"Hairsbreadth" Quotes from Famous Books
... which has been so terribly criticised and derided as "vacillating," has been, since the beginning of this most inauspicious conflict, one and the same, and without a hairsbreadth of deviation either to the right or to the left. As it rests on the unshakable foundation which my conscience as a King and a Christian has laid down, and which does not admit que je fasse la besogne ni de l'un ni de l'autre parti, I am abused and insulted at the Winter Palace, and regarded, ... — The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume III (of 3), 1854-1861 • Queen of Great Britain Victoria
... Pope of Rome absolutely, he gradually acquired complete control over the kings, till at last he himself mounted to the summits of dominion; however much monarchs, and especially the German emperors, strove to curtail his authority, were it only by a hairsbreadth, they effected nothing, but on the contrary by their very endeavours largely increased it. (75) That which no monarch could accomplish with fire and sword, ecclesiastics could bring about with a stroke ... — A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part IV] • Benedict de Spinoza |