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verb
Best  v. t.  To get the better of. (Colloq.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Best" Quotes from Famous Books



... Thomas Paine is still living in France. The partizans of the late presidency [in America] also know it well, yet they have spread a rumor that after actually arriving he found his (really popular) principles no longer the order of the day, and thought best to re-embark. ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... best,' the innkeeper replied, 'and far more readily for your sake, my dear friend, than for my own, I ...
— Stradella • F(rancis) Marion Crawford

... that it would be best to have Eunice out of the way when she and Mr. Latham made their call on ...
— The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires - The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail • Laura Dent Crane

... on their labours lay, And ever their quarry would vanish away, Till the sun-dried boys of the Black Tyrone Took a brotherly interest in Boh Da Thone: And, sooth, if pursuit in possession ends, The Boh and his trackers were best of friends. ...
— Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling

... the ship had it all her own way, and not knowing where she was to go, she went round and round the compass during the best part of the night. Mesty had arranged the watches, Jack had made a speech, and the men had promised everything, but the wine had got into their heads, and memory had taken that opportunity to take a stroll. Mesty had been down with Jack, examining the ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Frederick Marryat

... you!" Cleo discovered. "We try our best hats in one box all fitted in together. If they won't go we'll pack them in a big strong wooden box, and express them. I do hate boxes to spoil a nice long ride like that, when we want to ...
— The Girl Scouts at Bellaire - Or Maid Mary's Awakening • Lilian C. McNamara Garis

... don't," replied Miss Greene. At which Mr. Korner's face fell back to zero. "I think the best way out will be for ...
— Mrs. Korner Sins Her Mercies • Jerome K. Jerome

... made from Rags, the best from Linen Rags; thus rendering that which had become useless, an article of universal importance, and permanent value. Without this indispensable material, Printing would have been deprived of its chief auxiliary; but with it, and by the present improved system of Manufacture, the productions ...
— The Author's Printing and Publishing Assistant • Frederick Saunders

... especially commissioned to the Gentiles, must be considered as the best authority upon this question. Did he regard their religions as wholly false? On the contrary, he tells the Athenians that they are already worshipping the true God, though ignorantly. "Whom ye ignorantly ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... seemed very much interested in two little boys who sat near him, engaged in the laudable employment of seeing which could snap spittle the farthest and the best. ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes

... to live by, and to die for. And whosoever lived in joyous surrender to some greatness outside himself had religion, even though the world called him atheist. The finest souls too easily abandoned the best words to the ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... will raise 73 lbs. of water from freezing to boiling; 1 lb. of pit coal, about 60 lbs.; and 1 lb. of peat, about 30 lbs. Some kinds of manure-fuel give intense heat, and are excellent for blacksmith's purposes: that of goats and sheep is the best; camels' dung is next best, but is not nearly so good; then that of oxen: the dung of horses is of little use, except as tinder in ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... him to assist in setting the fore-topmast staysail. He obeyed the call, though it was the first time he was ever called upon to do any duty, except to make fast, or cast off the fore-sheet. He was not a strong man, but he did the best he could at the halyard, and the ...
— The Coming Wave - The Hidden Treasure of High Rock • Oliver Optic

... there are not to be found in House two more affable men than BARNES and WIGGINS. Amongst many other virtues, WIGGINS is, SARK tells me, one of the best judges of cigars in House, and is never without a sample in his case. It is sad to think that a man so gifted by nature, so favoured by fortune, should let his angry passions rise round a coal-truck. House, contemplating the episode, glad to shut it out by rushing ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, March 28, 1891 • Various

... and matter mutually interpret each other. Nothing can be explained by itself, or, in the economy of Nature, is explained by itself. The night explains the day, and the day interprets the night. Summer gives character to winter, and in winter we best understand the spirit of summer. The shore defines and emphasizes the sea, and the sea gives form and meaning to ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various

... which his father's money gave him. He would buy an expensive horse after five minutes' conversation as to the price, about which a needy heir of one of the proud county families had been haggling for three weeks. His dogs were from the best kennels in England, no matter at what cost; his guns were the newest and most improved make; and all these were expenses on objects which were among those of daily envy to the squires and squires' sons around. They did not much care for ...
— A Dark Night's Work • Elizabeth Gaskell

... was not annexed, and these masks were so contrived, that the profile on one side exhibited chagrin, and on the other serenity, or whatever other passion was most required. The actor thus, according to the part he was playing, presented the side of the mask best suited to the passage which he was reciting. The large mouths of these masks were presumed to have contained some bronze instrument suited to assist the voice, upon the principle of the speaking trumpet; for the mask was wider, and the recitation ...
— A History of Pantomime • R. J. Broadbent

... there talking, with a deep and abiding sense of awe at the change (Muriel more conscious than ever now of how deep was her interest in Felix Thurstan, who represented for her all that was dearest and best in England), a curious noise, as of a discordant drum or tom-tom, beaten in a sort of recurrent tune, was heard toward the hills; and at its very first sound both the Shadows, flinging themselves upon ...
— The Great Taboo • Grant Allen

... climate. They bring it down from the mountains, and use it very commonly in lemonade, creams, and for many other purposes. It is desirable to call here on your way to a hot climate, if it were only to procure a few good drip stones, the best of which are brought from Grand Canary, and which are to be had in great plenty, and very cheap, from one to three Spanish dollars each, which is the most current ...
— A Voyage Round the World, Vol. I (of ?) • James Holman

