"Why" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... "And why the hell should I stop for you?" Dredlinton shouted. "If Flossie wants to know, here's the truth. It's the least cherished of all my household goods. ...
— The Profiteers • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... perfected,—that they were generated by themselves in distant regions of space, and, having strayed about, orphan-like, for a while, they accidentally crossed our track, and were taken as adopted children into our family, another question remains to be answered. Why did they not remain in their first position, absorb their full share of nebulous matter, beget a respectable family of planets, and take rank as chiefs of their own clan? These comparatively anomalous bodies are great ...
— A Theory of Creation: A Review of 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation' • Francis Bowen
... unavenged? Will not the unhappy survivors show the stumps of their amputated limbs, and say, these wounds fester, and still remain unatoned? Will not the widow and the helpless orphan raise their innocent hands to heaven, and cry, why was justice denied us? Why was the heart so callous to our sufferings? And why was the bosom shut to sympathy? Let Mr. King point out some means to appease these bitter complaints, ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse
... We can understand why a classification founded on any single character or organ—even an organ so wonderfully complex and important as the brain—or on the high development of the mental faculties, is almost sure to prove unsatisfactory. This principle has indeed been tried with hymenopterous insects; but when ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
... relieved when an editor assured him that his work was of the quality that might have been expected from him. 'Having lived to be sixty-three,' he wrote on one of these occasions, 'without finding out why the public embrace or reject what is written for their benefit, I presume I shall now never make the discovery.' And this was ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3) - Essay 5: On Pattison's Memoirs • John Morley
... possessed entirely disappeared, no one could understand a word he said. He appeared to be uttering sounds of distress. The ancient gentleman's infliction had to be explained in low asides, and it also had to be explained why such an one had been chosen to ...
— Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green • Jerome K. Jerome
... Jack, "why do you ax me that question? sure you know I wouldn't have your curse and Damer's ...
— Celtic Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... dream, but it all seemed to be real. I only wanted to be here in this spot. I don't know why, for I was afraid of something, I don't know what. I remember, though I suppose I was asleep, passing through the streets and over the bridge. A fish leaped as I went by, and I leaned over to look at it, and I heard a lot of dogs howling. The whole town seemed as if it ...
— Dracula • Bram Stoker
... bicycle comes the bicycle tea. In the large cities these teas have been given for charity and have been great successes. But there is no reason why any girl may not give an attractive bicycle tea and make it very original. Sandwiches in the shape of tennis rackets, with an olive steak in the center for a ball, are among the novelties. Sandwiches in the shape of a wheel ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... grant is still a cheat; for how comes only a third to be their younger children's fortune in this settlement? How came they neither to have the choice of kings, or lords, or judges, or generals, or admirals, or bishops, or priests, or ministers, or justices of peace? Why, what have you to answer in favour of the prior rights of the Crown and peerage but this—our Constitution is a proscriptive Constitution; it is a Constitution whose sole authority is, that it has existed time out ...
— Thoughts on the Present Discontents - and Speeches • Edmund Burke
... that he could see no reason why his master should take a despondent view of the case, and he offered to go and woo the maiden in his name, providing Frey would lend him his steed for the journey, and give him his glittering ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber
... But why should I complain of that either?—for that is a thing a man is born to in all epochs. He is born to expend every particle of strength that God Almighty has given him, in doing the work he finds he is fit for—to stand it out to the last breath of life, and do his best. We are called upon to do ...
— On the Choice of Books • Thomas Carlyle
... the decay of heathenism, and, as we would gladly disbelieve much which he hath told us respecting our ancestor and predecessor Justinian, so we will not pay him much credit in future in point of geographical knowledge.—Meanwhile, what ails thee, Achilles Tatius, and why dost thou ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... suppose," he observed, as he passed down the hall, "there is something great about wealth or else one wouldn't believe that old Anselman there was thinking of his money-bags. Why, here's Granet. Good fellow! I'd no idea you'd joined this august company of ...
— The Kingdom of the Blind • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... afford it!" he echoed surprisedly. "There's no question of me affording it. Why don't you talk sense? You'll be earning the same good salary after we're spliced as you're ...
— Love at Paddington • W. Pett Ridge
... Why, then, should I throw myself into a world of sacrifices, whose extent is unknown to me, and perhaps beyond my strength? I will follow my destiny, while maintaining the purity of my conscience. Yes, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863 • Various
... defines to be that power which knows the conclusion of dianoia. This power also knows the universal in sensible particulars, as that every man is a biped, but it knows only the oti, or that a thing is, but is ignorant of the dioti, or why it is: knowledge of the latter kind being the province ...
— Introduction to the Philosophy and Writings of Plato • Thomas Taylor
... selfish personal ends—often without fully realizing just what power they were employing—but this merely illustrates the old fact that the forces of Nature may be used rightly and wrongly. And it is all the more reason why those who are desirous of advancing the race—of assisting in the evolution of the world—should make use of this mighty power in their work. Success is not reprehensible, notwithstanding the fact that many have interpreted ...
