The boy watched, his initial doubt replaced with plain delight, then by raptness, then by a dawning mute blankness.
Stephen King
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Book 1)
And he sang to them, now in the elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Return of the King
Oh, you shall stay, and not go!” In her delight she flung her arms about Joan’s neck and squandered endearments upon her the least of which would have made me rich, but, as it was, they only made me realize how poor I was—how miserably poor in what I would most have prized in this world.
Mark Twain
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’ that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt.
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
CONTENTS 1 THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED 2 NICE, NICE, VERY NICE 3 FOLLY 4 A TENTATIVE TANGLING OF TENDRILS 5 LETTER FROM A PRE-MED 6 BUG FIGHTS 7 THE ILLUSTRIOUS HOENIKKERS 8 NEWT’S THING WITH ZINKA 9 VICE-PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF VOLCANOES 10 SECRET AGENT X-9 11 PROTEIN 12 END OF THE WORLD DELIGHT 13 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 14 WHEN AUTOMOBILES HAD CUT-GLASS VASES 15 MERRY CHRISTMAS 16 BACK TO KINDERGARTEN 17 THE GIRL POOL 18 THE MOST VALUABLE COMMODITY ON EARTH 19 NO MORE MUD 20 ICE-NINE 21 THE MARINES MARCH ON 22 MEMBER OF THE YELLOW PRESS 23 THE LAST BATCH OF BROWNIES 24 WHAT A WAMPETER IS 25 THE MAIN THING ABOUT DR. HOENIKKER 26 WHAT GOD IS 27 MEN FROM MARS 28 MAYONNAISE 29 GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN 30 ONLY SLEEPING 31 ANOTHER BREED 32 DYNAMITE MONEY 33 AN UNGRATEFUL MAN 34 VIN-DIT 35 HOBBY SHOP 36 MEOW 37 A MODERN MAJOR GENERAL 38 BARRACUDA CAPITAL OF THE WORLD 39 FATA MORGANA 40 HOUSE OF HOPE AND MERCY 41 A KARASS BUILT FOR TWO 42 BICYCLES FOR AFGHANISTAN 43 THE DEMONSTRATOR 44 COMMUNIST SYMPATHIZERS 45 WHY AMERICANS ARE HATED 46 THE BOKONONIST METHOD FOR HANDLING CAESAR 47 DYNAMIC TENSION 48 JUST LIKE SAINT AUGUSTINE 49 A FISH PITCHED UP BY AN ANGRY SEA 50 A NICE MIDGET 51 O.K., MOM 52 NO PAIN 53 THE PRESIDENT OF FABRI-TEK 54 COMMUNISTS, NAZIS, ROYALISTS, PARACHUTISTS, AND DRAFT DODGERS 55 NEVER INDEX YOUR OWN BOOK 56 A SELF-SUPPORTING SQUIRREL CAGE 57 THE QUEASY DREAM 58 TYRANNY WITH A DIFFERENCE 59 FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS 60 AN UNDERPRIVILEGED NATION 61 WHAT A CORPORAL WAS WORTH 62 WHY HAZEL WASN’T SCARED 63 REVERENT AND FREE 64 PEACE AND PLENTY 65 A GOOD TIME TO COME TO SAN LORENZO 66 THE STRONGEST THING THERE IS 67 HY-U-O-OOK-KUH!
Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle
“And what poor fool will get that choice command?” “I am riding beside him.” The look of mingled horror and delight that passed across Iron Emmett’s face was worth more than a sack of gold.
George R. R. Martin
A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five
XXV And as he to the court-yard pass’d along, Each third step did he pause, and listen’d oft If he could hear his lady’s matin-song, Or the light whisper of her footstep soft; And as he thus over his passion hung, He heard a laugh full musical aloft; When, looking up, he saw her features bright Smile through an in-door lattice, all delight.