... China is peopled; there being according to the best computation (which is there made with singular care) above 58 millions of Men, not counting Magistrates, Soldiers, Priests, Eunuchs, Women and Children; so that it may not be altogether strange, if one should affirm, there were ...
— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various

... was looking very handsome and very regal. Thornton was a thin, dark, nervous wisp of a man, who had borne his share of the burdens laid upon his city in the cataclysm of 1906, but if his wife had demanded an enormous historic ruby he would have done his best to gratify her. But how the ...
— The Avalanche • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

... a son of the people—of those who had made the revolution and had fought the whole of Europe in order to establish their right to govern themselves as they thought best, and he hated all these aristos—the men who had fled from their country and abandoned it when she needed her sons' help more than she ...
— The Bronze Eagle - A Story of the Hundred Days • Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

... parish schools?" Brunnholtz reported: In his home at Philadelphia, Schaum, whom he supported, had been keeping school for three and a half years; since Easter there had been no school, as Schaum was needed at another place; however, before winter would set in, he and his elders would do their best in this matter. Germantown, continued Brunnholtz, had two teachers, Doeling, a former Moravian, being one of them, whose schools were attended by many children, some of them non-Lutherans. Another school ...
— American Lutheranism - Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and The Tennessee Synod • Friedrich Bente

... fell into a well and was unable to get out again. By and by a thirsty Goat came by, and seeing the Fox in the well asked him if the water was good. "Good?" said the Fox, "it's the best water I ever tasted in all my life. Come down and try it yourself." The Goat thought of nothing but the prospect of quenching his thirst, and jumped in at once. When he had had enough to drink, he looked about, ...
— Aesop's Fables • Aesop

... had fled to the valley for refuge; and when these poor worried folk saw Giles coming down the valley, they recalled the prophecy that a king should come to them out of the valley, and hailed Giles as their king. Best of all, Phyllida herself ran out, and threw her arms about her husband. As for the robbers, the storm had overwhelmed them and swept them all into the river. There, I am glad to say, they turned into ...
— The Firelight Fairy Book • Henry Beston

... some prudence, and I went to work with courage. I was about three months hedging in the first piece; and, till I had done it, I tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often I would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was finished, and I let them loose, they would follow ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe

... their effect was kept secret by the German authorities. Six of the seven returned to the squadron and were picked up by submarines. Three of the seaplanes were wrecked and had to be abandoned. Fog not only prevented the British airmen from doing their best work, but it kept the marksmen on the German aircraft also from hitting the ships on the waters beneath them. This raid had been made in answer to a great outcry that had gone up from the British public after German warships had raided ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume II (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various

... in suspense, was that Jack might have waited for him at some point on the trail! At best the boy could have been only a half hour ahead of him. He waited an hour, until the sun began to touch the tops of the distant western mountains, and then climbed cautiously up a tree ...
— The Boy Scout Camera Club - The Confession of a Photograph • G. Harvey Ralphson

... origin was dissolved. I no longer looked upon its waters with a feeling approaching to awe for I knew its home, and had visited its cradle. Had I overrated the importance of the discovery? and had I wasted some of the best years of my life to obtain a shadow? I recalled to recollection the practical question of Commoro, the chief of Latooka, —"Suppose you get to the great lake, what will you do with it? What will be the good ...
— The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile • Sir Samuel White Baker

... he is better than his word, and deals out much coin as we go along; it is such wonderful pleasure to fill an empty cup! This is "recreation," true and sweet; for of all the refreshments from one's own toil and sorrow, I think ministering to other people is about the best. ...
— Tired Church Members • Anne Warner

... case as they are in the other, the existence of a Deity would be, as Paley appears to have thought it was, demonstrated by the fact. A brief and yet satisfactory answer to the second question is not so easy, and we may best approach it by assuming the existence of a Deity. If, then, there is a God, it by no means follows that every apparent contrivance in nature is an actual contrivance, in the same sense as is any human contrivance. The eye of a vertebrated animal, for instance, exhibits as much apparent design as ...
— A Candid Examination of Theism • George John Romanes

... for real Christians. It is necessary principally, as the apostle says, for evil-doers. But if it be chiefly necessary for evil-doers, then governors ought to be careful how they make laws, which may vex, harrass, and embarrass Christians, whom they will always find to be the best part of their communities, or, in other words, how they make laws, which Christians, on account of their religious scruples, cannot ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... the best," said Barraclough; and now that he met the storm he faced it with dignity. Perhaps I alone knew the measure of his temptation. He had fallen a victim to the arts of a beautiful woman. There was nought else could have melted that obdurate British ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson

... maid,—Fanny's—Miss Trevanion's. Miss Trevanion is an heiress, Vivian an adventurer. My head swims round; I cannot explain now. Ha! I will write a line to Lord Castleton,—tell him my fears and suspicions; he will follow us, I know, or do what is best." ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... hands of Alexander Maclagan, Andrew Park, Robert White, and William Sinclair. Eminent lyrical simplicity is depicted in the strains of Alexander Laing, James Home, Archibald Mackay, John Crawford, and Thomas C. Latto. The best ballad writers introduced in the present work are Robert Chambers, John S. Blackie, William Stirling, M.P., Mrs Ogilvy, and James Dodds.[2] Amply sustained is the national reputation in female lyric poets, by the compositions of Mrs Simpson, Marion ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... of his position, after his captors had left him, he found himself in a country which was strange to him, and spent the best part of a day in ascertaining his whereabouts. The flow of the wide river where the camp had been pitched told him nothing, and it was only after he had climbed a high hill a mile and a half away from the river that he began to have any indication of his whereabouts. Then with ...
— A Mating in the Wilds • Ottwell Binns

... organized and directed by the best brains available. It is merry sport for the organizers and for some of the directors, but like any other destructive agent, it may get out of hand. The War of 1914 was to last for six weeks. It dragged on for five years, and the wars that have grown out of it are ...
— The American Empire • Scott Nearing

... favourite of the prince. Sources of social position and great material benefit, these offices were coveted greedily by the boyards, and those who obtained none could only hope to cheat fortune by doing their best to undermine ...
— The Balkans - A History Of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey • Nevill Forbes, Arnold J. Toynbee, D. Mitrany, D.G. Hogarth

... least merit was the rare conscientiousness with which he distributed the patronage at his disposal. Whenever a living was vacant, the Bishop of Elford used deliberately to pass in mental review all the clergy under his jurisdiction, and single out from amongst them the ablest and the best. He was never influenced by the spirit of nepotism; he was never deceived by shallow declaimers, or ignorant bigots, who had thrust themselves into the notoriety of a noisy and orthodox reputation. The ordinary Honourable and Reverend, whose only distinction was his title or his wealth, had ...
— Julian Home • Dean Frederic W. Farrar

... first disappointment had passed off it was decided to make the best of their position—one whose advantages soon grew upon the adventurers. So the Hakim settled down steadily to his task of healing, and the Emir's son not only rapidly improved, but grew more friendly as he ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn

... of this man and your manner of speaking about him surprises me. I have long thought that you were not acting wisely in permitting Gascoyne to be so intimate; for, whatever he may in reality be, he is a suspicious character, to say the best of him; and although I know that you think you are right in encouraging his visits, other people do not know that; they may judge you harshly. I do not wish to pry into secrets—but you have sought to comfort me by bidding me have perfect confidence in this man. ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne

... of Aphrodite and Adonis in Cyprus was Paphos on the south-western side of the island. Among the petty kingdoms into which Cyprus was divided from the earliest times until the end of the fourth century before our era Paphos must have ranked with the best. It is a land of hills and billowy ridges, diversified by fields and vineyards and intersected by rivers, which in the course of ages have carved for themselves beds of such tremendous depth that travelling in the interior is difficult ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... body. Half way between the mouth of the Malagarazi and that of the Liuche we saw a camp on shore—that of Mohammed bin Gharib, a Msawahili, who figured often in Livingstone's verbal narrative to me of his adventures and travels as one of the kindest and best of the Moslems in Central Africa. He appeared to me a kindly disposed man, with a face seldom seen, having the stamp of an unusual characteristic on ...
— How I Found Livingstone • Sir Henry M. Stanley

... of Alexandria and Karnis had passed some of the best years of his life there; but to Orpheus and Agne all was new, and even the girl, when once she had escaped from the crowd and noise which oppressed her, took an interest in the scene and asked a question now and then. The younger man had not eyes enough to see ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... but did his best. His was an agreeable, boyish voice, betraying taste and understanding. Time passed quickly — not so much in the reading ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert Chambers

... the best trained soldier in the world. The English soldier's fire is ten thousand times worse than hell. If we could only beat the English it would be well for us, but I am afraid we shall never be able to beat ...
— Tommy Atkins at War - As Told in His Own Letters • James Alexander Kilpatrick

... get paid for it! And that is why the Krishnos have all the best things, and are better cared for than ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Adventures on Strange Islands • Roger Thompson Finlay

... you tell me so. Besides, he produced the best impression on me during the short time I saw him the other day ...
— Conscience, Complete • Hector Malot

... outrage may have been perpetrated upon Miss Cushing by these youths, who owed her a grudge and who hoped to frighten her by sending her these relics of the dissecting-rooms. Some probability is lent to the theory by the fact that one of these students came from the north of Ireland, and, to the best of Miss Cushing's belief, from Belfast. In the meantime, the matter is being actively investigated, Mr. Lestrade, one of the very smartest of our detective officers, being in charge ...
— The Adventure of the Cardboard Box • Arthur Conan Doyle

... troops; and the whole face of the country, at this season, is like that of a rich garden. The whole is under cultivation, and covered with the greatest possible variety of crops. The people showed us, as we passed, six kinds of sugar-cane, and told us that they had many more, one soil agreeing best with one kind, another with another. The main fault in the cultivation of sugar-cane is here, as in every other part of India that I have seen, the want of room and the disregard of cleanliness. They crowd the cane too much, and never remove ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman

... outside Makassar roads. That was all. I took the paper home with me and showed it to her. 'I will never forgive him!' she cries with her old spirit. 'My dear,' I said, 'you are a sensible girl. The best man may lose a ship. But what about your health?' I was beginning to be frightened at her looks. She would not let me talk even of going to Singapore before. But, really, such a sensible girl couldn't keep on objecting for ever. 'Do what you like, papa,' she says. Rather a job, that. Had ...
— 'Twixt Land & Sea • Joseph Conrad

... the young lord's own household. The obtaining of the dresses needed for the Royal Balls involves some animal or supernatural aid (in Perrault it is, of course, a fairy god-mother, unknown to the folk mind), while the menial condition of the heroine is best explained in the usual folk-tale manner by the envious ...
— Europa's Fairy Book • Joseph Jacobs

... him to develop this idea and to have a humorous Royal Academy of his own. He has taken the Gainsborough Gallery in Old Bond Street, which he will fill some time before the opening of Burlington House with a display of elaborate travesties of the works of all the best known artists of the day. There will be seventy pictures in black and white, many of them large size, turning into good-natured ridicule the works of every painter, good and bad, whose pictures are familiar ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 (of 2) • Harry Furniss

... as we could East and East Southeast, the same day our steward found a barrell of stockfish in the roming, which if we had beene at home we would haue cast it on the dunghil, it stunke so filthily, and yet we eat it as sauerly as the best ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 10 - Asia, Part III • Richard Hakluyt

... that he was somewhat vain, stupid, and opinionated, for the minor social deficiencies might have been remedied in a larger nature by an affectionate word, and there were times, Alix felt, when the best of men are insistent upon perverse and perverted views, and unashamed or unconscious of their limitations. Martin had coarsened in the six years since they had first known him. There had been something unspoiled, vigorous, and fresh about him then ...
— Sisters • Kathleen Norris

... prepared to say that all life was killed off the earth 50,000, 100,000, or 200,000 years ago? For the uniformity theory, the further back the time of high surface-temperature is put the better; but the further back the time of heating, the hotter it must have been. The best for those who draw most largely on time is that which puts it furthest back; and that is the theory that the heating was enough to melt the whole. But even if it was enough to melt the whole, we must still admit some limit, such as fifty million years, one hundred million years, or two or three ...
— Discourses - Biological and Geological Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... or type of the era was the fern, or breckan, of which about one hundred and thirty species have already been ascertained as entering into the composition of coal. {84a} The fern is a plant which thrives best in warm, shaded, and moist situations. In tropical countries, where these conditions abound, there are many more species than in temperate climes, and some of these are arborescent, or of a tree-like size and luxuriance. {84b} The ferns of the coal strata have been of this magnitude, and that ...
— Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation • Robert Chambers

... SILKS CLEANED. The best method of cleaning silks, woollens, and cottons, without damage to their texture and colour, is to grate some raw potatoes to a fine pulp in clean water, and pass the liquid matter through a coarse sieve into another vessel of water. Let the mixture stand till ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... ready, I'll just cut round and ask at the door. It will seem kind, and I must know how Ed is. Won't be long;" and Jack was off at his best pace. ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott

... spoken to the Duke of Ormond about his money, as I writ to Warburton; that for the particular he mentions, it is a work of time, which I cannot think of at present; but, if accidents and opportunities should happen hereafter, I would not be wanting; that I know best how far my credit goes; that he is at a distance, and cannot judge; that I would be glad to do him good, and if fortune throws an opportunity in my way I shall not be wanting. This is my answer, which you may send or read to him. Pray contrive that Parvisol may not run away with my two ...
— The Journal to Stella • Jonathan Swift

... to be but a sorry building, and not to be kept in the best repair; otherwise it had been a second great ornament to this place; it answers however its destination, and serves very well for the reception of the magistrates, who assemble in it from time to time; so that 'tis presumable, justice ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne

... I have tried to bring out in the various chapters of this book. They show that we are confronted by a firm phalanx of foes who, at the very least, are determined to hinder any further expansion of Germany's power. With this object, they have done their best, not unsuccessfully, to break up the Triple Alliance, and they will not shrink from a war. The English Ministers have left no doubt ...
— Germany and the Next War • Friedrich von Bernhardi

... housekeeping. She did not know herself why and wherefore, but the arranging of her house had an irresistible attraction for her. Instinctively feeling the approach of spring, and knowing that there would be days of rough weather too, she built her nest as best she could, and was in haste at the same time to build it and to ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... have the best right in the world to speak about such things, and your grand-daughter has the best reason in the world to listen to you," said Lady Anne, "because, in spite of all the crosses of fortune, you have been an excellent and happy wife, at least ever ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth

... was caught in the general vortex of mingling creeds and theologies. Out of this confusion (which was in one aspect a continuation of the work of Philo) emerged, first, fantastic Gnostic religious and philosophical sects, and, finally, the Christian Church, which proved the system best fitted to survive in the circumstances, but was in essence as well as in origin a blending of different outlooks, and true to the cardinal points of neither Hebraism nor Hellenism. The rabbis, with remarkable intuition, saw that the Hellenistic development of Judaism, which had ...
— Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria • Norman Bentwich

... danger had passed and a swift realization of who his companion was recurring to his mind. "Something must have frightened them." He shaded his eyes, staring at the bluffs opposite, "But there is nothing in sight from here. Well, the best thing we can do is to eat breakfast. May I have the haversack, and see what it is ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish

... I may want your help, and so may he. Here he comes. Sit down in that armchair, doctor, and give us your best attention." ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Detective Stories • Various

... appear, had not proved in vain. Money, cloathing, &c. Lord Nelson informs Captain Ball, are difficult to be got; however, some will be sent. "You will," he adds, "receive seven thousand ounces, which the king confides in you to dispose of to the best advantage. Whenever the French are driven out, you are certainly fitted for the station of chief, and I should suppose his Sicilian Majesty could have no objection to give you the proper appointments. You are sure, I shall do every thing that is in my power, for your ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... say, 'Liab, an' dat's de main reason what's made me so stubborn 'bout buyin' dis berry track of lan'. Pears ter me it's jes made fer us. It's all good terbacker lan', most on't de berry best. It's easy clar'd off an' easy wukked. De 'backer growed on dis yer lan' an' cured wid coal made outen dem ar pines will be jes es yaller ez gold an' as fine ez silk, 'Liab. I knows; I'se been a watchin' right smart, an' long ago, when I used ter pass by here, when dey fust begun ter vally de yaller ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... Oregon, and northern California are one of the best examples of such a landscape; from its low swelling summits rise at intervals the powerful master cones of Shasta, Rainier, Adams, Hood, Baker, and others. Fujiyama, the celebrated mountain of Japan, may be cited as a familiar example ...
— The Book of the National Parks • Robert Sterling Yard