— A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga • Yogi Ramacharaka
... toast on my very nose while she counted ten, and at the word ten I was to toss it up in the air, and catch it in my mouth as it came down. I was a good while learning this trick, for I did not at all see the use of it. I could smell the bread distinctly as it lay on my nose, and why I should not eat it at once I never could understand. I have often peeped in at the dining-room window to see if my master and mistress ate their food in the same manner; but though I have sometimes seen them perform my first ...
— Cat and Dog - Memoirs of Puss and the Captain • Julia Charlotte Maitland
... good-bye, my dear, good-bye! No, don't come with me, I can find my own way home. And—why do you wait? Good-bye, good- bye for ever in this way. Yes, kiss me once and swear that you will never forget me. Marry if you wish to; but don't forget me, Harold. Forgive me for speaking so plainly, but I speak as one about to die to you, ...
— Colonel Quaritch, V.C. - A Tale of Country Life • H. Rider Haggard
... favoritism which goes so sweetly and pleasantly down with so many pious people is the chief of all stumbling-blocks to me. I must pray for everybody or nobody, and can't get into any conceptions of relation between Heaven and me, if not also between Heaven and earth, (and why Heaven should allow hairs in pens ...
— Hortus Inclusus - Messages from the Wood to the Garden, Sent in Happy Days - to the Sister Ladies of the Thwaite, Coniston • John Ruskin
... coldly. "My visit is to bring under your notice a fresh fact in the case which needs investigation. Whether that fact squares with your own theory or not, it is too important to be disregarded or overlooked. That is why I left the moat-house immediately I discovered it. I felt that you had been ignorantly misled, and that it was only right you should be told ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees
... he proceeded coolly to wash up his dishes, "that's nothing, boys. Has not this old timber house weathered all the gales o' last winter, and d'ye think it's goin' to come down before a summer breeze? Why, there's a lighthouse in France, called the Tour de Cordouan, which rises light out o' the sea, an' I'm told it had some fearful gales to try its metal when it was buildin'. So don't ...
— The Lighthouse • R.M. Ballantyne
... responded. "Why, it'll be dark before long—let alone the state of the weather. You don't mind, Cecil, ...
— Mates at Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce
... Why did rich Nature graces grant to thee, Since thou art such a niggard of thy grace? O how can graces in thy body be? Where neither they nor pity find a place! . . . Grant me some grace! For thou with grace art wealthy And kindly may'st ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee
... 'The Ridge.' Why? I first man settle here. Oak Ridge. (It is the highest land between the Waccamaw river and the ocean.) Just ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves • Works Projects Administration
... That is why I wanted to tell you that you must find something else. (Lays the book on the table.) You can't use this ...
— An Enemy of the People • Henrik Ibsen
... the weakest of his pride: and he ventured once at Sir Simon Darnford's to say, in your hearing, as you may remember, that, in his conscience, he thought he should hardly have made a tolerable husband to any body but Pamela: and why? For the reasons you will see in the inclosed papers, which give an account of the noblest and earliest curtain-lecture that ever girl had: one of which is, that he expects to be borne with (complied with, he meant) even when in the ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson
... "What Government? Why, the Triumvirate, of course—whom may the Lord bless and prosper, as He did Jonah when he walked on the ...
— Jess • H. Rider Haggard
... life has been unduly shortened, and he sold accordingly at a lower price. At the present time few negroes are bought or sold, as their market value has become merely nominal. There is no good reason why white labor is not suited to the coffee and tobacco estates. When the field labor upon the sugar estates is almost wholly performed by machinery, that is, the cane cut by a reaper, there will be so much less ...
— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou
... not the raid, and if the Boers had no reason to fear the British Government, with whom the Transvaal might have been as friendly as the Orange Free State had been for forty years, why then should they arm? It was a difficult question, and one in answering which we find ourselves in a region of conjecture and suspicion rather than of ascertained fact. But the fairest and most unbiased ...
— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle
... the meadows flaunt To deck the morning of the year, Why tinge thy lustres jubilant With forecast or ...
— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... outgone, She would have stopped, nor durst pronounce them plain. The squire what she concealed would know, as one That from her breast her secret thoughts could strain, "Of little faith," quoth he, "why would'st thou hide Those causes true, from me ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... the tree is always the highest; but if the temperature of the air rises to 18 degrees, that of the vegetable growth is the lowest. Since then, trees maintain at all seasons a constant mean temperature of 12 degrees [ 54 degrees Fahr.], it is easy to see why the air in contact with the forest must be warmer in winter, cooler in summer than in situations where it is deprived of that influence." [Footnote: Memoria Sur Boschi Della Lombardia, p. 45. The results of recent ...
— The Earth as Modified by Human Action • George P. Marsh
... own fault. Why didn't they listen to my warning? Why didn't they delay their departure until the following morning? I knew that in the evening a whole detachment of Hussars was stationed on the highway which they must pass. ...
— A Conspiracy of the Carbonari • Louise Muhlbach
... has," Prescott smiled seriously, "there is no reason why he should feel called upon to keep us in food. I'd give four fifths of that food to know where to reach Hibbert, or any of that party, in ...
