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Question   /kwˈɛstʃən/  /kwˈɛʃən/   Listen
Question

noun
1.
An instance of questioning.  Synonyms: enquiry, inquiry, interrogation, query.  "We made inquiries of all those who were present"
2.
The subject matter at issue.  Synonym: head.  "Under the head of minor Roman poets"
3.
A sentence of inquiry that asks for a reply.  Synonyms: interrogation, interrogative, interrogative sentence.  "He had trouble phrasing his interrogations"
4.
Uncertainty about the truth or factuality or existence of something.  Synonyms: doubt, doubtfulness, dubiousness.  "There is no question about the validity of the enterprise"
5.
A formal proposal for action made to a deliberative assembly for discussion and vote.  Synonym: motion.  "She called for the question"
6.
An informal reference to a marriage proposal.



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"Question" Quotes from Famous Books



... Continental Congress, consisting of a single house of delegates, who voted by States, and were appointed annually in such a manner as the respective States directed. Each State was entitled to not less than two nor more than seven delegates, a majority of whom decided the vote of the State in question. The executive functions were largely performed by a Committee of States, which was empowered to sit during recesses. For all important measures the vote of every State was required. The vote of all thirteen ...
— Government and Administration of the United States • Westel W. Willoughby and William F. Willoughby

... about it. And if he, the husband, did not, how much less did Aimee, the trustful wife? Yet who could tell how much misery any shadows of illegality might cast into the future? One evening Roger, sitting by the languid, careless, dilettante Osborne, began to question him as to the details of the marriage. Osborne knew instinctively at what Roger was aiming. It was not that he did not desire perfect legality in justice to his wife; it was that he was so indisposed at the time that he hated to be bothered. It was something like the ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... fared to Waltheofstede—there Saurli Broddhelgi's son, Bjarni's brother, dwelt. He had to wife Thordisa, a daughter of Gudmund the powerful, of Modruvale. They had a hearty welcome there. But next morning Flosi raised the question with Saurli that he should ride to the Althing with him, and bid him ...
— The story of Burnt Njal - From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga • Anonymous

... our correspondents ask the embarrassing question, "Who is it proper to invite to a first ball?" This is a question which cannot be answered in a general way. The tact and delicacy of the ...
— Manners and Social Usages • Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood

... not quite content with this: he must needs put another question to the old man. "You are sure there can be no mistaking them for mine?" he rejoins, fixing his eyes upon the children with an almost death-like stare, as Daddy leads them out of the room. The door closes after them, he paces the room for a time, seats himself in his chair again, and is soon absorbed ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams

... appears in other studies not primarily based upon folklore research, and not having in view anthropological results. It is the basis of the remarkable researches of Sir Norman Lockyer as to the astrological and solar origin of Stonehenge and other circles, and in his chapter which deals with the question, "Where did the British worship originate?" he finds himself bound to the theory of a borrowed civilisation which established the solar system.[157] This borrowed civilisation is Egyptian, but it ...
— Folklore as an Historical Science • George Laurence Gomme

... sex in a mixed congregation. The term prophesy, in this instance, must be restricted to the use of psalmody, because exposition or exhortation in public was not permitted to the women, who were not allowed to speak or even to ask a question in a place of worship. Nay, the same apostle applies the title of prophet to those persons among the heathen who composed or uttered songs in praise of their gods. In his Epistle to Titus he alludes to the people of Crete in these words, "one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, has ...
— Palestine or the Holy Land - From the Earliest Period to the Present Time • Michael Russell

... skill bears a relation to the question of the material power directed by it that is very vital, but very elusive. If, for instance, ship C, firing ten 12-inch guns on a side, fights ship D, firing five like guns on a side, the advantage would seem to be with C; but it would not be if each gun on D made three hits, ...
— The Navy as a Fighting Machine • Bradley A. Fiske

... scrupulous on that point—very scrupulous.—When there is a roundhead in question, I consult the Herald's books, to see that he is entitled to bear arms, as is Master Markham Everard, without which, I promise you, I had borne none of his cartel. But a cavalier is with me a gentleman, ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... way the day passed, and evening found them eager to complete their preparations for the morrow. Mr. Mabie answered every question fired at him by the anxious young sportsmen, especially Bluff, who wanted to know everything connected with the game they ...
— The Outdoor Chums After Big Game - Or, Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness • Captain Quincy Allen

... relieved of this tax on her descriptive powers by the announcement of dinner, and Gwendolen's question was soon indirectly answered by her uncle, who dwelt much on the advantages he had secured for them in getting a place like Offendene. Except the rent, it involved no more expense than an ordinary house at Wanchester would ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot

... breech-cloth wound about his loins supported his bolo and small knives, and in his tightly knotted long hair, glistened a creese. With silent dignity he awaited his orders. No curiosity manifested itself in his face; no question was on his lips; he simply waited. Lieutenant Lewis marveled at the boy's indifference, but when the mission was explained to Piang, the light that sparkled in his eyes and the expressions of excitement and joy that chased each ...
— The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy - A Book for Young and Old • Florence Partello Stuart

... an instruction from Prince Gortchakoff to Mr. De Stoeckl, the minister of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia accredited to this Government, and of a note of the Secretary of State to the latter, relative to the adjustment of the question between the United States and Great Britain growing out of the removal of certain of our citizens from the British mail steamer Trent by order of the commander of the United States war ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln - Section 1 (of 2) of Volume 6: Abraham Lincoln • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... Beyond all question, experiments with the growth and culture of the tobacco plant are among the most interesting and valuable, and afford the planter the most pleasure and instruction of all similar trials with the products of the vegetable kingdom. These experiments at once develop not only the rare qualities of ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings

... addressing mixed audiences. This called forth in the Liberator, which at that time, I understand, was under the patronage, though I believe not under the control of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, a discussion of the abstract question of the entire equality of the rights and duties of the two sexes. Here was a new element of discord. In 1838, at the annual New England convention of abolitionists, a woman was for the first time placed on committees ...
— A Visit To The United States In 1841 • Joseph Sturge

... first question, therefore, I reply: That no regiment of 'fugitive slaves' has been, or is being, organized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of loyal persons whose late masters are fugitive rebels—men who everywhere fly ...
— The Black Phalanx - African American soldiers in the War of Independence, the - War of 1812, and the Civil War • Joseph T. Wilson

... 'O lord, we are the deities called Sadhyas. We like to question thee. Indeed, we would ask thee about the religion of Emancipation. Thou art well-acquainted with it. We have heard, O bird, that thou art possessed of great learning, and eloquent and wise of speech. O bird, what dost thou think is the ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... then, on the whole, that the question of the plain man to the anthropologist, 'Having got your idea of spirit into the savage's mind, how does he develop out of it what I call God?' has not been answered. God cannot be a reflection from human kings where there have been no kings; nor a ...
— The Making of Religion • Andrew Lang

... no need to raise the question of the genuineness of this strange relic, though I confess to having had my doubts about it, or to wonder for what nefarious purposes the impious weapon was designed—whether the blade was inserted by some rascal monk who never told the tale, or whether it was used ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... Island, where she will dwell in happiness, and where your father has been long expecting her. It is not at a death that we Britons weep, knowing as we do that those that have gone are to be envied. Arouse yourself! there is much to be done. The cattle will probably be here in the morning. We have to question the people here as to the great swamps, and get them to send to the Fen people for guides who will lead us across the marshes to some spot where we can dwell above the level of the ...
— Beric the Briton - A Story of the Roman Invasion • G. A. Henty

... to question till one can thoroughly understand. These are thoughts I have never gone into, Miss Lavillotte, I have been in danger of forgetting that there was anything more in life than just money-making. Will you ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

... a, sort of an understanding," which might develop into an engagement, and let her tell Sir Lionel. Nothing more than that; and why should I mind, when in any case there could never have been a question of my marrying ...
— Set in Silver • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... condition of the human mind if all propositions whatsoever were self-evident except one, which was to become self-evident at the close of a summer's day, but in the meantime might be the subject of question, of hypothesis, of debate. Art and philosophy, literature and science, would fasten like bees on that one proposition which had the honey of probability in it, and be the more eager because their enjoyment would end with sunset. Our impulses, our spiritual activities, ...
— The Lifted Veil • George Eliot

... there's no Lord Lieutenant in England: the king is Lord Lieutenant. It's a simple question of patriotism. Does ...
— O'Flaherty V. C. • George Bernard Shaw

... insoluble question in India whether republics were established before or after monarchies, whether confusion appeared more horrible to mankind than despotism. I do not know what happened in order of time; but in that of nature it must be agreed that all men ...
— Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary • Voltaire

... of the steam, the raging of the wind, the pelting of the rain, and the roaring of the thunder, made it almost impossible to hear anything besides; but I managed to shout in my wife's ear the natural, though not very consolatory question, "Were we ever in so fearful a position before?" "Never!" (and we had had some experience of storms by both land and sea) ...
— American Scenes, and Christian Slavery - A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United States • Ebenezer Davies

... he continued, "if I could only have talked it, I would have put the question on the spot. I did try to get a 'yes' or a 'no' out of her; but she either couldn't or wouldn't understand me. It ...
— The Rifle Rangers • Captain Mayne Reid