... Aniello Falcone,[1.4] the painter of battle-pieces, one of the best of Salvator's masters, had been stung into fury and filled with bloodthirsty vengeance because the Spanish soldiers had slain one of his relatives in a hand-to-hand encounter. Without delay he leagued together a band of daring spirits, mostly young painters, put ...
— Weird Tales. Vol. I • E. T. A. Hoffmann

... hard to understand their quarrels. Neither of them had natural tact, and Godwin's sensibility was morbid. Unflinching truthfulness, even in literary criticism, must have tried their tempers, and the single word "demele," best translated "row," occurs often in Godwin's diary as his note on one of their meetings. It is not easy to decide which influenced the other more. Godwin's was the trained, systematic, academical mind, but Holcroft ...
— Shelley, Godwin and Their Circle • H. N. Brailsford

... compromise. Always like that. The good God had to compromise with the first woman he created almost at once. And men have done it ever since—and have never had the best of it. See here," he said aloud, turning to Desiree, "I will make a bargain with you. I will eat my last night's supper here at this table, now, if you ...
— Barlasch of the Guard • H. S. Merriman

... support given to them by Philip II and Mary Queen of Scots. Parliament petitioned for the execution of Mary. Though there was no doubt of her guilt, Elizabeth hesitated to give the dangerous example of sending a crowned head to the block. {339} With habitual indirection she did her best to get Mary's jailer, Sir Amyas Paulet, to put her to death without a warrant. Failing in this, she finally signed the warrant, [Sidenote: Mary beheaded, February 8, 1587] but when her council acted upon it in secret haste lest she ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith

... blue stars, and her hair shone—there must be pounds of it, Billy thought—and her very shoulders, plump, flawless, ineffable, shone with the glow of an errant cloud-tatter that is just past the track of dawn, and is therefore neither pink nor white, but manages somehow to combine the best points of both colours. ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell

... "The best thing is for him to die," he cried harshly. "In a decent community he would be put in a lethal chamber. But I'm not thinking of him. I'm thinking of you. And I'm thinking ...
— Captivity • M. Leonora Eyles

... wins recognition in a first-class magazine has achieved a double success, first, with the editor, and then with the best reading public. Many factitious and fallacious literary reputations have been made through books, but very few have been made through the magazines, which are not only the best means of living, but of outliving, with the author; they are both ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... Yes: 'Tis aemilia: by and by. Shee's dead. 'Tis like she comes to speake of Cassio's death: The noise was high. Hah, no more moouing? Still as the Graue. Shall she come in? Wer't good? I thinke she stirres againe. No, what's best to do? If she come in, shee'l sure speake to my wife: My wife, my wife: what wife? I haue no wife. Oh insupportable! Oh heauy houre! Me thinkes, it should be now a huge Eclipse Of Sunne, and Moone; and that th' affrighted Globe Did yawne at Alteration. Aemil. I do beseech you That ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... believe in bein' this Or thet, ez it may happen One way or t'other hendiest is To ketch the people nappin'; It aint by princerples nor men My preudent course is steadied,— I scent wich pays the best; an' then ...
— Initial Studies in American Letters • Henry A. Beers

... for proving the gratitude they felt for victory. Europe was amazed at the exploit, and England had good reason to remember a conquest which counterbalanced the disasters that she had met with on the Continent, and was the best achievement of the war of 1744. News soon came that Warren had been made Admiral, and their own soldier, Pepperell, created ...
— The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 3, March, 1886 - Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 3, March, 1886 • Various

... I am trying hard to erase that word 'hereditary' from the Serbian language," laughed Alec. "It opposes me at every turn; it mocks at my best efforts; it swathes me like the bandages of a mummy,—and I am growing weary of its restraint. This is a question of self interest, too. Perhaps, if I can persuade our good Kosnovians to adopt some more up-to-date fetish, they may drop the hereditary habit of carving ...
— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy

... common spelling, but the coins of Calchedon have the letters {KALKH}, and so the name is written in the best MSS. of Herodotus, Xenophon, and other writers, by whom the place is named. See "Dict. of Greek ...
— Hellenica • Xenophon

... whom we have just mentioned as surpassing the rest, has been careful in his Oration for Ctesiphon, (which is the best he ever composed) to set out very cooly and modestly: when he proceeds to argue the point of law, he grows more poignant and pressing; and as he advances in his defence, he takes still greater liberties; till, at last, having warmed the passions of his ...
— Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... best classification is that which is grounded on the properties most important for our purposes, this classification will stand the test. By placing the sciences in the order of the complexity of their subject matter, ...
— Auguste Comte and Positivism • John-Stuart Mill

... continued and multiplied; and he began with the sisters of some of his friends, especially Miss Cranstoun (his chief confidante in the 'Green Mantle' business) and Miss Erskine, the first, or the first known to us, of those interesting correspondences with ladies which show him perhaps at his very best. For in them he plays neither jack-pudding, nor coxcomb, nor sentimentalist, nor any of the involuntary counterparts which men in such cases are too apt to play; and they form not the least of his titles to the ...
— Sir Walter Scott - Famous Scots Series • George Saintsbury

