead; so that neither party had much to boast of. ...
— The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn • Henry Kingsley
... that I will deem it my boast to share—a career that it will be my glory to smooth. If I succeed in ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... were laid and all Blackwater joined in with them, in fact it was the universal idea, and even the new barkeeper with whom Wunpost had struck up an acquaintance had promised to do his part. To get Wunpost drunk and then to make him boast, to pique him by professed doubts of his great find; and then when he spilled it, as he had always done before, the wild rush and another great boom! They watched his every move as he put his animals in a corral and stored his packs and saddles; and when, in the ...
— Wunpost • Dane Coolidge
... his name could boast no handle, He could not every hope resign; As moths will hover round a candle, So ...
— More Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert
... bigotry and fanaticism, reached its height some seventy years later; though its course was for a while retarded by King Charles the First, who, whatever else may be said of him, was unquestionably a man of as high and elegant tastes in literature and art as England could boast of ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson
... his supporters arose in hearty answer. The statement held more complete and quiet confidence than any wordy boast. ...
— Key Out of Time • Andre Alice Norton
... Massachusetts colony certainly was free of all restraint. Charles's benediction seems to have been "Good riddance!" From the crown the colonists received no assistance whatever, and it was long both their boast and their plea that they had planted the colony "at their own expense." They were left to work out their own salvation.[3] As a result, their passionate desire for freedom from interference by the king grew into the feeling that they ...
— The Siege of Boston • Allen French
... the Almighty Hand, Saxham," answers the thin, sweet voice of the Churchman; "because It strewed the myriad worlds in the Dust of the The Infinite, and set the jewelled feathers in the butterfly's wing, and forged the very intellect whose power you misuse in uttering the boast that denies It. Think again. Can you assure me with truth that you have never, in the stress of some great mental or physical crisis, cried to Heaven for help when the struggle was at its worst? Think ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
... it has been copied; and though some passages have, I know, sunk indelibly into the memories of those present, you may rest perfectly secure that they will never go out beyond ourselves. No vanity will ever tempt any one of us to boast of what we have been allowed to read; we shall strictly adhere to your terms, and never mention or allude to the book. It is delightful, most interesting, and entertaining. You may, perhaps, imagine, by conceiving ...
— The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... be roughly divided into two classes: the Brahuis [A] in the north, and the Baluchis in the south. The former ascribe their origin to the earliest Mohammedan invaders of Persia, and boast of their Arab descent; the latter are supposed by some to have been originally a nation of Tartar mountaineers who settled at a very early period in the southern parts of Asia, where they led a nomad existence for many centuries, ...
— A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan • Harry De Windt
... of its power of seeing—not because it has merited its office as an organ of sight for the body. In the very beginning it derived its existence and its peculiar function of sight from the body. It cannot, therefore, boast in the slightest degree that by its independent power of seeing it has deserved its place as an eye. It has the honor and right of its position solely through its birth, not because of any effort on ...
— Epistle Sermons, Vol. II - Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost • Martin Luther
... until a Convention could meet. The Spanish Embassy was here in 1718. The Duke of Chandos bought the mansion a year later, and in 1735 it was pulled down, and the present three houses built on its site. These three houses have been well tenanted, especially the centre one, No. 10, which can boast the successive occupancy of Pitt, Lady Blessington, the great Earl of Derby, and Mr. Gladstone. Here old link-extinguishers still remain on the ...
— The Strand District - The Fascination of London • Sir Walter Besant
... gestures or inflections, he began a rambling, lengthy account of his past deeds of valour. From these he finally swerved to the recital of his people's wrongs. He climaxed, after an interminable amount of talking, with a boast that awakened the hearty approbation of his sloven fellows. "We but wait for the winter to go," he said, "for in the spring we shall have freedom. Our brothers, who are sly as foxes and swift as hawks, will sweep down upon the pony soldiers and ...
— The Plow-Woman • Eleanor Gates
... was not pleasant, but he knew enough about the natives, among whom seven years of his life had been spent, to make his acquaintance worth having. He used actually to laugh at Strickland as an ignorant man—"ignorant West and East"—he said. His boast was, first, that he was an Oxford Man of rare and shining parts, which may or may not have been true—I did not know enough to check his statements—and, secondly, that he "had his hand on the pulse of native life"—which was a fact. As an Oxford man, he struck me as a prig: he ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... some rowing galleys, like those of other old-fashioned fleets; and its sailing men-of-war were nothing much to boast of in the way of handiness or even safety. The Mary Rose, which Henry's admiral, Sir Edward Howard, had described thirty years before as "the flower of all the ships that ever sailed," was built with lower portholes only sixteen inches above the water line. So when her crew forgot to close these ...
— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood
... beauty found in the purely bred English maiden, were not among the noticeable charms of the small creature in gloomy black, shrinking into a corner of the big room. She had very little colour of any sort to boast of. Her hair was of so light a brown that it just escaped being flaxen; but it had the negative merit of not being forced down to her eyebrows, and twisted into the hideous curly-wig which exhibits a liberal equality of ugliness on the heads ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins
... we can say, that we should rejoice to boast as capacious, symmetrical and well-ordered a head as the upper sanctuary. Thanks to these merits, in spite of a brave array of Giottesque work which has the advantage of being easily seen, it lacks ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James
... engaged in rebuilding the palaces and fortifications of Rome. Nicholas discerned the genius of the man, and employed him as his chief counsellor in all matters of architecture. When the Pope died, he was able, while reciting his long Latin will upon his deathbed, to boast that he had restored the Holy See to its due dignity, and the Eternal City to the splendour worthy of the seat of Christendom. The accomplishment of the second part of his work he owed to the genius of Alberti. After ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... never have another chance to speak to you alone. Let me say a few plain, honest words before I go. I am not ashamed of my love for you, nor to have it known. I am glad there was man enough in me to love such a woman as you are. You are not one of those society belles who wish to boast of their conquests. I wish merely to leave in a manner that will save you all embarrassing questions and surmises, and enable you to go back to your father as if nothing had happened. The best I can do is to maintain the outward semblance of a gentleman ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe
... the United States, and of Great Britain as well, South America could feel free to work out her own destiny. This was the master-stroke of Canning's career. When brought to bay afterward in Parliament, he could proudly boast: "I called the New World into being, in order to redress the balance of the Old." To Americans Canning's boast has ever seemed to rest on a flimsy foundation. As Fyffe, the English historian of modern Europe, has justly said, "The boast, famous ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson
... Aleck was comin', but he wasn't. Sam, bein' so heavy, had stopped quicker an' hit in shallow water near the shore, but, as luck would have it, the bottom was soft an' he had come down feet foremost, an' a broken leg an' some bad bruises were all he could boast of. Lizzie was in hysterics, but seemed to be unhurt. Dan an' I got 'em out on the shore, an' left 'em cryin' side by side, an' scrambled up the bank to find Aleck. He had aimed too low an' hit ...
— Keeping up with Lizzie • Irving Bacheller
... Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have ...
— Peter and Wendy • James Matthew Barrie
... fleet had been worsted in an engagement by M. de la Galissonniere; and this information was soon confirmed by a general discharge, or feu-de-joie, through the whole French camp, to celebrate the victory they pretended to have obtained. How little soever they had reason to boast of any advantage in the action, the retreat of the English squadron was undoubtedly equivalent to a victory; for had Mr. Byng acquired and maintained the superiority at sea, the French forces which had been disembarked in Minorca, would, in all probability, ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... came home from his office, I had gathered up various bits of old carpetting to cover the floor; and, to a little break the blank look of the bare walls, I hung up a few old prints that used to ornament the kitchen, and after dinner, with great boast of what an improvement I had made, I took Charles once more into his new study. A week of busy labours followed, in which I think you would not have disliked to have been our assistant. My brother and I almost covered the wall with prints, for which purpose he cut out ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas
... "I never boast, and I never tell lies," he said slowly, restraining his rising anger. "It's a great pity if you ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy
... confess it—boast of it. She agrees with you that the tiny hands will bring her and the father ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes
... We have seen the old gentleman, in the midst of his son's argument, write to the opposing counsel suggesting authorities and giving references and precedents against him, all with the most perfect good humour on both sides; and the greatest triumph he could boast was to defeat his son upon a point of law: on such occasions he would put his hands behind his back, and moving round with a chuckle, exclaim, "Something to learn yet, Harry!" The father's delight and pride in his superior legal ...
— A Sketch of the Life of the late Henry Cooper - Barrister-at-Law, of the Norfolk Circuit; as also, of his Father • William Cooper
... times must I tell you, Silly, that I've loved Ben since I can remember, that I will always love him, and when I meet my fate, at last, I shall boast to my children of my sweet girl romance with the Hero of Piedmont, and they shall laugh and ...
— The Clansman - An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan • Thomas Dixon
... Cedric; "I shall be the lighter to climb these walls. And—forgive the boast, Sir Knight—thou shalt this day see the naked breast of a Saxon as boldly presented to the battle as ever ye beheld the steel corselet ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester
... civilization, the last discovery of the human intellect, the last good news for man? That the soundest thinkers—they who have the truest and clearest notion of the universe are the savage who knows nothing but what his five senses teach him, and the ungodly who makes boast of his own desire, and speaks good of the covetous whom God abhorreth, while he says, "Tush, God hath forgotten. He hideth away his face, and God ...