... many ways," said Erica, "but, you see, except at the night school it is out of the question, and I could not live upon my grant even if every one of my class passed the examination. For any other sort of teaching who do you imagine would have the courage to employ any one bearing the name of Raeburn? Why, I can't give ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall

... register of the family loves from time immemorial. Here Master Simon made a pause, pulled up a tuft of flowers, threw them one by one into the water, and at length, turning somewhat abruptly upon me, asked me if ever I had been in love. I confess the question startled me a little, as I am not over fond of making confessions of my amorous follies; and, above all, should never dream of choosing my friend Master Simon for a confidant. He did not wait, however, for a reply; the inquiry was merely ...
— Bracebridge Hall • Washington Irving

... denunciation or the rhythmic chant of his anger. He had begun in a quiet voice, welcoming the news from Warsaw and the account of the assassination of the Deputy Governor Lebinsky. From that he passed to the old question, why does authority remain in any city at all? This London that sleeps so securely, does it ever awake to remember the unnumbered hosts which pitch their tents in the courts and alleys of Whitechapel? "Put rifles into the hands of a hundred thousand men who can be found ...
— Aladdin of London - or Lodestar • Sir Max Pemberton

... that, papa; but I did say a great deal about the outrageous impropriety of raising the question, because I thought ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge

... this question. That was when I first became aware that I loved John Millard. I am not likely to forget the answer ...
— The Hallam Succession • Amelia Edith Barr

... is a fatal error. Men are weak, and God mercifully helps them to conquer themselves by sending them the safeguards of religious vows and duties. It is His appointed way, and we must not question His wisdom. The dangers are ten times greater outside the church than within it, and a blessing is given to obedience. God requires obedience. He distinctly says, 'he that is not with me, is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad.' And as regards hypocrisy, Hugh, ...
— The Old Stone House • Anne March

... especially evil—impurity, avarice, and swollen pride, which reign in the Bride of Christ among the prelates, who care for nothing but luxuries and honours and vast riches. A strong justice is needed to correct them, for too great pity is the greatest cruelty. As to the other question, I say: When I told you that you should toil for Holy Church, I was not thinking only of the labours you should assume about temporal things, but chiefly that you and the Holy Father ought to toil and do what you can to get rid of the wolfish shepherds ...
— Letters of Catherine Benincasa • Catherine Benincasa

... there is no evidence of any disease of the larynx other than the wasted condition of the muscles in question. The disease of the nerve is generally far from the larynx. Disease of parts contiguous to the nerve along any part of its course may interfere with its proper function. Enlargement of lymphatic glands ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture

... The question was provisionally answered, at all events, by the time the party at luncheon had begun to disperse—with Maggie's version of Mrs. Verver sharp to the point of representing her pretext for absence as a positive flight from derision. She met the good priest's eyes before they ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James

... what could be the meaning of Roger Moreland's visit to Mark Frettlby. All the evidence that he had given at the trial was that he had met Whyte, and had been drinking with him during the evening. Whyte then went out, and that was the last Moreland had seen of him. Now, the question was, "What did he go to see Mark Frettlby for?" He had no acquaintance with him, and yet he called by appointment. It is true he might have been in poverty, and the millionaire being well-known as an extremely generous man, Moreland ...
— The Mystery of a Hansom Cab • Fergus Hume

... ill-advised, I mean, Mr Lynch, to try that game at all. Things would come out which you wouldn't like; and your motives would be—would be—" seen through at once, the attorney was on the point of saying, but he stopped himself, and finished by the words "called in question". ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... the word old not in the endearing sense in which it is sometimes applied to intimates, but as a matter of sober fact. The Dunster in question was old. He had been an eminent colonial statesman, but had now retired from active politics after a tour in Europe and a lengthy stay in England, during which he had had a very good press indeed. The colony ...
— Within the Tides • Joseph Conrad

... A.—The question of the strength of boilers was investigated very elaborately a few years ago by a committee of the Franklin Institute, in America, and it was found that the tenacity of boiler plate increased with the temperature up to 550 deg., at ...
— A Catechism of the Steam Engine • John Bourne

... daring no longer to question him. In the dielectric, the green sparks and spurts of living flame began to crackle and to hiss like living spirits of ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... better. The hotel had twelve bedrooms and they were all disgustingly filthy. True enough, each bedroom had more beds in it than one really needed, two or even three in each bedroom, but a coup-d'oeil was sufficient to assure one's self that it was out of the question to make use of any of them. I counted four different coloured hairs, of disproportionate lengths and texture, on one bed-pillow in my room, leaving little doubt that no less than four people had laid their heads on that pillow before; and ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... out across the esplanade and into the street where Hagar's rooms were. They were lighted. He went to the hall door, opened it quietly and entered the hall. He tapped at the door of Hagar's sitting room. As he did so a servant came out, and, in reply to a question, said that Mr. Hagar had gone to the Tempe hotel and would be back directly. He went in and sat down. The curtains were drawn back between the two rooms. He saw the easels, with their backs to ...
— An Unpardonable Liar • Gilbert Parker

