"Repine" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... It will be by no means un-snug when they are up. Meanwhile, I can rough it. We are old campaigners, we Psmiths. Give us a roof, a few comfortable chairs, a sofa or two, half a dozen cushions, and decent meals, and we do not repine. Reverting once more to ...
— Psmith in the City • P. G. Wodehouse
... as if they were wiser then God. For this comunitie (so farr as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte. For the yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and children, with out any recompence. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in devission of victails and cloaths, than he that was weake and not ...
— The Fathers of New England - A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths • Charles M. Andrews
... paragon to me— 'Tis true he drank my wine; But, as I found it disagree, I don't so much repine: 'Tis true we missed a little plate When he gave us the sack. But "all things come to them that wait"— Oh, bring my ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, August 20, 1892 • Various
... "Though love repine and reason chafe, There comes a voice without reply, 'Twere man's perdition to be safe, When for the ...
— Carry On • Coningsby Dawson
... others toiling and straining 'Neath burdens graver than mine; They are weary, yet uncomplaining,— I know it, yet I repine: I know it, how time will ravage, How time will level, and yet I long with a longing savage, I regret with a ...
— My Brilliant Career • Miles Franklin
... come to grief, fall a sacrifice to, drain the cup of misery to the dregs, sup full of horrors [Macbeth]. sit on thorns, be on pins and needles, wince, fret, chafe, worry oneself, be in a taking, fret and fume; take on, take to heart; cark^. grieve; mourn &c (lament) 839; yearn, repine, pine, droop, languish, sink; give way; despair &c 859; break one's heart; weigh upon the heart &c (inflict pain) 830. Adj. in pain, in a state of pain, full of pain &c n.; suffering &c v.; pained, afflicted, worried, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... "Repine not, O damsel," counselled the Jinnee, "since it is for his welfare. For, though as yet he believeth it not, when he beholds the resplendent beauty of her countenance he will swoon away with delight and forget thy ...
— The Brass Bottle • F. Anstey
... Quite free from spleen's incumb'ring load, The little evils on the road— So, while the path of life I tread, A path to me with briers spread; Let me its tangled mazes spy Like you, with gay, good-humour'd eye; Nor at those thorny tracts repine, The treasure of ...
— Poems (1786), Volume I. • Helen Maria Williams
... physical evil only obtains the name from our imperfect and vicious or feeble dispositions; that to a wise man there is no such thing; that we may rise superior to all such groveling notions as make us dread or repine at any events which can befall the body; that pain, sickness, loss of fortune or of reputation, exile, death itself, are only accounted ills by a weak and pampered mind; that if we find the world tiresome, or woeful, or displeasing, we may at any moment quit it; and that therefore we have ...
— The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil • E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham
... pleasure we may well Spare out of life, perhaps, and not repine, But live content, which is the calmest life; But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and, excessive, overturns ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer
... useless to repine, Guly. Perhaps 'tis all for the best. Sometimes when I have looked upon your calm and tranquil face, and noted the high principles which have governed your every action, I have felt as if I would give worlds to be possessed of the ...
— The Brother Clerks - A Tale of New-Orleans • Xariffa
... part of the abbey lands had been applied to the augmentation of poor bishoprics, and a very few acres to serve for glebes in those parishes where there are none; after which I think they would not repine that the laity should possess the rest. If the estates of some bishops and cathedrals were exorbitant before the Reformation, I believe the present clergy's wishes reach no further than that some reasonable temper had been used, instead of ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. III.: Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I. • Jonathan Swift
... swells thy heart in that immortal breast? Yet AEgae, Helice, thy power obey,(195) And gifts unceasing on thine altars lay. Would all the deities of Greece combine, In vain the gloomy Thunderer might repine: Sole should he sit, with scarce a god to friend, And see his Trojans to the shades descend: Such be the scene from his Idaean bower; Ungrateful ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer
... Love repine, and Reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,— 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth ...
— Daily Strength for Daily Needs • Mary W. Tileston
... enjoying it; the demands of a system required his father and Lord Crosland to spend most of their day in the darker, though hardly cooler air of the Temple of Fortune. But the system went well, and they did not repine. ...
— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson
... of the tragedy she has gone through. The double tragedy; for, soon after the master of Dandaloo's death in a Melbourne lunatic asylum, the little son of the house had died, not yet fourteen years of age, in an Inebriate's Home. Far was it from Mary to wish her friend to brood or repine; but to have ceased to remember as utterly as Agnes had done had something callous about it; and, in her own heart, Mary devoted a fresh regret to the memory of the poor little stepchild ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson
... some communication with you. I am thankful for the many among the past that I have passed with you, and the remembrance of them fills me with pleasure. For those on which we have been separated we must not repine. Now we must be content with the many blessings we receive. If we can only become sensible of our transgressions, so as to be fully penitent and forgiven, that this heavy punishment under which we labour may with justice be removed from us and the whole nation, what a gracious consummation ...
— Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee • Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son
... competent Estate, That I might live Genteely, but not Great. As much as I cou'd moderately spend, A little more somtimes t'oblige a Friend. Nor shou'd the Sons of Poverty Repine Too much at Fortune, they shou'd taste of mine, And all that Objects of true Pity were, Shou'd be reliev'd with what my Wants cou'd spare; For what our Maker has too largely giv'n, Shou'd be return'd ...
— The Pleasures of a Single Life, or, The Miseries Of Matrimony • Anonymous
... more pleasing to Jessie than she cared to let Helen know; since it gave the assurance that her sister had no thought of self-destruction. She is further comforted by the reflection, that Helen has no need to repine, and the hope it may not be for long. Some other and truer lover will replace the lost false one, and she will soon forget his falsehood. So reasons the happy heart. Indeed, judging by what she sees, Jessie Armstrong may well ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... was employed on this occasion more for his high birth and exalted rank, than for any experience in sea affairs; for so many dukes, marquises, and earls had volunteered on this occasion, that it was feared they might repine if commanded by a person of lower quality than themselves. They departed from Lisbon on the 19th of May 1588, with the greatest pride and glory, and with less doubt of victory than ever had been done by any nation. But God, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr
... prayed to; giving all outward testimonies that his affections were set on heavenly things. This was his behaviour towards God; and for that to man, it is observable that he was never known to be angry, or passionate, or extreme in any of his desires; never heard to repine or dispute with Providence, but, by a quiet gentle submission and resignation of his will to the wisdom of his Creator, bore the burthen of the day with patience; never heard to utter an uncomely word: and by this, and a grave behaviour, which is a divine charm, he begot an early reverence unto ...
— Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, - &C, Volume Two • Izaak Walton
... or from the states, which were of great real value, and which appeared to soldiers not acquainted with the actual state of depreciation, to be immense. They could not fail to compare situations, and to repine at engagements which deprived them of advantages which they saw in possession of others. Many were induced to contest those engagements;[36] many to desert a service in which they experienced such irritating ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 3 (of 5) • John Marshall
... knight, whom chains confine, Can tell his fate and not repine; Yet with a song he cheers the gloom That hangs around his living tomb. Shame to his friends!—the king remains Two ...
— With Spurs of Gold - Heroes of Chivalry and their Deeds • Frances Nimmo Greene
... constantly expected upon the Adriatic shore. When at length he was recalled, the siege of Rome had begun. The Gothic ladies now resided at Tibur, where a garrison was established; there Basil and Veranilda again met, and again only for an hour. But their hopes were high, and scarce could they repine at the necessity of parting so soon. Already in a letter, Basil had spoken of the king's promise; he now repeated it, ...
— Veranilda • George Gissing
... life were ours; The worst can be but mine; The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers, Shall never more be thine. The silence of that dreamless sleep I envy now too much to weep; Nor need I to repine That all those charms have passed away, I might have watched ...
— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall
... calculates the growth of trees, has the unwelcome remembrance of the shortness of life driven hard upon him. He knows that he is doing what will never benefit himself; and when he rejoices to see the stem rise, is disposed to repine that ...
— A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland • Samuel Johnson
... the marriage of the lip and beaker Let Joy be born! and in the rosy shine, The slanting starlight of the lifted liquor, Let Care, the hag, be drowned! No more repine At all life's ills! Come, bury them in wine! Room for great guests! Yea, let us usher in Philosophies of old Anacreon And Omar, that, from dawn to glorious dawn, Shall lesson us in love and ...
— Weeds by the Wall - Verses • Madison J. Cawein
... and will!' said he, lifting his head from the carved chimney-piece, where he had been resting it. 'I have been in will a murderer myself, and what right have I to repine like the Israelites, with their self-justifying proverb? No; let me be thankful that I was not given up even then, but have been able to repent, and do a little better next time. It will be a blessing as yet ungranted to any of us, if indeed I should ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge
... to repine is useless," he said; "time and industry will repair my loss; and, though I feel it now severely, it may in the end be for the best: for I own I was too proud and too fond of my garden; and often dedicated hours to that, which I might have employed ...
— The Little Quaker - or, the Triumph of Virtue. A Tale for the Instruction of Youth • Susan Moodie
... tyrannise, landlords oppress, justice mercenary, lawyers vultures, physicians harpies, friends importunate, tradesmen liars, honest men thieves, devout assassins, great men to prostitute their wives, daughters, and themselves, middle sort to repine, commons to mutiny, all to grudge, murmur, and complain. A great temptation to all mischief, it compels some miserable wretches to counterfeit several diseases, to dismember, make themselves blind, lame, to have a more plausible cause to beg, and lose their limbs to recover their present ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... them. About two weeks ago, I dreamed that my sweet little Jessie came running to me in her usual way, and I took her in my arms. O my dear babys, were mortal eyes permitted to see them in heaven, we would not repine nor ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... are of verse. Yet here is one who was able to live through it all, and now sees a changed condition, to the evolution of which he contributed his full share. But he is no more a child of the past than of the present, nor need he repine like Cato, as one who has to account for himself to a new generation. He is with us and of us, and in the working ranks, ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... forbearance, in this self-denial, there is no merit. While admitted to the privileges of a betrothed man, your company, your confidence, every warrantable proof of love mine, I may surely dispense with the privileges of wedlock. Secretly repine I might; occasionally I might murmur. But my days would glide along with fewer obstacles, at least, than if I were that infirm and ...
— Jane Talbot • Charles Brockden Brown
... bird," exclaims the maid, Who her brave fav'rite survey'd, While she expir'd above: "I will not at thy lot repine, But rather pray it may be mine, To die with ...
— Ballads - Founded On Anecdotes Relating To Animals • William Hayley
... the Hag), Heaven itself surveyed!—a great man struggling, sir, with the storms of fate, and greatly falling, sir, with—a sensation! York remembers it to this day! I took the benefit of the Act—it was the only benefit I did take—and nobody was the better for it. But I don't repine—I realised my dream: that is more than all can say. Since then I have had many downs, and no ups. I have been a messenger, sir—a prompter, sir, in my own Exhibition, to which my own clown, having ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... can bear it no more. Live on, smile on, and be happy. My ghost shall repine, perhaps, at your happiness with another,—but in life I should go mad were I to ...
— Stories of Comedy • Various
... how little reason we have to repine at the fall of our first parent, since herefrom we may derive such unspeakable advantages, both in time and eternity. See how small pretense there is for questioning the mercy of God in permitting that event to take place, since therein, mercy, by infinite degrees, rejoices ...
— The world's great sermons, Volume 3 - Massillon to Mason • Grenville Kleiser
... man ought to suffer it to become indispensable to him. That women shall leave the home of their birth, and contract ties dearer than those of consanguinity, is a law as ancient as the first records of the history of our race, and as unchangeable as the constitution of the human body and mind. To repine against the nature of things, and against the great fundamental law of all society, because, in consequence of my own want of foresight, it happens to bear heavily on me, would be the basest and ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan
... "Do not repine, Edward," said Jane, gently "Those bleaching bones we passed indicate that others have fared worse than we ...
— The American Family Robinson - or, The Adventures of a Family lost in the Great Desert of the West • D. W. Belisle
... you haue too much liuing, and are vnseruiceable to your prince, lesse will serue you, and the rest will serue other men that are more able to serue, whereupon immediately his liuing shall be taken away from him, sauing a little to find himselfe and his wife on, and he may not once repine thereat: but for answere he will say, that he hath nothing, but it is Gods and the Dukes Graces, and cannot say, as we the common people in England say, if wee haue any thing; that is God's and our owne. Men may say, that these men are in wonderfull great awe, and obedience, that thus ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, • Richard Hakluyt
... delayed until the very last hour, and must now at once consent to become Herman's wife. LOWENA. Never! Welcome poverty, if I may be wealthy only with that man for my husband. Whatever privations I may be made to endure, I shall not repine; for he whom I love will share them with me. RIP. [Aside.] Dat is mine own girl, I vill swear to dat. GUSTAVE. I am poor, Lowena, but my love will give me courage to toil manfully, and heaven will smile upon my efforts and enable me to replace that fortune which, for ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van - Winkle • Charles Burke
... returned home much depressed and afflicted, to inform my brother of the result of the palaver, and he was as greatly surprised and afflicted as myself at the intelligence. But though we are full of trouble and uneasiness at our gloomy situation, yet we do not repine at the divine dispensations of that Almighty providence, which has comforted us in the hours of adversity, and relieved us in times of pain and danger, and snatched us from ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... experience with the Cottenham Repertory Theatre had cured him of all desire to send good money after bad. He wished now that he had taken Hinde's advice and had kept away from Mr. Jannissary, but it was useless to repine over that. He turned instinctively to Hinde for advice, and Hinde was generous with it. He was generous, too, with more profitable things. He put work in John's way as often as he could, and in spite of the fiasco over the Abbey ceremony, had offered ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine
... of the castle and its inmates. Lord Selkirk was away from home. This to Jones was bitter news. It seemed as though some evil genius was dogging his footsteps, bringing failure upon his most carefully planned enterprises. But he was not a man to repine over the inevitable, and he promptly ordered his men to the right about, and made for ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 1 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot
... taken her resolve to leave school, did not repine, and no one, not even her mother, knew how hard the struggle had been. It all came out afterward that, John Watson, too, in his quiet way, had been thinking of the advantages of farm life for his growing family. So when Pearl proposed it he was ready ...
— The Second Chance • Nellie L. McClung
... blast may sink in mellowing rain; Till, dark above, and white below, Decided drives the flaky snow, And forth the hardy swain must go. Long, with dejected look and whine, To leave the hearth his dogs repine; Whistling and cheering them to aid, Around his back he wreathes the plaid: His flock he gathers, and he guides, To open downs, and mountain-sides, Where, fiercest though the tempest blow, Least deeply lies the drift below. The blast that whistles o'er the fells, Stiffens ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott
... refresh itself, the weary soul makes an effort to recall the last part of the vision, its soaring flight through a stormy nocturnal sky to meet descending angels. And he reflects dimly: "If this fate awaits me, why should I repine? Though I be tempted I shall not be conquered, and though I be conquered still God will raise me up again. Neither is it necessary to ask what His will is concerning me. Why not ...
— The Saint • Antonio Fogazzaro
... beech is green, By swarming up its stem for eggs: They drive their horrid hoops between My legs:- It's idle to repine, I know; I'll tell you what I'll do instead: I'll drink my ...
— Fly Leaves • C. S. Calverley
... feel," replied Wauna, solemnly, "we deeply realize how useless it is to repine. We place implicit faith in the revelations of Nature, and in no circumstances does she bid us expect a life beyond that of the body. That is ...
— Mizora: A Prophecy - A MSS. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch • Mary E. Bradley
... joy in that buxom sun (which draws me forth into the fields, as life draws the living), and digestive organs worn and macerated by the relentless flagellation of the brain. Certainly, if this is to be the Reign of Mind, it is idle to repine, and kick against the pricks; but is it true that all these qualities of action that are within me are to go for nothing? If I were rich and happy in mind and circumstance, well and good; I should shoot, hunt, farm, travel, enjoy life, and snap my fingers at ambition. If ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... mineral districts has it brought to light; where the country was previously unknown it has proved only its nakedness; nevertheless I do not regret one penny of the cost or one minute of the troubles and labours entailed by it. Nor, I am confident, do my companions repine because they wasted so many months of their lives in such a howling wilderness. May good fortune attend them wherever they go; for they were brave and true men, and to them I once more express my feelings of thanks and gratitude ...
— Spinifex and Sand - Five Years' Pioneering and Exploration in Western Australia • David W Carnegie
... is thine aged grove, Prophetic fount, and oracle divine? What valley echoed the response of Jove? What trace remaineth of the Thunderer's shrine? All, all forgotten—and shall man repine That his frail bonds to fleeting life are broke? Cease, fool! the fate of gods may well be thine: Wouldst thou survive the marble or the oak, When nations, tongues, and worlds must sink ...
— Childe Harold's Pilgrimage • Lord Byron
... in how much obscurity are these difficult problems involved? What accumulated objections arise when we wish to examine them with mathematical rigor? No! it is not given to the human mind to behold these truths in the full day of perfect evidence; but why should the man of sensibility repine at not being able to demonstrate what he feels to be true? In the silence of the closet and the dryness of discussion, I can agree with the atheist or the materialist as to the insolubility of certain questions; but in the contemplation of nature my soul ...
— Brave Men and Women - Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs • O.E. Fuller
... my anxious heart repine That Wealth and Power can ne'er be mine, And Love has flown— That Friendship changes as the breeze? Mine is a joy unknown to these; In Song's bright zone, To sit by Helicon serene, And hear the waves of Hippocrene ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 4 October 1848 • Various
... enlisted in the service of Intelligence. God having made us men, and placed us in a world of change and eternal renovation, with ample capacity and abundant means for rational enjoyment, we learn that it is folly to repine because we are not angels, inhabiting a world in which change and the clashing of interests and the ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike
... the gifts of the gods in this religious spirit, discovering fresh evidence of "design" in what had once seemed the sad fact of Arthur's inaccessibility to correction? Mrs. Peyton, beautifully conscious of having done her "best" for Arthur, would have thought it unchristian to repine at the providential failure of her efforts. Denis's deductions were, of course, a little less direct than his mother's. He had, besides, been fond of Arthur, and his efforts to keep the poor fellow straight had been less didactic and more spontaneous. Their result read itself, if ...
— Sanctuary • Edith Wharton
... mixing me with such a society; but as I told Mrs. Boscawen, and with great truth, I had an opportunity of making an experiment of my heart, by which I learnt that I was not envious, for I certainly did not repine at being the meanest person in company...Dr. Johnson asked me how I liked the new tragedy of Braganza. I was afraid to speak before them all, as I knew a diversity of opinion prevailed among the ...
— Excellent Women • Various
... a part of a Whole, it is for that Whole's sake that thou shouldest at one time fall sick, at another brave the perils of the sea, again, know the meaning of want and perhaps die an early death. Why then repine? Knowest thou not that as the foot is no more a foot if detached from the body, so thou in like case art no longer a Man? For what is a Man? A part of a City:—first of the City of Gods and Men; next, of that which ranks nearest ...
— The Golden Sayings of Epictetus • Epictetus
... Romeo did not long repine. Two months after the tragedy at Bath, he was at Brighton, mingling with all the fashionable folk, and giving admirable recitations at routs. He was seen every day on the Parade, attired in an extravagant manner, very different to that he had adopted in Bath. A pale-blue ...