— The High School Boys in Summer Camp • H. Irving Hancock
... yes, I know, you've confessed probably to having been "fast;" that nearly always appeals to a woman, heaven knows why; I suppose it's the instinct for reformation in them. But how much of your life does that word "fast" convey to a pure ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The Moth and the Flame • Clyde Fitch
... inform a person of so much discernment as your lordship, that education is, by its very nature, a thing of temporary duration. Your lordship's education has been long, and there have been cogent reasons why it should be so. God grant, that when left to walk the world alone, you be not betrayed into any of those unlucky blunders, from the very verge of which my provident hand has often redeemed your lordship! Do not mistake me, my lord, when I talk of the greatness of your talents. It is ...
— Four Early Pamphlets • William Godwin
... as if the angel of death had touched his brow, and the happy ones shuddered at his untimely presence. Now he has reached the castle, he descends from his horse. In breathless silence, pallid, trembling they know not why, those who have seen this dumb messenger look up shudderingly to the balcony. At last, after long waiting, the ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach
... that there were no lawyers to challenge the legality of such laws as the above, which found their way into the statute books of all the New-England colonies. There could he no conditional emancipation. If a slave were set at liberty, why he was free, and, if he afterwards became a pauper, was entitled to the same care as a white freeman. But it is not difficult to see that the status of a free Negro was difficult of definition. When the Negro slave grew old and infirm, his master ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams
... you to have the whole British army in your cheeks. Goodness me! what's the meaning of it? Why, you answer me like flags, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... should have an automobile. He was apparently the only man in those times who saw that this new machine was not primarily a luxury but a convenience. Yet all manufacturers, here and in Europe, laughed at his idea. Why not give every poor man a Fifth Avenue house? Frenchmen and Englishmen scouted the idea that any one could make a cheap automobile. Its machinery was particularly refined and called for the highest grade of steel; the clever Americans ...
— Modern American Prose Selections • Various
... said that he wished to see his sons. Jesse knew at once that something important was about to happen; but the people did not know, and wondered why the feast was delayed, and what it all meant when Jesse called his sons forward by their names, and bade them walk slowly, one at a time, past the aged prophet. First came the eldest, in striped cloak and gray tunic, carrying his thick war-spear in his hand; and when Samuel marked ...
— Children of the Old Testament • Anonymous
... heathen." She was unable to go to church at Winterdyne one snowy morning in 1873. She asked for her Prayer-book while still in bed, as she always liked to follow the services for the day. On Mr. Shaw, her brother-in-law, returning from church, he heard the piano sounding. "Why, Frances," he said, "I thought you were upstairs." "Yes, but I had my Prayer-book, and in the Psalm for to-day I read, 'Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King.' I thought what a splendid first line; and then the words and music ...
— Excellent Women • Various
... the original," said he, "of this claim, and should a captain be so saucy as to exceed prescription at any time, why, down with him! It will be a caution, after he is dead, to his successors, to what fatal results any undue assumption may lead; however, it is my advice, while be are sober, to pitch upon a man of courage, and one ...
— The Pirates Own Book • Charles Ellms
... the biologist will come more and more to be called as consultant. Labor unions as well as the large employers of labor, and their employment managers have given much thought to the problem of fatigue. Just what fatigue is, why different individuals tire at different rates, why some are constructed for monotonous routine while others must have constant variety and change, the relation to accidents and to quantity output, are ...
— The Glands Regulating Personality • Louis Berman, M.D.
... but failure in this can scarcely ever be repaired. Without it we cannot well lead the contemplative life, and can only lead the active life very imperfectly; without it repose is idleness, and labour only vexation. This is why I conjure you to embrace it with your whole heart, and ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus
... gained besides them five talents more." And so far was his Lord from finding fault with his plea, that he answered, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." And why may not other faithful servants use ...
— Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again - A Life Story • Joseph Barker
... Bonbright," declared the elder sternly as he stood aside to let her pass. "Good Lord, why ain't the man got sense enough to come back and ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan
... but why should I rise early? The reply is, to remain too long in bed is 1. waste of time, which is unbecoming a saint, who is bought by the precious blood of Jesus, with his time and all he has, to be used for the ...
— A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself. Second Part • George Mueller
... the noise and clamor of so manie thousands as we are heere assembled, much lesse the force of our great puissance and dreadfull hands. If ye therefore (said she) would wey and consider with your selues your huge numbers of men of warre, and the causes why ye haue mooued this warre, ye would surelie determine either in this battell to die with honour, or else to vanquish the enimie by plaine force, for so (quoth she) I being a woman am fullie resolued, as for you men ye maie (if ye list) liue and ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (4 of 8) - The Fovrth Booke Of The Historie Of England • Raphael Holinshed
... could only conclude that she was mortally offended by our sending for the police, and that Mr. Franklin's astonishment on the terrace was caused by her having expressed herself to him (as the person chiefly instrumental in fetching the police) to that effect. If this guess was right, why—having lost her Diamond—should she object to the presence in the house of the very people whose business it was to recover it for her? And how, in Heaven's name, could SHE know that the Moonstone ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins
... probably explains why I have failed with some species and varieties such as the butternut and some of the hickories. Occasionally I am pleasantly surprised, as in the case of some seedling Carpathian walnuts which, grafted upon some established black walnut sprouts, came through the severe 1943 drouth in fine shape ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1943 • Various
... of joy. Why should it not be so! Is not the heaven over your heads, which has so long been clothed in sackcloth, beginning to disclose its starry principalities and illumine your pathway? Do you not see the pitiless storm which, has so ...