... useful over limited distances. But to the inventor there seemed no reason why wireless telegraphy should be limited by any such distances. Accordingly he immediately developed his method and his apparatus, having in mind the transmission of signals over considerable intervals. The first question that arose was the effect of the curvature of the Earth and whether the waves follow the surface of the Earth or were propagated in straight lines, which would require the erection of aerial towers and wires of considerable height. Then there was the question of the amount of power involved and ...
— The Story Of Electricity • John Munro

... that against your wish and knowledge, I took the large-faced man and put him to the question. These things are not done in this country, but I thought it best that the truth should be told. Therefore, I prepared to give him the torture when he told me that the small-small girl was in danger. So I left him, not thinking that your excellency would return until the morning, and I went ...
— The Daffodil Mystery • Edgar Wallace

... not my father.'—'You ought to be an older man.'—'I should have been, monsieur, had I been born sooner.'—At that moment a friend, overhearing the conversation and divining the cause, came and explained to my wonder-struck host that I was really the artist in question. With many apologies I was led into a hall adorned with floral arches in my honor, next to a beautiful salon, likewise decorated, and finally we reached the dining-room, which was arranged to represent ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various

... were it not that the part which Dr. Johnson's friendship for me made him take in it, was the occasion of an exertion of his abilities, which it would be injustice to conceal. That what he wrote upon the subject may be understood, it is necessary to give a state of the question, which I shall do as briefly as ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... Society this year (1860), certain communications were read which tended to call in question Livingstone's right to some of the discoveries he had claimed as his own. Mr. Macqueen, through whom these communications came, must have had peculiar notions of discovery, for some time before, there had appeared in the Cape papers a statement of his, that Lake 'Ngami of 1859 was no new discovery, ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie

... language, sir!" snapped the old lawyer, his face growing red. "Be good enough to answer my question!" ...
— At Love's Cost • Charles Garvice

... endeavor to forget his pain and fell asleep upon his brother's breast. It was nine o'clock on Sunday morning when they arrived at the Governor's palace. The devout and religious General Drudkoff usually declined to transact any business on that day; but this was an important matter of State, a question threatening perhaps the very existence of the Empire, and a departure from ordinary rules was allowable. The waifs were brought into the ante-chamber, and obliged to pass muster before his excellency, who read them a lesson upon their future career and ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith

... This question is not settled. One thing that has kept it unsettled has been the uncertain use of the term "missionary schools" in the Orders of the Indian Department. What is precisely a missionary school? Let me try to explain. There are three kinds of schools in the nomenclature ...
— American Missionary, Vol. XLII., May, 1888., No. 5 • Various

... million hearts, because a million others inhabit it as well? Has God's original intention concerning the mutual love and companionship of His creatures, survived unto the present day? I think the record of each reader's large or small experience will answer this question for him eagerly enough. ...
— The Doctor's Daughter • "Vera"

... born in Salem, Illinois; bred to the bar and practised at it; entered Congress in 1890 as an extreme Free Silver man; lost his seat from his uncompromising views on that question; was twice nominated for the Presidency in opposition to Mr McKinley, but ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... The question of the children is often used to cloud the issue, as if all that children needed for their welfare were the formal alliance of their parents, and as if a home where hatred rages or complacent vice is serene were the ideal rearing-ground for the young. When love of their ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes

... soul, in a certain state, and is rendered with the vividness of personal experience. "Fancy's Show-Box" is a more individualized variant of the same motive, and yet its substance is the frankly abstract question of responsibility for guilt which is not acted but only entertained; and as in this tale the story is of the sins that hover round the soul waiting to be born, so in "David Swan" the story is of ...
— Nathaniel Hawthorne • George E. Woodberry

... The cottage in question was a rather neater-looking place than its neighbors. There was a fence which really was strong enough, and had pickets enough (if some of them were barrel-staves) to keep wandering goats out of the yard. There ...
— A Little Miss Nobody - Or, With the Girls of Pinewood Hall • Amy Bell Marlowe

... has not come, Captain Ringgold; and it never will come," replied his lordship very decidedly. "I thought we had disposed of that question once for all at Bombay. You and your party have been our guests from the moment we landed. Sir Modava and I have done our best, in the time allotted to us, to make you acquainted with India, and to make the time pass pleasantly ...
— Across India - Or, Live Boys in the Far East • Oliver Optic