— The Works of Max Beerbohm • Max Beerbohm
... opinion, he thought that he had no reason seriously to reproach himself for the imprudence with which he had betrayed the partiality that he felt for her in the beginning of their acquaintance. He flattered himself that even should she have discerned his intentions, her heart would not repine at any alteration in his sentiments; and if her happiness were uninjured, his reason told him that he was not in honour bound to constancy. The case was now altered. Unwilling as he was to believe, he could no longer doubt. Virginia could neither meet ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth
... with a severe aspect: "I regret to learn, Peas-cod and Bean-pod, that you are indulging in discontent; it is very wicked in any one to murmur or repine at his lot in this world. Learn from this mortal," she continued, placing her hand tenderly on Charley's head; "almost since his birth he has led a life of suffering, yet no repining falls from his patient lips; he is willing to live, and he will be ...
— The Fairy Nightcaps • Frances Elizabeth Barrow
... did but too well foresee the perplexity and uneasiness of which Madame Duval's letter has been productive. However, I ought rather to be thankful that I have so many years remained unmolested, than repine at my present embarrassment; since it proves, at least, that this wretched woman is at ...
— Evelina • Fanny Burney
... a dozen men, (She calls them "boys" and "mashers") I trot along the Mall alone; My prettiest frocks and sashes Don't help to fill my programme-card, And vainly I repine From ten to two A.M. Ah me! ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... his temper and passions just at the moments when it behooved him to have them most thoroughly in hand and under control, were a set of disagreeable facts which had been driven well home to him. The results, being even such as we have seen, he did not much repine at, for he felt he had deserved them; and there was a sort of grim satisfaction, dreary as the prospect was, in facing them, and taking his punishment like a man. This was what he had felt at the first blush on the Hawk's Lynch; and, as he thought over matters again by his ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes
... Mr Meldrum, drawing her fondly to his side, and speaking as if they were alone together. "You have taught me a lesson, and I will repine no longer about the immutable. It is best to look forward, as you say. We ought to recollect that all our days must not necessarily be gloomy because for the moment they ...
— The Wreck of the Nancy Bell - Cast Away on Kerguelen Land • J. C. Hutcheson
... significant of a spirit of fair play and discipline, not without its admirable quality, that under such circumstances, the weaker were not overpowered by the stronger, but that each man had an equal chance for life. The lot fell upon Owen Coffin,[1] the captain's nephew. He did not repine. He expressed his willingness to abide {242} by the decision. No man desired to be his executioner. They cast lots, as before, to determine who should kill him, and the lot fell upon Charles Ramsdale. By him ...
— South American Fights and Fighters - And Other Tales of Adventure • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... out of favour grudge at knaves in place, And men are always honest in disgrace; The court preferments make men knaves in course, But they which would be in them would be worse. 'Tis not at foreigners that we repine, Would foreigners their perquisites resign: The grand contention's plainly to be seen, To get some men put out, and some put in. For this our senators make long harangues, And florid members whet their polished tongues. Statesmen are always sick of one disease, And a good ...
— English Satires • Various
... these spiritual tyrannies, weak men repine at them, and great men break them down. But to defy the world is a serious business, and requires the greatest courage, even if the defiance touch in the first place only the world's ideals. Most men's conscience, habits, and opinions are borrowed from convention and gather continual ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana
... cool and constrained, but it did not wound him. For the last month life had been a blank to him. She was his sun. He saw her once more, and the bare sight filled him with life and joy. His was naturally a sanguine, contented mind. Some lovers equally ardent would have seen more to repine at than to enjoy in the whole situation; not so David. She sat between Kenealy and Hardie, but her presence filled the whole room, and he who loved her better than any other had the best right to be happy in the place that held her. He had only to turn his eyes, and he could see her. What a ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... sons and three grandsons in the army, and of two of the five he could get no tidings. Another says she knew her son was brave, and if he died, he died honorably. He was all she had and she gave him freely to the country. If he be really lost she will not repine; but she feels she has a right to be told what became of him. Many of the writers seemed to have a very primitive idea of the way information was to be picked up. They imagined that Miss Barton was to walk through all hospitals, camps, armies and prisons, and narrowly scrutinizing every face, ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett
... were who cheerfully surrendered eminence in their private walks and happiness in social life to endure the hardships of a protracted contest till life was spent, and who, from the very nature of the services they rendered, have remained in obscurity. They would not themselves repine at this; for they gave their strength, not for their country's applause, but their country's good. They sought, not ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various
... does all things well. I am enabled to say, in sincerity I trust, 'Thy will be done.' I have lost a most affectionate and amiable wife, my children have lost a kind and faithful mother, and a prayerful and diligent laborer is lost to the cause of missions; but I will not repine or murmur. The Lord is as rich in mercy as he is infinite in wisdom; and let him do what seemeth good in his sight. I need not ask the sympathy and prayers for the members of the Board and other friends, for I feel assured that I shall have them. Pray, not only that my affliction may be greatly ...
— Daughters of the Cross: or Woman's Mission • Daniel C. Eddy
... a lot of good, wishing for it will do me! Come Lottie, be sensible; we must not begin to repine for what we have not got, and cannot get. Let us think ...
— How It All Came Round • L. T. Meade
... interval darted round to his father's house, to exchange a kiss with his mother and tell her the good news. It was indeed a happy day for the parents to hear that the son whom they had given up for lost was living, and likely, under Gertrude's care, to do well. They had not dared to murmur or repine. It seemed to them little short of a miracle that death had spared to them all their children through this fearful season. When they believed one had at last been taken, they had learned the strength and courage to say, "God's will be done." Yet it was happiness ...
— The Sign Of The Red Cross • Evelyn Everett-Green
... the great theatre of this earth among the numberless number of men, to die were only proper to thee and thine, then undoubtedly thou had reason to repine at so severe and partial a law. But since it is a necessity, from which never any age by-past hath been exempted, and unto which they which be, and so many as are to come, are thralled (no consequent of life being more common and familiar), why shouldst thou with unprofitable ...
— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock
... to me, and I have truly great need of repose, but the Brothers who are out in the world, suffering hunger and a thousand tribulations, and also those others who are in hermitages or in miserable houses, when they hear of my sojourn with a cardinal will be moved to repine. 'We endure all privations,' they will say, 'while he has all that he can desire; 'but I ought to give them a good example—that is my ...
— Life of St. Francis of Assisi • Paul Sabatier
... opinion upon this subject deserves consideration. Upon his principle there may, at times, be a hardship, and seemingly a strange one, upon individuals; but the general good of society is better secured. And, after all, it is unreasonable in an individual to repine that he has not the advantage of a state which is made different from his own, by the social institution under which he is born. A woman does not complain that her brother, who is younger than her, gets their common father's estate. Why then should ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... who has been so favoured, beyond his hopes, far beyond his deserts, dare to repine at the decree of Him who orders all things in wisdom and goodness?" Thus reflected the chief. "Who am I, that I should claim exemption from disappointment and loss? Shame on the leader who gives way to selfish ...