— Phrases for Public Speakers and Paragraphs for Study • Compiled by Grenville Kleiser
... as a rule they do so in air already saturated with moisture. What really spreads, is the cold air which by mixing with, and thereby cooling, the warmer, moisture-laden atmosphere causes the condensation. That is why our fall mists mostly are formed in an exceedingly slight but still noticeable breeze. But in the case of these northern mist pools, whenever the conditions are favourable for their formation, the moisture of the upper air seems to be pretty ...
— Over Prairie Trails • Frederick Philip Grove
... to-morrow, at this hour, you shall be mine—mine for ever, beyond all human power to part us!—mine, to worship, to adore, to live for, to die for! Ellen, do you hear me? Speak to me! Answer me! Shall this be? Shall it be? Why do you look ...
— Ellen Middleton—A Tale • Georgiana Fullerton
... you've said," she replied, "is very fine; but in regard o' the bag-pipes, an' Miss Granua Mulcahy's squeezin' the music out o' thim—why, if it plased God to bring my son to the staff an' bag—a common beggar—indeed, in that case, Miss Granua's bagpipes might sarve both o' thim, an' help, maybe, to get them a night's lodgin' or so; but until that time comes, if you respect your niece, you'll burn her bagpipes, ...
— Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee • William Carleton
... said that unless her father insisted she would not even return to the hotel that evening. Could not someone go for the hand luggage and Ynez? Breathless the three waited, and when Mr. Worth said he saw no reason why they should leave their own home for a hotel Tex and Pat could hold themselves no longer but made a ...
— The Winning of Barbara Worth • Harold B Wright
... they allow them but little Bread or other Preparations of Vegetable Substances: But these Meat Soops without Bread do not nourish the Patient sufficiently, and tend too much to the Putrescent; and this is one Reason why more Sick die in the French than in the ...
— An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany • Donald Monro
... "Why do you bother to learn?" she asked. It seemed rather strange that a man of his age should have to struggle with so elementary ...
— To Love • Margaret Peterson
... was there, but something else which was called Justin Blake, and the feelings that possessed me were such as I had never dreamed of. And yet I was able to think; I was able to connect cause and effect. Indeed, my brain was very active, and I began to reason out why I should be so influenced, and why I should ...
— Weapons of Mystery • Joseph Hocking
... Why the boys should drive away, Little maidens from their play, Or love to banter and fight so well, That's the ...
— Fifty Famous People • James Baldwin
... We had not only been delighted with the chance to buy them, but had spread them all around the cabin and taken a picture of him in the middle. Later in the season, while showing my photograph album to a trader, he had suddenly remarked, "Why, what's —— ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... and toads. Yes, showers of toads sometimes fall. But neither snakes nor toads are as great a plague as locusts. These little animals, not bigger than a child's thumb, are more to be dreaded than a troop of wolves. And why? Because they come in such immense numbers. The eggs lie hid in the ground all the winter. O if it were known where they were concealed, they would soon be destroyed. But no one knows where they are till they are hatched. In the first warm days ...
— Far Off • Favell Lee Mortimer
... Why had the speaker been hushed—and by Fuzl Khan? He remembered the ugly rumors—the veiled hints he had heard about the man in Gheria. If they were true, he had sold his comrades who trusted him. They might not be true; the man himself had always indignantly denied them. Desmond had nothing against ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang
... in a child's copy-book an essay on the sea, four words and a full stop—'The sea is large'—and whenever I attempt a description, I am obliged to confess that I can do no better than the child." The fact is, the sea describes us; that is why we cannot describe it. It is, itself, language and metaphor for the telling of our own longings and our own mysteries. In the sound of the waves is only the song of man's life; in the endless variety of its appearance only the story of our ...
— A Tramp's Sketches • Stephen Graham
... village of Bolton where they lived was strong on its muslins and quilt materials and what the people wanted was to be able to spin fine muslins such as were imported into England from India and China. If such goods could be made by uneducated Orientals why should not people as clever and ingenious as the English ...
— Carl and the Cotton Gin • Sara Ware Bassett
... "Oh why," cried Delvile, with much earnestness, "must I linger out month after month in this wretched uncertainty! If I wait I am undone! my father, by the orders I must unavoidably leave, will discover the preparations making without his consent, ...
— Cecilia vol. 3 - Memoirs of an Heiress • Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay)
... the door, he examines it and returns to PHILIP.] Eh,—I admire the door, my boy! Fine, old carved mahogany panel; but don't ask me to leave by it, for Mrs. Karslake made me promise I'd come, and that's why I'm here. ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The New York Idea • Langdon Mitchell
... believe it's him; that, and the fact that I didn't do nothin' the last time I was held up. It must be one lone rustler who's operating or there'd be more'n a couple of hosses missing. Then it must be some feller that knows the Big B, and has a particular grudge against it, or why would they have passed the Broken Kettle or the Lone Buffalo on the west? Morris has a whole herd, and his main hoss sheds are in an old creek-bed a mile away from the ranch-house. I tell you it's some feller who knows this country and ...
— Ben Blair - The Story of a Plainsman • Will Lillibridge
... leaves of the villain. By a master stroke of genius the artist has shown very delicately that human nature is not utterly depraved, for the villain has placed in the hand of each of the innocents a penny bun as a parting present. I have been often asked 'why I did not have a figure of the villain also added to the group?' but my reply always is, 'Villains are too ...
— Entertainments for Home, Church and School • Frederica Seeger
... to remark that it is impossible to ruin a man who has nothing?' inquired the dandy. 'Why, I defy you to find a better stock in Paris!' he cried, swinging round on ...
— Gobseck • Honore de Balzac
... very well," he said. "It is a difficult place to turn—I must take her almost into San Remo. Why does she want to go to the Lovers' Chair? I thought only the cheap people ...
— The Angel of Terror • Edgar Wallace
... I can see no good in a continuation of the investigation. I am convinced that all the proof that can be produced has been before the Committee, as no pains have been spared to give the case a full investigation. Why, then, keep the country in a feverish state of excitement upon this question any longer, as it is sure to end, in my opinion, in a complete vindication of the President, if justice be done him by the committee, of which I ...
— History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, • Edumud G. Ross
... were to say to an Ulster man, "Who are the proudest people in Ireland?" he would first of all stare at you as if he had difficulty in believing that any intelligent person could ask a question with so obvious an answer, and then he would reply, "Why, the Ulster people, of course!" And if you were to say to a Ballyards man, "Who are the proudest people in Ulster?" he would reply ... if he deigned to reply at all ... "A child would know that! The ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine
... Dr. Holmes, who was more adventurous, admitted he knew somewhat thereof. Now, as I had read it thrice through, I knew it pretty well. I reflected on this, but came to the conclusion that perhaps the great reason why the world has so few and frank autobiographies is really because the world exacts too much. It is no more necessary to describe everything cynically than it is to set forth all our petty diseases in detail. There are many influences ...
— Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland
... out a yelp of rage. "Why, you sneakin', double-dyed, bushwhackin' polecat!" the old Westerner bellowed. "We shoulda kept you hawg-tied, 'stead o' lettin' you ...
— Tom Swift and The Visitor from Planet X • Victor Appleton
... thankful. Reluctantly from her lips came the mention of some particular thing for which she felt indeed grateful. Then a second was gradually recalled, and then more. And as the train of thought grew on her she suddenly asked, "Why was I so despondent when I came in? Everything ...
— Quiet Talks on Service • S. D. Gordon
... misery of things," she said half-sobbing. "I have given my soul to another, and I knew it was not mine to give. Why, oh why, did you not speak to me sooner? I have been hungering for you ...
— The Half-Hearted • John Buchan
... it. I don't know why. I just took the notion, and carried it out without stopping to think. It was wrong. It could have done harm. I was always sorry about it afterward. You must forgive me. I was Mr. Bascom's guest on his yacht, on ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... "Why? Why?" And now they were almost screaming, for they were angry and sorry at the same time. Their cheeks had gone from scarlet to livid, their eyes flashed fire, and some shook their ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume III (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant
... understand why at the present moderate price of all kinds of provisions in England, a tariff of prices, and a set of customs of expense are kept up, which send all persons of moderate fortune to continental watering places, or compel them to depart at the end of a fortnight, instead ...
— Rides on Railways • Samuel Sidney
... proof that the simplest figures are the oldest. The great number of terraced figures and their use in the representation of animals seem to me to indicate that they antedate all others, and I see no reason why they should not have been derived from basketry patterns. We must, however, look to pottery with decorations less highly developed for evidence bearing on this point. The Sikyatki artists had advanced beyond simple geometric figures, and had so highly modified these that it is impossible to ...
— Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 • Jesse Walter Fewkes
... many byrdes were alyghted, mayster doctour said in latyn: aves permultae adsunt; wherwith the byrdes flewe away. The byrder came out ryghte angrye and sore displeased, and sayde, that by his bablynge he had twyse loste his pray.[284] Why, thynkest thou, foole (quod the doctour), that the birdes do vnderstand latin? This doctour thought that the vnderstandynge, and nat the noyse, hadde feared ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown
... was the most populous one they had yet come to. The sufferers, gifted with supernatural might, kept eternally rolling round it, one against another, with terrific violence, and so dashing apart, and returning. "Why grasp?" cried the one—"Why throw away?" cried the other; and thus exclaiming, they ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 • Leigh Hunt
... there craft is comin' down out of the Bay of Fundy, which the Moosoos in their lingo call Fonde de la Baie. She's been up at some of the French settlements. Now, she may be goin' to France—or mayhap she's goin' to Louisbourg—an' if so be as she's goin' to Louisbourg, why, I shouldn't wonder if it mightn't be a good idee for our French friends here to go aboard of her and finish their voyage in a vessel of their own. One reason why I'd rather have it so is, that I don't altogether ...
— The Lily and the Cross - A Tale of Acadia • James De Mille
... hand, if John of Gaunt really was "Chaucer's great patron," why did he not give the poet employment in his own household? Anyone who will run thru the Lancashire Registers of this time will be struck with the immensity of the duke's income and the regal scale of his household. [Footnote: Cf. Abstracts and Indexes I f. 13'7 dorso. Warrant to deliver ...
