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Honest   Listen
adjective
Honest  adj.  
1.
Decent; honorable; suitable; becoming. "Belong what honest clothes you send forth to bleaching!"
2.
Characterized by integrity or fairness and straightforwardness in conduct, thought, speech, etc.; upright; just; equitable; trustworthy; truthful; sincere; free from fraud, guile, or duplicity; not false; said of persons and acts, and of things to which a moral quality is imputed; as, an honest judge or merchant; an honest statement; an honest bargain; an honest business; an honest book; an honest confession. "An honest man's the noblest work of God." "An honest physician leaves his patient when he can contribute no farther to his health." "Look ye out among you seven men of honest report." "Provide things honest in the sight of all men."
3.
Open; frank; as, an honest countenance.
4.
Chaste; faithful; virtuous. "Wives may be merry, and yet honest too."
Synonyms: Upright; ingenuous; honorable; trusty; faithful; equitable; fair; just; rightful; sincere; frank; candid; genuine.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Honest" Quotes from Famous Books



... looking into their hearts, and there I read strange things. Sometimes they are beautiful things and sometimes ugly things. Thus I have learned that those I thought bad were really good in the main, for who can claim to be quite good? And on the other hand that those I believed to be as honest as the day—well, had ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard

... suddenly blinked; then his honest red face slowly broadened into beaming astonishment and ...
— Quaint Courtships • Howells & Alden, Editors

... The man has had his chance already—a better chance than any one with his record ever had before. We took him into the bank knowing that he was an ex-convict, but believing that we could make an honest man of ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... your majesty deign to hear me. Sire! break not in thunder over so small a thing as myself. God's great lightning doth not bombard a lettuce. Sire, you are an august and, very puissant monarch; have pity on a poor man who is honest, and who would find it more difficult to stir up a revolt than a cake of ice would to give out a spark! Very gracious sire, kindness is the virtue of a lion and a king. Alas! rigor only frightens minds; the impetuous gusts of the north wind do not ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

... only over or under one another because of more or less reason or morality. Instruction which develops only egoistic sensuality is not as good as the ignorance of the proletarian, honest by instinct or by custom. This compulsory education which we all desire through respect for human rights, is not, however, a panacea whose miracles need to be exaggerated. Evil natures will find there only more ingenious and more hidden ...
— The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters • George Sand, Gustave Flaubert

... is the race, then, that we know not any more how to govern! and this the history which we are to behold broken off by sedition! and this is the country, of all others, where life is to become difficult to the honest, and ridiculous to the wise! And the catastrophe, forsooth, is to come just when we have been making swiftest progress beyond the wisdom and wealth of the past. Our cities are a wilderness of spinning ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin

... interfered with, but rather encouraged by the higher orders. Indeed, it was well known that the reigning monarch, James the First, inclined the other way, and, desirous of checking the growing spirit of Puritanism throughout the kingdom, had openly expressed himself in favour of honest recreation after evening prayers and upon holidays; and, furthermore, had declared that he liked well the spirit of his good subjects in Lancashire, and would not see them punished for indulging in lawful exercises, but that ere long he would pay them a visit in one of his progresses, ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... concerning three persons, testifying in the same certificates that they have not chosen them for any gifts or promises or for reasons of friendship, or any other cause, but because they know that they are of the true and Catholic faith and of honest life, and learned in science and that none of them has either wife or children, and know that they have neither concubine nor natural children, but that if any of them had a wife the same was one and first, neither a widow nor separated ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.

... no mean or casual thing. South, West, in the newer and more open lands, where traditions are fewer and there is less time for the dignities and observance of the amenities of commerce, fire insurance takes its chance with a thousand other roads to an honest dollar. If a Western lawyer has a few spare hours, he hangs out an insurance sign and between briefs he or his clerk writes policies. The cashier of the Farmers' State Bank in the prairie town ekes out his small salary with the commissions ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble

... incident is even more common in the marchen or household tales than in the regular tribal or national myths of the world.(3) The buried brother emerged again with wings, and "without doubt he must have been some devil," says honest Cieza de Leon. This brother was Manco Ccapac, the heroic ancestor of the Incas, and he turned his jealous brethren into stones. The whole tale is in the spirit illustrated by the wilder romances of the ...
— Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1 • Andrew Lang

... is th' simplest crathers in th' wide wide wurruld—innocent, sthraight-forward, dangerous people, that haven't sinse enough to be honest or prosperous. Th' extint iv their schamin' is to break a lock on a dure or sweep a handful iv change fr'm a counter or dhrill a hole in a safe or administher th' strong short arm to a tired man takin' home his load. There are no mysteryous ...
— Observations by Mr. Dooley • Finley Peter Dunne

