"Dire" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the confessional covertly infringed, and its sanctity abused to an unhallowed purpose; while even private visitation was converted into a channel for temptation, and made the occasion of unholy freedom of words and manner. So ran the account of evil and a dire account it was. By it, all serious thoughts of religion were well nigh extinguished. The influence was fearful and polluting, the whirl of excitement inexpressible: I cannot enter into minute particulars here, every sense of feminine delicacy and womanly feeling shrink ...
— The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional • Father Chiniquy
... in the sight of high heaven. But at this season of construction and dire crisis how shall these mutual suspicions find a place? Once more I issue this announcement; if you, my fellow countrymen, do indeed place the safety of China before all other considerations, it behooves you to be large-minded. ...
— The Fight For The Republic in China • Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale
... ground. Think how they felt when the last shovelful of earth was put in, how the sense of work well done filled their breasts with satisfaction! But on that very day disaster of the most terrible kind was hanging over them, and less than twenty-four hours lay between them and dire calamity. ...
— The Voyage of the Hoppergrass • Edmund Lester Pearson
... solemn, appalling, dread, grand, noble, stately, august, dreadful, horrible, portentous, terrible, dire, fearful, imposing, ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... hear the dire results of the interference. Sypher claimed her attention until the train was ...
— Septimus • William J. Locke
... feelings. Each note suggested a tempest, and as the playing continued, the old man lifted his head and Douglas noted the gleam in his eyes and the angry expression upon his face. At that moment he was ready for action, for revenge dire ...
— The Unknown Wrestler • H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
... aloueette, avec son tirelire, Tirelire, a lire, et tireliran, tire Vers la voute du ciel, puis son vol vers ce lieu, Vire et desire dire adieu ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... Phebe was having her first experience of bitter homesickness. She had always supposed herself immune from that dire disease, and, for some time, she had no idea what was the matter with her. In vain she tried to trace the cause of her complaint to malaria and to every known form of indigestion. She studied her symptoms carefully and tried to match them up, one by ...
— Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book • Anna Chapin Ray
... Beowulf's grief at this dire misfortune, and eager was his desire for vengeance. He scorned to seek the foe with a great host behind him, nor did he dread the combat in any way, for he called to mind his many feats of war, and especially his ...
— Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy - Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls • Various
... husky athletes. "Why seek ye to question the ways of T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.? You have your Prodigious Prodigy—your smashing full-back is distributing the 'Varsity over the scenery with charming nonchalance that promises dire catastrophe for other teams, once he ...
— T. Haviland Hicks Senior • J. Raymond Elderdice
... spends a great deal of money to appear to advantage and follow the fashions, who does her best to keep house sumptuously and yet economically—a house, too, not easy to manage—who, from morality and dire necessity, perhaps, loves no one but her husband, who has no other study but the happiness of this precious husband, who, to express all in one word, joins the maternal sentiment to the sentiment of her duties. This underlined circumlocution is the paraphrase of the word ...
— Analytical Studies • Honore de Balzac
... that I had enjoyed some sleep, having dozed off several times on my chair. I had ordered Mrs. Atkins, under dire threats, to awaken me at least every half hour, and she ...
— Sweetapple Cove • George van Schaick
... comfort from the steady arm about her waist, from the strong, protective presence, from the rather stern beauty of the face looking down into hers, Lady Constance could not master her agitation. The train had left the metals, so to speak, and the result was confusion dire. A great shame held her, a dislocation of mind. She suffered that loneliness of soul which forms so integral a part of the misery of all apparently irretrievable disaster, whether moral or physical, and places the victim of it, in ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet
... knew had been one of the largest eaters. I was speaking now of John Wesley Bass, the champion raw-egg eater of Massac Precinct, whose triumphant career knew not pause or discomfiture until one day at the McCracken County fair when suddenly tragedy dire impended. ...
— One Third Off • Irvin S. Cobb
... confiscation's vultures hover round[d]. The needy traveller, serene and gay, Walks the wild heath, and sings his toil away. Does envy seize thee? crush th' upbraiding joy; Increase his riches, and his peace destroy; [e]Now fears, in dire vicissitude, invade, The rustling brake alarms, and quiv'ring shade; Nor light nor darkness bring his pain relief, One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief. [f] Yet still one gen'ral cry[g] the skies assails, And gain and grandeur load the tainted gales: Few know the toiling statesman's ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... weakness and to be | depends upon a strict separation of censured and not confuted), or else of a | divinity and natural philosophy. In deceitful simplicity. For if they mean | a number of memorable passages Bacon that the ignorance of a second cause doth | indeed warns his readers of the dire make men more devoutly to depend upon the | consequences of confusing divinity providence of God, as supposing the | with natural science: to combine effects to come immediately from his hand, | them, he says, is to confound them. I demand of them, as Job demanded of his | This ...
— Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature • Sir Francis Bacon
... disgusting expedients to prolong life, which have sometimes been resorted to by famishing wretches. I had read how the pangs of hunger, and the still fiercer torments of thirst, had seemed to work a dire change even in kind and generous natures, making men wolfish, so that they slew and fed upon each other. Now, all that was most revolting and inhuman, in what I had heard or read of such things, rose ...
— The Island Home • Richard Archer
... what one would call pretty, but she possesses a bright, cheery face, which is reflected in miniature in her son Teddy, who is as his uncle says rather the 'enfant terrible!' but do not say so before his mother, or her wrath would be dire. Her husband George is really the only person who dares to interfere concerning the conduct of that ...