— Chaucer's Official Life • James Root Hulbert
... the little boy why he was led to such an act of cruelty. He makes no answer. Verily, we should think he would feel guilty, and certainly he looks heartily ashamed. We hope he will never again be found engaged in such an act. If he has no parents to teach ...
— Pleasing Stories for Good Children with Pictures • Anonymous
... write that letter. But never mind that. The reason why I wanted you to come here was to warn you against Sam Fisher. That was all. If there is any way in which I can help you, send for me. If you like, I will come and stay at the house till Mr ...
— The Little Nugget • P.G. Wodehouse
... local reason why we should be interested in the products of the high-warp tapestries in the time of the greatest power of the Dukes of Burgundy. It is that we can have the happy experience of studying, in our own country, a set ...
— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee
... take a dreadful oath that I have never heard any one of our forty pilgrims say any thing of the sort, and they are as worthy and as sincerely devout as any that come here. They will say it when they get home, fast enough, but why should they not? They do not wish to array themselves against all the Lamartines and Grimeses in the world. It does not stand to reason that men are reluctant to leave places where the very life is almost badgered out of them by importunate swarms of beggars and peddlers who hang in strings to ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... know them; and that is why I did not wish to go off without having that frank conversation with you ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... uncle's name. If anything happened it would be his duty to send word to him— perhaps. And then, deliberately, he tore into little pieces the slip of paper on which he had written the name. Geoffrey Renaud had cast off his niece. And if she died why should he— Billy MacVeigh— tell him anything about little Isobel? Since Isobel's terrible castigation of himself and the Law duty had begun to hold a diferent meaning ...
— Isobel • James Oliver Curwood
... I have argued from the orthodox view, that matrimony ought to be the goal of every woman's ambition. But if a woman wishes to remain single and devote herself exclusively to the realisation of some ideal, it is hard to see why she should not. Men who take this course are eulogised for their noble self-sacrifice in immolating themselves for the advancement of the cause of civilisation; women who do precisely the same thing are sometimes unthinkingly spoken of in terms of contempt or with that ...
— A Short History of Women's Rights • Eugene A. Hecker
... "It's why Mrs Devitt wouldn't have un in the house. I don't blame her. I call it disgusting," continued ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte
... reason why a suspected spy should go free because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should escape the penalties of homicide. "The more reason," he said, "why thou shouldst be my prisoner." The ex-preacher was arrested ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... "Why, I didn't know about one till Ariadne came. I learned on her. What's to hinder a man's doing the ...
— The Squirrel-Cage • Dorothy Canfield
... madam," replied the son-in-law. "Why an infant could not get in there, much less ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb
... on the Rector of Tipton and Freshitt was the reason why Mrs. Cadwallader made one of the group that watched old Featherstone's funeral from an upper window of the manor. She was not fond of visiting that house, but she liked, as she said, to see collections of ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... it, sir," said she, slowly gathering her words into proper order; "why, I think I understand by it, that God promises to be a God to a believer's child, as he was in such a ...
— Bertha and Her Baptism • Nehemiah Adams
... of which even appears as Sakti-Surias, while Nazi-Murudas itself is found under the form of Nazi-Rattas. Similarly Duri-galzu and Kurigalzu take the place of Dur-Kurigalzi. There is no reason, therefore, why Nazi-Murudas should not have been familiarly known as Na-Muruda, ...
— Patriarchal Palestine • Archibald Henry Sayce
... 'Why not marry him, indeed, 'm? He could be married, 'm,' answered Gavrila, 'and it would be a very good thing, to be ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev
... characteristic assemblage of fossils, representing the "life" of the "period" in which the formation was deposited. We have still to inquire shortly how it came to pass that two successive formations should thus be broadly distinguished by their life-forms, and why they should not rather possess at any rate a majority of identical fossils. It was originally supposed that this could be explained by the hypothesis that the close of each formation was accompanied by a general destruction of all the living ...
— The Ancient Life History of the Earth • Henry Alleyne Nicholson
... main source of the body-heat. It follows that the drug is an antipyretic, and it is hence largely used in fevers as a means of reducing the temperature. This reduction of the temperature, carried to an undesirable extreme, is the reason why the man who has copiously consumed spirits "to keep out the cold'' is often visited with pneumonia. The largest amount of alcohol that can be burnt up within the healthy body in twenty-four hours is 1 1/2 oz., but it must be consumed in great dilution and divided into ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... acted so in like cases? Judge you, therefore, whether he did it not." Thus the close slanderer argueth; and a weak or prejudiced person is thereby so caught, that he presently is ready thence to conclude the thing done. Again: "He doeth well," saith the sycophant, "it is true; but why, and to what end? Is it not, as most men do, out of ill design? may he not dissemble now? may he not recoil hereafter? have not others made as fair a show? yet we know what came of it." Thus do calumnious ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various
... "Why, bless your heart alive, dear, how late you are!" said Mrs. Crachit, kissing the daughter, who lived away from home, a dozen times. "Well, never mind as long ...