... leading to Mrs. Burgoyne's rooms he met Reggie Brooklyn coming down. The young man's face was pale and strained. The priest asked him a question, but he ran past without ...
— Eleanor • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... heard or saw that Faber continued sunk in himself, and how things were going there she could not tell. Was he thinking about the wife he had lost, or brooding over the wrong she had done him? There was the question—and who was to answer it? At the same time she was all but certain, that, things being as they were, any reconciliation that might be effected would owe itself merely to the raising, as it were of the ...
— Paul Faber, Surgeon • George MacDonald

... thinks that, even under the Christian revelation, we have too much light, or any degree of assurance which is superfluous. I desire, moreover, that in judging of Christianity, it may be remembered that the question lies between this religion and none: for, if the Christian religion be not credible, no one, with whom we have to do, will support the pretensions of ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley

... the body of the clergy. The evidence seems conclusive, for the next year Vane brought about an interview between the two at which Haynes was present, and there Haynes upbraided him with remissness in administering justice. [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 178.] Winthrop agreed to leave the question to the ministers, who the next morning gave an emphatic opinion in favor of strict discipline. Thenceforward he was pliant in their hands, and with that day opened the dark epoch of his life. By leading the crusade against the Antinomians ...
— The Emancipation of Massachusetts • Brooks Adams

... had some hand in the forgery lately come to light? A mind like hers must hate a successful rival. To persuade Talbot of his wife's perfidy was at least to dissolve his alliance with another; and since she took so much pains to gain his favour, even after his marriage, is it not allowable to question the delicacy and punctiliousness, at least, ...
— Jane Talbot • Charles Brockden Brown

... come home?—that was the question. It must be late in the afternoon;—Betsey knew that, for the sun had crept round to the west window long since. They must have a great wash to do up at the big house. Betsey hoped the lady wouldn't go out to ride in her carriage, and forget, as she ...
— Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends • Fanny Fern

... be accessory to the deceiving of such a lady!—I was a fool to let either you or him see her; for ever since ye have both had scruples, which neither would have had, were a woman to have been in the question. ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... word of explanation point out to us the seat, the probable cause, or peculiar characteristics of such pain. We see that our dog is ill, he refuses his food, retires gloomily to his house, looks sullen, breathes heavy, is no longer delighted at our call. We cannot question him as to his feelings, or ask him to point out the particular region of his sufferings; we watch his motions, study his actions, and rely for our diagnosis upon general symptoms deduced from ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... application and upon our knowledge of the themes and of the general purpose of the work. Only with increased familiarity does the architecture stand revealed. Beethoven, it is said, when once asked the meaning of a sonata of his, played it over again and replied, "It means that." Music is itself. The question for every music-lover is: can I equip myself in such a way as to feel at home in this language, to receive the message as directly as possible, and finally with perfect ease and satisfaction? This equipment demands a strong, accurate memory, ...
— Music: An Art and a Language • Walter Raymond Spalding

... hesitation, to the conclusion that they were most, if not all of them, what is called, somewhat absurdly, platonic. . . . But as I am not one of those who hold that the conventionally 'innocent' is the equivalent of the morally harmless in this matter, I cannot regard the question as worth any very minute investigation. I am not sure that the habitual male flirt, who neglects his wife to sit continually languishing at the feet of some other woman, gives much less pain and scandal to others or does much less ...
— A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

... of the Cat-Bird, but he is not partial to low grounds. He is one of the most remarkable of the American birds, and is generally considered the finest songster in the New England forest. Nuttall says, "He is inferior only to the Mocking-Bird in musical talent"; but I should question his inferiority. He is superior to the Mocking-Bird in variety, and is surpassed by him only in the intonation of some of his notes. But no person is ever tired of listening to the Red Mavis, who constantly varies his song, while the Mocking-Bird ...
— The Atlantic Monthly , Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 • Various

... or the like. In other cases, I believe the best rule is, to be guided by the nearness, or distance, at which the repetitions are placed in the original: when they follow too close, one may vary the expression; but it is a question, whether a professed translator be authorized to omit any: if they be tedious, the author is to ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... floor to the only window in the room; it was without blinds, and he looked out. But instantly he recoiled with a fresh and overpowering sense of helplessness, for it was three storeys from the ground, and down below in the shadows he saw a paved courtyard that rendered jumping utterly out of the question. ...
— Jimbo - A Fantasy • Algernon Blackwood

... YOU may talk, if you like, of what will have passed between us, but I shall never mention it to a soul; literally not to a living creature. What do you want more than that?" He opened his eyes in deference to the question, but replied only with a gaze as unassisted as if it had come through a hole in a curtain. "You say you're ready for an adventure, and it's just an adventure that I propose. If I can make you feel for yourself as I feel for you the beauty of your chance to go ...
— The Awkward Age • Henry James