... three worshipful Kings dwelt in their kingdoms in honest and devout conversation until the coming ...
— In the Yule-Log Glow, Book I - Christmas Tales from 'Round the World • Various

... with three leading characters—the very honest and reliable Hofschulze, the owner of the "Upper Farm," in whom are personified and glorified the best traditions of Westphalia; Lisbeth, the daughter of Muenchhausen and Emerentia, the connecting link between romantic and realistic Germany; and Oswald, the ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... constantly reminding you they would have made good in life if they only had a chance, despite the fact that many constant toilers find the places of more educated men who are deceived into thinking their education would take the place of honest toil. This particular man doubtless never learned that "all values have their basis in cost, and labor is the first cost of everything on which we set a price." The prizes of life are not laid upon easily accessible shelves but are placed out of reach to be labored for, like the views one gets ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand

... calmly: "Your majesty is depriving us of our good rights, in so far as you wish to prevent us from being honest people, ...
— The Merchant of Berlin - An Historical Novel • L. Muhlbach

... Roman good sense do it? And particularly, how could Cicero bestow such eulogies on Plato? Although Cicero did not wield the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet he was able, learned, laborious, practised in the business of the world and honest. He could not be the dupe of mere style, of which he was himself the first master in the world. With the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and authority. Education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in the reputation and the ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... can mak' a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might, Guid faith he mauna fa' that! For a' that, and a' that, Their dignities, and a' that, The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, Are higher rank ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... in this matter perhaps from the lesser relations of our daily life. What manner of man do we most trust among those whom we meet? Surely, the honest man, the plain man, the one whose directness and integrity we do not doubt. Truly you may witness the nature of such a man in the manner of his speech, in his mien, in his conduct. Therefore, my Lords and gentlemen, ...
— The Mississippi Bubble • Emerson Hough

... honest boatswain, who walked up and down as quite unconcerned, Whitelocke forbade the throwing of the ordnance overboard; and as he was sitting on the deck, Mr. Ingelo, one of his chaplains, came to him, and said that he was glad to see him in so ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke

... defiantly, her hands clinched. Keith, realizing the false position into which he had drifted, hesitated to answer. He meant to tell her the whole story and urge her to cooperate with him in learning the gambler's purpose. The woman impressed him as honest at heart, in spite of her life and environment; she was not one whom a swindler could easily dupe into ...
— Keith of the Border • Randall Parrish

... place of worship together, provided it is the place where the child can find expression for spiritual ideals. If the Sunday school does not really lift the child-life and really teach the child, if it is not honest with him and makes no suitable provision for his developing nature, he will be better off in a quiet hour of family conversation and reading at home. That means the application of parents to this hour.[33] It banishes the monstrous Sunday supplement with its hideous, debasing pictures. ...
— Religious Education in the Family • Henry F. Cope

... Consequently he had made for himself, in course of time, a very good practice; he had married a rich woman, and the moment that he thought himself able to do without crooked ways he had seriously renounced them. In 1839 Desroches had become an honest and skilful solicitor: that is to say, he assumed the interests of his clients with warmth and ability; he never counselled an openly dishonorable proceeding, still less would he have lent a hand to it. As to that fine flower of delicacy to be met with in Derville and ...
— The Deputy of Arcis • Honore de Balzac

... consist of "a Master and Sub-Master, or Usher," and the "lands, tenements, revenues, reversions, and other hereditaments, for the support of the school, were granted, assigned, and appointed," for their better management, "to 10 discreet and honest men, who (should) ...
— A History of Horncastle - from the earliest period to the present time • James Conway Walter

... Babbiano—that same Masuccio whom you tell us that you saw to-night—remains faithful to Gian Maria; faithful because he and the fifty Swiss mercenaries at his heels are paid to be so. Up, my lord! Let your own good sense tell you whether an honest man need scruple to depose a prince whose throne knows no defence beyond the hired protection ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini

... could by no means make his age correspond, according to the doctrine of civilians, with his own departure for Palestine. He applied to his wife, therefore, for the solution of this dilemma. The lady, after many floods of tears, which she had reserved for the occasion, informed the honest gentleman, that, walking one day alone by the banks of the infant river, a human form arose from a deep eddy, still known and termed Tweed-pool, who deigned to inform her that he was the tutelar genius of the stream, ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... with whom he came in daily contact were a pitiable set. He found among them many honest, respectable, well-meaning men, conscientiously fulfilling their humble tasks, striving hard to serve the religious needs of the community. There were, on the other hand, however, fanatics and rogues, men representing ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith

... get him home or into camp. A horse colt, if able to travel at all, will work his way home cheerfully; but the young mule will sulk, and in many instances will not move an inch while life lasts. An honest horse will try to help himself, and do all he can for you, especially if you treat him kindly. The mule colt will, just as likely as not, do all he can to make it inconvenient ...
— The Mule - A Treatise On The Breeding, Training, - And Uses To Which He May Be Put • Harvey Riley

... to have necessarily exposed him to party influences, and thus given an undue bias to his narrative. It is not difficult, indeed, to determine under whose banner he had enlisted. He writes like a partisan, and yet like an honest one, who is no further warped from a correct judgment of passing affairs than must necessarily come from preconceived opinions. There is no management to work a conviction in his reader on this side or the other, still ...
— History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William Hickling Prescott

... old women, in the bosoms of Sir Elijah Impey and Mr. Middleton. "We have got," he exultingly says, "we have got to the secret hoards of this old lady!" And I verily believe there never was a passion less dissembled; there Nature spoke; there was truth triumphant, honest truth. Others may feign a passion; but nobody can doubt the raptures of Mr. Hastings, Sir Elijah Impey, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. XII. (of XII.) • Edmund Burke

... down. He then took his head and threw it up into space. Tzu-ya gazed with upturned face as it continued to rise, and was sorely puzzled. But the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole had kept a watch on the proceedings. He said: "Tzu-ya is a loyal and honest man; it looks as if he has been deceived by this charlatan." He ordered White Crane Youth to assume quickly the form of a crane and fetch Shen ...
— Myths and Legends of China • E. T. C. Werner

... obliterates all sense of right and wrong as generally to make their members countenance contumely and insult, sometimes even robbery, fire-raising, and murder, committed on innocent persons who are only striving to earn an honest livelihood for themselves by hard labour, but in opposition to the strike; and that it induces twenty and thirty thousand persons to yield implicit obedience to the commands of an unknown committee, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI. • Various

... easily painted; "but the complexity of human affairs and legitimate interests, conducing to the activity demanded by the great law, Movement, makes some elasticity necessary, even where there is the most honest ...
— Watts (1817-1904) • William Loftus Hare

... French scholar to whom this letter was addressed there is an excellent notice in Bayle. "EMERIC BIGOT," says Bayle, "one of the most learned and most honest men of the seventeenth century, was a native of Rouen, and of a family very distinguished in the legal profession. He was born in 1626. The love of letters drew him aside from public employments; his only ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... light music that it took the breath from Mary. "Legend? Say, lady, if Red Pierre is just a legend the Civil War ain't no more'n a fable. Legend? You go anywhere on the range an' get 'em talking about that legend, and they'll make you think it's an honest-to-goodness ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... you may be sure I wonder at it too. On the faith and troth of an honest gentleman, 'tis beyond me to guess what more she can desire. I am about her all day long; and no one can say of me that I rule her harshly. All the cares of household and husbandry I have taken on myself; yet notwithstanding— Well, well, ...
— The Feast at Solhoug • Henrik Ibsen

... doth, in spite of all I can say. She hath no fear that an honest gospel woman should have in these times. She went out last night, and I was so angered that I charged her with galloping ...
— Giles Corey, Yeoman - A Play • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... sorrie that thou art so well. Sweet sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me what saies my Loue? Nur. Your Loue saies like an honest Gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, And I warrant a vertuous: where is your Mother? Iul. Where is my Mother? Why she is within, where should she be? How odly thou repli'st: ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... Now, Tarleton is an honest man and something of an idealist. His first interview with Sir Matthew Bale made him open his eyes wider than ever in ...
— War-time Silhouettes • Stephen Hudson

... young man is splendid credit. He is backed up by the good opinion of everybody that knows him. People are afraid of the other: they can not trust him. He beat his employer, why should not he beat others? Everybody knows that he has not been honest at heart with his employer, not loyal or true. He must work all the harder to overcome the handicap of a bad reputation, a ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden

... verbal portrait from a disciple of the great art-teacher, occurring in an inaugural address delivered before the Ruskin Society of Glasgow: "That spare, stooping figure, the rough-hewn, kindly face, with its mobile, sensitive mouth, and clear deep eyes, so sweet and honest in repose, so keen and earnest and ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord

... to introduce you to old Joe. Fancy, if you please, a man about fifty years old, rather small of stature, but firmly and compactly built, an open and honest countenance, and a keen but restless black eye, that seemed to read your very inmost thoughts. In his dress he was a perfect dandy. He ever wore the very finest clothes that could be obtained, carrying out in every ...
— "Co. Aytch" - Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment - or, A Side Show of the Big Show • Sam R. Watkins

... see the honest strife, Which should contribute most to please; And hear the long-recounted life, Of ...
— Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs • Robert Bloomfield