— Ten Boys from Dickens • Kate Dickinson Sweetser
... greatest authority on The Pickwick Papers, is of the same opinion as ourselves on the point, and asks: "Why should notoriety be attached to the 'White Hart,' from which the ...
— The Inns and Taverns of "Pickwick" - With Some Observations on their Other Associations • B.W. Matz
... attention; and again and again was he greeted by these veteran Democrats as one of our ablest champions. His speeches, during this session, will compare with those of any other senator. If it be asked why he did not receive higher distinction, I answer, that such men as Calhoun, Wright, Buchanan, and Woodbury were the acknowledged leaders of the Democracy. The eyes of the nation were on them. The hopes of their party were reposed in them. ...
— Sketches and Studies • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... with me, with some few ministerial reservations. He always agrees with me, and why he is not tortured at the thought of my being the promised bride of another, but continues to squander his affections upon a quarrelsome and unappreciative girl, is more than I ...
— Penelope's Progress - Being Such Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton As Relate to Her Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... to be anything but a strong partizan in this matter. When I speak of "democracy" I mean "selective democracy." I believe that "delegate democracy" is already provably a failure in the world, and that the reason why to-day, after three and a half years of struggle, we are still fighting German autocracy and fighting with no certainty of absolute victory, is because the affairs of the three great Atlantic democracies have been largely ...
— In The Fourth Year - Anticipations of a World Peace (1918) • H.G. Wells
... she was going to thump herself ashore—and then she began to slip off sideways like a misbegotten crab, and backward, too—until what with the darkness tumbling down, and a point o' palms, I lost sight of her. Why didn't I shout, and threaten, and jump ...
— IT and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris
... Parikshit, that best of the Kurus, is. He shall today be burnt by the poison of the snake Takshaka. I go there quickly in order to cure him, in fact, in order that, protected by me, the snake may not bite him to death.' Takshaka answered, saying, 'Why dost thou seek to revive the king to be bitten by me? I am that Takshaka. O Brahmana, behold the wonderful power of my poison. Thou art incapable of reviving that monarch when bit by me.' So saying, Takshaka, then and there, bit a lord of ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... The hair, though not very long, is very bushy, so that it takes the capillary artist no less than a day to succeed in reducing this forest into a small bulk. As it requires some force to draw the comb through the hair, the operation is painful, and this is why the Abyssinian women have it performed every forty or fifty days only. The Abyssinian women of rank pass their life in almost complete idleness, occupied almost exclusively in bedecking themselves and in making or receiving calls. It is not the same with the women of the people. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various
... "Why, certainly," said the charming little landlady—"and a thousand thanks besides! But tell me something of your friend," she continued, as they were being served. "What is he like—and what is ...
— Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley • James Whitcomb Riley
... Guilford Duncan, "was a new birth of patriotism. Why should not a similar new birth come to those of us who have fought in the Confederate Army? After all, the restored Union will be the only representative left of those principles for which we have so manfully battled during the last four years—the principles of liberty and equal rights ...
— A Captain in the Ranks - A Romance of Affairs • George Cary Eggleston
... certain hour, and that there I shall find Jorsen. I do go, sometimes to an hotel, sometimes to a lodging, sometimes to a railway station or to the corner of a particular street and there I do find Jorsen smoking his big meerschaum pipe. We shake hands and he explains why he has sent for me, after which we talk of various things. Never mind what they are, for that would be telling Jorsen's secrets as well as my own, which I must ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard
... be demanded of all students. Are we then to restrict the study of the classics to those who have a pretty taste for style? If so, the cause of classical education is indeed lost. But I can see no reason why some of the great Greek and Latin authors should not be read, in translations, as part of the normal training in history, philosophy and literature. I am well aware of the loss which a great author necessarily suffers by translation; but I have no hesitation ...
— Cambridge Essays on Education • Various
... concentrate on my left wing, and so be in readiness to fight in conjunction with the Prussian army. Should, however, a portion of the enemy's force come by Mons, I must concentrate more towards my centre. This is the reason why I must wait for positive news from Mons before I fix the rendezvous. Since, however, it is certain that the troops MUST march, though it is uncertain upon what precise spot they must march, I will order all to be in readiness, ...
— The Fifteen Decisive Battles of The World From Marathon to Waterloo • Sir Edward Creasy, M.A.
... perhaps, from time to time during the last week, wondering a little in the classroom as each day Snorky Green, beside him, calculated the days until Easter, then the hours, then the minutes. He had watched him with an amused, uncomprehending interest. Why was he so anxious to be off? After all, he, the Big Man, found it a pleasant place, after the wearisome life from hotel to hotel. He liked the boys; they were kind to him, and looked after his moral and spiritual welfare with bluff but affectionate solicitude. It is ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various
... "Please your Majesty, I am not certain they gave that reason." "What do you think of that, Goderich?" says the king. "Oh, all nonsense," said Goderich. The ambassador, on retiring, requested an answer, and was informed, "there was none." The ambassador, in his turn, asked the reason. "Why ...
