"Earnest" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... whether you are in earnest, I don't now,' she said, looking up inquiringly at the hairy face of the oracle. And coming gallantly to her own rescue, 'If I really seem vain, it is that I am only vain in my ways—not in my heart. The worst women are those vain in their hearts, ...
— A Pair of Blue Eyes • Thomas Hardy
... home seems very far away; For over grief, and aching emptiness, And fading hopes, a higher joy arises. In cloudiest nights, one lonely spot is bright, High overhead, through folds and folds of space; It is the earnest-star of all my heavens; And tremulous in the deep well of my being ...
— The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume I • George MacDonald
... the comfort of my earnest belief in some other interpretation, together with several spare "eighteen-pences," as he called them, for which he seemed humbly grateful. And as I rode away I heard him calling across the fence to his wife, who was standing in the door of a small whitewashed ...
— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)
... was called. At this meeting, this young man, not yet of age, was one of the speakers. "Let us march immediately," he said, "and never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence." He assembled his school as usual the next day, but only to take leave of his scholars. "He gave them earnest counsel, prayed with them, shook each by the ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various
... if he had not been prevented. Altamirano was sent prisoner to the citadel, and Salazar was ordered into arrest in his own house, and the city was thrown into an universal ferment. At the end of three days, the licentiate was liberated from confinement at our earnest desire, and the dispute was quieted for the present; but a more serious disscution succeeded. One Zavalos, a relation of Narvaez, had been sent by his wife in quest of him, as he had gone as governor to the Rio ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... it sorely tries To see her kneel, with such a reverent air, Beside her brothers at their evening prayer: Or lift those earnest eyes To watch our lips, as though our words she knew— Then moves her own, as ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various
... me,' implored the widow, laying both her hands upon his breast, and scarcely knowing what she did, or said, in the earnestness of her supplication, 'but there are reasons why you should hear my earnest, mother's prayer, and leave my son with me. Oh do! He is not in his right senses, ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... hand and would have made the sign of the cross over Ivan from where he stood. But the latter rose from his seat, went up to him, received his blessing, and kissing his hand went back to his place in silence. His face looked firm and earnest. This action and all the preceding conversation, which was so surprising from Ivan, impressed every one by its strangeness and a certain solemnity, so that all were silent for a moment, and there was a look almost of apprehension in Alyosha's face. ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... to you, pretty one! We shall take you for a saint, and worship you in right earnest, if you raise ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various
... precedence over her sisters of the group, thereby showing, as Mr. Leake has said, the warmth of your affection towards her, which kindly feeling, I sincerely believe, is reciprocated on her part. The cordial reception accorded to your gallant explorers is an earnest of that feeling, and I think I may venture to say that the colony which I have the honour to serve will at all times extend a hearty welcome to any West Australian colonist. There is, I assure you, a very affectionate feeling entertained by South Australians ...
— Explorations in Australia • John Forrest
... the league, which he very willingly did when his advice was so haughtily rejected. It was the opinion of our Pandit, that a partition of the country might even now have been effected had either party been earnest in desiring peace. He did not evidently know what were the Bhao's real feelings, but probably judged him by the rest of his conduct, which was that of a bold, ambitious statesman. From what he saw in the other camp, he ...
— The Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan • H. G. Keene
... the hurried rejoinder. "I only wish it were a jest. It's not, but a dire, dangerous earnest. Santissima!" he cries out, in addition, as a shock like that of a galvanic battery causes him to shake in his saddle, "that's a lightning eel, for sure! They're all round us, in scores, hundreds, thousands! Spur your horses! Force them forward, anyway! On out of the water! A ...
— Gaspar the Gaucho - A Story of the Gran Chaco • Mayne Reid
... woke up in good earnest, and jumped up on his feet to see what it was that he should stop. But just as the dog jumped up, the little gingerbread man, who had been watching for the chance, quietly slipped between his legs, and climbed up ...
— The Little Gingerbread Man • G. H. P.
... there was something very singular in his appearance, something which is rarely found amongst that people, a certain air of nobleness which highly interested me. I approached him, and in a few minutes we were in earnest conversation. He spoke Polish and Jewish German indiscriminately. The story which he related to me was highly extraordinary, yet I yielded implicit credit to all his words, which came from his mouth with an air of sincerity which precluded doubt; and, moreover, he could have no ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow
... self-forgetful, earnest look was, her companion seemed unable to sustain it. He gave a short laugh ...
— In Apple-Blossom Time - A Fairy-Tale to Date • Clara Louise Burnham
... scattering themselves about in this way, some in earnest, some rejoicing in the unwonted license, lifting off for a little while that enormous Sabbath-day pressure which weighs like forty atmospheres on every true-born Puritan, two young men had been since Friday in search of the lost girl, each following a clue of his own, ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... to make an earnest personal request to the reader who is minded to follow the discussion through the following pages, that he will in good faith attempt to do this thing: that he will lay aside for the present his opinions already ...
— Monopolies and the People • Charles Whiting Baker
... looked and saw the boy in the uniform of a Putnam Hall student enter an unfinished building. He was accompanied by a heavy-set man wearing a long overcoat and a soft hat. The two were in earnest conversation. ...
— The Mystery at Putnam Hall - The School Chums' Strange Discovery • Arthur M. Winfield
... would have been enough to have condemned the whole party on any of the world's thoroughfares. I remembered afterward, with shame, that I myself had smiled at the first sight of its antiquated ugliness; but her face was one which it gave you a sense of rest to look upon,—it was so earnest, tender, true, and strong. It had little comeliness of shape or color in it, it was thin, and pale; she was not young; she had worked hard; she had evidently been much ill; but I have seen few faces which gave me such pleasure. I think that she was the wife of ...