— Hebrew Heroes - A Tale Founded on Jewish History • AKA A.L.O.E. A.L.O.E., Charlotte Maria Tucker
... indeed it must be confessed that we are subject to calamities by which the good and bad, the diligent and slothful, the vigilant and heedless, are equally afflicted. But surely, though some indulgence may be allowed to groans extorted by inevitable misery, no man has a right to repine at evils which, against warning, against experience, he deliberately and leisurely brings upon his own head; or to consider himself as debarred from happiness by such obstacles as resolution may break or ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson - Volume IV [The Rambler and The Adventurer] • Samuel Johnson
... her as well as he could. He told her she ought not to repine at the will of God, who had saved her, though he had permitted her father to be lost; that she ought to be grateful for her own preservation; and, what seemed to be the strongest argument to him, that weeping and "taking on" would do no good. He ...
— Work and Win - or, Noddy Newman on a Cruise • Oliver Optic
... thou shouldst feel thyself unhappy here, in an unsuitable place, and that thou mightest have been a happier woman in the wedded life of the world,—that is no marvel: truly, I think it of thee myself. To know it is no sin: to repine and murmur thereat, these are forbidden. Thy lot is appointed of God Himself—God, thy Father, who loveth thee, who hath given Himself for thee, who pleased not Himself when He came down to die for thee. Are there not here drops of honey ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt
... of suddenness and incompleteness and a natural pang of wonder and regret for a life so richly and so vitally endowed thus cut off in its prime. But for us it is not fitting to question or repine, but rather to rejoice in the rare possession that we hold. What is any life, even the most rounded and complete, but a fragment and a hint? What Emma Lazarus might have accomplished, had she been spared, it is idle and even ungrateful to speculate. What she did accomplish has real and ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. II. (of II.), Jewish Poems: Translations • Emma Lazarus
... practical resources and alleviations which he recommends are agriculture and gardening, to both of which, but more particularly to the latter, Lord Melbourne has already had recourse. It is certainly, as your Majesty says, wrong to be impatient and to repine at everything, but still it is difficult not to be so. Lady Uxbridge's death[9] is a shocking event, a dreadful loss to him and to all. Lord Melbourne always liked her. Lord Melbourne is going down to Brocket Hall to-morrow, and will try to ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 • Queen Victoria
... from earth's objects of love, Loses all its regrets in the chorus above: So in exile we cannot but cease to repine, When it hallows ...
— Sketch of Handel and Beethoven • Thomas Hanly Ball
... beauty and her prevailing elegance and her abounding perfection, his reason was confounded and he could not take his eyes off her. Passion annihilated his right judgment and love overpassed all limits in him; his vitals were occupied with her service and his heart was aflame with the fire of repine, so that he swooned away and fell to the ground. When he came to himself, she had passed from his sight and was hidden from him among the trees;—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 7 • Richard F. Burton
... hearth, the heavy curtains shutting out all traces of the storm, and the smoking supper set so temptingly before him. And Morris felt the comfort of his home, thanking the God who had given him all this, and chiding his wayward heart that it had ever dared to repine. He was not repining to-night; he had not repined for many a day, though he never sat down at home after his day's labor in slippers and dressing-gown, with a new book beside him on the table, that there was not a sense of something wanting, a glancing at the empty chair across the hearth, ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... this idle passion? Why so fain Sweet husband, thus to sorrow and repine? Naught happens here but as the Gods ordain. It may not be, nor doth the Lord divine Of high Olympus nor the Fates design That thou should'st take Creusa. Seas remain To plough, long years of exile must be thine, Ere thou at length Hesperia's land ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil
... wholly unforeseen, the trial of poverty and want so dreaded by the old widow in her thoughts of the future; and never again was she heard to repine, or even to express a fear for herself or for those ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... suspicion! thou turnest love divine To joyless dread, and mak'st the loving heart With hateful thoughts to languish and repine, And feed itself with self-consuming smart; Of all the passions of the ...
— Talkers - With Illustrations • John Bate
... my fee-farm rents, being of the yearly value of one hundred and twenty pounds, were all lost by his Majesty's coming to his restoration: but I do say truly, the loss thereof did never trouble me, or did I repine thereat. ...
— William Lilly's History of His Life and Times - From the Year 1602 to 1681 • William Lilly
... the ice about us, independently of situation, allow us to hope for it; but both these unfavourable circumstances had been brought about by a contingency which no human power or judgment could have obviated, and at which, therefore, it would have been unreasonable, as well as useless, to repine. We lay here in rather less than five fathoms, on a muddy bottom, at the distance of one cable's length from the eastern shore ...
— Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the • Sir William Edward Parry
... brother perhaps wishes that he were a Duke, but it has been arranged otherwise. It is vain to repine. Your wife is unhappy because your uncle's Garter was not at once given ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... answered the sibyl; "what would taking thy life pleasure them?—Trust me, thy life is in no peril. Such usage shalt thou have as was once thought good enough for a noble Saxon maiden. And shall a Jewess, like thee, repine because she hath no better? Look at me—I was as young and twice as fair as thou, when Front-de-Boeuf, father of this Reginald, and his Normans, stormed this castle. My father and his seven sons defended ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott
... Providence temper people's minds to the afflictions He sends. They are often more dreadful to think of than to bear; for God can give patience and cheerfulness and comfort to those that do not grumble and repine. ...
— The Fairy Godmothers and Other Tales • Mrs. Alfred Gatty
... equally voluminous author of great power who does not fall short of his own highest achievements in a large part of his work, and who is not open to the remark that his achievements are not all that we could have wished. It is doubtless best to take what we can get, and not to repine if we do not get something better, the possibility of which is suggested by the actual accomplishment. If Landor had united to his own powers those of Scott or Shakespeare, he would have been improved. Landor, repenting a ...
— Hours in a Library - New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) • Leslie Stephen
... soon, I trust, now that I have some wholesome food; but we are in God's hands. He knows best what is good for us, and we must not repine. You and your men, sir, have saved our lives, for we could not have held out many hours longer; and accept our gratitude. Our prayers will be offered for your ...
— The Three Admirals • W.H.G. Kingston
... trousers, soap, soda, needles and thread, worsted, knives, and any other thing that was worn or used and likely to be marketable. It will be readily understood that men who traded in this way were not particularly anxious to have a well-fit-out crew at the beginning of a voyage, nor did they repine if bad weather prevailed at the outset. The worse the weather, the barer the sailor's kit, the better the market for the captain's commodities. These slop-chest skippers were perfect terrors to the needy mariner, and many a physical punishment would be endured so that he might be saved the ...