... be called a miracle of Rossini's creation, as it not only is his best work, but was written by him in a fortnight, a performance nearly incredible, for the music is so finely worked out, and so elegant, that the opera has grown to be a favorite with ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley

... has one of the best natural deepwater harbors in the South Pacific Ocean, sheltered by shape from rough seas and protected by peripheral mountains from high winds; strategic location ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... than for a sailor or soldier, who are sent anywhere, and leave home and country for years, and think nothing of it, because they go "on duty." Alas! we don't so read our ordination vows. A fellow with a healthy, active tone of mind, plenty of enterprise and some enthusiasm, who makes the best of everything, and above all does not think himself better than other people because he is engaged in Mission work—that is the fellow we want. I assume, of course, the existence of sound religious principle as ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... bottle, or a salt-cellar, without trying to arrange them in such a way as to annoy the Lorilleuxs. They had arranged their seats so as to give them a full view of the superbly laid cloth, and they had reserved the best crockery for them, well knowing that the porcelain plates would create a ...
— L'Assommoir • Emile Zola

... best dress! it checks no vein, But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns, And heightens ease with grace. Castle of ...
— The World's Best Poetry — Volume 10 • Various

... White House in Washington," said Tom Langdon, "and I'll give you the next best bed to sleep ...
— The Guns of Bull Run - A Story of the Civil War's Eve • Joseph A. Altsheler

... man pre-eminent among the rulers, of virtuous life and devout in religion. But while working out his own salvation, as best he might, he kept it secret for fear of the king. Wherefore certain men, looking enviously on his free converse with the king, studied how they might slander him; and this was all their thought. On a day, when the king went forth a-hunting with his bodyguard, as was his wont, this good man ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus

... 'purest and best of natures,—whom I love—who might have changed me long ago, and did for a time work some change even in the woman that I am,—believe me, I am innocent of that; and once more, on my desolate heart, let me lay this dear head, for ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... the best side," said Captain Jerry. "If we build here, a strong storm may knock our huts flat. That side is more sheltered and, consequently, safer. Besides, there is more fruit there, and I'm sure better fishing in the bay, and ...
— The Rover Boys on Land and Sea - The Crusoes of Seven Islands • Arthur M. Winfield

... am persuaded the whole business of grammar may be dispatched in a fortnight. I would only teach the declensions of nouns, and the inflexions of verbs. For the rest, nothing is so easily demonstrated, as that the auxiliary sciences are best communicated in connection with their principals. Chronology, geography, are never so thoroughly understood, as by him that treats them literally as the handmaids of history. He, who is instructed in Latin with clearness and accuracy, will never ...
— Four Early Pamphlets • William Godwin

... Szucsi in 1804. His earliest contributions were made to Kisfaludy's Aurora, a literary paper of which he was editor from 1830 to 1837. He also wrote largely in the Kritische Blaetter, the Athenaeum, and the Figyelmezo or Observer. His criticisms on dramatic art were considered the best of these miscellaneous writings. In 1830 he published translations of some foreign dramas, Auslaendische Buehna, and in 1835 a collection of his own poems. In 1837 he was made director of the newly established ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various

... meaningless, or a statue meaningless, or a Venetian picture meaningless) is a contradiction in terms. In poetry, life, or a portion of life, lives again, resuscitated and presented to our mental faculty through art. The best poetry is that which reproduces the most of life, or its intensest moments. Therefore the extensive species of the drama and the epic, the intensive species of the lyric, have been ever held in highest esteem. Only a half-crazy critic flaunts ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... get him sooner or later. But he did not grow resigned to that; every dodge and flight increased his resentment. Presently he knew he would stop and take what they had to give, and retaliate as best he could. Only, what would they do to him when they did catch him? He remembered his watch, his money, and clothes, never recovered after that memorable tug-of-war. He minded the loss of his watch most; that gift could never be replaced. It seemed to him that ...
— The Young Pitcher • Zane Grey

... the most extensive, simple, and easy, and, as appeared by the trial made, the best calculated to raise an immense fortune of any that was ever undertaken or planned by a private person; a project, in the execution of which M— had the good of the public, and the glory of putting in a flourishing condition the valuable branch of our trade which gives employment to two great ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... they stopped about 100 yards off, looking about as if they suspected danger. However, they became reassured, and all raced away as hard as they could in the direction of the tree. Two were large and the other two smaller; the larger had the best of the race, and were entangled by all four feet before they knew where they were. The Vardis made a rush. I did the same, but in a second was flat on the ground, having caught my feet in the nooses. One of the men came and released me from my undignified position, and I could then ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale

... however, the boy's interested air, with its hints of suppressed excitement and his marked inattention to the books and papers which were his business, at last caused the older man to make a remark. It was in his best manner. ...
— The Necromancers • Robert Hugh Benson

... you don't know much about the North," he said. "But what should a girl brought up in Texas know of wintering cattle in the snow? You see, it's this way: Montana is the best winter cattle range ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... charge? Who else but I, And such as to my claime are liable, Sweat in this businesse, and maintaine this warre? Haue I not heard these Islanders shout out Viue le Roy, as I haue bank'd their Townes? Haue I not heere the best Cards for the game To winne this easie match, plaid for a Crowne? And shall I now giue ore the yeelded Set? No, no, on my soule ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... in the eyes of the thinkers of the age. Of any writers of power, beyond those of the Bible, either in this country or another, she knew nothing. Yet she had a real instinct for what was good in literature; and of the writers to whom I have referred she not only liked the worthiest best, but liked best their best things. I need hardly say they were all religious writers; for the keen conscience and obedient heart of the girl had made her very early turn herself towards the quarter where the sun ought to rise, the quarter where all night ...
— Donal Grant • George MacDonald