— Bits About Home Matters • Helen Hunt Jackson
... come to the parting of the ways, where it becomes the bounden duty of every earnest, fair-minded physician to cast off the manacles of professional caste and secret obligation and to advance with open mind across the wholesome confines of eternal truth. This as much in their own interest as in that of their patients. For there is disaffection in the ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... month. I shall exert all the effort possible, so far as I am concerned, so that your Majesty may be well served in everything. I believe that Governor Don Juan Nino de Tavora will not be lacking in the same, for he shows very earnest desires to employ himself in your Majesty's service. [In the margin: ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XXII, 1625-29 • Various
... did not restrain me—No! no! put back the pocketbook. I am incapable of the shameless audacity of borrowing a sum of money which I could never repay. Let me tell you what my trouble is, and you will understand that I am in earnest. I had two sons, Miss Stella. The elder—the most lovable, the most affectionate of my children—was killed in ...
— The Black Robe • Wilkie Collins
... Suffer me to hail the new-born benevolence of your nature. Go with me to Hawkins. Do not let us talk of his deserts! Poor fellow! he has suffered almost all that human nature can endure. Let your forgiveness upon this occasion be the earnest of good neighbourhood and friendship between ...
— Caleb Williams - Things As They Are • William Godwin
... absolute blackmailing; and the Yorkes, I fear, have sad trouble in store for them with the boy. All the better for your protege, Milly, if he continues to do as well as he has done lately. That fellow is in earnest, whatever may be the aims and influences which ...
— Uncle Rutherford's Nieces - A Story for Girls • Joanna H. Mathews
... and extraordinary" of all his productions. But even in the coolest and driest of his pieces there is the mark of greatness, of grasp, of comprehension. In all its varieties Burke's style is noble, earnest, deep-flowing, because his sentiment was lofty and fervid, and went with sincerity and ardent disciplined travail of judgment. He had the style of his subjects; the amplitude, the weightiness, the laboriousness, the sense, the high flight, the grandeur, proper to a man dealing with imperial ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... "Mother knows." Her earnest, loving words are to be cherished above all others as many men and many women have learned after the long miles and the busy years have crept between them and "the old folks at home." Do not, O Girl! I pray you, ever grow impatient, as ...
— The Girl Wanted • Nixon Waterman
... La Rue County, three miles from Hodgensville. The ground had nothing attractive about it but its cheapness. It was hardly more grateful than the rocky hill slopes of New England. It required full as earnest and intelligent industry to persuade a living out of those barren hillocks and weedy hollows, covered with stunted and scrubby underbrush, as it would amid the rocks and sands of the ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay
... is not a trifling matter; but it seems to be trifling with me to propose such a thing. You cannot be in earnest." ...
— Gil the Gunner - The Youngest Officer in the East • George Manville Fenn
... expected. Having a little recovered from our confusion, saw it necessary to get every thing we could over to the larboard side, to prevent the ship from heeling off, and exposing the deck to the sea. Some of the people were very earnest to get the boats out contrary to advice; and, after much intreaty, notwithstanding a most terrible sea, one of the boats was launched, and eight of the best men jumped into her, but she had scarcely got to the ship's stern, when she was whirled to the bottom, and every soul in her ...
— Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy • Anonymous
... executive departments of the Government in regard to measures that vitally affect the prosperity and peace of the country. Sincerely desiring to reconcile the States with one another and the whole people to the Government of the United States, it has been my earnest wish to cooperate with Congress in all measures having for their object a proper and complete adjustment of the questions resulting from our late civil war. Harmony between the coordinate branches of the Government, always ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 2 (of 2) of Volume 6: Andrew Johnson • James D. Richardson
... to the school (forty-eight in number, divided into four clans, each with a chief) were present, accompanied by the Principal and his staff. My attention was at once drawn to them by their fine physique, their gentlemanly bearing, and their earnest attention. Next day, I had the pleasure of visiting the school and seeing the working of the scheme initiated by ...
— Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland • Daniel Turner Holmes
... the fruit of man's mental garden, but beautified by the miracles of his manual skill, the total subversion of conventional and political order is severely menaced; and how doubtful the contest is between the earnest endeavour of one faith to overcome every tenet of another, and the outrages of vulgar audacity to supersede noble sentiment ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross
... Robinet, is a disciple after M. Comte's own heart; one whom no difficulty stops, and no absurdity startles. But it is far from our disposition to speak otherwise than respectfully of Dr Robinet and the other earnest men, who maintain round the tomb of their master an organized co-operation for the diffusion of doctrines which they believe destined to regenerate the human race. Their enthusiastic veneration for him, and devotion to the ends he pursued, ...
— Auguste Comte and Positivism • John-Stuart Mill
... said Miss Miniver. "It's the centre of the intellectuals. Some of the meetings are wonderful! Such earnest, beautiful women! Such deep-browed men!... And to think that there they are making history! There they are putting together the plans of a new world. Almos light-heartedly. There is Shaw, and Webb, and Wilkins the author, and Toomer, and Doctor Tumpany—the most wonderful people! There you see them ...
— Ann Veronica • H. G. Wells
... down to the dock and on to his boat. Then he went up the street and held earnest confab with a man who had a basket on his arm. They whispered ten minutes or so, then the man with the basket returned to his shanty-boat, and within half an hour was back up town, carrying two suitcases, a gun case, and a ...
— The River Prophet • Raymond S. Spears
... the order of the world. I have examined this question freely from many points of view, because whatever may be the vehemence with which particular opinions are insisted upon, its solution is unquestionably doubtful. There is a wide and growing conviction among truth-seeking, earnest, humble-minded, and thoughtful men, both in this country and abroad, that our cosmic relations are by no means so clear and simple as they are popularly supposed to be, while the worthy and intelligent teachers of various creeds, who have strong persuasions on the character ...
— Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development • Francis Galton
... the name of George Eliot, was born at Aubury Farm, near Nuneaton, England, November 22, 1819. She was carefully educated and was a most earnest student. While her poems are beautiful, her best work is in prose, and she ranks as one of England's greatest novelists. Her most famous novels are "Adam Bede," "The Mill on the Floss," "Silas Marner," and "Middlemarch." ...
— Graded Poetry: Seventh Year - Edited by Katherine D. Blake and Georgia Alexander • Various
... hauberk with leggings attached, Hair, a hair-shirt, Hale and how, a sailor's cry, Halp, helped, Halsed, embraced, Halsing, embracing, Handfast, betrothed, Handsel, earnest-money, Hangers, testicles, Harbingers, messengers sent to prepare lodgings, Harness, armour, Hart of greese, fat deer, Hauberk, coat of mail, Haut, high, noble, Hauteyn, haughty, Heavy, sad, Hete, command, Hide, skin, Hied, hurried, High (on), aloud, Higher hand, the uppermost, Hight, called, ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory
... is the safest kind of debt an owner of wet land can incur. He has a right to expect profit from the undertaking, and he can begin the work in a small way, if an outlet is at hand, and learn what return may be expected from further investment. Almost without fail will he become an earnest advocate of underdrainage. ...
— Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement • Alva Agee
... esteem, and had got the names, so readily given by low and ignorant people in Rome, of Greek and Scholar. But when his own desire of fame and the eagerness of his father and relations had made him take in earnest to pleading, he made no slow or gentle advance to the first place, but shone out in full luster at once, and far surpassed all the advocates of the bar. At first, it is said, he, as well as Demosthenes, was defective in his delivery, ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... on their way, she told him all the little details of her interview; and the old gentleman declared, in all earnest, that he did not know which to admire most,—her presence of mind, or ...
— Within an Inch of His Life • Emile Gaboriau
... her eye fixed with an earnest and anxious gaze upon the countenance of him she addressed. It was her husband, whom she now for the first time recollected; and she threw herself at his feet, unable to contain her joy. "My lord," cried the glad woman, "I entreat you ...
— Mediaeval Tales • Various
... take this occasion to recommend to the particular attention of all candid inquirers a little brochure, by the noble-minded writer last named, entitled An Earnest Address on the Establishment of the Hierarchy, by A. Welby Pugin: Lond. Dolman, 1851. And let me here inquire whether this lamented writer completed his New View of an Old Subject; or, the English Schism impartially Considered, which ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 223, February 4, 1854 • Various
... moors behind Crosbie Fell. Still, one inhabitant informed their guide, in a tongue none of the others could comprehend, that if he was in an unusually good humor old Musker, the keeper, might take them in at Crosbie Ghyll. Thus it happened that just as the rain began in earnest, such a cavalcade as had probably never before passed its gloomy portals rode up to the gate of the dilapidated edifice. Some of the iron-bound barriers still lay moldering in the hollow of the arch, and Helen noticed slits for muskets in the stout walls above, for the owners had been a fighting ...
— Thurston of Orchard Valley • Harold Bindloss
... 'these two have mingled bloods already upon the stone of sacrifice, and they are man and wife. But I also have vouched for him, and I offer mine in earnest of my faith.' ...
— Montezuma's Daughter • H. Rider Haggard
... with a gesture that betrayed his real feelings. He was in desperate earnest for all his attempt at lightness. His words came swiftly, in that headlong fashion so characteristic of his most earnest mood. And Nancy listening to him, caught something of that which lay behind them. The faintest ...
— The Man in the Twilight • Ridgwell Cullum
... newly arrived in Paris, and often accompanied him to the shops of the goldsmiths to sell pieces of gold and silver, the produce, as he said, of his experiments. I stuck closely to him for a long time, in the hope that he would impart his secret. He refused for a long time, but acceded at last on my earnest entreaty, and I found that it was nothing more than an ingenious trick. I did not fail to inform my friend the abbe, whom I had left at Toulouse, of all my adventures; and sent him, among other matters, a relation of the trick by which this gentleman ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay
... rather abruptly; his earnest manner, striking countenance and excellent delivery had produced an effect greater than the actual words I have given can convey to the reader; the virtue lay in the man more than in what he said; as for the last few mysterious words about his having heard a voice by night, their effect was ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler
... uneventful. A French officer, Colonel Lucas, had come into command of the Vologda Force. American units were generously supplied with the French Chauchat automatic rifles, and ammunition for them, and with French rifles and tromblons to throw the rifle grenades. Earnest business ...
— The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki - Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 • Joel R. Moore
... Now, after an earnest, ruminating glance at the cottage, Lucrezia walked across the terrace and reverently entered it by a door which opened onto a flight of three steps leading down to the terrace. Already she knew the interior by heart, but she had not lost her awe of it, her sense almost ...
— The Call of the Blood • Robert Smythe Hichens
... the others repeated. The sentiment was astounding, and Hugo was as manifestly in earnest as if he were a ...
— The Last Shot • Frederick Palmer
... known the animals, I would have to travel with, I would not have let my longing for freedom draw me away from the turpentine camp. Lord knows, I wish I was back there now." His voice, which had grown earnest, dropped again into a sarcastic note. "But I am wandering, as I said before, my noble, gallant friends have made me their messenger and agent. It will help you to understand their demands if I state that the afternoon's ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... was representative of the finest culture in the city and State. Distinguished jurists, physicians and teachers, staid men of business and leaders in many lines united with women of the highest social standing in giving the convention a hearty and earnest welcome. Many were no doubt attracted by the memory of the former visits of Miss Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and the remarkable personality of the pioneer suffrage workers, but whether they came from pure ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper
... station, and who pretended an acquaintance with all the particulars of the massacre. We had been traveling the whole day, and night had come on; I was most anxious to proceed, that I might relieve the mind of my dear wife, but the earnest remonstrances of my little party, who represented it as certain death to all of us to cross the plains, which were infested with lions and other savage beasts who were prowling in every direction, ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat
... downright silly and romantick. What the rest of the Audience felt, I cant so well tell: For my self, I must declare, that at the end of the Play I found my Soul uniform, and all of a Piece; but at the End of the Epilogue it was so jumbled together, and divided between Jest and Earnest, that if you will forgive me an extravagant Fancy, I will here set it down. I could not but fancy, if my Soul had at that Moment quitted my Body, and descended to the poetical Shades in the Posture it was then in, what a strange Figure ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele
... in that audience looked at the chief speaker; they looked at each other. There followed such a serious, earnest, frank discussion of the "liquor problem" as had never before been held either in that club, or, indeed, in any assembly in that city. Since that day, that club has not only held debates on the "liquor problem" of its city; it has tried to bring about no-license. The chief speaker of that meeting ...
— The American Child • Elizabeth McCracken
... pipe and spread myself out on the sofa, and Livy sat by and read, and I warmed to that butcher the moment he began to swear. There is more than one way of praying, and I like the butcher's way because the petitioner is so apt to be in earnest. I was peculiarly alive to his performance just at this time, for another reason, to wit: Last night I awoke at 3 this morning, and after raging to my self for 2 interminable hours, I gave it up. I rose, assumed ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... had failed. He must be making it well worth their while, for they hate their native wilds. But then—London in August! I suppose they welcomed any change. My poor dear, I am sorry if you're fond of him, but this does look as if Somerled were tremendously in earnest. And if he is, I don't think you and I are capable of coping with him. We must let things ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... that Lincoln was one of the few white men he ever passed an hour with who failed to remind him in some way, before the interview terminated, that he was a negro. "He always impressed me as a strong, earnest man, having no time or disposition to trifle; grappling with all his might the work he had in hand. The expression of his face was a blending of suffering with patience and fortitude. Men called him homely, and homely he was; but it was manifestly a human homeliness. His eyes had in them ...
— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne
... every tasteful household. The "Tales of Flemish Life" are additions to that rare stock of home-literature which is at once amiable and gentle, simple and affectionate, familiar and tender, and which meets a quick response from every honest heart and earnest spirit. ...
— The Poor Gentleman • Hendrik Conscience
... and with an earnest request that you will write to me speedily, and deliver my kindest remembrances to Mr. Brandram and to my other good friends at the Society House, I remain, Revd. and dear Sir, ...
— Letters of George Borrow - to the British and Foreign Bible Society • George Borrow
... as his son burst into the room in which he was sitting, studying a Greek tome. "Truly thou earnest the name of which thou art so proud, Otter, hardly. What tempted thee to go into the water, on a ...
— Under Drake's Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main • G. A. Henty
... in any window, leaves one just as rich, but unsatisfied. So the advice of the war correspondent to seek out German spies came to Jimmie like a day at the circus, like a week at the Danbury Fair. It not only was a call to arms, to protect his flag and home, but a chance to play in earnest the game in which he most delighted. No longer need he pretend. No longer need he waste his energies in watching, unobserved, a greedy rabbit rob a carrot field. The game now was his fellow-man and his enemy; not only his enemy, but the enemy ...
— The Boy Scout and Other Stories for Boys • Richard Harding Davis
... words I turned, and at once hastened to the door. A young girl stood there, with her hands clasped, and in an attitude of earnest entreaty. She had evidently come closely veiled, but in her excitement her veil had been thrown back, and her upturned face lent an unspeakable earnestness to her pleading. At the sight of her I was filled with ...
— The Cryptogram - A Novel • James De Mille
... forced the floes one over the other, till the heaviest in sight came driving down upon us. The first ship it lifted completely on to the ice; the next was nearly stove in, and many of her timbers were broken; and then, getting more in earnest, it regularly dashed to pieces the four next it got foul of, sending them flying over the ice in ...
— Peter the Whaler • W.H.G. Kingston
... could rarely be quite sure when Kenelm Chillingly was in jest or in earnest, the parlour-maid paused a moment and attempted a pale smile. Kenelm lifted his dark eyes, unspeakably sad and profound, and said mournfully, "I should be so sorry for the baby. Bring the chops!" The parlour-maid vanished. The boy laid down his knife and fork, and looked fixedly ...
— Kenelm Chillingly, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... all other preparations to assist us across the moat will be ready to-night. We will advance then under cover of darkness, and as soon after dawn as may be attack in earnest." ...
— The Boy Knight • G.A. Henty
... concerning the route to be chosen had arisen, and I observed, for we could look all about in spite of our bonds, that Ingra and one who appeared to be his lieutenant were engaged in an animated discussion. They pointed this way and that, and the debate grew every moment more earnest. This continued for a long time, while the ship hovered, running slowly in the wide circles. We could not then know how much this hesitation meant for us. If Ingra had been as rapid in his decision ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss
... until recently was read in every prefecture twice a month. But the same Emperor gave many gifts to monasteries, and in 1705 he issued a decree to the monks of P'uto in which he said, "we since our boyhood have been earnest students of Confucian lore and have had no time to become minutely acquainted with the sacred books of Buddhism, but we are satisfied that Virtue is the one word which indicates what is essential in both systems. Let us pray to the compassionate Kuan-yin that she may of her grace send ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot
... the Quadi by a second campaign, he fixed his winter quarters at Bregetio, on the Danube, near the Hungarian city of Presburg. While the operations of war were suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror; and, at the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were introduced into the Imperial council. They approached the throne with bended bodies and dejected countenances; and without daring to complain of the murder of their king, ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon
... unsearched; and an unwavering constancy of purpose. You may say that these traits are characteristic of ALL women; but they are pre-eminently characteristic of you, Lucy." Miss Galbraith looks askance at him, to make out whether he is in earnest or not; he continues, with a perfectly serious air. "And I know now that if you're offended with me, it's for no trivial cause." She stirs uncomfortably in her chair. What I have done I can't imagine, but it must be something monstrous, since it has made life ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... may tell you now—and you, too, my dear Sir Colin—that I not only accept my Uncle Roger's conditions in this, but that when the time comes in the other matters I shall accept every condition that he had in his mind—and that I may know of—in everything." He looked exceedingly in earnest, and it gave me much pleasure to see and hear him. It was just what a young man should do who had seen so generously treated. As the time had now come, I gave him the bulky letter addressed to him, marked "D" which I had in my safe. As I ...
— The Lady of the Shroud • Bram Stoker
... pre-historic time when our Grand Old Man was a thin, slim, introspective and prematurely serious boy at Eton, tells to-day that the recollection he has of the young Gladstone is of a slight figure, never running, but always walking with a fast step, with earnest black eyes, and with a pallid face—the ivory pallor, be it observed, not of delicacy, but of robustness. Still there was on that Home Rule night, a pallor that had the deadlier hue of sleeplessness, worry, over-anxiety—the ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor
... excitement, he offered his apologies to de Gery, invited him to take a seat in the carved wooden armchair in which his customers posed, and their conversation speedily assumed an intimate and confidential character, attributable to the earnest avowal with which it began. Paul confessed that he too was in love, and that his only purpose in coming so often to M. Joyeuse's was to talk about his beloved with Grandmamma, who had known her ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet
... and game commissioners of any state should be broad-minded, non-partisan, strictly honest and sincere. So long as they possess these qualities, they deserve and should have the earnest and aggressive support of all sportsmen and all lovers of wild life. The remnant of wild life is entitled to a square deal, and harmony in the camp of its friends. Fortunately California has an excellent force of salaried game wardens (82 in all) and 577 volunteer wardens serving ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday
... Comitia of the Centuries that war should be declared against Philip. But the people longed for repose, and rejected the proposition by the almost unanimous vote of every century. It was only by the most earnest remonstrance, and by representing to them that, unless they attacked Philip in Greece, he would invade Italy, like Hannibal, that they were induced to reverse their decision and ...
— A Smaller History of Rome • William Smith and Eugene Lawrence
... left foot is drawn back, away from the altar. It is the attitude of the Apollo Sauroctonos. His beautiful face, bent downward, is intently gazing with a calm, collected, serious, and yet sad cast of earnest meditation. His eyes seem fixed on something beyond him and beneath him—as it were on an inscrutable abyss; and in this direction also looks his companion. The face is unmistakably the face of Antinous; yet the figure, and especially the legs, are not characteristic. They ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... puffed in the approved paternal fashion What did he mean? A sudden thought struck him. He became confidential. With an earnest gaze, ...
— The Folly Of Eustace - 1896 • Robert S. Hichens
... fragments; had advanced his own army over nine miles; had inflicted a terrible loss upon Aguinaldo's troops; had demonstrated to them the difference between a determined American advance and an irresolute Spanish one; and had taken up in earnest the invasion of Luzon, the capture of the Filipinos' temporary capital, Malolos, the overthrow of their provisional government, and the establishment of American sovereignty ...
— The Woman with a Stone Heart - A Romance of the Philippine War • Oscar William Coursey
... herself into her house in an agony of mortification. She could scarcely realize that her little expedition, undertaken with so much ardent and earnest curiosity only a quarter of an hour ago, had ended in so deplorable a surfeit of sensation. She had gone out in obedience to an innocent and, indeed, laudable desire to ascertain how Major Benjy spent those evenings on which he had deceived ...
— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson
... myself in a difficulty. I had no doubt that I could bring things to a speedy end by employing the special botte which Captain Galsworthy had taught me; and if we had been fencing for sport I should already have used it to disarm my adversary. But fighting as we were (at least, as he was) in deadly earnest, I could not be sure that my botte would not be too successful, and that, instead of merely striking his sword from his hand, I should not run him through. The caution I displayed was mistaken by him (and by his friends also, I suspect) for weakness, and gaining courage ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang
... whole, very little damage was done to the natural products of the islands by the Maoris. "It was with the advent of the Europeans," says Mr. John Drummond, F.L.S., in his interesting and well-illustrated book on 'The Animals of New Zealand,' "that destruction began in earnest. It seemed as if they had been commanded to destroy the ancient inhabitants." They killed right and left, and, in addition, burnt up the primaeval forests and bushes till a great part of the flora was consumed. It was never a very varied or strong one, consisting only of some ...
— More Science From an Easy Chair • Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester
... time, and it was not until after an hour of earnest work that, in front of the door forced open by the police, they discovered in the mud, just inside the marks made by Gevrol's tread, a footprint that bore a close resemblance to those left by the ...
— Monsieur Lecoq • Emile Gaboriau
... am?" said Lysander, who felt flattered, and thought it would be interesting to hear the lad's reasons; for neither he, nor any one present, had perceived the craft and sarcasm concealed under that simple, earnest manner. ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge
... was so naive, the tone so sincere and earnest that the decorated visitor was more hurt than surprised at this proposition. He could neither understand nor believe that a human being could be stupid enough to seriously make such a request to a ...
— A Cardinal Sin • Eugene Sue
... them through eye-glasses attached to a gold chain over her ear, not much impressed now, slightly ashamed by the delight she took in winning their attention by brilliant recitations.... She decided that most of them were earnest-minded but intelligent serfs, not much stronger than the girls who were taking stenography for want of anything better to do. They sprawled and looked vacuous as they worked in rows in the big study-hall, with its hard blue walls ...
— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis
... not desire you for my brother?" he said, and they embraced. As their arms parted, the bow-bearer spoke three words in earnest whisper:— ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis
... heartily at the manager's answer. When we went to the theatre he seated himself, as usual, in the back of the box, behind Madame Bonaparte, making me sit by her side. The pit and boxes, however, soon found out that he was in the house, and loudly called for him. Several times an earnest desire to see him was manifested, but all in vain, for he ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton
... smile overspread the maiden's face, and her clear, earnest gaze was full of rapture at the vision of future happiness; but the gleam disappeared almost as quickly as it arose, and she answered him, with ...
— The Poor Gentleman • Hendrik Conscience
... more of listening curiosity, but without caring about the subject, might have to observe, that it seemed to him the same kind of thing that the methodist parson, (the term most likely to be used if any very serious and earnest Christian instructor had appeared in the neighborhood,) was lately saying in such a one's funeral-sermon. It is too possible that one or two of the visages of the company, of the younger people especially, might wear, during a good part of the time, somewhat of a derisive smile, ...
— An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance • John Foster
... clearer to him, or the Divine Fatherhood more real. Freely he had received—but only that he might freely give. On this Christmas night he renewed every past vow of the soul, and in so doing rose once more into that state and temper which is man's pledge and earnest of immortality—since already, here and now, it is ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... rustling at the drop scene. In a few moments the scene commenced to rise, being rolled up by an unseen hand, and when it had been raised a few inches I was not a little "struck" to see a man's head appearing underneath the curtain. Now this was a bit of real, earnest acting—none of your unnatural, unfinished style. It was so realistic that I scarce knew what to do. I, of course, first of all concluded that I was going to be robbed, or that something of much more consequence to myself was going to take place. The curtain was ...
— Adventures and Recollections • Bill o'th' Hoylus End
... of innumerable steeds. And along the lines, between hut and tent, they saw tall shapes passing to and from the forge and smithy, bearing mail, and swords, and shafts. No sound of revel, no laugh of wassail was heard in the consecrated camp; all was astir, but with the grave and earnest preparations of thoughtful men. As the four Saxons halted silent, each might have heard, through the remoter din, the ...
— Harold, Complete - The Last Of The Saxon Kings • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... must not talk so, Mr. Langdon. Why, you never looked better in your life. Tell me now, you are not in earnest, are you, but only trying ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... been a chance for the man who gave only one corner of his brain to his chosen calling, but in these days of keen competition it demands the most thorough knowledge of the business, and the most earnest application to bring success. Stick to your business, and you may be sure that your business will stick to you. It is this directing your whole mind and energies at one point, that ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis
... not a mere adventurer like Guido Vecchio, he was a man of considerable culture, with a love of learning and of the arts. It was, as we shall see, at his earnest solicitation that Dante came to visit him, and if we may believe Vasari it was at the poet's suggestion he invited Giotto to his court. "As it had come to the ears of Dante that Giotto was in Ferrara, he so contrived that the ...
— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton
... and found the committee in earnest at last, the Government aiding them in every possible way. Mr. Heales offered all the assistance he could give. The Victoria, which I thought had been made ready, was now put under immediate repair. Proceedings were reported in the ...
— Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia • William John Wills
... report our first shell struck the ship close to the captain's bridge. Instead of resigning himself to his fate, the Englishman sent up more signals and hoisted the British flag. This showed us he was game, and the fight began in dead earnest. All honor to the pluck of these English captains!—but how reckless to expose in this manner the lives of their passengers and crew, as we shall see ...
— The Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner • Georg-Guenther von Forstner
... is rather difficult to hold, with two most earnest gentlemen desirous of it; and so they changed positions—changed so rapidly, in fact, that their bodies resembled a sort of pyrotechnic pinwheel whose centrifugal sparks were composed of eyes and claws and tufts of ...
— A Night Out • Edward Peple
... as achievements counselled that diplomatic move, and Austria in particular had reason to fear developments on other fronts than the French. The Balkans had been quiescent during the summer, although the Greeks had on 30 May given an earnest of a better future by a victory at Skra di Legen, west of the Vardar, in which they captured 1500 Bulgarian and German prisoners, and on 18 June the fall of the pro-German Radoslavoff Ministry indicated that Ferdinand ...
— A Short History of the Great War • A.F. Pollard
... but it is quite pretty. I am half inclined to 'suppose' too." He took a sip of sherbet from the tall crystal goblet the servant had placed on a little three-legged stool beside him, and as he drank the cool liquid slowly, looked over the glass into my eyes, with a curious, half earnest, half smiling glance; I could not tell whether my enthusiastic picture of conjugal bliss amused him or attracted him, so I waited for him to ...