— The History of Tasmania, Volume I (of 2) • John West
... the sailor, interrupting us, "no; it may be difficult for such chaps as me before the mast to larn; but you, I presume, is a reefer, and they ain't not much to larn, 'cause why, they pipe-clays their weekly accounts, and walks up and down with their hands in their pockets. You must larn to chaw baccy and drink grog, and then you knows all a midshipman's expected to know nowadays. Ar'n't ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various
... enough that I am already, no doubt," he said, "but sure, there's no harm in bein' richer. I may be able to kape me carriage an' pair at present, but why shudn't I kape me town house an' country house an' me carriage an ...
— Philosopher Jack • R.M. Ballantyne
... my own house? Here? Why you are mad. It would mean losing you for ever; losing you beyond hope of ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume VIII. • Guy de Maupassant
... "Why!" said Bristol, hanging up the receiver after making a number of inquiries, "it's a sort of rambling cottage in extensive grounds. There's only one servant, a manservant, and he sleeps in a detached lodge. If the Professor is really ...
— The Quest of the Sacred Slipper • Sax Rohmer
... you, even if you don't, without your knowledge. You will return home with a general impression that Santa Croce is, somehow, the ugliest Gothic church you ever were in. Well, that is really so; and now, will you take the pains to see why? ...
— Mornings in Florence • John Ruskin
... Persia, you would not have been eager to live in Greece, but to stay where you were, and be happy; and, being born in poverty, why are you eager to be rich, and not rather to abide in poverty, ...
— Seekers after God • Frederic William Farrar
... established friendship with the Indians; we speak their language, and our little Sunday school scholars are surely waiting for us," Matthew commented; "so why should we stay? We ...
— Three Young Pioneers - A Story of the Early Settlement of Our Country • John Theodore Mueller
... "Why, yes; we had talked of it for some time. We cannot remain here always. My cousins De Crecy are there, and my aunt De Coudremont. We shall be among friends, Petronelle, if ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... "Why, I don't know," the banker interposed, "that you are so far out in what you say. If you had said that money was always the first motive, I should have been inclined to dispute you, too; but when you say that money is the first consideration, ...
— A Traveler from Altruria: Romance • W. D. Howells
... and it pained me to listen! Do you know the peasants? Ah, Great Scott!" he cried impulsively. "Why don't you act that role? . ...
— The Comedienne • Wladyslaw Reymont
... why, my soul, dost thou complain? Why drooping seek the dark recess? Shake off the melancholy chain, For God created ...
— Leaves of Life - For Daily Inspiration • Margaret Bird Steinmetz
... followed, and when the son came he was even more grateful than the others. Mrs. Lapham could not quite understand why he should be as attentive to her as to Irene; but she compared him with other young men about the place, and thought him nicer than any of them. She had not the means of a wider comparison; for in Boston, with all ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... is not healthful, to declare, "There is no pain!" Pain does exist, whatever you affirm, and your affirmation that it does not is proof that it does exist, for why (and HOW) declare the non-existence of that which actually is non-existent? But if you say, "As a matter of fact I have pain, but I am earnestly striving to ignore it, and to cultivate thought-health so that the cause of pain may be removed," that is sane and beautiful. ...
— Mastery of Self • Frank Channing Haddock
... not more than ten years, but for such age as nice and fleshy as could be expected. She had an anxious look as she stared at me, and I stared at her. The last month's constant desire to have a cunt absolutely without any hair on it was to be realized, I was impatient but noticed and remarked, "Why you have gas!"—a rare thing then in houses. "Beautiful, is it not?" said the woman, and in a voluptuous and enticing manner began undressing, until she stood in a fine chemise, a pair of beautiful boots, and silk stockings. ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous
... along the veins of others, was perhaps completed; it is doubtful whether this can ever be continued with advantage through more than two generations. The prophet is apt at last to become a tyrant, and from this ill apotheosis Rossetti was spared. But there was no reason why he should not, for at least a score of years, have produced noble pictures and have written gorgeous poems, emphasizing a personal success which he would have extended, though he hardly could have raised it. Yet he was always a melancholy man; of late years he had become almost a solitary man. ...
— Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8 (of 8) • Various
... Why did she not with unearthly screams, that would re-echo from one end of the lonely beach to the other, send out a warning to him to desist, to retrace his steps, for death lurked here whilst he advanced? Once or twice the ...
— The Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy
... the professor. "Why didn't you add a big stone filter, a plate-rack, and a kitchen boiler? My ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn
... Why, then, was M. Benazet encouraged to negotiate? Probably there were in France moderate elements strong enough to make it necessary to throw a sop to them. But the extremists were the stronger party; and when ...
— Greece and the Allies 1914-1922 • G. F. Abbott
... "Why, you must be mad! They would make fun of you; keep your place. Besides, it is more becoming for a doctor," ...
— Madame Bovary • Gustave Flaubert
... husband! hearing of wounds, which if true would have made you a riddled net, of deaths enough for a three-lived Geryon: again and again I have been stopped with the noose already on my neck! This is the reason why you see not your son Orestes: wonder not, he is being brought up by an ally to whom I sent him, lest danger befall us. I cannot weep; my tears have run dry by my weepings and sleepless watchings for the beacon. Now at ...
— Story of Orestes - A Condensation of the Trilogy • Richard G. Moulton |