— Lippa • Beatrice Egerton
... the demon of disaster suddenly appeared. It was the proper order to have given had there really been a cavalry force advancing, but as the alarm originated in the imagination of others, for which there was no valid reason, the movement proved a mistake which turned the tide of battle and caused the dire disaster for which Lieut.-Col. Booker was, and is to this day, most unjustly blamed. A little reflection on the part of his critics might have tended to tone down their asperity and given him some credit for what he did do, both ...
— Troublous Times in Canada - A History of the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870 • John A. Macdonald
... ventures, he never came back to his wife without some present from a foreign clime as a tangible proof of his remembrance, and because these were usually mere curiosities, without intrinsic value, they often evaded the pawn-shop in those years of dire distress, when more negotiable articles passed irretrievably away from the family possession. And with them too, in stiff, decorous frames, are those certificates and testimonials which a master mariner always collects, together with photographs ...
— A Master of Fortune • Cutcliffe Hyne
... good and kind, but they will not understand that breathing-space and action are necessary to the devouring activity of the mind at twenty. Here is my last jewel; I had promised my mother never to part with it save from dire necessity. Take it, and sell it; it will serve to maintain you in Paris a few weeks longer. It is the last token of my love, which I stake for you in the lottery of Providence. It must bring you good luck; for my solicitude, my prayers, my tenderness for you go with it." I took the ring, and kissed ...
— Raphael - Pages Of The Book Of Life At Twenty • Alphonse de Lamartine
... like other women of his acquaintance, and dangerously unlike them. The principal of the academy in Gullettsville—a scholarly old gentleman from Middle Georgia, who had been driven to teaching by dire necessity—had once loftily informed Woodward that Miss Poteet was superior to her books, and the young man had verified the statement to his own discomfiture. She possessed that feminine gift ...
— Mingo - And Other Sketches in Black and White • Joel Chandler Harris
... this thou beholdest, Achilles our boldest." And what wilt thou reply? Draw tight the rein Lest that fiery soul of thine Whirl thee out of the listed plain, Past the olives, and o'er the line. Dire and grievous the charge he brings. See thou answer him, noble heart, Not with passionate bickerings. Shape thy course with a sailor's art, Reef the canvas, shorten the sails, Shift them edgewise to shun the gales. When the breezes are soft and low, Then, well under ...
— The Frogs • Aristophanes
... fat arms or fingers that might have helped him forward. There are many phases of heroism, but if you want your breath quite taken away, go to Tiffany's, and see some large-souled woman, who will not even count the cost or realize the dire consequences—see her, like some martyr of the past, who would show to the world the object of his faith though the heavens fell, march to the counter, select the costliest, and say ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe
... her away. Instinctively he had felt the old man flinch; instinctively he knew his pride, already, had been sorely hurt by the necessity of "traveling steerage"; that as they gazed at him the handsome, white-haired, emigrant had felt that his dire poverty had ...
— The Old Flute-Player - A Romance of To-day • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey
... along by affection, and now and then by indulgence. Instead, the system of severity had been applied with results little short of calamitous. He had been sent to schools famous for religion and discipline, from which he reacted in the first weeks of freedom in college, getting into dire academic scrapes. Further severity had led to further scrapes, and further scrapes to something like disgrace, when the war broke out and a Red Cross job had kept him from going to the bad. The mother had been a self-willed ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King
... Dire confusion regarding woman's status has been created in many minds by three distinct ethnologic phenomena, which are, moreover, often confounded: (1) kinship and heredity through females; (2) matriarchy, or woman's rule in the family (domestic); ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck
... succession, it was thought to be a sure sign of early death to some member of the household. In Notes and Queries a correspondent remarks that crowing hens are not uncommon, that their crow is very similar to the crow of a very young cock, and must be taken as a certain presagement of some dire calamity. ...
— Animal Ghosts - Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter • Elliott O'Donnell
... must ask you, hey?" said Blanche, finishing the sentence. "Of course. No mistake. Sans dire. Jones, junior, this lady will join us. Don't look so scared, man. Are you anxious about your cushions ...
— Malbone - An Oldport Romance • Thomas Wentworth Higginson
... Je dois dire, pour commencer, que ma naissance ne porta pas bonheur la maison Eyssette. La vieille Annou, notre cuisinire, m'a souvent cont depuis comme quoi mon pre, en voyage ce moment, reut en mme temps la ...
— Le Petit Chose (part 1) - Histoire d'un Enfant • Alphonse Daudet
... had been told in the wonderful dream of the suffering which would be endured and that the water which they carried in the cup was only to be used in dire necessity, and the brothers said to each other: "Now the time has come for us to drink the water." And when one had quaffed of the magical bowl, he found it still full, and he gave it to the other to drink, and still it was full; ...
— Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians • John Wesley Powell
... melting of glaciers, and that have a habit of quickly running out to a no-sport level when the winter snows have disappeared (confining the fishing often to about one calendar month), the cloudless days, glorious though they are to the tourist, are a dire affliction to him. Such a river as this which gives me friendly welcome to the Norway fish is generally in fair volume, and I see it tinted with a recent rise of some feet. In a grey light, and from the water level, it seems ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior
... general plants his cannon on the heights overlooking and commanding his enemies' works. The first, broadly stated, asserted the kinship of the slave to the free population of the republic. They were men; they were natives of the country; they were in dire need. They were ignorant, degraded, morally and socially. They were the heathen at home, whose claims far outranked those in foreign lands; they were higher than those of the "Turks or Chinese, for they have the privileges of instruction; higher than the Pagans, for ...
— William Lloyd Garrison - The Abolitionist • Archibald H. Grimke
... of woe! Harbour of endless ire! Thou school of errors, haunt of heresies! Once Rome, now Babylon, the world's disease, That maddenest men with fears and fell desire! O forge of fraud! O prison dark and dire, Where dies the good, where evil breeds increase! Thou living Hell! Wonders will never cease If Christ rise not to purge thy sins with fire. Founded in chaste and humble poverty, Against thy founders thou dost raise thy horn, Thou shameless harlot! ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series • John Addington Symonds
... upset at the time on account of Lady Isabel's having eluded his vigilance and escaped. This just shows how careful we ought to be about our lightest and most innocent actions. No one would expect any dire results to come of simply spraining a young man's ankle on a steamer; but they did; which is the way many disasters occur and often we don't find out why even afterwards, though in this case Lord Torrington did, ...
— Priscilla's Spies 1912 • George A. Birmingham
... answered the man who cried out to Him in his dire extremity. The boards resounding beneath him suddenly gave him a bright idea of deliverance. Above and around there was no place of safety, but might there not be a refuge ...
— The Day of Wrath • Maurus Jokai
... incommoded by his cap, and almost blinded by the pease, was soon overtaken and seized; and by this capture, the tranquillity of the garrison was soon restored, without that slaughter and bloodshed which every man had prognosticated at the beginning of this dire alarm. ...
— The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes - Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection • Various
... amongst them. Mr Moorlan remembers the time when they brought food for sale; but now, instead, they turn their backs upon all foreigners, and even abuse the missionaries for having been the precursors of such dire calamities. The shell of the brick church at Gondokoro, and the cross on the top of a native-built hut in Kich, are all that will remain to bear testimony of these Christian exertions to improve the condition of these heathens. Want of employment, ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke
... Saunders. It was exactly as the Captain had surmised. The note she had received on the evening of the return from the life-saving station was from the proprietor of the billiard saloon, and in it he hinted at some dire calamity that overshadowed her grandfather, and demanded an immediate interview. She had seen him that night and, under threat of instant exposure, had promised to pay the sum required for silence. She had not wished to use her grandfather's ...
— Cap'n Eri • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... represented? Does not the change consist rather in the outer form and in the ideas expounded than in the spirit of the histrionism and mimicry? And must not the vigor, from what we have seen, have been intensified in Plautus? LeGrand alone seems to have caught the essence of this:[109] "Que dire de la mimique? D'aprA"s les indications contenues dans le texte mAme des comA(C)dies, d'aprA"s les commentaires—notamment ceux de Donat, d'aprA"s les monuments figurA(C)s—en particulier les images des manuscrits, elle devait Atre en general trA"s vive, souvent trop vive pour le goA"t ...
— The Dramatic Values in Plautus • William Wallace Blancke
... nose and the other ear, and a fore leg and two hind ones, and finally hurled it over the fence, amid a torrent of shrieks which only a Pitcairn pig could utter or a Pitcairn mind conceive. It fell with a bursting squeak, and retired in grumpy silence to ruminate over the dire consequences of a too earnest gaze in the face ...
— The Lonely Island - The Refuge of the Mutineers • R.M. Ballantyne
... biscuits! She had sold everything comfortable in the way of furniture; all her clothing but one respectable suit for the street, and the only thing remaining, that pointed to the history of better days, was a pair of gold eye-glasses, given her by her dying mother. Within a few months her dire necessity had often pointed to the glasses; but she could not see without them, nor could she sell the gold frames unless she had means to have the glass set in commoner ones. Moreover, the harpies who feed ...
— The Wonders of Prayer - A Record of Well Authenticated and Wonderful Answers to Prayer • Various
... But what dire fate had befallen him? Surely, not even an amateur cracksman would give himself and the whole snap away unless the ...
— Back to the Woods • Hugh McHugh
... sudden sound from the beach below arrested her. For a moment she listened in silence while the shout was repeated, then stood dumb with amazement. A third time it came to her, borne on the rising wind, the terrified cry of a man in dire distress. Nor was it one of her own people who thus called out of the darkness for help. Swiftly she ran to an overhanging ledge of rock from which, by lying flat and peeping over, she could, without exposing herself, command a wide view of ...
— Their Mariposa Legend • Charlotte Herr
... fashioned on the prim style of London dandies and Italian fops; we are—the poorest of us—coarse a little at the hide, too quick, perhaps, to slash out with knife or hatchet, and over-ready to carry the most innocent argument the dire length of a thrust with the sword. That's the blood; it's the common understanding among ourselves. But we were never such thieves and marauders, caterans bloody and unashamed, as the Galloway kerns and the Northmen, ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... the river to fall back upon, since the Maid's counsel of destruction had not been followed. But once dislodged from the south bank, and Orleans would lie open to the support of her friends in the south, and the position of the English army would be one of dire peril. For now the French were no more cowed by craven fear of the power of their enemies. They had found them capable of defeat and overthrow; the spell was broken. And it was the ...
— A Heroine of France • Evelyn Everett-Green
... noose, As each a different way pursues, While sullen or loquacious strife, Promis'd to hold them on for life, That dire disease, whose ruthless power 75 Withers the beauty's transient flower: Lo! the small-pox, whose horrid glare Levell'd its terrors at the fair; And, rifling ev'ry youthful grace, Left but the remnant of a ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith
... man did not speak again for a long time, and while the watchers waited a call came from outside of the hut—a long, wavering scream, as of some one in dire distress. ...
— Boy Scouts in Mexico; or On Guard with Uncle Sam • G. Harvey Ralphson
... mind, Augusta,[4] well that fatal day, When to thy ports with dire contagion fraught. The laden vessel[5] stemmed its gallant way. And to thy sons the plague disastrous brought; Quick through thy walls the foul infection spread, And thou became the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume 13, No. 359, Saturday, March 7, 1829. • Various
... peu desordonnee de cette lettre, mon cher ami, vous prouvera mieux que tout ce que je pourrais dire les progres de ma sante. Je vais ecrire a Mme Grote. Rappelez-nous, je vous prie, tout particulierement au souvenir de Lady Theresa et de Sir C. Lewis. J'espere que Lord Hatherton ne m'a pas oublie. Mille et mille amities a tous les Senior. Je n'ai pas besoin d'en dire autant ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton
... [Pausing.] He's gone, my father, friend, preserver And here's the portion he has left me: This dagger. Well remembered! with this dagger I gave a solemn vow of dire importance; Parted with this, and Belvidera together. Have a care, mem'ry, drive that thought no farther. No, I'll esteem it as a friend's last legacy; Treasure it up within this wretched bosom, Where it may grow acquainted with ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Thomas Otway
... ethnically-based states (kililoch, singular - kilil) and 2 self-governing administrations* (astedaderoch, singular - astedader); Adis Abeba* (Addis Ababa), Afar, Amara (Amhara), Binshangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa*, Gambela Hizboch (Gambela Peoples), Hareri Hizb (Harari People), Oromiya (Oromia), Sumale (Somali), Tigray, Ye Debub Biheroch Bihereseboch na Hizboch (Southern Nations, Nationalities ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... of them, and there are many others. The truants often return to me, and beg that I would consort with them again—they are ready to go to me on their knees—and then, if my familiar allows, which is not always the case, I receive them, and they begin to grow again. Dire are the pangs which my art is able to arouse and to allay in those who consort with me, just like the pangs of women in childbirth; night and day they are full of perplexity and travail which is even worse than that of the women. So much for them. And there are others, Theaetetus, who ...
— Theaetetus • Plato
... of book-cemeteries such as I have supposed is very formidable. It should be kept within the limits of the dire necessity which has evoked it from the underworld into the haunts of living men. But it will have to be faced, and faced perhaps oftener than might be supposed. And the artist needed for the constructions it requires will ...
— On Books and the Housing of Them • William Ewart Gladstone
... be positive that nothing short of an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned to do. I was also aware of the fact that the sending apparatus of the Toreador's wireless equipment was sealed, and that it would only be used in event of dire necessity. There was, therefore, nothing to do but wait, ...
— The People that Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... course, of course; pro forma [Lat.], for form's sake, by the card. invariably, &c (uniformly) 16. for example, exempli gratia [Lat.], e.g.; inter alia [Lat.], among other things; for instance. Phr. cela va sans dire [Fr.]; ex pede Herculem [Lat.]; noscitur a sociis [Lat.]; ne e quovis ligno Mercurius fiat [Lat.] [Erasmus]; they are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations [Bacon]. The nail that sticks up hammered down [Jap.Tr.]; Tall poppy syndrome; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... mail in readiness, and the reserved passengers made no remarks on what was passing; for, in those days, Englishmen were afraid to speak to each other for fear of recognizing one not of their class, while to strangers and foreigners they would not speak except in case of dire necessity. The Frenchman was ready enough to talk, but, unfortunately, we were separated by different languages. Thus the Englishman would not talk, the Frenchman could not, and the intelligent, loquacious American driver, who discourses ...
— Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
... in stating that this was the beginning of trouble for Little Miss Grouch, though she was far from appreciating her danger at the time, or of realizing that her dire design of vengeance was becoming diluted with a very ...
— Little Miss Grouch - A Narrative Based on the Log of Alexander Forsyth Smith's - Maiden Transatlantic Voyage • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... once explaining to a fierce and barbarous fellow the great glory of paradise and the dire pains of hell, he answered, just as if he had been possessed by a demon, that he had rather go to hell than to paradise; and, as he was one of the chiefs in that region, he carried a great many with ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume XI, 1599-1602 • Various
... their money only, but themselves. The poor and needy ones who, in this great turmoil of life, have found no helper among their fellows; the wicked and outcast, whose hand is against every man's, because they have found, by dire experience of the world's selfishness, how every man's hand is against them; the prodigal and broken-hearted children of the human family, who have the bitterest thoughts of God and man, if they have ...
— Parish Papers • Norman Macleod
... suspect, however, that any such dire consequences were to come of his act when he first began noticing the fossil shells that here and there are to be found in the stratified rocks and soils of the regions over which his surveyor's duties led him. Nor, indeed, was there anything of such apparent ...
— A History of Science, Volume 3(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams
... however, yielding to the contagion, sat beside his mother and barked angrily out across the increasing stretch of water as he would have barked at any danger that crept and rustled in the jungle. This, too, sank to Jerry's heart, adding weight to his sure intuition that dire fate, he knew not what, was ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London
... by. Like a child she ate and slept and chattered—irresponsible chatter that was music to his ear. She laughed and teased him too, as a child would; till sad, as it was, he hugged the incomplete happiness to his heart with a dire foreboding that it might be all he ...
— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle
... the "Jam tin" would be picked up by the Germans, before it exploded and thrown back at Tommy with dire results. ...
— Over The Top • Arthur Guy Empey
... analysis of reason, but for the first time in his life he longed to hold back that sun. Somehow he feared the advent of the night. It seemed to him that before the morning light would again flood the earth a dire calamity would befall them. ...
— Omega, the Man • Lowell Howard Morrow
... The dire effects of her proud tyrant's guilt;— An Umpire partial and unjust, And a lewd woman's impious lust, Lay heavy on her head, and sunk ...
— An Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients • John Ogilvie
... l'amour-propre, de sorte que comme le corps, prive de son ame, est sans vue, sans ouie, sans connoissance, sans sentiment, et sans mouvement; de meme l'amour-propre, separe, s'il le faut dire ainsi, de son interet, ne voit, n'entend, ne sent, et ne se remue plus," ...
— The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. • Lord Byron
... live through this swift coming Danger. And then did I think upon the stream, to use it, and I leapt quick therein, and did run very strong down the middle part, which was nowheres so much as thigh-deep, and oft not above mine ankles. And as I did run, there came again the bellow of that dire Brute, following, and was now, as mine ears did say, scarce the half of a mile to ...
— The Night Land • William Hope Hodgson
... the result of sin. Those who call into question the deeds and motives of God's saints; those who upbraid, and criticise, and impute evil to the sincere, faithful servants of God, inflicting upon them dire evils, are but showing the effects of sin in themselves, are but giving exercise to the evil that rules within them. Their particular acts and words may be without present malice, they may be inwardly persuaded that in reviling ...
— The Shepherd Of My Soul • Rev. Charles J. Callan
... exclaimed: "Oh, Boston! I don't include Boston when I speak of the United States." Max O'Rell has similarly noted that if you wish to hear severe criticism of America you have only to go to Boston. "La on loue Boston et Angleterre, et l'on debine l'Amerique a dire d'experts." It would be a mistake, however, to infer that Boston is not truly American, or that it devotes itself to any voluntary imitation of England. In a very deep sense Boston is one of the most intensely American cities in the Union; it represents, ...
— The Land of Contrasts - A Briton's View of His American Kin • James Fullarton Muirhead
... have noted that it is a dire affront to an Arab if his first cousin marry any save himself without his ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... to fluctuate, my heart to palpitate, and such falling abroad, as it were, of my whole frame, such intolerable restlessness, and incipient bewilderment, that in the last of my several attempts to abandon the dire poison, I exclaimed in agony, which I now repeat in seriousness and solemnity, 'I am too poor to hazard this.' Had I but a few hundred pounds, but L200,—half to send to Mrs. Coleridge, and half to place myself in a private mad house, where I could procure nothing but what a physician ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... Grant & Ripley had called him up to report the receipt of a telegram from Swearengen Jones, in which the gentleman laconically said he could feed the whole State of Montana for less than six thousand dollars. Beyond that there was no comment. Brewster, in dire trepidation, hastened to the office of the attorneys. They smiled when ...
— Brewster's Millions • George Barr McCutcheon
... Meanwhile dire famine bore sway in the beleaguered city. Wheat was sold for L22 a quarter, and the greater part of the citizens were thankful to live on coarse bread made of bran, which was doled out to them by Bessas at a ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin
... to his feet and ran, howling at the top of his voice, and threatening dire revenge on the Professor. Professor Zepplin was plainly undismayed, for he pursued with strides that made the merry onlookers think of the ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Alaska - The Gold Diggers of Taku Pass • Frank Gee Patchin
... vigorous hold upon its rival, and by steady, consistent pressure let it be known to both Turks and Russians that the terms of the Treaty of London and no others must be enforced. To retire from action immediately after dealing the Sultan one dire, irrevocable blow, without following up this stroke or attaining the end agreed upon—to leave Russia to take up the armed compulsion where England had dropped it, and to win from its crippled adversary the gains of a private and isolated ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe
... modern poetical works the details alone are valuable, the composition worthless. In reading them one is perpetually reminded of that terrible sentence on a modern French poet,—il dit tout ce qu'il veut, mais malheureusement il n'a rien a dire.[14] ...
— Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold
... to beg a thousand pardons for the formalities you've had to endure to get in here; it's a dire necessity, but one I can't help. I have told you of the dangers to which I am exposed; they pursue me to my very door. Why, last week a railway porter brought a package here addressed to me. Janouille—that's my old woman ...
— The Mystery of Orcival • Emile Gaboriau
... was able to jump up and again make for the region of the fire, where he found most of the men and male passengers working with hose and buckets in the midst of dire confusion. Fortunately the seat of the conflagration was soon discovered; and, owing much to the cool energy of the captain and officers, the fire ...
— The Coxswain's Bride - also, Jack Frost and Sons; and, A Double Rescue • R.M. Ballantyne
... had given notice a day too late, and consequently that I must find the rent for the next year. My concierge, to whom, with some emotion, I related the story of this occurrence, tried to soothe me by saying: 'J'aurais pu vous dire cela, car voyez, monsieur, cet homme ne vaut ...
— My Life, Volume I • Richard Wagner
... amounts of materials to be used. Such directions as "take a little phosphorus," for example, should be strictly avoided, for the direction as to amount is absolutely indefinite and may in the case where phosphorus or any other dangerous substance is used lead to dire accidents. The student should be given proper and very definite directions, and then he should be taught to follow these absolutely and not use more of the materials than is specified, as the beginner is so apt to do, thus often wasting his time and the reagents as well. Economy ...
— College Teaching - Studies in Methods of Teaching in the College • Paul Klapper
... claimed its own. Though Medea had been taken by surprise and imprisoned, this had not been done to satisfy the law, but with a view to secretly utilizing her occult science for the benefit of the community. In such dire need no means were too base; and though the old man himself was horrified at those he proposed he was sure of public approbation if only they had the desired result. If only they could avert ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... conditions existed until the last day of the month, when the sun re-asserted itself, gave off some warmth, melted the ice, and, for a period, restored the muddy conditions. The visitation of the blizzard had dire consequences, especially to the men in the trenches, where there was such little room for movement. Cases of frost-bite were numerous—a few only in the 28th—whilst many men who had been bravely hanging on to duty now found their last ounce of vitality forsaking ...
— The 28th: A Record of War Service in the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-19, Vol. I • Herbert Brayley Collett
... a preliminary might be taken for granted. But alas, even slight acquaintance with the average story-teller proves the dire necessity of the admonition. The halting tongue, the slip in name or incident, the turning back to forge an omitted link in the chain, the repetition, the general weakness of statement consequent on imperfect grasp: ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant
... "Behold in dire distress were we, Under a giant's fierce command; But gained our lives and liberty ...
— The Fairy Book - The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew • Dinah Maria Mulock (AKA Miss Mulock)
... Jesus Christ to the villages. He had serious and frequent difficulties in making himself heard; for the devil appeared in a visible form to the Indians, persuading them not to admit those fathers into their country, because of whom, so they said, dire calamities and troubles must happen to them. But, as it was the cause of God, all the deceits and cunning of that common enemy remained ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXI, 1624 • Various
... fear. Even as horses on the green steppes grazing, Hundreds scattered through lonely peacefulness, If shadow of cloud or red fox breaking earth Delude but one with dream of a stealthy foe, All are stampeded. Their frantic torrent draws in, With dire attraction, cumulative force, Stragglers grazing miles from where it started; On it thunders quite devoid of meaning. The tender private soul Thus takes contagion from the sordid crowd, And shying at mere dread of loss, Loses the whole of life. Thus, ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various
... the sake of conformity; as a matter of course, of course; pro forma[Lat], for form's sake, by the card. invariably, &c. (uniformly) 16. for example, exempli gratia[Lat], e. g.; inter alia[Lat], among other things; for instance. Phr. cela va sans dire[Fr]; ex pede Herculem[Lat]; noscitur a sociis [Lat]; ne e quovis ligno Mercurius fiat [Lat][Erasmus]; "they are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations" [Bacon]. "The nail that sticks up will get hammered down" [Japanese saying]; "Stick your ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget
... pour les amuser; dans le sens metaphysique on en fait un des attributs de la folie: Ice je l'employe comme embleme de gaiete et d'enfance. Le Pritems est une Epitre ecrite de la campagne a un de mes amis; j'etois sous le charme de la creation, pour ainsi dire; les vers en font d'une ...
— A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume II (of 2) • Philip Thicknesse
... she walked away from Drouet. She felt ashamed in part because she had been weak enough to take it, but her need was so dire, she was still glad. Now she would have a nice new jacket! Now she would buy a nice pair of pretty button shoes. She would get stockings, too, and a skirt, and, and—until already, as in the matter of her prospective salary, she had ...
— Sister Carrie • Theodore Dreiser
... des Boyle, des Newton, des Halley, des De Moivres, des Hans Sloane, etc.? Et qu'on y trouve encore ceux des Ward, des Bradley, des Graham, des Ellicot, des Watson, et d'un Auteur que Mr. Hill prefere a tous les autres, je veux dire de ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) • Augustus De Morgan
... solitude, Within the hushed and darkened wood And on the lonesome moor— But found contending leaf and root Engaged in conflict fierce though mute, While what was frail was slain By what was strong in dire dispute— I sought for peace in vain! The world, sustained by strife, endures ...
— Elves and Heroes • Donald A. MacKenzie
... dire possibilities crowded through her mind. Might Florence be held somewhere as a "white slave"—not by physical force but by circumstances, ignorant of her rights, afraid to break ...
— Constance Dunlap • Arthur B. Reeve
... was a compelled spectator of every thing that passed within the tent; and yet with that free action of limb which only tended to tantalize him the more amid his unavailable efforts to rid himself of his bonds,—a fact that proved not only the dire extent to which the revenge of Wacousta could be carried, but the actual and gratuitous ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson
... far off she hears some huntsman holloa; A nurse's song no'er pleas'd her babe so well: The dire imagination she did follow This sound of hope doth labour to expel; 976 For now reviving joy bids her rejoice, And flatters her it ...
— Venus and Adonis • William Shakespeare
... finally, as every member of the circle felt that he could afford to receive or to give, no one made a difficulty of accepting. Talk was unflagging, full of charm, and ranging over the most varied topics; words light as arrows sped to the mark. There was a strange contrast between the dire material poverty in which the young men lived and the splendor of their intellectual wealth. They looked upon the practical problems of existence simply as matter for friendly jokes. The cold weather happened to ...
— A Distinguished Provincial at Paris • Honore de Balzac
... obliged, as I am now, not only to eat the flesh from the bone, but even to tear off the inner skin, or filament?' The hint was quite sufficient, and MacLean next morning, to relieve his followers from such dire necessity, undertook an inroad on the mainland, the ravage of which altogether effaced the memory of his former expeditions ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott
... have no heart, no tongue to fill them with my dire news," Claude stammered, and the advocate resumed, ...
— The Advocate • Charles Heavysege
... sped smoothly up Fifth Avenue—her second ride on the Avenue that night—she began, in the cushioned privacy of the taxi, to recover somewhat from the panic of dire necessity that had driven them forth. Other matters began to flash spasmodically across the screen of her mind. One of these was William. And there the film stopped. The cold, withering look William had given Matilda a few minutes before remained fixed upon the ...
— No. 13 Washington Square • Leroy Scott
... Clark, A. D.: A Study of the Diagnostic and Prognostic Significance of Venous Pressure Observations in Cardiac Disease, Arch. Int. Med., October, 1915, p. 587.] did not find that venesection prevented a subsequent rapid rise in venous pressure in dire cases. From his investigations he concludes that a venous pressure of 20 cm. of water is a danger limit between compensation and decompensation of the heart, and a rise above this point will precede the clinical signs ...
— DISTURBANCES OF THE HEART • OLIVER T. OSBORNE, A.M., M.D.
... great requisite, imagination, it seems somewhat prosaic to come down to saying that history requires accuracy. But I think I hear the sighs, and sounds more harsh than sighing, of those who have ever investigated anything, and found by dire experience the deplorable inaccuracy which prevails in the world. And, therefore, I would say to the historian almost as the first suggestion, "Be accurate; do not make false references, do not mis-state: and men, if they get no light from you, will not execrate you. You will not stand ...
— Friends in Council (First Series) • Sir Arthur Helps
... Since rankles most in solitude the smart Of injur'd charms and talents, when they fail To meet their due regard;—nor e'en prevail Where most they wish to please:—Yet, since thy part Is large in Life's chief blessings, why desert Sullen the world?—Alas! how many wail Dire loss of the best comforts Heaven can grant! While they the bitter tear in secret pour, Smote by the death of Friends, Disease, or Want, Slight wrongs if thy self-valuing soul deplore, Thou but resemblest, in thy lonely haunt, Narcissus pining ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward
... of the people of England now knew no bounds. Suffolk was universally denounced as the author of all these dire calamities. Lampoons and satires were written against him; he was hooted sometimes by the populace of London when he appeared in the streets, and every thing portended a gathering storm. At length, in the fall of 1449, a Parliament ...
— Margaret of Anjou - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... militates against the self-righteous, who confine themselves to set times, to the extent of making the time conform to them and adapt itself to their convenience. They observe particular hours for praying, for eating, for drinking. Should you, in dire need of aid, approach one of them, you might perish before he would disengage himself ...
— Epistle Sermons, Vol. II - Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost • Martin Luther
... Cara, l'hai sentita dire; Per l'Amore alla Moda, Esso poco puo soffrire. Cuori che non mai fur giunti Pronti stanno a separar, Cari nodi come i nostri Non son facili tagliar. Questo dico, che se spezza Tua tenera bellezza, Molto ancor ci restera; Della mia buona fede Il Coltello non s'avvede, Ne di tua gran bonta. ...
— Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale) (2nd ed.) (2 vols.) • Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi
... small for its inconceivably uncivilized population, its inhabitants can never know the value of leisure or freedom from noise. Because he is always in a hurry a New York man fancies that he is intellectual. The consequences artistically are dire. New York boasts—yes, literally boasts—the biggest, noisiest, and poorest orchestra in the country. I refer to the Philharmonic Society, with its wretched wood-wind, its mediocre brass, and its aggregation of rasping strings. All the vaudeville and lightning-change conductors have not put ...
— Old Fogy - His Musical Opinions and Grotesques • James Huneker
... meaning full of such intensity of horror as this little word? At its sound there rises up a grim vision of "confused noise and garments rolled in blood." April 12, 1861, cannon fired by traitor hands, boomed out over Charleston harbor. The dire sound that shook the air that Spring morning did not die away in reverberating echoes from sea to shore, from island to headland. It rolled on through all the land, over mountain and valley, moaning in every home, at every fireside, ...
— In The Ranks - From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House • R. E. McBride
... savage, Orson-like sincerity. I had a great deal to say, but then I could say it only to a very few people, amongst whom Mrs. Evans was certainly not one; and, when I did say any thing, I fear that dire ignorance prevented my laying the proper restraints upon my too liberal candor; and that could not prove acceptable to one who thought nothing of working for any purpose, or for no purpose, by petty tricks, or even falsehoods—all which I held in stern abhorrence that I was at ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey
... to the origin of her name, recorded by Sansovino, will be accepted willingly by all who love Venice: "Fu interpretato da alcuni, che questa voce VENETIA voglia dire VENI ETIAM, cioe, vieni ancora, e ancora, percioche quante volte verrai, sempre vedrai ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin
... He pardoned them, therefore, and restored them to his friendship; warning them, however, to beware how they again deceived him, or trespassed against the safety and welfare of the Spaniards, lest they should bring down upon themselves dire and ...
— Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi - American Pioneers and Patriots • John S. C. Abbott
... Dire was the war between the Franks and the Greeks, for it abated not, but rather increased and waxed fiercer, so that few were the days on which there was not fighting by sea or land. Then Henry, the brother of Count Baldwin of Flanders ...
— Memoirs or Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople • Geoffrey de Villehardouin
... no light an' frivolous sperit of meddlin' thet brings me hyar askin' ye questions thet seems imp'dent an' nosy. Hit's a dire need of safeguardin' ther peace of our folks—aye, an' thar ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck
... a uuama tehito, or ancient hole, the origin of which was lost in the dimness of centuries. It was fifty feet long and said to be even deeper, though no living Marquesan had ever tasted its stores, or never would unless dire famine compelled. It was tapu to the memory ...
— White Shadows in the South Seas • Frederick O'Brien
... seems to have been a dreaded disease called the bennu. Professor Jensen(427) has shown how largely it bulks in the literature, and what dire effects are ascribed to it. But it was not the only severe disease from which men suffered then. It is associated with several others as bad. Hence in legal documents we may take it as a typical example of a serious disease, which ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns
... Eternal Mercy turns To righteous judgment, swift and dire; He shakes the clouds; the mighty sword Flames in His hand, and in His ire He wields the roaring hurricane 'Mid ...
— The Hymns of Prudentius • Aurelius Clemens Prudentius
... are like mine, and thou art bold; Nay, heap not the dying fire; It warms not me, I am too cold, Cold as the churchyard spire; If thou cover me up with fold on fold, Thou kill'st not the coldness dire." ...
— A Hidden Life and Other Poems • George MacDonald
... plan of progressive taxation on incomes, ranging from 3d. in the pound on incomes less than L500 to punitive proportions after L10,000 was reached; while in his Spartan arithmetic great wealth appeared so dire a misfortune that he rid the possessors of the whole of incomes of L23,000 and upwards. As for Pitt's financial reforms, he laughed them to scorn. He also accused him of throwing over the fair promises that ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose
... little later in the same day that Rendel, alone in his study, was standing, newspaper in hand, in front of the map of Africa looking to see the exact localities where the events were happening which might have such dire consequences. At that moment Wentworth, passing through Cosmo Place, looked through the window and saw him thus engaged. He knocked at the hall door, and, after being admitted, walked into the study without waiting ...
— The Arbiter - A Novel • Lady F. E. E. Bell
... our clothes are worn— We're the men, though we wear no lace— We're the men, who the foe hath torn, And scattered their ranks in dire disgrace; We're the men who have triumphed before— We're the men who will triumph again; For the dust, and the smoke, and the cannon's roar, And ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... him, have infinite advantage in strength received from the Holy Spirit, by which death is overcome and all trials and perils are escaped. Noah lived among the unrighteous for six hundred years, and like Lot at Sodom, not without numerous and dire perils and trials. ...
— Commentary on Genesis, Vol. II - Luther on Sin and the Flood • Martin Luther
... wish, and she hastened to reply, going next to the nursery to confer with Mrs. Kirby. Dark were the frowns and dire the displeasure of that lady when told that her services would soon be no longer needed on Madison Square—that instead of going up the river as she had hoped, she was free to return to the "genteel and highly respectable ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... been even planned, that no troops were at hand, that it was rather late for advice which seemed to be the only ammunition that was plentiful. Quite harmoniously, the soldier in command was General Winder who could not lose his head, even in this dire emergency, because he had none to lose. His record for ineptitude on the fighting front had, no doubt, recommended him for this place. He ran about Washington, ordering the construction of defenses which there was no time to build, listening to a million frenzied suggestions, holding ...
— The Fight for a Free Sea: A Chronicle of the War of 1812 - The Chronicles of America Series, Volume 17 • Ralph D. Paine
... at her, paralyzed with the certainty that no mortal aid could save her from this dire extremity, there came an unexpected diversion. Old Lady Green spoke out clearly and decidedly from her corner, in so rational a voice that it seemed like one calling ...
— Meadow Grass - Tales of New England Life • Alice Brown
... dire blow to poor Elizabeth, who had relied with firmness upon Justine's innocence. "Alas!" said she. "How shall I ever again believe in human goodness? Justine, whom I loved and esteemed as my sister, how could she put on those smiles of innocence only to betray? Her mild ...
— Frankenstein - or The Modern Prometheus • Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley
... common knife. The blow had passed into the heart, and Captain Willoughby was, out of all question, dead! He had breathed his last, within six feet of his own gallant son, who, ignorant of all that passed, was little dreaming of the proximity of one so dear to him, as well as of his dire condition. ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper
... Of leaf and flower in fragrant incense blent; The other's wavering aspiration dies And falls where still the murky shadow lies. At hospitable boards my first attends, And greets well pleased the social group of friends; But if my second his grim face shall show, How dire the maledictions sent below! Yet there are those who deem his presence blest, A fitting joy to crown the social feast, And make for him a quiet, calm retreat, Where friends with friends in ...
— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878 • Various
... had these long-ago people to remember, and that was to cover up their well every night, otherwise, as they knew from their fathers and grandfathers before them, the spirit of the well would grow angry with them and wreak some dire ...
— Legend Land, Vol. 1 • Various
... not a conflict between two sides, but a general fight, in which every man attacked his neighbor. Such scenes were the most bloody, and therefore the most exciting. A conflict of this kind would always destroy the greatest number in the shortest time. The arena presented a scene of dire confusion. Five hundred armed men in the prime of life and strength all struggled confusedly together. Sometimes they would all be interlocked in one dense mass; at other times they would violently separate ...
— The Martyr of the Catacombs - A Tale of Ancient Rome • Anonymous
... de la declinaison latine. Or, j'ai constate que, dans les chartes de Joinville, la regle du sujet singulier est observee huit cent trente-cinq fois, et violee sept fois seulement; encore dois-je dire que cinq de ces violations se rencontrent dans une meme charte, celle du mois de mai 1278, qui n'est connue que par une copie faite au siecle dernier. Si l'on fait abstraction de ce texte, il reste deux violations contre huit cent trente-cinq observations de la regle. La regle ...
— Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. • F. Max Mueller
... could think of nothing but of the evil-doing of the Parliament in bringing the archbishop to trial; and he prayed that all their plans might be frustrated, the King brought back to his throne, and the archbishop restored to his charge; while those who had troubled them might be visited with dire calamities and afflictions. ...
— Hayslope Grange - A Tale of the Civil War • Emma Leslie |