... man too often withheld from the social commerce, and the contact of mind with mind evaded as with terror. A Scottish peasant will talk more liberally out of his own experience. He will not put you by with conversational counters and small jests; he will give you the best of himself, like one interested in life and man's chief end. A Scotsman is vain, interested in himself and others, eager for sympathy, setting forth his thoughts and experience in the best light. The egoism ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... the slavers somehow received timely notice of our presence in the river, through the instrumentality of your fair-speaking friend, the skipper of the Pensacola, I strongly suspect, and that they made the best possible use of the time at their disposal. Had I been as wise then as I am now my arrangements would have been very different. However, it is easy to be wise after the event; and I am thankful that matters turned out ...
— The Congo Rovers - A Story of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood

... off and to express their sense of relief at his departure. After some years spent in long voyages, he had fancied a trip on a coaster as a change, and, the schooner Curlew having no use for a ship's carpenter, had shipped as cook. He had done his best, and the unpleasant epithets that followed him along the quay at Dunchurch as he followed in the wake of his sea-chest were the result. Master and mate nodded in grim appreciation of the ...
— Sailor's Knots (Entire Collection) • W.W. Jacobs

... Nevertheless, he will come. I think, signor, that he has drank deeply. Look well to yourself, and if you value your life, do not irritate him, for he would make as little scruple of maltreating you as he would of crushing a worm. Apart from that, he is the best man ...
— The Amulet • Hendrik Conscience

... bound down to the work of carrying out the decrees of truth and justice. Man is no longer the plaything, but the master of his fate; and he, seeing now the possible triumph of good over evil, and his duty to do his best in aid of this triumph, has no more fear of the dreams—the something after death. Our little life is still rounded by a sleep, but the thought which terrifies Hamlet has no power to affright Prospero. The hereafter is ...
— Elizabethan Demonology • Thomas Alfred Spalding

... seen us, and we may as well make the best of it. If we hide, they will certainly ...
— The Young Lieutenant - or, The Adventures of an Army Officer • Oliver Optic

... intelligence respecting the fleet, but none to be relied on as to their destination. His letter to the Earl of St. Vincent, mentioning this circumstance, concludes with these words—"You may rely, my lord, that I shall act as occasion may offer, to the best of my abilities, in following up your ideas, for the honour of his majesty's crown, and the advantage of our country." A sufficient proof of the concurrence of sentiment in these two heroic commanders, which led to so ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison

... red wans, as ye moight think. Ye kin make it of Rosberries or Sumac or Huckleberries an' lots more, but Black Currants is redder than Red Currants, an' Squaw berries is best av them all." ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton

... best, my lads,' said Hawkhurst; 'but recollect, if we strike in trying to get into the right channel, do not blame me. Starboard a little—starboard yet—steady, so—there's the true passage, my lads!' cried ...
— The Pirate and The Three Cutters • Frederick Marryat

... resurrection of the dead, and the iudgement to come, and that in baptisme was a washing away of sinnes) sayd that hee would be baptized. But when we prepared our selues to the baptising of him, he suddenly mounted on horsebacke, saying that he would goe home and consult with his wife what were best to be done. And on the morrow after he told vs, that he durst in no case receiue baptisme, because then he should drinke no more Cosmos. For the Christians of that place affirme that no true Christians ought to drinke thereof: and that without the said liquor he could not liue in ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries - Vol. II • Richard Hakluyt

... hold my bridle-rein * And in highest stead my heart overreign. I have none to obey amid all mankind * But obeying them I but win disdain: This is done through the Kingship of Love, whereby * The best of my kingship they made ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... oriental point of view with its characteristic fatalism and equability of temper. Four of these stories are told with the utmost economy of means and a grim pleasure in watching events unshape themselves. "A Simple Act of Piety" seemed to me one of the best short stories of 1918. The other volume is of more uneven quality, and psychic stories do not furnish Mr. Abdullah with his most natural medium, but contains at least ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... connected with him have a real truth to the tone and meaning of his life and time, though for us they have too often degenerated into dead jokes. The expression "hearts of oak," for instance, is no unhappy phrase for the finer side of that England of which he was the best expression. Even as a material metaphor it covers much of what I mean; oak was by no means only made into bludgeons, nor even only into battle-ships; and the English gentry did not think it business-like to pretend to be mere brutes. The mere name ...
— A Short History of England • G. K. Chesterton

... Winthrop's line, certainly. Yet in the days of vacant courts and laid-by court business, the tenant of Mr. Inchbald's attic went out and came in as often as formerly. What he did with his time was best known to himself. ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... the father. "There's only two kinds of maids, as ye'd know if ye'd been out in the world as I have —those that want a husband and those that don't. But six months married, and ye can't pick the one from t' other, try your best. There's nothing brings a lass to the round-about so quick as having to do what she does n't want. They are born contrary and skittish, and they can't help shying at fences and gates, but give 'em the spur and the whip, and over they ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... of a religious cast in the volume I have thrown towards the end of it, for two reasons; first, that I might not revolt the reader at his entrance, and secondly, that my best impressions might be made last. Were I to write as many volumes as Lope de Vega or Voltaire, not one of them would be without this tincture. If the world like it not, so much the worse for them. I make all the concessions I can, that I may please them, but I will not please ...
— Cowper • Goldwin Smith

