Dignity

I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship and dignity.’ ‘What then would you have,’ said Gandalf, ‘if your will could have its way?’ ‘I would have things as they were in all the days of my life,’ answered Denethor, ‘and in the days of my longfathers before me: to be the Lord of this City in peace, and leave my chair to a son after me, who would be his own master and no wizard’s pupil.

Less than five years, all told, it had been; and after that he knew that he could live only by fighting that vague and fearful enemy that deprived him of the dignity of manhood by controlling his destiny; that made life a miserable struggle against a foreordained end; that made all the universe a hateful and deadly chess game.

The whole town was laughing in its sleeve, and the court knew it, and its dignity was deeply hurt.

Elizabeth made no answer, and took her place in the set, amazed at the dignity to which she was arrived in being allowed to stand opposite to Mr. Darcy, and reading in her neighbours’ looks their equal amazement in beholding it.

My guess is that they were thinking of dignity, of emotional proportion above all else.

Swallowing his dignity, he asked Bronn to carry him, hoping against hope that at this hour there would be no one to see and smile, no one to tell the tale of the dwarf being carried up the steps like a babe in arms.

Thus fulfilling the highest law thou shalt regain traces of the ancient dignity which thou hast lost.” He finished and, getting up, embraced and kissed Pierre, who, with tears of joy in his eyes, looked round him, not knowing how to answer the congratulations and greetings from acquaintances that met him on all sides.

Dying, he felt as if he had gained a little sanity and maybe even a little dignity.

“It’s of no use disguising facts, ma’am,” said Mr. Bumble, slowly flourishing the teaspoon with a kind of amorous dignity which made him doubly impressive; “I would drown it myself, with pleasure.” “Then you’re a cruel man,” said the matron vivaciously, as she held out her hand for the beadle’s cup; “and a very hardhearted man besides.” “Hardhearted, ma’am?” said Mr. Bumble.

At her place in the circle across from Paul, Jessica nodded, recognizing the ancient source of the rite, and she thought: The meeting between ignorance and knowledge, between brutality and culture–it begins in the dignity with which we treat our dead.

Dispose of your dead with dignity.

There are fortunes to be made, there is slow recovery from the endless wars with Spain to be achieved, there is a place for all of us in the good times ahead, but you must not grasp with such lack of dignity at things of the past.

Renfield watched them go; when the door was closed he said, with considerable dignity and sweetness:— “Dr.

But let us come to Commodus, to whom it should have been very easy to hold the empire, for, being the son of Marcus, he had inherited it, and he had only to follow in the footsteps of his father to please his people and soldiers; but, being by nature cruel and brutal, he gave himself up to amusing the soldiers and corrupting them, so that he might indulge his rapacity upon the people; on the other hand, not maintaining his dignity, often descending to the theatre to compete with gladiators, and doing other vile things, little worthy of the imperial majesty, he fell into contempt with the soldiers, and being hated by one party and despised by the other, he was conspired against and was killed.

There is a poet who sings that “Deeper their heart grows and nobler their bearing, Whose youth in the fires of anguish hath died.” But it is not likely that he had reference to the kind of anguish that comes with destitution, that is so endlessly bitter and cruel, and yet so sordid and petty, so ugly, so humiliating—unredeemed by the slightest touch of dignity or even of pathos.

Him Tullus next in dignity succeeds, An active prince, and prone to martial deeds.

A pause, and then a tired, dry, middle-aged, female voice said, "I think what I and my family of three noticed most was the dignity."

Perhaps the paradox of his situation becomes so dreadful that, precisely where he has learnt great sympathy, together with great contempt, the multitude, the educated, and the visionaries, have on their part learnt great reverence—reverence for “great men” and marvelous animals, for the sake of whom one blesses and honours the fatherland, the earth, the dignity of mankind, and one’s own self, to whom one points the young, and in view of whom one educates them.

He had died with the dignity that simple, expected things often hold.

And not only that, but moody stricken Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face; in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe.

Paine has often been called a “mere scoffer,” but he seems to have been among the first to treat with dignity the book of Jonah, so especially liable to the ridicule of superficial readers, and discern in it the highest conception of Deity known to the Old Testament.

"I am not a brigand," Dunk told the two of them, with all the dignity that he could muster.

What I most loved after you, Mercédès, was myself, my dignity, and that strength which rendered me superior to other men; that strength was my life.

My wife and I respect ourselves and one another too much ever to tyrannize or quarrel.” Jo liked that, and thought the new dignity very becoming, but the boy seemed changing very fast into the man, and regret mingled with her pleasure.

IV The Lost Dog Kolya leaned against the fence with an air of dignity, waiting for Alyosha to appear.

According to Marius’ opinion, if he accepted, his position would become both better and worse at the same time, he acquired comfort, and lost his dignity; it was a fine and complete unhappiness converted into a repulsive and ridiculous state of torture: something like the case of a blind man who should recover the sight of one eye.

He broke into the villainous ditty: “Yo ho, yo ho, the frisky plank, You walks along it so, Till it goes down and you goes down To Davy Jones below!” To terrorise the prisoners the more, though with a certain loss of dignity, he danced along an imaginary plank, grimacing at them as he sang; and when he finished he cried, “Do you want a touch of the cat before you walk the plank?” At that they fell on their knees.