... bloodshed. Soon after he came out of prison my husband met him, and he said to my husband: 'I suppose you will not shake hands with me?' And my husband replied: 'Because our views are different there is no reason why both of us should not be honest men,' and ...
— Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches • Maurice Baring

... the whole was a damned lie of the newspaper men; that they had lied about him (Greenhithe) and now were lying about old Molyneux; that Molyneux had been very hard on him and very unjust to him, but he would say that he was honest as the clock— honest enough to be mean. And that he would say that to the committee, if they would call on him, and ...
— The Brick Moon, et. al. • Edward Everett Hale

... and therefore unjust.... He wished he could agree that we were fighting in a just cause, that we had always fought according to acknowledged civilised methods; but as an honest man he ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold

... my weary soul sinks under its burden, and the world has nothing in store for me but scorn and contempt! And, yet, have I ever stained your noble escutcheon? All that I have done is generous and honest in the sight of God;—nay, the very fountain-head of my wo is love and compassion! Yes, yes!—fix your glittering eyes on me; contemplate me in the abyss of poverty where I am fallen! From the bottom of that pit I lift my brow boldly toward you, and your ...
— The Poor Gentleman • Hendrik Conscience

... engagement, with no result save that of repeatedly countermanding a wedding-cake, struck me as belonging admirably to a stage-comedy in three acts, but scarcely to life as we find it. Besides, poor John Mayrant was, all too plainly, not strategizing; he was playing as straight a game as the honest heart of a gentleman could inspire. And so, baffled at all points, I said (for I simply had to try something which might lead to my sharing ...
— Lady Baltimore • Owen Wister

... No wonder your heart fairly stops its beating for an instant, then bounds on with rapid throbs. Only a few days ago you listened to the story of a bleeding, dying Saviour, bleeding and dying for you; and you promised, with honest tears, that for this you would love and serve and honour Him for ever. And yet, to-night, here you are, watching the tricks of men who can speak that sacred name in such a way that it will make even you, who are used to this, shudder and turn cold. "In the name of the Saviour whom ...
— Tip Lewis and His Lamp • Pansy (aka Isabella Alden)

... rocked back and forth, first on one foot and then on another—and then burst out laughing. She bent over and laughed violently. "No, you poor simpleton, what you want is my money, hey? Be honest! Out with it! You ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann

... illegitimacy, of commercialized prostitution, of venereal disease, of infant mortality, of early death or life-long invalidism of wives and mothers, of marital unhappiness and parental neglect which are found by honest investigation in states and nations in which no divorce is allowed do not lead to the belief that legal permanence of the marriage bond secures socially helpful family life. On the contrary, such facts already show that divorce in the civilization we ...
— The Family and it's Members • Anna Garlin Spencer

... his brow clouding over. "I am sorry all that happened, but it was your fault, my boy. You regularly led the brave, old, honest fellow astray." ...
— Marcus: the Young Centurion • George Manville Fenn

... Toland and littered by her possessions, one empty and immaculate. The two were joined by a shining little bath. Julia looked at the white bed in the unoccupied room, the white bureau, the white chairs, the white dotted curtains at the windows, the dark-blue rugs on a painted floor, and a gasp of honest admiration broke from her. Miss Toland gave her a quick ...
— The Story Of Julia Page - Works of Kathleen Norris, Volume V. • Kathleen Norris

... rejoicing and merrymaking, for the holding of fairs, the transfer of cattle, the driving of bargains in hide or ivory, or other goods necessary to traders. He has been described by a friend of his people "as, according to his own lights, a citizen pioneer, a rough, God-fearing, honest, homely, uneducated Philistine." ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 6) - From the Foundation of Cape Colony to the Boer Ultimatum - of 9th Oct. 1899 • Louis Creswicke

... thought he grasped the idea, and the rat-eyes he lifted to her gleamed with the fell acuteness of the Dials. "I sh'd be sorry if I wasn't," he answered, in swift, rasping accents. "She's a rare old boozer, she is! It's a fair curse to an honest boy like me, to 'ave—" "Go home!" she bade him, peremptorily—and frowned after him as he ducked ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... "Not among honest people; they will all be on your side, and the dishonest ones, who seem to me to be the only persons benefited by such a dilatory and shocking mode of procedure, are the very persons whose enmity you need not fear. But can the ...
— The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit • Richard Harris

... and do not want you as housemaid any longer. Nor shall I need your services, for a new girl comes to-morrow—Sarah's cousin. She is in New York, and will be here on the morning train. A regular greenhorn I imagine; but if she is honest and willing, I can soon train her in my ways. And now I will leave you, for you must sleep to-night, so as to be well to-morrow;" and with a fond good-night, Miss McPherson left ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... sting of his trouble whose winnings are less than his worth: For he who is honest is noble, whatever his ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Literature • Ontario Ministry of Education