... was the immediate and the only response to the question, the words to-day forming a loophole to creep out at, so as to avoid explanation, though that was the very time to make one. Accordingly search was again commenced—as ...
— Aunt Mary • Mrs. Perring

... than a curious question. For parents desirous of finding their true sphere for promising and for unpromising sons, it is eminently a practical question. It is a question comprehensive of dollars and cents,—also of bones and sinews, of ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 • Various

... to the statement of the purpose and drift of 'The Intellectual Development of Europe,' will allow only a brief consideration, in this paper, of the two great points presented by its author. These are, the question of the relative value of moral and intellectual truths in the progress of the human race; and the nature of the law of individual and social development. Both Professor Draper and Mr. Buckle affirm, and endeavor to support the affirmation with array ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863 • Various

... were inspired with the mission that the message of God—scientific perfection—must be carried to the whole world. But, knowing that vested interests, governments, invested capital, and established religions would oppose them and render any real progress impossible, they waited. They studied the question, looking for some opportunity to spread the gospel of their beliefs, prepared to do so by force, finding their justification in their belief that millions of sufferers needed the comforts that their religion had given them. Meanwhile their ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various

... life is largely a question of luck. Let anyone ask himself the question how often he has escaped disaster or how often death has just passed him by. How often has he done some act that would have led to degradation had it been known? How many hair-breadth escapes has he met? How many accidents has he had which ...
— Crime: Its Cause and Treatment • Clarence Darrow

... vary his construction according to circumstances. The essential function of intelligence is therefore to see the way out of a difficulty in any circumstances whatever, to find what is most suitable, what answers best the question asked. Hence it bears essentially on the relations between a given situation and the means of utilizing it. What is innate in intellect, therefore, is the tendency to establish relations, and this tendency implies the natural knowledge of certain very general relations, ...
— Creative Evolution • Henri Bergson

... "The question is as old as the hills," Fenella declared, "and it bores me. I want some more omelette. Really, Andrea, your chef is a treasure. If you get your summons, I think that I shall take him over. Who will come to the theatre with me ...
— The Lighted Way • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... gentlemen," replied Johnny quietly. "If by accident you should happen to see the desperado in question—who, I assume, can be in no way your friend—I hope you will tell him that I, too, will be at the Bella Union at eight o'clock, and that I will ...
— Gold • Stewart White

... him out," said Malcolm Sage, "as I could not see how it was possible for him to know about the existence of the document in question, and furthermore, as he had been in the house less than two days, there was no time for him to ...
— Malcolm Sage, Detective • Herbert George Jenkins

... a brown-eyed, well-dressed young lady, with big question marks in both eyes, question marks which in a very dignified way demanded to know what ...
— Purple Springs • Nellie L. McClung

... meant to run away, and to-day I was dead sure of it; for he come to me this afternoon, when I was restin' a spell on account o' the hot sun, and he was awful low-sperrited, 'n' he asked me every namable kind of a question you ever hearn tell of, and all so simple-minded that I jest turned him inside out 'thout his knowin' what I was doin'. Well, when I found out what he was up to I could 'a' stopped him then 'n' there, tho' I don' know 's I would ...
— Timothy's Quest - A Story for Anybody, Young or Old, Who Cares to Read It • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... especially when he was barked by that false human science called magic. However, as to the reports, though they were not entirely without foundation, he would not go so far as to say that any of the sisters were really possessed by devils, that being a question which ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - URBAIN GRANDIER—1634 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... day matter! Oh irresponsible question of the unwedded! When I tell you the butcher ...
— The Daughters of Danaus • Mona Caird

... I was minded, I could answer to any sober question that he should put to me. He then urged me again, how I could prove it lawful for me to preach, with a great deal of confidence ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... would be a novel sensation to feel that while living like a simple student he possessed a great power, put away, as it were, on the shelf, whereby he could, if he liked, at any moment astonish the whole country. Very novel, indeed, and considering the importance of the question of the disposal of his income, he could well afford to give it six months' consideration. And he might move undisturbed about the University and eat his supper with Dr. Wiener and Dr. Wurst without being the object of general interest, which he would at once become if it were known that he, ...
— Doctor Claudius, A True Story • F. Marion Crawford

... the second dog-watch, that evening—I bluntly directed O'Gorman's attention to the fact that we were now short-handed, and suggested that I should take command of one of the watches. He considered the question for some few minutes, but was suffering altogether too acutely from the smart of his gashed cheek to be able to reflect very deeply upon any subject, and at length yielded a rather sulky and surly assent to my proposal, the more readily, perhaps, since he had no one now left whom he could ...
— The Castaways • Harry Collingwood

... the stream's edge and the bushes had quite disappeared; the riffles had become rapids, and the rapids roaring torrents; the bends boiled angrily with a smashing eddy that sucked air into pirouetting cavities inches in depth. Plainly, fly-fishing was out of the question. No self-respecting trout would rise to the surface of such a moil, or abandon for syllabubs of tinsel the magnificent solidities of ground-bait such a freshet would bring down from the hills. ...
— The Forest • Stewart Edward White

... fortunately been washed on shore from the wreck. Great had been my astonishment to find who he was. I had been narrating my previous adventures. When I came to give him an account of Miss Kitty, I saw that he was deeply interested. He asked me question upon question. I told him of her belief that her father was still alive, and of her resolution not to marry till ...
— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston

... when the bishop looked into the room; but he wanted me on a matter of the greatest importance. I must, therefore, ask your pardon. You naturally would not feel on this matter as we all do, or most of us do," she added with some hesitation; "being—pardon me—a foreigner, and the question involving national as well as religious feelings;" and then, somewhat hurriedly, but with emotion, she detailed to Theodora all that had occurred respecting the early celebration on Monday, and the opposition it was receiving ...
— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli

... object. Many intransitive verbs take an indirect object and are therefore used with the dative (cf. Sec. 153). Transitive verbs take a direct object in the accusative; but sometimes they have an indirect object or dative as well. The whole question, then, as to whether or not a verb takes the dative, defends upon its capacity for governing an indirect object. A number of verbs, some transitive and some intransitive, which in their simple form would not take an indirect object, when compounded with certain prepositions, ...
— Latin for Beginners • Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge

... also, for a fee, according to the difficulties, make a specialty of resuscitating genealogies which have been dimmed by lapse of time or by those misfortunes which often make it seem to the inexperienced that such blood is ignoble—an impression which is without question in itself the most deplorable misfortune of all in such cases. I have discovered barons in chair-menders, and viscounts in cheese-hawkers," and he ...
— The False Chevalier - or, The Lifeguard of Marie Antoinette • William Douw Lighthall

... rushed forth to fill all Italy with blood and slaughter; and thus that best and justest fabric of things was of no long continuance, because it wanted that cement which should have kept all together, education. What, then, some may say, has not Rome been advanced and bettered by her wars? A question that will need a long answer, if it is to be one to satisfy men who take the better to consist in riches, luxury, and dominion, rather than in security, gentleness, and that independence which is accompanied by justice. However, it makes much for Lycurgus, that, ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... you advise me to do, Master Lactancio," the Marchioness then said; "shall I put a question to M. Angelo about painting, as he now, in order to prove to me that great men are justified in their ways and not eccentric, may take measures like those he ...
— Michael Angelo Buonarroti • Charles Holroyd

... in question, as on all other nights preceding, poor Harry, worn out with fright and weariness, is dropping to sleep from sheer exhaustion, closing his swollen eyes in troubled slumber, when, half unconsciously turning his curly ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... (whose tastes were rather profane than pious) instructed or amused himself by causing to be discussed the question of the nature of the soul—himself adopting the opinion 'redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil,' and the decision of Aristotle ...
— The Superstitions of Witchcraft • Howard Williams

... very trail he had just descended. Advancing, he could no more have hit us than he could have seen us out of the back of his head. When we found many hundred spent cartridges of the Spaniards a hundred yards in front of G Troop's position, the question as to who had fired on us ...
— Notes of a War Correspondent • Richard Harding Davis

... notorious woman-eater, makes his addresses in an honourable way to Miss Clarissa Harlowe; a young lady of the highest merit—fortunes on both sides out of the question. ...
— Clarissa, Volume 5 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... cried Morris, whose brow was damp with perspiration, "I quite agree with you there. It was rather thoughtless on my part—a slip such as we are all liable to make. I was led away by the literary part of the question, and I somehow thought that it would be to the advantage of our young fellow—student if he learned from a good authority a little more about the ...
— Glyn Severn's Schooldays • George Manville Fenn

... governments of the world. . . . We have treated Chinese immigrants—never more than a handful when compared with our population—as though we were in a frenzy of fear of them. We have forsaken our wits in this question, abandoned all self-control, and belittled our manhood by treating each incoming Chinaman as though he were the embodiment of some huge and hideous power which, once landed upon our shores, could not be dealt with or kept within bounds. Yet in point of fact he is ...
— An Inevitable Awakening • ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN

... once ask her as to that rumour which Morony had mentioned to him. But he thought of it as he walked with his arm round her waist. Some question must be asked, but it might, perhaps, be better that he should ask it of the mother. Mrs. O'Hara was at the cottage and seemed almost as glad to see him as Kate had been. "It is very pleasant to have you back again," she said. "Kate ...
— An Eye for an Eye • Anthony Trollope

... can be liberated at any given point by its use. There is nothing in connection with arc welding that the above principles will not answer; that is, that metals at the melting point will weld and that the electric arc will furnish the heat to bring them to this point. As to the first question, what metals can be welded, all metals can ...
— Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting • Harold P. Manly

... preferred to others, according to the taste of the individuals, all should have the opportunity of choice. The host will simply ask each one if he has any preference for a particular part; if he replies in the negative, you are not to repeat the question, nor insist that he must have ...
— The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) - The Whole Comprising A Comprehensive Cyclopedia Of Information For - The Home • Mrs. F.L. Gillette

... easily be avoided by the taxidermist first skinning the beak and lips to their farthest extent, and then filling them with clay or composition, and afterwards waxing and colouring the parts in question. ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... Lane expected the question as to who the woman was. It was singular that the magistrate neglected to ask this, the first query offered by every ...
— The Day of the Beast • Zane Grey

... ship is stationary, and you know the longitude you are in, the problem is simple. Then it is merely a question of starting with L.A.T. of 00h-00m-00s, adding or subtracting the longitude, according as to whether it is West or East, to get G.A.T.; applying the equation of time with sign reversed to get G.M.T.; applying the C. Cor. with sign reversed to get the C.T.; and applying ...
— Lectures in Navigation • Ernest Gallaudet Draper

... a question of the nursing that he has now, boys," said the doctor, in council with us. "I'm going to trust that to you Scouts; these women have all they can do, anyway. We got the appendix out just in time—but if it hadn't ...
— Pluck on the Long Trail - Boy Scouts in the Rockies • Edwin L. Sabin

... ass, Darby," cried Garvington petulantly. "He has been in this house dozens of times and knows it as well as I do myself. Why do you ask so obvious a question?" ...
— Red Money • Fergus Hume

... "Japanese" is this vase which was made in Japan—perhaps for the American market; or how intensely "Russian" is this melancholy tale by Turgenieff. This prompt deduction of racial qualities from works of art which themselves give the critic all the information he possesses about the races in question,—or, in other words, the enthusiastic assertion that a thing is like itself,—is one of the familiar notes of amateur criticism. It is travelling in a circle, and the corregiosity of Corregio ...
— The American Mind - The E. T. Earl Lectures • Bliss Perry

... paper and placidly observes that it may be worth while getting seats. Then he goes down to the theatre, books seats, and troubles himself no more about the matter until the first night of the play in question. The world behind the curtain is one with which he is totally unfamiliar. He knows naught of its struggles, its hopes and fears, its arduous work, its magnificent prizes and sore disappointments. So many thousands of pounds have ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, March 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... in which the family at Wyllys-Roof felt particularly interested just then, and that was, Charlie Hubbard's picture. This piece was to decide finally the question, whether Charlie should be an artist, or a merchant's clerk; a question which he himself considered all important, and which caused much anxiety ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... project to Mr. James Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge in public affairs, and, being fortified by their approbation, I ventur'd to lay it before the Congress. It then appeared that several of the commissioners had form'd plans of the same kind. A previous question was first taken, whether a union should be established, which pass'd in the affirmative unanimously. A committee was then appointed, one member from each colony, to consider the several plans and report. Mine happen'd to be preferr'd, and, ...
— The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin

... eye upon a distant and prominent clump of trees where he had concluded the enemy were to be met, and he ran toward it as toward a goal. He had believed throughout that it was a mere question of getting over an unpleasant matter as quickly as possible, and he ran desperately, as if pursued for a murder. His face was drawn hard and tight with the stress of his endeavor. His eyes were fixed in a lurid glare. And with his soiled and disordered dress, his red and ...
— The Red Badge of Courage - An Episode of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... Roussillon run up in its place. His expansive imagination did full credit to itself in exaggerating the importance of his part in handing the post over to the rebels. And what would Hamilton think of this? Would he consider it treason? The question certainly ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson

... that flogging will make a bad-behaved boy a good boy; it has the contrary effect. "'I dunno how 'tis, sir,' said an old farm labourer, in reply to a question from his clergyman respecting the bad behaviour of his children, 'I dunno how 'tis; I beats 'em till they're black and blue, and when they won't kneel down to pray I knocks 'em down, and yet ...
— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse

... the question wholly incapable of solution, which all these learned and ingenious men have so entirely failed in solving? Must the difficulty remain forever unsurmounted, and only be approached to discover that it is insuperable? Must the subject, of all others the most interesting for us to know ...
— The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil • E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham



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