I took a step, and lo, away it scud with an elastic spring over the snow-crust, straightening its body and its limbs into graceful length, and soon put the forest between me and itself—the wild free venison, asserting its vigor and the dignity of Nature.

The expression of the face, an assumed aloofness and superiority tempered by a feeble envy; the attitude of the body and limbs, an attitude of studious and scholarly dignity, given away by the fidgety pose of the turned-in feet—these things were terrible.

The comment about Rue has filled me with fury, enough fury I think to die with some dignity.

Her garb was rustic, and her cheek pale; but there was an air of dignity and beauty, that hardly permitted the sentiment of pity.

Tony, the security guy, climbs down out of the open door, moving slowly, high-stepping his way through the web of cables but somehow retaining his balance and his dignity.

Inclination prompted her to speak out: dignity told her to be silent.

It was very exciting for her, taking his dignity away in the name of love.

By such constant sharing in the hearth councils they grew up masters of expression, dialecticians, orators, able to sit with dignity in any gathering and never at a loss for moving words.

She made me promise there would be no conventional funeral “with a preacher’s sermon and my body on display.” As she said: “I will not be in that body then but it deserves more dignity than such a display provides.” She insisted I go no further than to have her cremated and scatter her ashes at her beloved Kawaloa “where I have felt so much peace and love.” The only ceremony—friends and loved ones to watch the scattering of her ashes during the singing of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” She knew there would be tears then as there are tears while I write these words but in her last days she often spoke of tears as futile.

I could recover if I shrieked My heart’s agony To passing bird, but I am dumb From human dignity.

He may be viewed tonight as a plump, smooth, pink, baldish, podgy goodman, robbed of the importance of spectacles, squatting in breast-high water, scraping his lather-smeared cheeks with a safety-razor like a tiny lawn-mower, and with melancholy dignity clawing through the water to recover a slippery and active piece of soap.

Ackroyd extends a genial patronage to the lower orders, but he has a very great sense of his own dignity.

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

For, though stimulated at times by hopes of one day owning a flock and getting rich like his boss, he at the same time is likely to be degraded by the life he leads, and seldom reaches the dignity or advantage—or disadvantage—of ownership.

“I’m sorry,” said Richard, to the rat, with dignity, “if I startled you.” The rat looked up at Door.

What a soul that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be separated from the body, and ready either to be extinguished or dispersed or continue to exist; but so that this readiness comes from a man’s own judgement, not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians,104 but considerately and with dignity and in a way to persuade another, without tragic show.

If, however, the Homeric ballads, as they are sometimes called, which related the wrath of Achilles, with all its direful consequences, were so far superior to the rest of the poetic cycle, as to admit no rivalry,—it is still surprising, that throughout the whole poem the callida junctura should never betray the workmanship of an Athenian hand; and that the national spirit of a race, who have at a later period not inaptly been compared to our self-admiring neighbours, the French, should submit with lofty self-denial to the almost total exclusion of their own ancestors—or, at least, to the questionable dignity of only having produced a leader tolerably skilled in the military tactics of his age."

An aura of wisdom and dignity seemed to surround her that Ser Barristan could not help but admire.

I like the jolly old pantomime where a man sits on his top hat.” “Not on mine, please,” said Sir Leopold Fischer, with dignity.

“I beg your pardon,” said Mr. McKee with dignity, “I didn’t know I was touching it.” “All right,” I agreed, “I’ll be glad to.” … I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands.

I’ll go to her.” And in fact she held out her hand to her mother-in-law with the dignity of a marchioness as she said— “Excuse me, madame.” Then, having gone up again to her room, she threw herself flat on her bed and cried there like a child, her face buried in the pillow.

The happier state In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw Envy from each inferior; but who here Will envy whom the highest place exposes Foremost to stand against the Thunderer’s aim Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share Of endless pain?

never seen her, blasphemous traitor!” exclaimed Don Quixote; “hast thou not just now brought me a message from her?” “I mean,” said Sancho, “that I did not see her so much at my leisure that I could take particular notice of her beauty, or of her charms piecemeal; but taken in the lump I like her.” “Now I forgive thee,” said Don Quixote; “and do thou forgive me the injury I have done thee; for our first impulses are not in our control.” “That I see,” replied Sancho, “and with me the wish to speak is always the first impulse, and I cannot help saying, once at any rate, what I have on the tip of my tongue.” “For all that, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “take heed of what thou sayest, for the pitcher goes so often to the well302—I need say no more to thee.” “Well, well,” said Sancho, “God is in heaven, and sees all tricks, and will judge who does most harm, I in not speaking right, or your worship in not doing it.” “That is enough,” said Dorothea; “run, Sancho, and kiss your lord’s hand and beg his pardon, and henceforward be more circumspect with your praise and abuse; and say nothing in disparagement of that lady Toboso, of whom I know nothing save that I am her servant; and put your trust in God, for you will not fail to obtain some dignity so as to live like a prince.” Sancho advanced hanging his head and begged his master’s hand, which Don Quixote with dignity presented to him, giving him his blessing as soon as he had kissed it; he then bade him go on ahead a little, as he had questions to ask him and matters of great importance to discuss with him.

‘You must think only of the welfare of your country and the dignity of man.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Yossarian.

Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune.