"Well-timed" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... at the Manor Green had assembled for luncheon, the rector was announced. He came in and joined them, saying,with his usual friendly bonhomie, "A very well-timed visit, I think! Your bell rang out its summons as I came up the avenue. Mrs. Green, I've gone through the formality of looking over the accounts of your clothing-club, and, as usual, I find them correctness itself; and here is my subscription for the next year. Miss Green, ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede
... one lovely evening I had assembled a large company in an illuminated garden. I was wandering about with my divinity arm-in-arm, separated from the rest of the guests, and endeavouring to amuse her with well-timed conversation; she looked modestly towards the ground, and gently returned the pressure of my hand. At this moment the moon unexpectedly burst through the clouds: her shadow alone was there,—she started, looked ...
— Peter Schlemihl • Adelbert von Chamisso
... sufficient by assenting and agreeing to his view to get the reputation of being a pleasant fellow; and if no satisfactory answer is given, then to enlighten ignorance and supply the necessary information is well-timed and does not excite envy. But let us be especially on our guard that, if anyone else is asked a question, we do not ourselves anticipate and intercept him in giving an answer. It is indeed perhaps nowhere good form, if another is asked a favour, to push him aside and undertake ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch
... schools. Few exercises bring more muscles into play than the steady stroke of the oar. Few are more exhilarating and pleasant to those who have tried them. Give us the strong pull through an open bay before all boating on placid lakes or rivers. The long, well-timed stroke becomes a mere mechanical effort, leaving the mind at liberty to enjoy the sense of freedom, the tonic salt-breeze, and the enlivening scenes ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various
... I must best know that," said the count, laughing, and continually stroking his long black beard. "By a fair and well-timed murder one can always make his fortune in Russia. A well-timed and well-executed murder is with us often rewarded with a barony and the title of count. Indeed, sometimes with the highest and tenderest imperial favor and grace. ...
— The Daughter of an Empress • Louise Muhlbach
... it with a high and firm hand. He arrested the ringleaders, and hanged four of them in the basement of the Louvre within twenty days after the commission of their crime. The energy was well-timed and perfectly successful. The power of the Sixteen was struck to the earth at a blow. The ignoble tyrants became in a moment as despicable as they had been formidable and insolent. Crome, more fortunate than many of his fellows, ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... body. But the folly and meanness of the higher ranks of society were still more disgusting. One instance alone, related by the Duke de St. Simon, will shew the unworthy avarice which infected the whole of society. A man of the name of Andre, without character or education, had, by a series of well-timed speculations in Mississippi bonds, gained enormous wealth in an incredibly short space of time. As St. Simon expresses it, "he had amassed mountains of gold." As he became rich, he grew ashamed of the lowness of his birth, and anxious above all things to be allied ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay
... the First Division were observed to be "sapping" up to our lines and trying to establish new trenches. Renewed counter-attacks were delivered and beaten off during the course of the day, and in the afternoon a well-timed attack by the First Division stopped the ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915 • Various
... not appear to have been particularly well-timed, for after a long silence, a woman's ...
— A Mummer's Wife • George Moore
... prolific with the noblest deeds. To guide the storm of battle o'er the plain, Condense its force, expand it, or restrain; To turn the tide of conquest to defeat By stratagems too fatally complete, Or freeze it by delay; to aim at will The well-timed stroke that mars all adverse skill; To range, in order firm, th'embattled line; Or shape, as regular, the bold design; All these were his—yet not all these could claim Exemptions from the lot of penal shame, ...
— Gustavus Vasa - and other poems • W. S. Walker
... sort of defiance, one and another gentleman advanced to answer it. He that was first began to speak; but Mr. Tyrrel, by the expression of his countenance and a peremptory tone, by well-timed interruptions and pertinent insinuations, caused him first to hesitate, and then to be silent. He seemed to be fast advancing to the triumph he had promised himself. The whole company were astonished. They felt the same abhorrence and condemnation of his character; ...
— Caleb Williams - Things As They Are • William Godwin
... Government itself was not to blame for this affair. He has asserted repeatedly that this high-handed procedure was the individual action of the French consul-general. As far as I can see, these little "affairs" always take place in the absence of the minister,—a well-timed vacation, during which an irresponsible charge d'affaires acts on his own initiative. Be that as it may, on this occasion the French minister happens to be in Paris, and the "Gazette" is insisting that the charge ...
— Peking Dust • Ellen N. La Motte
... they were assembled at breakfast next morning, looking no worse for the excitement of the previous evening, having all slept well: if the bell had rung it had disturbed no one at all. Mr. Forrester and Bessie had not made any one the wiser of the well-timed appearance of the abbot's ghost which had played such an effective part in their previous night's drama,—"I say," he said looking at Mr. Forrester and then at Bessie, "there is some understanding between you two; you are always looking ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Vol. XV., No. 85. January, 1875. • Various
... a party is, the more it needs an Opposition,—as we saw last winter in Washington, when the minority was too insignificant in numbers and ability to keep the too powerful majority from doing itself such harm as might have been fatal to it but for the President's well-timed antics. Next to a sound and able majority, the great need of a free country is a vigorous, vigilant, audacious, numerous minority. Better a factious and unscrupulous minority than none at all. The Federalists, who could ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton
... me, gloomy and chilly at that time, though the season was mild, and the sky had cleared up. Jesuits, carabineers, and spies lorded it; distrust was the order of the day. People went about their business, exchanged a hasty and well-timed sciao, (schiavo,) and gave up all genial intercourse. Far keener than the breath of neighboring snow-capped Mount Cenis, the breath of despotism froze alike tongues and souls. How could buttered toast, emblem of softness, thrive in so hard a temperature? ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 18, April, 1859 - [Date last updated: August 7, 2005] • Various
... sat down to the sumptuous repast; and when the cloth was removed, the wine circulated briskly, while the bond of amity between the French and English sailor, was strengthened by the interchange of many a loyal toast and happy well-timed allusion to the brave and martial character of the two nations; nor was music wanting to complete our joyous revelry: the whole budget of lower deck songs was completely exhausted; the guests contributing ...
— Journal of a Visit to Constantinople and Some of the Greek Islands in the Spring and Summer of 1833 • John Auldjo
... more than one man who could have changed the course of history for the worse were taken sick and died. Instead of finding themselves faced by spineless nincompoops, the rebels reeled before the sudden, well-timed tactics of real officers with eyes and ears and brains. The mask was off on both sides, and the sudden, stripped efficiency of one was no less disconcerting than the ...
— Rung Ho! • Talbot Mundy
... had much abated, and those prejudices against the hierarchy, which the first emigrants carried from England with them, were now almost entirely worn off from the succeeding generation. To bring about this change, no doubt the well-timed zeal and extensive bounty of the society, incorporated for the propagation of the Gospel, had greatly contributed. At this time the corporation had no less than twelve missionaries in Carolina, each of whom shared of their bounty. Indeed, a ...
— An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia, Volume 2 • Alexander Hewatt
... burdened with unwieldy arms. The ground, too, favoured the assailants: very few were slain, but many wounded; none were taken, because they rarely quit their ranks, but both fight and retreat in a close body. Thus Philip, having checked the proceedings of those two nations by these well-timed expeditions, gained reparation for the damages sustained from the operations of the Romans; the enterprise being as spirited as the issue was successful. An occurrence which accidentally happened to him lessened the number of his enemies on the side of Aetolia. Scopas, a man of considerable ...
— History of Rome, Vol III • Titus Livius
... (vol. iii. p. 116.).—However unimaginative the worthy Cit may be for whose explanation of this popular phrase J. D. S. has made himself answerable, the solution sounds so pretty, that to save its obtaining further credence, more than your well-timed note is needed. I with safety can contradict it, for I find that "Tusser," a Norfolk man living in the reign of Henry VIII., in a poem which he wrote as a complete monthly guide and adviser for the farmer through the year, but which was not published till 1590, in ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 72, March 15, 1851 • Various
... to the vigorous and well-timed efforts of Ulpius. He had already made a cavity, in an oblique direction, large enough to creep through, and was preparing to penetrate still further, when a portion of the rotten material of the interior of the wall suddenly yielded ...
— Antonina • Wilkie Collins |