... be wet," he said, in reply to the resistance in her arm; "but we must be alone until I have finished all that I will to say. The trees about us are best; we do not want cabs ...
— A Woman's Will • Anne Warner

... Clauzel he rented a little shop, where he sold material to artists, bought pictures, and entertained in his humble manner any friend or luckless devil who happened that way. Cezanne and Vignon were his best customers. Guillemin, Pissarro, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Oller, Messurer, Augustin, Signac, De Lautrec, symbolists of the Pont-Aven school, neo-impressionists, and the young fumistes of schools as yet unborn, revolutionaries with one shirt to their back, swearing at the official Salon and ...
— Promenades of an Impressionist • James Huneker

... I do not mean to say that when it takes a turn towards ultimate extinction it will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less than a hundred years at least; but that it will occur in the best way for both races, in God's own good ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay

... left the horse standing by the door, and ran to the dog, followed by my wife and Pomona. Sure enough, there was a man up the tree, and Lord Edward was doing his best to get at him, springing wildly at the tree and ...
— Rudder Grange • Frank R. Stockton

... War Department, the relationship between Negroes (p. 034) and the Army was a mutual obligation. Negroes had the right and duty to serve their country to the best of their abilities; the Army had the right and the duty to see that they did so. True, the use of black troops was made difficult because their schooling had been largely inferior and their work therefore chiefly unskilled. Nevertheless, the Army staff concluded, ...
— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.

... France, in a vain endeavour to justify his own exalted opinion of one of the most dissolute women of the epoch. He was a first-rate swordsman too, and his friends had already learned that it was best to avoid all allusions to Adle's ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... lack of desire to put this proposal into action, but such pious customs as these would not perhaps have been quite in harmony with the tactical ideas of our commanding officer. Still I promised La G. I would do my best for the ...
— In the Field (1914-1915) - The Impressions of an Officer of Light Cavalry • Marcel Dupont

... have now quite deserted the Irish capital. Besides the lord-chancellor, there is probably not a single peer occupying a house there to-day. Houses are excellent and very cheap. An immense mansion in the best situation can be had for a thousand dollars a year. The markets are capitally supplied, and the prices are generally about one-third of those of New York. Not a single item of living is dear. But, notwithstanding these and many other advantages, the place has lost ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 11, - No. 22, January, 1873 • Various

... regards to his excellency, and wish him a merry Christmas from me, and tell him that he has our best hopes for success in his new enterprise. I will detach six hundred men from Philadelphia, to-morrow, to make a diversion in his behalf," said ...
— For Love of Country - A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... this selfsame swamp Colonel Roosevelt had seen the best lion of his trip some weeks before. Perhaps the ...
— In Africa - Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country • John T. McCutcheon

... playing on the square of the village, and I went and stood close by. Very soon one of the young men came up to me, saying, "Are you going to attend our school here?" I told him, "No, sir; I am going thirty miles further to attend some school there." "This is the best school that I know of anywhere about this country," he said. I asked him if he would introduce me to the proprietor of the school. "Most cheerfully," said he; "will you please to tell me what place you came from, and your name." "I came from Michigan, ...
— History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan • Andrew J. Blackbird

... cannot. There are thoughts too deep for human utterance, memories too sacred for the pen. I rejoice that I was a part of it; that to the lowering of the last tattered battle-flag I remained constant to the best traditions of my house. I cannot sit here now, beneath the protecting shadow of a flag for which my son fought and died, and write that I regret the ending, for years of peace have taught us of ...
— My Lady of the North • Randall Parrish

... otter or a fox is gifted even more than the best dog you ever saw," Paul continued, "and on that account it's always up to the trapper to conceal the fact that a human being has been around, because these animals seem to know by instinct that man is ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren

... trace the genesis of these modes of animal and human experience. The subject has been independently developed by Professors Lange and James;[173] and some modification of their view is regarded by many evolutionists as affording the best explanation of the facts. We must fix our attention on the lower emotions, such as anger or fear, and on their first occurrence in the life of the individual organism. It is a matter of observation that if a group of young birds which have been hatched ...
— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel

... at first thought inexplicable, for why should any one picture himself as having a bad time, as misunderstood by his best friends, ill-treated by his family, jilted by his best girl, unsuccessful in his pet schemes? Why should any one make believe to be worse off than he is; what satisfaction can that {495} be to him? Certainly, one would say, the mastery motive could not be active here. And yet—do ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth

... only be answered by the examination of a large number of pictures of accepted merit, and it was also desirable that they should be studied in a form which lent itself to the easy comparison of one picture with another. These conditions seemed to be best fulfilled by the collection of reproductions in black and white known as the Classischer Bilderschatz, published by F. Bruckmann, at Munich, which contains over a thousand pictures arranged in ...
— Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 • Various

... an objective character. Many things which are very satisfactory proofs to me would not be so to the reader. On the other hand, I have no right to speak of the unimpeachable evidence I now possess. Therefore I must do the best I can with the little I am permitted to give. In the present paper I have brought forward such evidence as would be perfectly satisfactory to all capable ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various

... so cruel as to say such a thing and hurt dear Aunt 'Senath's feelings? With a rush she was across the room and both strong young arms had clasped the frail figure of the best-loved aunt closely ...
— The Heart of Arethusa • Francis Barton Fox



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