... of a young turkey-cock with his first tail feathers! It were well for us to cease our foolish boasting and con well the stern lessons taught at the cannon's mouth. The first and greatest of these is that only by honest labor, by earnest endeavor, can a people become truly great. The war swept away the curse that was our weakness, negro slavery. It broke in upon our old exclusiveness, shattered the foolish caste that held us in iron thrall, ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... sir," said the burglar, shaking his head. "I've tried everything to get an honest living, but somehow I can't get on in the straight life. I drove a taxicab for three months after I came out, till a busy-fellow[A] tumbled to me not having a license, and brought me up under the Prevention of Crimes Act. It's no use my asking you to ...
— The Daffodil Mystery • Edgar Wallace

... HALL, APRIL YE V. Ned hath spoke out at last, like the honest man he is, and done Aubrey to wit of his desire to wed with Faith Murthwaite. She is a good maid, and I cast no doubt shall make a good wife. Scarce so comely as her sister Temperance, may-be, yet she liketh me the better: and not ...
— Joyce Morrell's Harvest - The Annals of Selwick Hall • Emily Sarah Holt

... stronger than my feeling of pity. But her tears! I have often said it, and those amongst my readers who have experienced it, must be of the same opinion; there is nothing on earth more irresistible than two beautiful eyes shedding tears, when the owner of those eyes is handsome, honest, and unhappy. I found myself physically unable to send ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... of knowledge.] Truth. — N. fact, reality &c. (existence) 1; plain fact, plain matter of fact; nature &c. (principle) 5; truth, verity; gospel, gospel truth, God's honest truth; orthodoxy &c. 983a; authenticity; veracity &c. 543; correctness, correctitude[obs3]. accuracy, exactitude; exactness, preciseness &c. adj.; precision, delicacy; rigor, mathematical precision, punctuality; clockwork precision &c. (regularity) 80; conformity to rule; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... who bring such fresh feelings of every sort to it as you do. But papas and mammas, and brothers, and intimate friends are a good deal gone by, to most of the frequenters of Bath—and the honest relish of balls and plays, and everyday sights, is past with them." Here their conversation closed, the demands of the dance becoming now too ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... that the ill-fortune could not last; he had one great little mare, good enough to win, an honest trainer—there the inventory stopped short; his stock in trade was incomplete—he had not a trusty jockey. In his dilemma he threshed ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser

... me by my actions." Both appeared angry; the colonel got up to leave. Lord Byron, who was the offended party, instead of bearing rancor, rose also, and, going straight to the colonel, said: "Give me your honest hand, and good-night." The night would not have passed tranquilly for Lord Byron without ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... sought to interfere in the plans of his niece, who was left to follow her own wishes. Out of respect for her own feelings, and those of her uncle-whom Florinda had now begun to respect, seeing a complete change in him that showed an honest and honorable purpose-her proposed marriage was deferred for some weeks, when at length, under the sanction of the Grand Duke, Florinda and Carlton were united to each other, and found happiness in the love and constancy of their ...
— The Duke's Prize - A Story of Art and Heart in Florence • Maturin Murray

... 'I know all,' and then she spoke some words again, her eyes fixed as before, and the reverse change came. Before us stood once more the honest-looking, fine-appearing gentleman, Richard Burwell, of ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery - Riddle Stories • Various

... a house may be no size at all, but its lines are honest, and its painting and window curtains in good taste. As for its upkeep, its path or sidewalk is beautifully neat, steps scrubbed, brasses polished, and its bell answered promptly by a trim maid with a low voice and quiet courteous ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... once. A lump rose in my throat, for I had come to look upon him as a father. His honest dealings, his charity, of which the world knew nothing, and his plain and unassuming ways had inspired in me a kind of worship. I answered, as steadily ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... cackling of my old Goose may yet save England!' This wholly unexpected sally proved too much for the Duke, who burst out into a hearty laugh. 'By G——d, Shelley!' said he, 'you are right: give me your honest hand.'" The Duke then returned to Apsley House and "penned a playful letter to ...
— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring

... society of idlers, for that leads to gossip and slander, to sin and wrong, to vanity and neglect of God. This does not apply to the company of the pious and the learned, which should be sought. He should be honest and helpful to his friends, and he will get along well in this world. All the evils and complaints of life are due to the fact that people are not considerate of one another, and everyone grabs for ...
— A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy • Isaac Husik