— Westminster Sermons - with a Preface • Charles Kingsley
... back to Chepstow; and if we confided in the other, it might lead us in due time, half-way toward Ragland Castle! What was to be done? One in the company now remarked, "Of what service is it to boast a pioneer, if we do not avail ourselves of his services?" Mr. Coleridge received the hint, and set off up one of the lanes at his swiftest speed, namely, a cautious creep; whilst we four stood musing on the wide extent of human vicissitudes! A few hours before, surrounded ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... Alani, and among them that man is called happy who has lost his life in battle. For those who grow old, or who go out of the world from accidental sicknesses, they pursue with bitter reproaches as degenerate and cowardly. Nor is there anything of which they boast with more pride than of having killed a man: and the most glorious spoils they esteem the scalps which they have torn from the heads of those whom they have slain, which they put as trappings and ornaments on their ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus
... I cursed aloud the adulterous pair:— "They plunge me deep in exile's woe; They lay my country low: Their love—no love! but some dark spell, In vengeance breath'd, by spirit fell. Rise, hoary sea, in awful tide, And whelm that vessel's guilty pride; Nor e'er, in high Mycene's hall, Let Helen boast in ...
— Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge • Coleridge
... "amateur" fails to do full credit to amateur journalism and the association which best represents it. To some minds the term conveys an idea of crudity and immaturity, yet the United can boast of members and publications whose polish and scholarship are well-nigh impeccable. In considering the adjective "amateur" as applied to the press association, we must adhere to the more basic interpretation, regarding the word as indicating the non-mercenary nature of the membership. Our ...
— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft
... the Septimer and the Brenner. As time went on the travellers (with whatever object) who used the great alpine passes could not put up any longer with the bad old mule paths. A few passes (e.g. the Semmering, the Brenner, the Tenda and the Arlberg) can boast of carriage roads constructed before 1800, while those over the Umbrail and the Great St Bernard were not completed till the early years of the 20th century. Most of the carriage roads across the great alpine passes were thus constructed in the 19th century (particularly ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... I had next best do. I had some thoughts of crossing to the northern side of the bay, then, bearing the north-east, wend my way to Amlwch, follow the windings of the sea-shore to Mathafarn eithaf and Pentraeth Coch, and then return to Bangor, after which I could boast that I had walked round the whole of Anglesey, and indeed trodden no inconsiderable part of the way twice. Before coming, however, to any resolution, I determined to ask the advice of my friend the boots on the subject. So I finished my ale, and sent word by the waiter that I wished to speak ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow
... Sabbath morn—our service had far advanced; we could boast of but a limited congregation, for many had died, some had fled from the pestilence into the interior; others had avoided the place in consequence of the threats of their countrymen. A few children, and two or three women, were all their teacher ...
— The Little Savage • Captain Marryat
... my race dates from an elder date than these Norman nobles, who boast their robber-fathers. From the renowned Saxon Thane, who, free of hand and of cheer, won the name of Hildegardis, [Hildegardis, namely, old German, a person of noble or generous disposition. Wotton's "Baronetage," art. Hilyard, or Hildyard, of Pattrington.] our family took its ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... "Boast not my fall," he said, "insulting foe! Thou by some other shalt be laid as low; Nor think to die dejects my lofty mind; All that I dread is leaving you behind! 145 Rather than so, ah let me still survive, And still burn on, in Cupid's ...
— The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems • Alexander Pope
... above it, a portrait with which Zuloaga had nothing to do. The portrait represented a man who looked very fierce and who displayed a costume rich and unusual. Beneath the portrait was a violin. Beside the piano was a sword-cane. Otherwise, barring a rose-wood table, the room contained nothing to boast of. ...
— The Paliser case • Edgar Saltus
... a jolly set; most of us poor as church mice, and caring little. Making rather a boast of it, indeed. John Burke's roommate, Jim Reeder, cooked his own meals—mostly oatmeal—in his room and lived on less than a dollar a week until fairly starved. I suppose they'll call him "old Hoss" to his dying day. Until his mother moved to town, John was almost as ill- fed. He was just ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark
... the laugh he knew and an upward glance of her eyes. Quisante himself laughed and drew himself to his full height, carrying his head defiantly. For though he sought and loved to please all, it was pleasing her that had been foremost in his mind that night. He had remembered the boast he made on Duty Hill; now it was justified, and he had once again tasted ...
— Quisante • Anthony Hope |