— The Shellback's Progress - In the Nineteenth Century • Walter Runciman
... as thou, in that old day Thou mournest, did thy sire repine; So, in his time, thy child grown gray Shall ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
... sirs!—an' are ye still a mason?" "No; I have not wrought as a mason for the last fourteen years; but I have to work hard enough for all that." "Weel, weel, it's our appointed lot; an' if we have but health an' strength, an' the wark to do, why should we repine?" Once fairly entered on our talk together, we gossipped on till the night fell, giving and receiving information regarding our old acquaintances of a quarter of a century before; of whom we found that no inconsiderable proportion had already sunk in the stream in which eventually we must all ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller
... this morning I devote them to your benefit, with a fond hope that you are as happy as the day is long. It does seem rather hard for me to be moping around this quiet house and my little girl away in New Brunswick, but it is useless to repine. In a few days I will take charge of a ship to go abroad for some months. Our fleet now demands my attention, which, I am happy to say, will drive away loneliness and repinings for the little runaway. Was much pleased ...
— Lady Rosamond's Secret - A Romance of Fredericton • Rebecca Agatha Armour
... shorn lamb." We saw her again in the morning before we set off, and saw her get some breakfast in the kitchen. The poor people of the venta seemed kind to her. They who dwell in comfortable houses, surrounded by troops of friends, and who repine at their lot, would do well to compare it with that ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca
... with prince and peer Now liv'd sir Valentine: His high renown with prince and peer Made envious hearts repine. ...
— The Book of Brave Old Ballads • Unknown
... for another three months. Perhaps I can help you. I am acting editor. The work is not light," he added gratuitously. "Sometimes the cry goes round New York, 'Can Smith get through it all? Will his strength support his unquenchable spirit?' But I stagger on. I do not repine. What was it that you wished to ...
— The Prince and Betty - (American edition) • P. G. Wodehouse
... he had previously filled with distinction divers important functions in the monastery. He had accepted this appointment out of obedience and humility of spirit; but after a while the devil sorely tempted him to regret having done so; to repine at what he began to consider as an act of tyranny and injustice; and these reflections, gradually indulged in, made sad havoc of his peace of mind. An oppressive melancholy beset him; and at last he came to the ...
— The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others • Georgiana Fullerton
... any weaker moment he had been minded to repine for the loss of his former poor greatness, or to fail of heart in pursuit of his new calling, for which heavier hands were better fit, he had always present with him two bulwarks of his purpose and sheet-anchors of his hope. He was reminded of the one as often ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine
... did I now lament my situation—but it was useless to repine, and I could not upbraid myself. So at last, becoming drowsy, I made a bed with my jacket under the windlass, and ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... Mr. Gibson spent so much of his time from home. He sometimes thought so himself when he heard his wife's plaintive fret or pretty babble over totally indifferent things, and perceived of how flimsy a nature were all her fine sentiments. Still, he did not allow himself to repine over the step he had taken; he wilfully shut his eyes and waxed up his ears to many small things that he knew would have irritated him if he had attended to them; and, in his solitary rides, he forced himself to dwell ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... Simeon plain foretold, That to the fall and rising he should be Of many in Israel, and to a sign Spoken against—that through my very soul 90 A sword shall pierce. This is my favoured lot, My exaltation to afflictions high! Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest! I will not argue that, nor will repine. But where delays he now? Some great intent Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen, I lost him, but so found as well I saw He could not lose himself, but went about His Father's business. What he meant I mused— Since understand; ...
— Paradise Regained • John Milton
... firmament, No angel from the countless host That loiters round the crystal coast, Could stoop to heal that only child, Nature's sweet marvel undefiled, And keep the blossom of the earth, Which all her harvests were not worth? Not mine,—I never called thee mine, But Nature's heir,—if I repine, And seeing rashly torn and moved Not what I made, but what I loved, Grow early old with grief that thou Must to the wastes of Nature go,— 'T is because a general hope Was quenched, and all must doubt and grope. For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills ...
— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... to his friends, to his wife, obliging, kind, And so averse from a revengeful mind, That had his men unsealed his bottled wine, He would not fret, nor doggedly repine. ...
— In Praise of Folly - Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts • Desiderius Erasmus
... answered the prince, his own eyes growing somewhat dim; "and I, too, have loved them well, though not as thou lovest, my friend. But be content; there are fairer things, sweeter scenes than even these, in store for us somewhere. Shall we repine at leaving the beauties of earth, when the pearly gates of Paradise are opening before ...
— The Lord of Dynevor • Evelyn Everett-Green
... even not been able to get it at all. Very bitterly William blamed himself then for disregarding his own part of the suggested plan. If only he had worn the pink himself!—but he had not; and it was useless to repine. In the meantime, where ...
— Miss Billy • Eleanor H. Porter
... eagerness—it related exclusively to Georgy. She did not talk at all about her own sufferings at breaking from him, for indeed, this worthy woman, though she was half-killed by the separation from the child, yet thought it was very wicked in her to repine at losing him; but everything concerning him, his virtues, talents, and prospects, she poured out. She described his angelic beauty; narrated a hundred instances of his generosity and greatness of mind whilst living with ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... shine, * Are mirrored in our eyes whatsoever the distance be; My heart must ever dwell on the memories of your tribe; * And the turtle-dove reneweth all as oft as moaneth she: Ho thou dove, who passest night-tide in calling on thy fere, * Thou doublest my repine, bringing grief for company; And leavest thou mine eyelids with weeping unfulfilled * For the dearlings who departed, whom we never more may see: I melt for the thought of you at every time and hour, * And I long for you when Night showeth ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 8 • Richard F. Burton
... Henrich with that of the more fortunate Francis Billington. But he believed that his son's earthly career had closed for ever; and both he and Helen had submitted to the bereavement with Christian piety and resignation, and had taught their wounded hearts to restrain every impulse to repine, and even to feel thankful that their beloved boy had been spared any protracted sufferings and trials, and had been permitted so speedily to enter into his rest. Had they known his actual late and condition, how much of painful anxiety would have mingled with the sorrow ...
— The Pilgrims of New England - A Tale Of The Early American Settlers • Mrs. J. B. Webb
... material needs never seemed to suggest themselves to the Dean. Blessed with absolute self-reliance from his boyhood, he had educated and made a success of himself, and he could not understand how any one could falter or repine in the race. Particularly, if Nature had granted them any ...
— Kit of Greenacre Farm • Izola Forrester
... believe that all his millions He would give without repine For a little bit of gladness In his life, like that in mine; This it is that makes my pathway Beautiful, wherever trod, Keeps my soul from wreck and ruin, Keeps ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard
... father carried him, filled him with such a liking to debauchery and such an irreclaimable passion for sensual pleasures, as was the source from whence his following misfortunes flowed. For what, as he himself complained, first gave him occasion to repine at his condition, and filled him with wandering inclinations of pursuing an idle and extravagant life, was the forcing of him to go apprentice to a tailor, a trade for which he had always the greatest aversion, and contempt. No ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward
... "He will repent it," we say, and because we have given him a pistol-shot through the head, do we imagine he will repent? On the contrary, if we but observe, we shall find, that he makes mouths at us in falling, and is so far from penitency, that he does not so much as repine at us; and we do him the kindest office of life, which is to make him die insensibly, and soon: we are afterwards to hide ourselves, and to shift and fly from the officers of justice, who pursue us, whilst he is at rest. Killing ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... I told it not—I breathed it not[183]—it was Sufficient to itself, its own reward; And if my eyes revealed it, they, alas! Were punished by the silentness of thine, And yet I did not venture to repine. Thou wert to me a crystal-girded shrine, Worshipped at holy distance, and around 130 Hallowed and meekly kissed the saintly ground; Not for thou wert a Princess, but that Love Had robed thee with a ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... and to purify their virtue in the crucible, that by being exercised it may be made heroic and perfect. By suffering with patience, and in a Christian spirit, a soul makes higher and quicker advances in pure love, than by any other means or by any other good works. Let no one then repine, if by sickness, persecution, or disgraces, they are hindered from doing the good actions which they desire, or rendered incapable of discharging the duties of their station, or of laboring to convert others. God always knows what is best for us and others: we may safely commend to him his own ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... fear, Philip," said she, "I rather like this wild adventurous change. We will go on shore and build our hut beneath the cocoa-trees, and I shall repine when the day comes which brings succour, and releases us from our desert isle. What ...
— The Phantom Ship • Captain Frederick Marryat
... they were. From the teacher like influences should proceed. Plodding and prodding is not the teacher's work. It is inspiration, on-leading, the flashing of enthusiasms. A teacher in any field should be one who has chosen his work because he loves it, who makes no repine because he takes with it the vow of poverty, who finds his reward in the joy of knowing and in the joy of making known. It requires the master's touch to develop the germs of the naturalist, the philosopher, the artist, or the poet. Our teacher is the man who has succeeded along the line in which ...
— Life's Enthusiasms • David Starr Jordan
... present et becomes us not to repine. These things es sent us for our good" (here he looked doubtfully at the cake), "an' wan man's meat es t'other's p'ison, which I hopes" (severely) "you knawed wi'out my tellin' 'ee; an' I shudn' wonder ...
— The Astonishing History of Troy Town • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... and courage? But Maud is still almost a mystery to me. Who can tell how she suffers—I cannot—it seems to have quickened and enriched her love and tenderness; she seems to have a secret that I cannot come near to sharing; she does not repine, rebel, resist; she lives in some region of unapproachable patience and love. She goes daily to the grave, but I cannot visit it or think of it. The sight of the church-tower on my walks gives me a throb of dismay. But now we are going away. We have been lent a little ...
— The Altar Fire • Arthur Christopher Benson
... with men and maids from New Amsterdam, jigging to profane music and refreshing themselves with such liquors as you, Rambout, never even smelled—be thankful for that much. If your shade sits blinking at them from the wooded buttresses of the Palisades, you must repine, indeed, at the ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner
... bright smiling faces are masks which conceal A dead hope in their hearts. The strange fancy clings To the mind of the world that the rarest of things— Contentment—is commonplace; and, that to shine As something superior, one must repine, Or seem to be hiding an ache in the breast. Yet the commonest thing in the world is unrest, If you want to be really unique, go along And act as if Fate had not done you a wrong, And declare you have had your ...
— Three Women • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... the preacher might say, "how much wisdom there is in John Jacob Astor's remark. What more has the Queen of England, or the richest peer in the land, out of all their riches than their board and clothing. 'So don't repine, my friend. Cheer up! I will come and fast on canvas-back duck with you to-morrow, for it's Friday; and whatever lives on aquatic food is fishy—a duck is twice-laid fish. A few glasses of champaine at dinner, and a cool bottle or two of claret after, will set ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... I will! My father's and your good instructions shall not be lost upon me, slave though I am. Dear father," said she, and the tears blinded her,—"I love his memory still, though every word of this hated will were true. I ought not to repine, whatever be my future lot. That he loved me as a daughter, I can never doubt; that he never told me I am a slave, I will forgive, for ...
— Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue • Warren T. Ashton
... transgression' (Rom 4:15). The law then followeth, in the executive part of it, the soul into hell, and there strengtheneth sin, that sting of hell, to pierce by its unutterable charging of it on the conscience, the soul for ever and ever; nor can the soul justly murmur or repine at God or at His law, for that then the sharply apprehensive soul will well discern the justness, righteousness, reasonableness, and goodness of the law, and that nothing is done by the law unto it, but that which is ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... humble station, and repine that Providence has not placed you in some nobler sphere'? Murmur not against the dispensations of an All-wise Creator! Remember that wealth is no criterion of moral rectitude or intellectual worth,—that riches dishonestly gained, are a lasting ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders
... had known at Jerez that Granada was the lodestar, we could have reached Ronda in a run of four hours day before yesterday! But it was useless to repine, and fate had given ...
— The Car of Destiny • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... whose thoughts at humble peace repine, Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... bade a long farewell to all the comforts and luxuries of home. That day, for the first time, he was to partake of soldiers' fare, and that night, for the first time, he was to sleep upon a soldier's bed. These thoughts did not make him repine, for before he signed the muster roll, he had carefully considered, with the best information he could obtain, what hardships and privations he would be called to endure. He had made up his mind to bear all things without a murmur for the blessed land of ...
— The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army - A Story of the Great Rebellion • Oliver Optic
... for mercy, though I felt that now, even Heaven could not be merciful. One is apt to fix on a situation just a little less wretched than one's own, and to dwell upon the idea that one could bear that better. I repeated over and over that if I had seen him alive for five minutes, I would not repine. At night Emma brought her bed into my room, as she feared I should be ill. Towards morning I fancied I heard a sound of someone trying to get into the room. I heard it a long while, but thinking it was somebody coming to visit me, ...
— A Week at Waterloo in 1815 • Magdalene De Lancey
... Bastable, and another very nice writer. Oswald was to keep his birthday on the Saturday, so that his Father could be there. A birthday when there are only many happy returns is a little like Sunday or Christmas Eve. Oswald had a birthday-card or two—that was all; but he did not repine, because he knew they always make it up to you for putting off keeping your birthday, and ...
— The Wouldbegoods • E. Nesbit
... sobbed Mary, "I deserve all I suffer; and I bow in humility. But am I not too much punished, Jacob? Not that I would repine; but is it not too much for me to bear, when I think that I am the destroyer of one ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat
... to be sure will now come forth, I can't but think we were at least as happy and as great when all the young Pitts and Lytteltons were pelting oratory at my father for rolling out a twenty years' peace, and not envying the trophies which he passed by every day in Westminster Hall. But one must not repine; rather reflect on the glories which they have drove the nation headlong into. One must think all our distresses and dangers well laid out, when they have purchased us Glover'S(1066) Oration for the merchants, the Admiralty for the Duke of Bedford, and the reversion of ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... illusions, which they have religiously adopted. To discover that a former belief is unfounded is to change nothing of the realities of existence. The sun will descend as it passes the meridian whether we believe it to be noon or not. It is idle and foolish, if human, to repine because the truth is not precisely what we thought it, and at least we shall not change reality by childishly clinging ...
— A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays • Walter R. Cassels
... leaning from her horse the girl kissed him. "No matter what befall thou hast deemed me worthy to share thy danger, and I will not repine. But I like not to think that they wish ...
— In Doublet and Hose - A Story for Girls • Lucy Foster Madison
... for it was wisely said, by a man of great observation, " That there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them ". And yet God deliver us from pinching poverty; and grant, that having a competency, we may be content and thankful. Let not us repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another abound with riches; when, as God knows, the cares that are the keys that keep those riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's girdle, that they clog him with weary days and restless nights, even when others sleep quietly. ...
— The Complete Angler • Izaak Walton
... cry out at times, Oh! blissful future! Oh, dreary present! But let us not repine. What is dreary need not be barren. Nothing need be barren to those who view all things in their real light, as links in the great chain of progression both for themselves and for the Universe. To us all Time should seem so full of life: every moment the grave and the father of ...
— Daily Thoughts - selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife • Charles Kingsley
... in this world ere thou wend upon thy way, * And know how surely Death descends thy life lot to waylay: All thy worldly goods are pride and the painfullest repine; * All thy worldly life is vexing, of thy soul in vain display: Say is not worldly wone like a wanderer's place of rest, * Where at night he 'nakhs'[FN239] his camels and moves ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... for his sake," continued Margaret, in a still lower tone, and withdrawing farther from the bed; "not for his sake I fear an unfortunate result; but for our own. I know that it is Gilbert de Hers who lies there, and I have drunk too deeply in the prejudices of our family to repine at any calamity that may befall him. But this impious outrage can insure nothing but the Divine vengeance upon our heads. If he were borne down in battle, I perhaps should rejoice at heart at the triumph of my father; but I would rather die than ...
— The Truce of God - A Tale of the Eleventh Century • George Henry Miles
... full salvation; Rise o'er sin, and fear, and care; Joy to find in every station Something still to do or bear! Think what Spirit dwells within thee; What a Father's smile is thine; What thy Saviour did to win thee,— Child of Heav'n, should'st thou repine? ...
— The World of Waters - A Peaceful Progress o'er the Unpathed Sea • Mrs. David Osborne
... loved him fondly, devotedly; and his image will live forever in my heart. But at such a crisis it is worse than folly—it is madness to waste time by giving way to grief. Reason teaches us to bow before the inevitable. It is idle to repine at the decrees of Fate. I am alone, now—alone, without a friend or a protector. No matter; I have a stout heart, and the mercy of Providence is above all. But to business: After the death of Mr. Livermore, what ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. VI, June, 1862 - Devoted To Literature and National Policy • Various
... against which their envy seems principally directed, are the vices of the younger sort and the deaths of the old. By reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament and repine that others have gone to a harbour of rest to which they themselves never can hope to arrive. They have no remembrance of anything but what they learned and observed in their youth and middle-age, and even that is very imperfect; and for the truth or particulars of any fact, ...
— Gulliver's Travels - into several remote nations of the world • Jonathan Swift
... Everything is marked at a settled price. Our time, our labor, our ingenuity, is so much ready money which we are to lay out to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose, reject; but stand to your own judgment: and do not, like children, when you have purchased one thing, repine that you do not possess another which you did not purchase. Such is the force of well-regulated industry, that a steady and vigorous exertion of our faculties, directed to one end, ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner
... shawl her eye went in search of it, and something that she saw in the other room put her own disappointment out of her head. Jill lay there all alone, rather tired with the lively chatter, and the effort it cost her not to repine at being shut out from the great delight of dressing ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott
... peddler the face of the purchaser of his little domain. Occasionally there was some whispering between this man and the Skinner nearest him, that induced Harvey to suspect he had been the dupe of a contrivance in which that wretch had participated. It was, however, too late to repine; and he followed the party from the house with a firm and collected tread, as if marching to a triumph, and not to a gallows. In passing through the yard, the leader of the band fell over a billet of wood, and received a momentary ...
— The Spy • James Fenimore Cooper
... I fear 'tis all a dream. Fortune, thou now hast made amends for all Thy past unkindness: I absolve my stars. What though Numidia add her conquer'd towns And provinces to swell the victor's triumph, Juba will never at his fate repine: Let Caesar have the world, if Marcia's ...
— Cato - A Tragedy, in Five Acts • Joseph Addison
... is past, and o'er its woe It is no comfort to repine; But I would wage my life to know Thy feet in heaven keep pace with mine. I have no hope, I will not weep, The only wish that wish I may Is this, that I may find asleep The soul ...
— Thoughts, Moods and Ideals: Crimes of Leisure • W.D. Lighthall
... was a wealthy Count: The inheritance now mine— Would I were poor! this wretched wealth 'Tis makes me to repine. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 405, December 19, 1829 • Various
... hoped for, found, alas! to be irremediably lost. Louise deceives herself if she thinks otherwise. But she does not think so. What is so agonizing in the necessity that separates us, is the conviction that such a separation blasts two destinies, silently united. I do not repine at the loss of my own happiness alone, but above all, over that of this noble creature. I am convinced that when we met, we recognised each other; she mentally exclaimed, "It is he!" when I told myself, "It is she!" When I went to bid her farewell, a long, eternal farewell, ...
— The Cross of Berny • Emile de Girardin |