... and his hands grasped the two umbrellas. At that moment, if she had translated her impulse into an action, Hermione would have given Gaspare a good hug—just for being himself; for being always the same: honest, watchful, perfectly fearless, perfectly natural, and perfectly determined to take care of his Padrona and ...
— A Spirit in Prison • Robert Hichens

... and Plato are the double star, which the most powerful instruments will not entirely separate. Socrates, again, in his traits and genius, is the best example of that synthesis which constitutes Plato's extraordinary power. Socrates, a man of humble stem, but honest enough; of the commonest history; of a personal homeliness so remarkable, as to be a cause of wit in others,—the rather that his broad good nature and exquisite taste for a joke invited the sally, which was sure to be paid. The players ...
— Representative Men • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... or unlawful use of that flag by others; nor can they rightfully on account of any such alleged abuses be interrupted, molested, or detained while on the ocean, and if thus molested and detained while pursuing honest voyages in the usual way and violating no law themselves they are unquestionably entitled to indemnity. This Government has manifested its repugnance to the slave trade in a manner which can not be misunderstood. By its fundamental ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler - Section 2 (of 3) of Volume 4: John Tyler • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... on George's head, but on her own. For George wouldn't care. So little value did he place upon Mrs. Carr's good opinion, that he would not care even if Gabriella were to tell her the truth. And if she had only been honest! If she had only refused to lie because custom exacted that a wife should be willing to lie in defense of her husband. Some obscure strain of dogmatic piety struggled in the convulsed depths of her being, as if she had been suddenly brought up against the vein of iron in her soul—against ...
— Life and Gabriella - The Story of a Woman's Courage • Ellen Glasgow

... accepted an engagement with the manager of King's Theater, and here he produced a number of his former works with moderate success. Rossini himself appeared upon the stage and sang the solos in a cantata which he had composed in honor of the King, George IV. He turned many honest pennies during his London engagement by acting as accompanist at private soirees for a fee of L50. At the end of five months he found himself in possession of L7,000, with which he made a graceful retreat to Paris, where he accepted the musical direction of the Theatre Italienne, ...
— A Popular History of the Art of Music - From the Earliest Times Until the Present • W. S. B. Mathews

... martyr I trod heavily up the stairs, and entered my quarters, meditating within myself, awful schemes for vengeance, on the now open tyranny of my Colonel; upon whom, I too, in my honest rectitude of heart, vowed to have "a court-martial." I threw myself upon a chair, and endeavoured to recollect what circumstance of the past evening could have possibly suggested all the mirth in which both officers and men seemed to participate equally; but nothing could I remember, ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

... was so honest that if she gave it all away she made it cleaner. She did not look that way. She was using that attraction and she was not so orderly that she did not own everything. She could ...
— Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein - With Two Shorter Stories • Gertrude Stein

... in friendly business transactions with these skimmers of the sea. The redoubted Captain Bartholomew Roberts, to skip over a century, went about the world recruiting for a well-organised piratical business, and there were many among his followers who would have been honest men if temptation had not come in their way, and who hastened to leave a life of vice so soon as the neighbourhood of one of His Majesty's cruisers made it dangerous. We ought not to speak of these men with harsh contempt. The king's government was largely responsible for ...
— The Pirate and The Three Cutters • Frederick Marryat

... common way—altho' it be ever so much for their good—it will not go down, and you will hear nothing but murmurings against the Man that first invented it; but the moment they see their superiors set a value upon it, it becomes the finest stuff in the world and the inventor an honest fellow. Wind easterly. ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook

... inspection with the exception of about one hundred head. These were cattle which had not recuperated from the dry drive. Some few were footsore or thin in flesh, but taken as a whole the delivery had every earmark of an honest one. Fortunately this remnant was sold a few days later to some Colorado men, and we were foot-loose and free. Even the oxen had gone in on the main delivery, and harnesses were accordingly bought, a light tongue fitted to the wagon, and we were ready to ...
— Reed Anthony, Cowman • Andy Adams

... is possible. Mordon was such an honest man," she said. "We trusted him implicitly, and never once did he betray our trust. Now, Mr. Glover," she said coolly, "might I suggest that an interview with a gentleman in my bedroom is not calculated to increase my servants' respect for me? Will you go downstairs ...
— The Angel of Terror • Edgar Wallace

... disposition, imperfectly descrying at moments something true and important in what was said, and convinced of the friendly intention of the speaker, might feel a transient regret for what they would with honest shame call the stupidity of their own minds, accompanied with some resentment against those to whose neglect it was greatly attributable. The instructor also, as the signs grew evident to him of the frustration of his efforts upon the invincible grossness of the subjects ...
— An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance • John Foster

... but you know how it is with us fathers; our hearts are so full of the little darlings, out it must come. You can imagine how joyful I feel at saving their fortune from land-sharks, and landing it safe in an honest man's hands." ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various

... Jesuit morality. It was the Company's aim to control the conscience by direction and confession, and especially the conscience of princes, women, youths in high position. To do so by plain speaking and honest dealing was clearly dangerous. The world had had enough of Dominican austerity and dogmatism. To do so by open toleration and avowed cynicism did not suit the temper of the time. A reform of the monastic orders and the regular clergy had been undertaken by the Church. ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

... the disposing of their bodies or goods; as also concerning the maintenance of the poor, the sick, the banished, and of others in the church who are afflicted; to regulate (so far as concerneth the civil order) marriages, burials, and other circumstances which are common both to holy, and also to honest civil societies; to afford places fit for holy assemblies, and other external helps by which the sacred matters of the Lord may be more safely, commodiously, and more easily in the church performed, to remove the external impediments of divine worship or of ecclesiastical peace, and to repress ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie

... loved his mother. Among his papers there was found a fragment of an autobiography, which ended in 1816, when the writer was only twenty-five years of age. He says his father was "a kind father, a sincere friend, and an honest and religious man," but on the subject of his mother he ...
— Threads of Grey and Gold • Myrtle Reed

... allegory signifies the extension of Protestantism through the outlying rural districts of England and in Ireland. Upton thinks that Sir Satyrane represents "Sir John Perrot, whose behaviour, though honest, was too coarse and rude for a court. 'Twas well known that he was a son of Henry VIII." Holinshed says that as Lord President of Munster, Sir John secured such peace and security that a man might travel in Ireland with a white stick only in ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser

... two men with him had a face which looked as if it had been carved by a sword or an adze, good and honest but blunt and rugged; and the other had a long, narrow head, like the head of a hen—a lanky person with a certain mixture of arrogance and servility ...
— The Eternal City • Hall Caine

... you say something! Mr. Pertell, you're not going to permit this, are you? I'm sure Jack Jepson is honest and that he is faithfully warning us. Don't let him be put down this way. Ask him what he ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Sea - or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real • Laura Lee Hope

... excellent. It is now eighteen months since I got the first glimpse of light, three months since the dawn, very few days since the unveiled sun, most admirable to gaze on, burst out upon me. Nothing holds me; I will indulge in my sacred fury; I will triumph over mankind by the honest confession that I have stolen the golden vases of the Egyptians to build up a tabernacle for my God far away from the confines of Egypt. If you forgive me, I rejoice, if you are angry, I can bear ...
— Kepler • Walter W. Bryant

... speche. Mr Cheney and Mr Charles in lyke wise endevoireth and emploieth themselves, accompanienge Mr Gregory in lerninge, amonge whome ther is a perpetuall contention, strife, and conflicte, and in maner of an honest envie who shall do beste, not oonlie in the ffrenche tongue (wherin Mr Vallence after a wonderesly compendious, facile, prompte, and redy waye, nott withoute painfull delegence and laborious industrie doth enstructe them) but also in writynge, playenge ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... Austrian depot at Frankfort, where he met another recognition still more formidable. A comrade with whom he had probably quarrelled; for this part of the story is not yet clear, denounced him to the police; and, to the astonishment of the honest Frankforters, it was announced that the robber king, the bandit hero, was in their hands. As his exploits had been chiefly performed on the left bank of the Rhine, and his revenues had been raised ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various

... sundry times trepanned by such dealers, and been brought contrary to the laws of nations, and sold here as slaves?"—"There is no doubt, (observed a third,) but such villainous actions have been done by worthless people: however, though an honest and unsuspicious man may be deceived in buying a stolen horse, it does not follow that he may not have a fair and just title to a horse or any thing else bought in an open and legal market; but according to the obligation of being not repugnant to the laws of England, I do not see how we can ...
— Thoughts On The Necessity Of Improving The Condition Of The Slaves • Thomas Clarkson

... business has he to go in debt, Mr. Elder? He knows the amount of his income, and, as an honest man, should not let his ...
— Lessons in Life, For All Who Will Read Them • T. S. Arthur

... found it unconsciously swaying his movements and directing his steps. He would go and see Copeland! He would find that bloodless little shrimp and put him face to face with a few plain truths. He would confront that anemic Deputy-Commissioner and at least let him know what one honest man ...
— Never-Fail Blake • Arthur Stringer

... have cast away all metaphysics in order to get rid of hypochondria, but who are resolved to owe nothing as yet to religion and its more positive gifts. A poor half-way stage, some of you may be inclined to say; but at least you must grant it to be an honest stage; and no man should dare to speak meanly of these instincts which are our nature's best equipment, and to which religion herself must in the last resort address her ...
— The Will to Believe - and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy • William James

... streams now swarm with trout and grayling as they did when honest Isaac Walton sung their praises in quaint poetical prose, although they still twine and foam along their rocky beds all overhung with willows and tufted shrubs; but, where the waters are preserved, there good sport ...
— Rides on Railways • Samuel Sidney

... matches, or cigarettes, for if so we must declare it and pay something to the Government for allowing us to bring it. We answer that we have nothing. "Rien, Monsieur," very politely, hoping to soften his heart, and as we both have honest faces he believes us and scrawls a chalk-mark on our bags and lets us pass. We are lucky, for now we can go straight on to the train and get good places before the crowd follows. Some unfortunate people, however, ...
— Round the Wonderful World • G. E. Mitton

... Lewis worked steadily forward to a goal that he knew his father could not cavil at. He knew it instinctively. His grasp steadied to expression with repression, or, as one of his envious, but honest, competitors put it, ...
— Through stained glass • George Agnew Chamberlain

... for he could think of nothing to say. He had seen soldiers like Nea—cast-offs from their home-towns gallantly going to their deaths. It was something that he could not understand. And being honest, he had nothing ...
— Hunters Out of Space • Joseph Everidge Kelleam

... filed around the table, and glee and song once more prevailed, William began to soften in his statuesque attitude, and laughingly proposed that we "go a poaching" on the imprisoned animals and birds that Squire Lucy corraled for his special delectation, to the detriment of honest ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce

... for War, and Whitbread for peace, And others as suited their fancies; But all were agreed that our debts should increase Excepting the Demagogue Francis. That rogue! how could Westminster chuse him again To leaven the virtue of these honest men! But the Devil remained till the Break of Day Blushed upon Sleep and Lord Castlereagh:[45] 170 Then up half the house got, and Satan got up With the drowsy to snore—or the hungry to sup:— But so torpid the power ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron

... than a hint to reach him. "I have to do it. Those laborers are no good. Honest, I can lift as much as any three ...
— Calumet 'K' • Samuel Merwin

... trusteeship, if he is honest, will not waste or squander the property entrusted to his care. He will treat fairly and honestly all men who work for him. The men working for him will feel that they are also trustees seeking to use their skill and time, so that the ...
— Studies in the Life of the Christian • Henry T. Sell

... see very well how I can train them to be honest men if, out of every dollar assigned to aid the Indian school, sixty cents goes to Government contracts and ...
— The Freebooters of the Wilderness • Agnes C. Laut

... replied he who seemed to be the chief of the band—a tall, bearded American, named Croft, who seemed more like a bandit than an honest man. His comrades, too, six in number, appeared a wild and reckless set of fellows, with whom one would naturally desire to hold as little intercourse as possible; but most men at the Californian diggings had more or less the aspect of brigands, so Ned Sinton ...
— The Golden Dream - Adventures in the Far West • R.M. Ballantyne

... one Sunday to perform his duty, he found a corporal's guard at the church-door, who told him that the Committee of Safety had put another divine in his place, and he was requested to keep a quiet tongue in his head. He told the men to "lead him before their chiefs" (our honest friend always loved tall words and tragic attitudes); and accordingly was marched through the streets to the Capitol, with a chorus of white and coloured blackguards at the skirts of his gown; and had an interview with Messrs. Henry and the new State officers, and confronted the ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... trewe succession/ he is taught enseygned and nourrishid in his yongth in alle good & vertuous tacches and maners of hys fader/ And also the prynces of the royame dar not so hardily mene warre agaynst a kynge hauynge a sone for to regne after hym And so a Quene ought to be chaste. wyse. of honest peple/ well manerd and not curyous in nourisshynge of her children/ her wyfedom ought not only tappere in feet and werkes but also in spekynge that is to wete that she be secrete and telle not suche thynges ...
— Game and Playe of the Chesse - A Verbatim Reprint Of The First Edition, 1474 • Caxton

... 5000 pins and "one green scarf for your husband." As the last entry shows, young Margaret did not long remain an apprentice, for she was redeemed from that status by a planter named Stephen Taylor, who, her mother wrote, she understood, was an "honest man and gave a ...
— Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century - Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical Booklet Number 17 • Annie Lash Jester

... meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorn'd the venerable place; Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway, And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray. The service past, around the pious man, With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran; Even children follow'd, with endearing wile, And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile; His ready smile a parent's warmth express'd, Their welfare pleas'd him, and their cares distress'd; To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving



Words linked to "Honest" :   honestness, honest-to-goodness, sincere, direct, honourable, ingenuous, straight, dishonest, square, fair, honest-to-god, reliable, artless, trustworthy



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