"Untractable" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... prelate, himself a man of extreme good-nature, was frequently much vexed in the spirit by the proud, froward, perverse, and untractable temper of his next vicar. The latter, after an absence much longer than usual, one day paid a visit to the bishop, who kindly inquired the cause of his absence, and was answered by the vicar, that he had been confined to his house for some time past by ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon
... Augustus, the immortal fame of the founder of a new empire. By repeated experiments, I was gradually convinced, that laws are essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a well-constituted state; and that the fierce, untractable humor of the Goths was incapable of bearing the salutary yoke of laws and civil government. From that moment I proposed to myself a different object of glory and ambition; and it is now my sincere wish ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon
... order to keep as far apart as possible; occasionally a few sunburned blond men in a shovel gang, but they prove to be Teutons or Scandinavians; laborers of every color and degree—except American laborers, more than conspicuous by their absence. For the American negro is an untractable creature in large numbers, and the caste system that forbids white Americans from engaging in common labor side by side with negroes is to be expected in an enterprise of which the leaders are not only military men but largely southerners, however many may be shivering ...
— Zone Policeman 88 - A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and its Workers • Harry A. Franck
... or discretion. The malignity of thy temper perverteth nature; thy learning makes thee more barbarous; thy study of humanity more inhuman; thy converse among poets more grovelling, miry, and dull. All arts of civilising others render thee rude and untractable; courts have taught thee ill manners, and polite conversation has finished thee a pedant. Besides, a greater coward burdeneth not the army. But never despond; I pass my word, whatever spoil thou takest shall certainly be thy own; though I hope that vile ...
— The Battle of the Books - and Other Short Pieces • Jonathan Swift
... Queen Gulnare, 'if only the Princess Giauhara can make you happy, it is not my design to oppose you. The king your uncle need only have the King of Samandal brought, and we shall soon see whether he be still of the same untractable temper.' ...
— Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights • E. Dixon
... in the rear of her, and keep every body in his sleep and his rest, in prosperity and comfort, abundance and carelessness; and then you will see the poor honest man, as soon as he shall drink of the alluring cup of Ease, become a perverse, proud, untractable churl—the industrious labourer change into a careless, waggish rattler—and every other person become just what you would desire him. Because pleasant Ease is what every one seeks and loves; she hears not counsel, fears not punishment—if good, she will not ...
— The Sleeping Bard - or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell • Ellis Wynne
... wicked and wrathful, insulteth others, though himself desirous of honours, and disobeyeth the commands of the aged. He is, O Madhava, a transgressor of the scriptures, ignorant, and of wicked soul, already overtaken by fate, untractable, and disposed to do evil to those that seek his good. His soul is possessed by desire and lust. He foolishly regardeth himself as very wise. He is the enemy of all his true friends. Ever-suspicious, without any control over his soul, and ungrateful, he hath abandoned all virtue and is ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... night, for the boat was shot full of holes, and though he and his companions stuffed their spare clothing into them it leaked badly. The enemy got the smack, after all, and the bear, which, being a Norwegian, proved so untractable on Swedish soil that, sad to relate, in the end they cut him ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis
... only a mean idea of his capacity, but a very high one, much worse founded, of their own; and full of self-confidence and self-conceit, they took their own line, perfectly regardless of the suspicions to which their perverse and untractable conduct exposed the king, carrying their obstinacy so far that it was not without difficulty, that the emperor himself, though they were in his dominions, was able to restrain ...
— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge
... the young Baron, with a musing air, and apparently unconscious of the meaning of his words. "He is, as you say, a remarkable horse—a prodigious horse! although, as you very justly observe, of a suspicious and untractable character, let him be mine, however," he added, after a pause, "perhaps a rider like Frederick of Metzengerstein, may tame even the devil from the stables ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe |
