Measure

It felt wrong and right in equal measure.

‘It is good to learn that they are still alive,’ said Gimli; ‘for they cost us great pains in our march over Rohan, and I would not have such pains all wasted.’ Together the Elf and the Dwarf entered Minas Tirith, and folk that saw them pass marvelled to see such companions; for Legolas was fair of face beyond the measure of Men, and he sang an elven-song in a clear voice as he walked in the morning; but Gimli stalked beside him, stroking his beard and staring about him.

It is but just that she be heard upon it now.” The Chancellor sat down trembling with indignation, and remarked to Joan: “Out of charity I will consider that you did not know who devised this measure which you condemn in so candid language.” “Save your charity for another occasion, my lord,” said Joan, as calmly as before.

“But what,” said she, after a pause, “can have been his motive?—what can have induced him to behave so cruelly?” “A thorough, determined dislike of me—a dislike which I cannot but attribute in some measure to jealousy.

Before we took the measure of each other’s passions, however, we talked about Frank Hoenikker, and we talked about the old man, and we talked a little about Asa Breed, and we talked about the General Forge and Foundry Company, and we talked about the Pope and birth control, about Hitler and the Jews.

During all the terrible long years of his childhood, only Jaime had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything.

“Now, if this earthly love has power to make Men’s being mortal, immortal; to shake Ambition from their memories, and brim Their measure of content; what merest whim, Seems all this poor endeavour after fame, To one, who keeps within his steadfast aim A love immortal, an immortal too.

In every action we examine we see a certain measure of freedom and a certain measure of inevitability.

You can measure the strength of any society's faith by seeing how much that faith weakens when its empiric object is removed.” “Run that one by me again.” “When Moses smashed the golden calf, the Israelites stopped worshipping it.

A wild-looking woman, whom even in his agitation, Mr. Lorry observed to be all of a red colour, and to have red hair, and to be dressed in some extraordinary tight-fitting fashion, and to have on her head a most wonderful bonnet like a Grenadier wooden measure, and good measure too, or a great Stilton cheese, came running into the room in advance of the inn servants, and soon settled the question of his detachment from the poor young lady, by laying a brawny hand upon his chest, and sending him flying back against the nearest wall.

Paul felt himself at the center, at the pivot where the whole structure turned, walking a thin wire of peace with a measure of happiness, Chani at his side.

He stood quite still, holding the miraculous paper in his nerveless fingers while inside him a kind of quiet eruption sent joy and grief thundering in equal measure through his veins.

A face with charity and mockery displayed in equal measure.

By this time I was beginning to take his measure.

“And, sire, since it is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim, it would be but a measure of honest self-defense.

I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind.

Nevertheless, if anyone should ask of me how comes it that the Church has attained such greatness in temporal power, seeing that from Alexander backwards the Italian potentates (not only those who have been called potentates, but every baron and lord, though the smallest) have valued the temporal power very slightly—yet now a king of France trembles before it, and it has been able to drive him from Italy, and to ruin the Venetians—although this may be very manifest, it does not appear to me superfluous to recall it in some measure to memory.

When a Socialist was elected to office he voted with old party legislators for any measure that was likely to be of help to the working-class, but he never forgot that these concessions, whatever they might be, were trifles compared with the great purpose—the organizing of the working-class for the revolution.

Now, side to side, they measure with their eyes The champions’ bulk, their sinews, and their size: The nearer they approach, the more is known Th’ apparent disadvantage of their own.

“They burned me by vending that ham sandwich, so what I did--don't rat on me--the next time we went to the drive-in, the one in La Habra, I stuck a bent coin in the slot and a couple more in other vending machines for good measure.

Supposing, in effect, that man is not just the “measure of things.” 4 The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely.

From their arrow-slit in the skull, the priests perceived me taking the altitude of the final rib, “How now!” they shouted; “Dar’st thou measure this our god!

The boys, becoming furious at not being able to measure themselves hand to hand with the puppet, had recourse to other weapons.

John having thus filled up the measure of apostolic fable, concludes his book with something that beats all fable; for he says in the last verse: “And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written everyone I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” This is what in vulgar life is called a “thumper”—that is, not only a lie, but a lie beyond the line of possibility; besides which, it is an absurdity, for if they should be written in the world, the world would contain them.

My brothers have my measure when it comes to fighting and dancing and thinking and reading books, but none of them is half my equal at lying insensible in the mud."

He was sustained at first by that pride of conscious innocence which is the sequence to hope; then he began to doubt his own innocence, which justified in some measure the governor’s belief in his mental alienation; and then, relaxing his sentiment of pride, he addressed his supplications, not to God, but to man.

It seems to me that everything is ruled by measure in our century; all men are clamouring for their rights; ‘a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.’ But, added to this, men desire freedom of mind and body, a pure heart, a healthy life, and all God’s good gifts.

“I must be growing small again.” She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.

To have continually at one’s side a woman, a daughter, a sister, a charming being, who is there because you need her and because she cannot do without you; to know that we are indispensable to a person who is necessary to us; to be able to incessantly measure one’s affection by the amount of her presence which she bestows on us, and to say to ourselves, “Since she consecrates the whole of her time to me, it is because I possess the whole of her heart;” to behold her thought in lieu of her face; to be able to verify the fidelity of one being amid the eclipse of the world; to regard the rustle of a gown as the sound of wings; to hear her come and go, retire, speak, return, sing, and to think that one is the centre of these steps, of this speech; to manifest at each instant one’s personal attraction; to feel one’s self all the more powerful because of one’s infirmity; to become in one’s obscurity, and through one’s obscurity, the star around which this angel gravitates—few felicities equal this.

VII The Home Under the Ground One of the first things Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John and Michael for hollow trees.

“Just don’t make him angry, or he’ll force you to measure every blade of grass in the valley.” Percy filed that information.

But history must not yet tell the tragedies enacted here; let time intervene in some measure to assuage and lend an azure tint to them.

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

I paid her off, too, just for good measure, but I don't think she's eager to be back in the Peacekeepers' custody.” Haymitch takes a swipe with his knife but Peeta deflects it so easily it's pathetic.

Άντιστροφή Cloud maidens that bring the rain-shower, To the Pallas-loved land let us wing, To the land of stout heroes and Power, Where Kekrops was hero and king, Where honour and silence is given To the mysteries that none may declare, Where are gifts to the high gods in heaven When the house of the gods is laid bare, Where are lofty roofed temples, and statues well carven and fair; Where are feasts to the happy immortals When the sacred procession draws near, Where garlands make bright the bright portals At all seasons and months in the year; And when spring days are here, Then we tread to the wine-god a measure, In Bacchanal dance and in pleasure, ’Mid the contests of sweet singing choirs, And the crash of loud lyres.

But I fear, from what you have yourself described to be his properties, that this will prove impracticable; and thus, while every proper measure is pursued, you should make up your mind to disappointment.” “That cannot be; but all that I can say will be of little avail.

It gives him a certain measure of romance that none of these other people have.

He watched her pour into the measure and thence into the jug rich white milk, not hers.

If the death penalty is ever to be imposed for desertion, it should be imposed in this case, not as a punitive measure nor as retribution, but to maintain that discipline upon which alone an army can succeed against the enemy.

Life was so deliberately private that no circumstances could justify one man in laying violent hands upon another’s: though a man’s own death was his last free will, a saving grace and measure of intolerable pain.

Then: “Do you doubt my sincerity, Stil?” “Of course not.” “My birthright?” “You are who you are.” “And if I do what is expected of me, that is the measure of my sincerity, eh?” “It is the Fremen practice.” “Then I cannot have inner feelings to guide my behavior?” “I don’t understand what—” “If I always behave with propriety, no matter what it costs me to suppress my own desires, then that is the measure of me.” “Such is the essence of self-control, youngster.” “Youngster!” Leto shook his head.

There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul.

“You only will I wed,” I cried, “And I will make a thousand songs, And set your name all names above, And captives bound with leathern thongs Shall kneel and praise you, one by one, At evening in my western dun.” “O Usheen, mount by me and ride To shores by the wash of the tremulous tide, Where men have heaped no burial mounds, And the days pass by like a wayward tune, Where broken faith has never been known, And the blushes of first love never have flown; And there I will give you a hundred hounds; No mightier creatures bay at the moon; And a hundred robes of murmuring silk, And a hundred calves and a hundred sheep Whose long wool whiter than sea froth flows, And a hundred spears and a hundred bows, And oil and wine and honey and milk, And always never-anxious sleep; While a hundred youths, mighty of limb, But knowing nor tumult nor hate nor strife, And a hundred maidens, merry as birds, Who when they dance to a fitful measure Have a speed like the speed of the salmon herds, Shall follow your horn and obey your whim, And you shall know the Danaan leisure: And Niam be with you for a wife.” Then she sighed gently, “It grows late, Music and love and sleep await, Where I would be when the white moon climbs, The red sun falls and the world grows dim.” And then I mounted and she bound me With her triumphing arms around me, And whispering to herself enwound me; But when the horse had felt my weight, He shook himself and neighed three times: Caolte, Conan, and Finn came near, And wept, and raised their lamenting hands, And bid me stay, with many a tear; But we rode out from the human lands.

Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me, and like me banished, Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave.

The number of humblebees in any district depends in a great measure upon the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Colonel Newman, who has long attended to the habits of humblebees, believes that “more than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed all over England.” Now the number of mice is largely dependent, as everyone knows, on the number of cats; and Colonel Newman says, “Near villages and small towns I have found the nests of humblebees more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the mice.” Hence it is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in that district!

If you are not too near the town and keep perfectly still he may run across your feet a few times, over your legs and hands and face, up your trousers, as if taking your measure and getting comprehensive views, then go in peace without raising an alarm.

Hear what little Red-Eye saith: “Nag, come up and dance with death!” Eye to eye and head to head, (Keep the measure, Nag.)

And he added, for good measure, “There.” He did not comfort well.

For if he shall begin to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and imagination and appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the measure of our duty, and clearly separating all appearances, and considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else of the kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason, all this is already extinguished.

To form correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a great whole—we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom they are surrounded; and, in contemplating the incidents in their lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than the respective probability of its details.

It was never wise for a ruler to eschew the trappings of power, for power itself flows in no small measure from such trappings.

When the harlequin heaved the comic constable heavily off the floor the clown played “I arise from dreams of thee.” When he shuffled him across his back, “With my bundle on my shoulder,” and when the harlequin finally let fall the policeman with a most convincing thud, the lunatic at the instrument struck into a jingling measure with some words which are still believed to have been, “I sent a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it.” At about this limit of mental anarchy Father Brown’s view was obscured altogether; for the City magnate in front of him rose to his full height and thrust his hands savagely into all his pockets.

He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.

XXIX Night I know a little Druid wood Where I would slumber if I could And have the murmuring of the stream To mingle with a midnight dream, And have the holy hazel trees To play above me in the breeze, And smell the thorny eglantine; For there the white owls all night long In the scented gloom divine Hear the wild, strange, tuneless song Of faerie voices, thin and high As the bat’s unearthly cry, And the measure of their shoon Dancing, dancing, under the moon, Until, amid the pale of dawn The wandering stars begin to swoon. … Ah, leave the world and come away!

Because lips libertine and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little in the candour of hers; exaggerated speeches hiding mediocre affections must be discounted; as if the fullness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in the emptiest metaphors, since no one can ever give the exact measure of his needs, nor of his conceptions, nor of his sorrows; and since human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars.

But knowledge is as food, and needs no less Her temperance over appetite, to know In measure what the mind may well contain; Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

History is in a measure a sacred thing, for it should be true, and where the truth is, there God is; but notwithstanding this, there are some who write and fling books broadcast on the world as if they were fritters.” “There is no book so bad but it has something good in it,”467 said the bachelor.

Fewer people came to him with their troubles than formerly, and he allowed himself a measure of gratitude for that too.

I have not had time to examine this room yet, but with your permission I shall do so now.” As he spoke, he whipped a tape measure and a large round magnifying glass from his pocket.

But though the poor country, notwithstanding the inferiority of its cultivation, can, in some measure, rival the rich in the cheapness and goodness of its corn, it can pretend to no such competition in its manufactures; at least if those manufactures suit the soil, climate, and situation of the rich country.