— Mr. Isaacs • F. Marion Crawford
... south side by the Barracks. Small, sober groups of twos and threes strolled there, or stood with their faces pressed close against the railings, peering into the barrack yard. Motionless, earnest and attentive, they stared at the men in khaki moving about on the other side of the railings. They were silent, fascinated by the men in khaki. Standing safe behind the railing, they stared at them with an awful, sombre curiosity. And the men in ...
— The Tree of Heaven • May Sinclair
... not easy to separate. But what we may with truth say is, that all which Protestantism was to itself clearly conscious of, all which it succeeded in clearly setting forth in words, had the characters of Hebraism rather than of Hellenism. The Reformation was strong, in that it was an earnest return to the Bible and to doing from the heart the will of God as there written. It was weak, in that it never consciously grasped or applied the central idea of the Renascence,—the Hellenic idea of pursuing, in all lines of activity, the law and science, to ...
— Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold
... nothing good that Bach's art does not express. He has plenty of humour, if the term may be applied to art which is, so to speak, always literal,—art in which a jest is a jest and serious things are treated with familiar directness, and all, whether in jest or earnest, is primarily beautiful. In Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan Bach answers the critics who censured him for his pedantry and provincial ignorance of the grand Italian operatic style, by making effective use ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various
... Ira Harris. After witnessing a mounted drill and parade, which pleased him much, he presented us a beautiful stand of colors, accompanied by an appropriate and eloquent address. He made especial reference to the object of the organization, the hopes of its friends, and their earnest prayers for its future usefulness and success. He dwelt enthusiastically upon the work before us. At the close of the speech the command responded with a rousing round of cheers, expressive of their thankfulness for the banner and of their determination to keep it, to stand by it, and to defend ...
— Three Years in the Federal Cavalry • Willard Glazier
... if you would. Beggars mustn't be choosers; but if they might, I should say it was the very thing. Sackcloth, you know; and then, perhaps, the ashes might be excused. I'm in solemn earnest, though. I'm reformed. You've done it; and you," she added, turning round short on Leslie Goldthwaite,—"you've been at it a long time, unbeknownst to yourself; and you, ma'am,—you finished it last night. It's been like the casting out of the ...
— A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... St. Auban is indeed in earnest then! Convey to him my expressions of admiration at this suddenly awakened courage. Be good enough, Vicomte, to ...
— The Suitors of Yvonne • Raphael Sabatini
... line. The battle was begun by the artillery at 10.30, and continued uninterruptedly until about 1.30 o'clock, when the enemy commenced to retreat. But a short time elapsed after the artillery duel had begun before the infantry got to work in earnest, and the musketry became very rapid and hot. The fight was quite lively until 1 o'clock, but not at very close quarters, when the rebels began to fall back, and the Ninth New Jersey were thrown out as skirmishers, and Wessell's ...
— Kinston, Whitehall and Goldsboro (North Carolina) expedition, December, 1862 • W. W. Howe
... he spoke the truth." But when she was convinced that Lisa was not ill, and was not raving, when she constantly made the same answer to all her expostulations, Marfa Timofyevna was alarmed and distressed in earnest. "But you don't know, my darling," she began to reason with her, "what a life it is in those convents! Why, they would feed you, my own, on green hemp oil, and they would put you in the coarsest linen, and make you go about in the cold; you will never be able to bear ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev
... howled again, but as he gave forth his peculiar sounds he suddenly struck—purposely—a false, jarring note, lowered the instrument, seized one of the pegs as if in a passion, and began talking to me in a low, earnest voice, to the accompaniment of the string ...
— Blue Jackets - The Log of the Teaser • George Manville Fenn
... to Sandy that Sam and Mormon, despite Sam's protest, took Molly's pleasantry in earnest and he made no comment as Mormon deftly shuffled the deck and riffled it out over the table. He picked a jack, Mormon a three of clubs and Sam an eight of hearts. Sam whooped at sight ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn
... circumstances, in order to improve and ennoble mankind." The critic of the 'Berliner Zeitung' asserted that Mark Twain is loved in Germany more than all other humorists, English or French, because his humour "turns fundamentally upon serious and earnest conceptions of life." It is a tremendously significant fact that the works of American literature most widely read in Germany are the works of—striking conjunction!—Ralph ...
— Mark Twain • Archibald Henderson
... of the stranger gave place to astonishment and involuntary admiration as he critically inspected the face and form; and, fixing her clear, earnest eyes on him, Regina saw a tall, commanding man of certainly not less than thirty years, with a noble massive head, calm pale features almost stern when in repose, and remarkably brilliant piercing black ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... along with bodily ills. We should be trained, too, not to dwell upon anticipated troubles, but to use our minds and bodies in an earnest, honest endeavor to avert threatened disaster. We should not brood over possible failure, for in the great realm of the supremacy of mind or spirit the thought of ...
— Philip Dru: Administrator • Edward Mandell House
... of the want of coolness and self-possession in the style, and then said that it looked as if the writer were pressed less to persuade other people than to persuade himself. This was a crude impression. Nobody can have any doubt of the writer's profound sincerity, or of his earnest desire to make proselytes. He knows his own mind, and hammers his doctrines out with a hard and iterative stroke that hits its mark. Yet his literary tone, in spite of its declamatory pitch, not seldom ...
— Diderot and the Encyclopaedists - Volume II. • John Morley
... time or convenience for this daily process; but when sickness overtakes them, they have to find time to submit to medical treatment, and in this, as in other matters of everyday life, the cleanly individual who is thoroughly in earnest, will "find a way, ...
— The Royal Road to Health • Chas. A. Tyrrell
... perfection), to make a horse go on a wooden leg and two crutches. For powdering his ears with quicksilver, and giving him suppositories of live eels, he is expert. All the while you are cheapening, he fears you will not bite; but he laughs in his sleeve when he hath cozened you in earnest. Frenchmen are his best chapmen; he keeps amblers for them on purpose, and knows he can deceive them very easily. He is so constant to his trade that, while he is awake, he tries any man he talks with, and when he is asleep he dreams very fearfully of the ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various
... can't imagine how full of vanity he is. Lately it occurred to him to get himself acclaimed by the populace, for he pretends to be a kind of King of the Markets, you know. Perhaps he has ended by taking his fine judge-like airs in earnest, and really believes that he is saving the people and helping the cause of virtue. What astonishes me is his fertility in the arts of denunciation and scandalmongering. Never a morning comes but he discovers ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... excepted Susan, of whom she felt always in doubt, she could hardly have chosen out of her school any girls from whom she would have expected kinder and safer treatment for the new-comer. "How could I have doubted God would provide for this missionary child!" she thought, as she looked down into the earnest face beside ...
— Miss Ashton's New Pupil - A School Girl's Story • Mrs. S. S. Robbins
... prisoner had done. But they did not thoroughly believe in him; they were not at any rate fanatical in his cause, and were not likely to impale themselves on bayonets to encourage the others, as his more earnest adherents thought it a privilege to do. At the same time they were Mohammedans, and to kill an unbeliever must be always a meritorious action in their eyes. So it was a pleasure to them to pepper the Christians a bit, when occasion offered, not to mention that any sort of a fight ...
— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough
... these descriptions she listened with a happy smile, the mission of woman dawning on her; and many were the questions she asked, till she seemed to have mastered the pictures painted for her. Above all, Jean strained to bring her to the knowledge of the God of the Christian, for he himself was an earnest, intelligent disciple. He found her mind clearer than he had expected. Judith (this he now knew was the mother's name) was a remarkable woman; her mind was lofty, if darkened. While others were satisfied with the grossness of a material creed her spirit soared aloft. Her Gods commanded ...
— The Forest of Vazon - A Guernsey Legend Of The Eighth Century • Anonymous
... year 303. Porphyry was not an original, productive thinker, but a diligent and thorough investigator, characterized by great learning, by the gift of an acute faculty for philological and historical criticism, and by an earnest desire to spread the true philosophy of life, to refute false doctrines, especially those of the Christians, to ennoble man and draw him to that which is good. That a mind so free and noble surrendered itself entirely to the philosophy of Plotinus and to polytheistic mysticism, is a ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack
... she replied, 'that I never even moved!' and as she was obviously in earnest I had to ...
— HE • Andrew Lang
... off, he hung them on the banisters, and, with a passing thought of Lady Godiva, closed the kitchen door and advanced again towards the grate, still grasping the poker in his hand. Then he set himself to grapple with reality in earnest. The ashes crashed together, dust rose in columns, iron rang on iron, as in war's smithy. But little by little the victory was achieved, and lines of paper, wood, and coal gave promise of brighter things. He wiped his sweating brow, tingeing it with a still deeper black, and, catching sight of ...
— Essays in Rebellion • Henry W. Nevinson
... frontiers of Courland, and the damage of the peasants compensated with money, though general Apraxin's army was at the same time greatly distressed by the want of provisions; when, on a sudden, they quickened their motions, and showed they were in earnest, determined to accomplish the ruin of Prussia. Their first act of hostility was the attack of Memel, which surrendered: and, by the articles of capitulation, it was agreed that the garrison should march out with all the honours of war, after having engaged not to serve against ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... a young man came to this city, and spent his first days here under my own roof. I have known his father for many years, an earnest, faithful man, who has denied himself for that boy, and prayed for him, and done everything ...
— Stories Worth Rereading • Various
... practical approval, for it embodies a principle most dear to them, namely, that the other castes can obtain success and heaven only under the guidance of Brahmans and by rites which only Brahmans can perform. But for this very reason it incurred the hostility not only of philosophers and morally earnest men, but of the military caste and it never really recovered from the blow dealt it by Buddhism, the religion of that caste. But with every Brahmanic revival it came to the front and the performance of the Asvamedha ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot
... my labours in good earnest. An oblong, narrow, boudoir-sort of apartment, contains the more precious MSS., the block books, and works printed upon vellum. This room is connected with another, at right angles, (if I remember well) which receives the ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... crest of the flood past, Wheeling turned to take up in earnest the task of caring for her thousands of destitute ...
— The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado • Logan Marshall
... It was Stella's first experience in a religious home. She had never been accustomed to hearing the "blessing" said, and food referred to as "God-given" seemed, at first, quite too sacred to swallow. And the effect of morning worship—the seriously read Bible chapter, the earnest prayer, with the entire family kneeling—affected her profoundly, and gave to this godly home a sanctity which, at susceptible not-yet-fifteen, awakened emotions so powerful that for days she walked as one in a dream, one attracted by some wonderful ...
— Our Nervous Friends - Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness • Robert S. Carroll
... judgment, and in converting, guiding, and comforting those whom He influences, we can understand that it was expedient for us that Christ should go away, in order that the Comforter might come.[181] If we are receiving and resting on Jesus as our Saviour, then His Spirit is within us as the earnest of our inheritance.[182] His presence imparts power such as no spiritual enemy can resist. How different were the Apostles before and after they had received the gift of the Spirit! One of them who, before, ...
— Exposition of the Apostles Creed • James Dodds |