John Keats
Poetry
The German laughed, came out of the cowshed, pulled off his cap, and waving it above his head cried: “Und die ganze Welt hoch!”24 Rostóv waved his cap above his head like the German and cried laughing, “Und vivat die ganze Welt!” Though neither the German cleaning his cowshed nor Rostóv back with his platoon from foraging for hay had any reason for rejoicing, they looked at each other with joyful delight and brotherly love, wagged their heads in token of their mutual affection, and parted smiling, the German returning to his cowshed and Rostóv going to the cottage he occupied with Denísov.
Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
The verses in the eleventh chapter of Proverbs stated, “A false balance is an abomination of the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.
King, Stephen
The Stand
The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love, lie deep in their graves; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up, forever, on my best affections.
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist
I swear he takes a positive delight in it.
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Fudge looked from her to Dumbledore, his chest swelling.“Then you have been plotting against me!” he yelled.“That’s right,” said Dumbledore cheerfully.“NO!” shouted Harry.Kingsley flashed a look of warning at him, McGonagall widened her eyes threateningly, but it had suddenly dawned upon Harry what Dumbledore was about to do, and he could not let it happen.“No — Professor Dumbledore!”“Be quiet, Harry, or I am afraid you will have to leave my office,” said Dumbledore calmly.“Yes, shut up, Potter!” barked Fudge, who was still ogling Dumbledore with a kind of horrified delight.
J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Out of all the dozens of creatures in situations of distress, or perhaps wild delight—it’s hard to tell— these are the only eyes that peer at the viewer.
Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister
that, with our species upon the edge of extermination or appalling degradation, with no clear prospect before us but the chance of a horrible death, we could sit following the chance of this painted pasteboard, and playing the “joker” with vivid delight.
H. G. Wells
The War of the Worlds
At that moment the remnant of my love passed into hate and loathing; had she then to be killed, I could have done it with savage delight.
Bram Stoker
Dracula
Dedication To the Magnificent Lorenzo Di Piero De’ Medici: Those who strive to obtain the good graces of a prince are accustomed to come before him with such things as they hold most precious, or in which they see him take most delight; whence one often sees horses, arms, cloth of gold, precious stones, and similar ornaments presented to princes, worthy of their greatness.
Niccolò Machiavelli
The Prince
It was all a swindle, can-painting, said the girls—you were crazy with delight because you were making twelve or fourteen dollars a week, and saving half of it; but you had to spend it all keeping alive while you were out, and so your pay was really only half what you thought.
Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
Had you deferr’d, at least, your hasty flight, And left behind some pledge of our delight, Some babe to bless the mother’s mournful sight, Some young Aeneas, to supply your place, Whose features might express his father’s face; I should not then complain to live bereft Of all my husband, or be wholly left.” Here paus’d the queen.
Virgil
The Aeneid
And to shatter the strong, to spoil great hopes, to cast suspicion on the delight in beauty, to break down everything autonomous, manly, conquering, and imperious—all instincts which are natural to the highest and most successful type of “man”—into uncertainty, distress of conscience, and self-destruction; forsooth, to invert all love of the earthly and of supremacy over the earth, into hatred of the earth and earthly things—that is the task the Church imposed on itself, and was obliged to impose, until, according to its standard of value, “unworldliness,” “unsensuousness,” and “higher man” fused into one sentiment.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil
Who did it?” Still Barris's merry knowing eyes danced with special delight.
Dick, Philip K.
A Scanner Darkly
on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep.
Herman Melville
Moby Dick
Do you know I have an idea?” “I do now.” “Suppose this Brodrig takes a dislike to our young Army’s Delight?” “He probably has already.
Asimov, Isaac
Foundation 2 - Foundation and Empire
“Can he really be dead?” said Pinocchio, rubbing his hands with delight.
Carlo Collodi
The Adventures of Pinocchio
The septon turned first, with a hoot of delight that made Dunk wonder if he were drunk.
George R.R. Martin
The Tales of Dunk & Egg
He arose, paced a while up and down the hut, and then, suddenly stopping before Mercédès, with his eyes glowing and his hands clenched—“Say, Mercédès,” he said, “once for all, is this your final determination?” “I love Edmond Dantès,” the young girl calmly replied, “and none but Edmond shall ever be my husband.” “And you will always love him?” “As long as I live.” Fernand let fall his head like a defeated man, heaved a sigh that was like a groan, and then suddenly looking her full in the face, with clenched teeth and expanded nostrils, said—“But if he is dead—” “If he is dead, I shall die too.” “If he has forgotten you—” “Mercédès!” called a joyous voice from without—“Mercédès!” “Ah,” exclaimed the young girl, blushing with delight, and fairly leaping in excess of love, “you see he has not forgotten me, for here he is!” And rushing towards the door, she opened it, saying, “Here, Edmond, here I am!” Fernand, pale and trembling, drew back, like a traveller at the sight of a serpent, and fell into a chair beside him.
Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo
There might have been cause for maternal anxiety, if Demi had not given convincing proofs that he was a true boy, as well as a budding philosopher; for, often, after a discussion which caused Hannah to prophesy, with ominous nods, “That child ain’t long for this world,” he would turn about and set her fears at rest by some of the pranks with which dear, dirty, naughty little rascals distract and delight their parents’ souls.
Louisa May Alcott
Little Women
“Though you do look tired,” she added, half turning away, “your eyes are so splendid at this moment—so full of happiness.” “Really?” asked the prince, gleefully, and he laughed in delight.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot
“Come, my head’s free at last!” said Alice in a tone of delight, which changed into alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders were nowhere to be found: all she could see, when she looked down, was an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her.
Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
What a delight this strangling is!
Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
By depriving the children of ten minutes of delight.” “Oh, if you look at it in that way.” “What other way is there in which to look at it?” You see, the woman had no proper spirit.
J. M. Barrie
Peter and Wendy
You will tear each other apart, he’d said with delight.
Rick Riordan
The Lost Hero
Higher Laws As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Sleeps in the soul of all created things; In the blue sea, th’ Acroceraunian height, In the eyed butterfly’s auricular wings And orgied visions of the anchorite; In all that singing flies and flying sings, In rain, in pain, in delicate delight.
Aldous Huxley
Crome Yellow
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
“Delight me.” “Fine!” I snarl.
Suzanne Collins
Hunger Games 1 - The Hunger Games
For this sake only do thy dissonant cries Delight my discreet soul, else might all kings By bloody knout or treacherous cannonades Rob nations of their rights inviolate And I remain unmoved—and yet, and yet, These Christs that die upon the barricades, God knows it I am with them, in some things.
Oscar Wilde
Poetry
“You may easily believe,” said he, “how great was the difficulty to persuade my father that all necessary knowledge was not comprised in the noble art of book-keeping; and, indeed, I believe I left him incredulous to the last, for his constant answer to my unwearied entreaties was the same as that of the Dutch schoolmaster in The Vicar of Wakefield: ‘I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek, I eat heartily without Greek.’ But his affection for me at length overcame his dislike of learning, and he has permitted me to undertake a voyage of discovery to the land of knowledge.” “It gives me the greatest delight to see you; but tell me how you left my father, brothers, and Elizabeth.” “Very well, and very happy, only a little uneasy that they hear from you so seldom.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus
Now 'Eden,' which can be understood simply as the Hebrew word for 'delight,' stands for the happy state in which the king existed prior to the conquest.
Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash
He laid the brush aside and, laughing with delight, cried: ―Will he come?
James Joyce
Ulysses
When a thing was in my reach, I no longer wanted it; my delight lay in the desire.
T. E. Lawrence
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
And to her own surprise, Alia found that she was happy, experiencing a terrible delight that it was all out in the open at last between herself and her mother.
Frank Herbert
Children of Dune
With a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow; and it was not till weariness had begun to succeed, that I was suddenly, in the top fit of my delirium, struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror.
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public man, nor angry crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.
W. B. Yeats
Poetry
And she said to him, “O my Lord and Light of my Eyes, turn the ring upon your finger and show these Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia and China that you are the great and terrible King.” But Suleiman-bin-Daoud shook his head and said, “O my Lady and Delight of my Life, remember the Animal that came out of the sea and made me ashamed before all the animals in all the world because I showed off.
Rudyard Kipling
Just So Stories
Keep it up!” “Go on, quit your kidding,” said Babbitt feebly, but at this tribute from Gunch, himself a man of no mean oratorical fame, he expanded with delight and wondered how, before his vacation, he could have questioned the joys of being a solid citizen.
Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt
I am the drudge, and toil in your delight; But you shall bear the burden soon at night.
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
One might say that nature has taken delight in accumulating contradictions in order to remove all foundation from the theory of a preexisting harmony between the external and internal worlds.” If our reason leads us to admire with enthusiasm a multitude of inimitable contrivances in nature, this same reason tells us, though we may easily err on both sides, that some other contrivances are less perfect.
Charles Darwin
The Origin of Species
Here I find the little water ouzel as much at home as any linnet in a leafy grove, seeming to take the greater delight the more boisterous the stream.
John Muir
My First Summer in the Sierra
The expression on Jessica’s face morphed from one of horror to one of charmed delight.
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
But it is my delight to keep the ruling faculty sound without turning away either from any man or from any of the things which happen to men, but looking at and receiving all with welcome eyes and using everything according to its value.
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
Who first Ulysses' wondrous bow shall bend, And through twelve ringlets the fleet arrow send; Him will I follow, and forsake my home, For him forsake this loved, this wealthy dome, Long, long the scene of all my past delight, And still to last, the vision of my night!"
Homer
The Odyssey
“And what poor fool will get that choice command?” “I am riding beside him.” The look of mingled horror and delight that passed across Iron Emmett’s face was worth more than a sack of gold.
Martin, George, R. R.
A Dance With Dragons
Because I’ve got it already in my own breast-pocket.” The small man from Essex turned what seemed to be a dazed face in the dusk, and said, with the timid eagerness of “The Private Secretary”: “Are—are you sure?” Flambeau yelled with delight.
G. K. Chesterton
The Innocence of Father Brown
She used to sit on the sand with his head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
Even if it be not all a dream in vain —The ancient hope that still will rise again— Of a just God that cares for earthly pain, Yet far away beyond our labouring night, He wanders in the depths of endless light, Singing alone his musics of delight; Only the far, spent echo of his song Our dungeons and deep cells can smite along, And Thou art nearer.
C. S. Lewis
Poetry
But he, Siddhartha, was not a source of joy for himself, he found no delight in himself.
Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha
Every smile hid a yawn of boredom, every joy a curse, all pleasure satiety, and the sweetest kisses left upon your lips only the unattainable desire for a greater delight.
Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth Rose out of Chaos: Or if Zion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
John Milton
Paradise Lost
“This,” said the barber, “is Don Olivante de Laura.”81 “The author of that book,” said the curate, “was the same that wrote The Garden of Flowers, and truly there is no deciding which of the two books is the more truthful, or, to put it better, the less lying; all I can say is, send this one into the yard for a swaggering fool.” “This that follows is Florismarte of Hircania,” said the barber.82 “Señor Florismarte here?” said the curate; “then by my faith he must take up his quarters in the yard, in spite of his marvellous birth and visionary adventures, for the stiffness and dryness of his style deserve nothing else; into the yard with him and the other, mistress housekeeper.” “With all my heart, señor,” said she, and executed the order with great delight.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Don Quixote
The fact that there were thousands of men his own age and older who had not even attained the rank of major enlivened him with foppish delight in his own remarkable worth; on the other hand, the fact that there were men of his own age and younger who were already generals contaminated him with an agonizing sense of failure and made him gnaw at his fingernails with an unappeasable anxiety that was even more intense than Hungry Joe’s.
Heller, Joseph
Catch-22
“I have found a reagent which is precipitated by haemoglobin, and by nothing else.” Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shone upon his features.
Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet
Mandeville is very much less favourable to the claims of the philosophers: “They are very seldom the same sort of people, those that invent arts and improvements in them and those that inquire into the reason of things: this latter is most commonly practised by such as are idle and indolent, that are fond of retirement, hate business and take delight in speculation; whereas none succeed oftener in the first than active, stirring and laborious men, such as will put their hand to the plough, try experiments and give all their attention to what they are about.” —Fable of the Bees, pt.
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations