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Obey   Listen
verb
Obey  v. i.  To give obedience. "Will he obey when one commands?" Note: By some old writers obey was used, as in the French idiom, with the preposition to. "His servants ye are, to whom ye obey." "He commanded the trumpets to sound: to which the two brave knights obeying, they performed their courses."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Obey" Quotes from Famous Books



... There is nothing which a leader of genius might not accomplish with such men. He must have regretted, at this recollection of his earlier years, that he ever centred in himself all liberty and intelligence, that he ever created mechanical armies and generals only fit to obey. Bonaparte began the third epoch of the war. The campaign of 1792 had been made on the old system, with dispersed corps, acting separately without abandoning their fixed line. The committee of public safety concentrated the corps, made them operate no longer merely on what was before ...
— History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 • F. A. M. Mignet

... gentle command to Alicia to leave her elders alone to their adult confidences. And unwilling Alicia had to obey. ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett

... Charley and Hubert to obey orders, for the ship rolled so tremendously that they could only proceed with their dressing by fits and starts, and were more than once interrupted by attacks of their weary sea-sickness. However, their father stayed with them, helping and joking with them until they were ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty

... before, Robert Turold had accomplished the task to which his life had been devoted. Some weeks before he had summoned his brother from London to disclose his future plans. The brothers had not met for many years, but Austin was quick to obey when he learnt that a fortune and a title were at stake. The sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton, had reached Cornwall two days before the funeral. They were to take Sisily back to London with them. It was Robert Turold's intention to part with his ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees

... and upon her; you were by no means to blame for this; everybody admitted that both of you were perfectly free to do as you liked; but you ran full tilt against the ideas of the world, and the world has not shown you the consideration that is shown to those who obey the rules of the game. If you had left Coralie to this M. Camusot, if you had hidden your relations with her, you might have married Mme. de Bargeton; you would now be prefect of ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... his hat upon the road, tore off his coat and tossed it after the hat, and, with a chuckle of something like exultation, prepared to obey his mistress by putting himself in a "scientific" attitude. He saw well enough that the porter was a formidable foe, and his face was a diploma in itself that fully testified to the skill and science of that foe; but John was plucky, and in his prime, and very confident ...
— The Living Link • James De Mille

... had no choice but to obey, and their attention was soon occupied by the strange sights before them. As one odd figure after another sprang out of the dark into the firelight, capered and pranced, and then disappeared into the blackness again, Ann and ...
— The Wonderful Bed • Gertrude Knevels

... some supper for you," she said, with averted head. She wanted to make her voice kind, but it would not obey her. It was neither kind nor unkind. There were tears ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett

... me," he said; "I will come again this day week, and then you shall see your child, and your father, and this young lady, and everybody. But, mind, if you don't obey me you will never see anything. You will have one glance of your little boy, and then be blind forever, ...
— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... completed when the series is completed. But when and how can this series be completed? In general, a series is completed when we reach the final term, but here there appears to be no final term. We cannot make zero the final term, for it does not belong to the series at all. It does not obey the law of the series, for it is not one half as large as the term preceding it—what space is so small that dividing it by 2 gives us [omicron]? On the other hand, some term just before zero cannot be the final ...
— An Introduction to Philosophy • George Stuart Fullerton

... of what was expected of him, was soon at his post of duty; each, as he took his position, cast a hasty glance at Perry's battle flag then flying from the masthead of the Niagara, and as he took in the dying words of the noble Lawrence, formed a solemn resolve to obey their mandate and made that ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5 • Various

... the poetry of Nature, are all signs of the same movement—of a new Renaissance. Limitations of every sort have been shaken off during the last century; all forms have been destroyed, all questions asked. The classical spirit loved to arrange, model, preserve traditions, obey laws. We are intolerant of everything that is not simple, unbiassed by prescription, liberal as the wind, and natural as the mountain crags. We go to feed this spirit of freedom among the Alps. What the virgin forests of America are to the Americans, ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... commander brought face-downward in a carriage out of rat-traps by a woman to do a general's bidding? That has been my fate to-night. Now I am wanted to take further part! Is my honor not yet dirtied enough, General sahib? I will take no further part. I refuse to obey! I order this trooper not to obey. I ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy

... Almighty) am exempt from both these apprehensions; from the one, because I am sure and certain, that I cannot fall sick, having removed all the causes of illness by my divine medicine; from the other, that of death, because from so many years experience I have learned to obey reason; whence I not only think it a great piece of folly to fear that, which cannot be avoided, but likewise firmly expect some consolation, from the grace of Jesus Christ, when I ...
— Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life • Lewis Cornaro

... vows of obedience is objectionable; yet we know that the voluntary nurses who went to the East were called upon to do what comes to the same thing—to sign an engagement to obey implicitly a controlling and administrative power—or the whole undertaking must have fallen to the ground. Then again, questions about costume have been mooted, which appear to me wonderfully absurd. It has been suggested that there ...
— Brave Men and Women - Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs • O.E. Fuller

... and conclusive. Property is allowed to be dependent on civil laws; civil laws are allowed to have no other object, but the interest of society: This therefore must be allowed to be the sole foundation of property and justice. Not to mention, that our obligation itself to obey the magistrate and his laws is founded on nothing but the interests of society. If the ideas of justice, sometimes, do not follow the dispositions of civil law; we shall find, that these cases, instead of objections, are ...
— An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals • David Hume

... eyes on you, my boys, and if you skulk again, I'll obey orders—by the Lord Harry, I will!" said the sergeant, as he glanced at the lock of his musket. "Company K isn't going to be laughed at ...
— The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army - A Story of the Great Rebellion • Oliver Optic

... imprisonment, to carry me to the Grand Chatelet. I requested him again and again to inform me of the crime laid to my charge; but all his answer was, that I must follow him. I begged him to give me leave to write to Lord Albemarle, the English Ambassador, promising to obey the warrant if his Excellency was not pleased to answer for my forthcoming. But the Commissary refused me the use of pen and ink, though he consented that I should send a verbal message to his Excellency, telling me at the same time that he would not wait the return of the messenger, because ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall

... wives and your children and make slaves of them, and sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord; and we protest that the deaths and losses that shall accrue from this ...
— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon

... forced, trembling, to obey. This over, the doctor commanded the delinquent to lie down across the sofa. Reluctantly he complied, but at last he straddled across it with his snow-white plump backside fully bared to view, and a fair mark to the threatening rod. He ...
— The Romance of Lust - A classic Victorian erotic novel • Anonymous

... teach, and do not live in accordance with their own instructions, take away all the weight from their teaching; for who will comply with their precepts, when the teachers themselves teach us not to obey them?" [T.S.]] ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IX; • Jonathan Swift

... the mean things about it is that neither side of the pillow has any cool spot. You turn it over once more and once more, and yet once more again, but it is no use. It is utterly impossible to cuddle down and obey orders and go to sleep like a brave soldier-man. The more you try it the more squirmy and itchy you feel; for at such a time one is usually fretted by the repeated ticklings of some bothersome fly. He will sneak along the edge of the pillow and rub his ...
— A Melody in Silver • Keene Abbott

... not fail to be at Court in the evening; he thought himself very happy, that the Queen-Dauphin had made choice of him to manage an affair she had at heart, and he promised to obey her commands with the greatest exactness. But the Duchess of Valentinois being warned of the design in view, had traversed it with so much care, and prepossessed the King so much against it, that when Monsieur d'Anville came to speak to his Majesty about it, he plainly ...
— The Princess of Cleves • Madame de La Fayette

... married together, You're married together, You're married together, You must obey your father and mother, And love one another like sister and brother— I pray, young ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... other than that of a casual occupant. But that opinion is antiquated. More than three-fourths of a century ago the far-seeing thinker, Wilhelm von Humboldt, laid down the maxim that the phenomena of mind and matter obey laws identical in kind;[6-1] and a recent historian of science sums up the result of the latest research ...
— The Religious Sentiment - Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and - Philosophy of Religion • Daniel G. Brinton

... from the child between pain and disgust, intent only on holding the bigger boys in check while she could, did not note that Clem made no movement to obey his sister. ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... dearest. The remedy is quite easy, as I stated in my letter. We can now be married in a prosy public way. Yes, early or late—next week, next month, six months hence—just as you choose. Say the word when, and I will obey.' ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... and happiness. I look on and on over the prospect of my love, it is all onwards—and all possible forms of unkindness ... I quite laugh to think how they are behind ... cannot be encountered in the route we are travelling! I submit to you and will obey you implicitly—obey what I am able to conceive of your least desire, much more of your expressed wish. But it was necessary to make this avowal, among other reasons, for one which the world would recognize too. My whole scheme of life (with its wants, ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... say before I can sleep under your roof in peace, then I will obey you in all things. Honor, these few years have shown me what your education did for me against my will. What would have become of me if I had been left to the poor Castle Blanch people? Nothing could have saved me but my spirit of contradiction! No; all that saved my father's teaching ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... sore troubled, and first he told his father roundly that he would not go, and flew off in the twilight to pour out his perplexities to Elena. But she, who was prudent and of gentle soul, besought him to obey his father in this thing, to the end, moreover, that, having done his will and increased his wealth, he might afterwards unfold the story of their secret marriage. To these good counsels, though loth, Gerardo consented. His father was overjoyed ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds

... agony, immediately began to collect with indecent avidity his son's debts, as though to show Nero that he felt no great sorrow for his bereavement. But this was not enough for Nero's malice; he told Mela that he must follow his son, and Mela was forced to obey the order, ...
— Seekers after God • Frederic William Farrar

... declare, that I make a total surrender of all my rights and privileges in the English language, as a free-born British subject, to the said Mr. Johnson, during the term of his dictatorship. Nay more, I will not only obey him, like an old Roman, as my dictator, but, like a modern Roman, I will implicitly believe in him as my Pope, and hold him to be infallible while in the chair, but no longer. More than this he cannot well ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... sum of knowledge for all of us. This new Day, sent us out of Heaven, this also has its heavenly omens;—amid the bustling trivialities and loud empty noises, its silent monitions, which if we cannot read and obey, it will not be well with us! No;—nor is there any sin more fearfully avenged on men and Nations than that same, which indeed includes and presupposes all manner of sins: the sin which our old pious fathers called "judicial blindness;"—which we, with our light habits, may still call misinterpretation ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle

... your plate." She flushed a little under the girl's direct gaze, and turned her attention to Queenie's table manners, which were at all times peculiar; and Cecilia sat down with a faint smile. It was time to obey orders and telegraph ...
— Back To Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... had to leave her trunk half packed and her room in indescribable confusion in order to obey a sudden summons from the registrar. She had secured a room on the campus at last, so the brief note said; but the registrar wished her to report at the office and decide which of ...
— Betty Wales Freshman • Edith K. Dunton

... fragment of a fog, seemed to drift with them, and Sir Bale fancied that whenever it came near the boat's side she made a dip, as if strained toward the water; and Feltram always put out his hand, as if waving it from him, and the mist seemed to obey the gesture; but returned again and again, and the same ...
— J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3 • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

... people. For this agreement was not an abstract conception, but was based upon the mutual oaths of the mediaeval coronation ceremony, the oath of the king to maintain the law, and to administer justice, and the oath of the people to serve and obey the king whom they had recognized or elected. The people do, indeed, owe the king honour and loyal service, but only on the condition that he holds inviolable his oath. The ruler who breaks this is a tyrant, and for him there was no place in mediaeval political theory. This ...
— Progress and History • Various

... suitable candidates to Plattsburg. He refused. We thereupon pressed the government for a "separate" camp for the training of Negro officers. Not only did the War Department hesitate at this request, but strong opposition arose among colored people themselves. They said we were going too far. "We will obey the law, but to ask for voluntary segregation is to insult ourselves." But strong, sober second thought came to our rescue. We said to our protesting brothers: "We face a condition, not a theory. There is not the slightest chance of our being admitted to white ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois

... about that; for with your assistance I can place my hand on him and then though he were surrounded by a hundred men armed to the teeth he is mine; I have a sure means of obliging him to obey me; this concerns me. All that I require of you is to conduct me into the ambush from which I can spring ...
— A Romance of the West Indies • Eugene Sue

... weighted, emancipation advanced much more slowly than before, but it still continued to a considerable extent. The poorer creole planter or merchant might find it impossible to obey the impulse of his conscience or of his affection, but among the richer classes pecuniary considerations could scarcely affect enfranchisement. The country had grown wealthy; and although the acquisition of wealth may not evoke generosity in particular natures, ...
— Two Years in the French West Indies • Lafcadio Hearn

... her up on her lap, and said, "My little girl, this will never do. You must learn to come at once when you are called; you must obey quickly. If you continue in this very naughty habit of not minding until you are told to do a thing two or three times, you will grow up a very disagreeable girl, and ...
— The Apple Dumpling and Other Stories for Young Boys and Girls • Unknown

... and his piercing cry made Biddy obey him without a thought of asking why. She clutched at the boxes, and scrambled up, and Charley helped her by his hands and his shoulders. The boxes did not stand even, and they tottered as she climbed, but Charley leaned ...
— Harper's Young People, March 9, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... cross-purposes with you any longer; it is plainly evident there is little affection lost between us. You will do exactly as I say, Pluma; you may spare yourself a great deal that may be unpleasant—if you not only listen but quietly obey me. Otherwise—" ...
— Daisy Brooks - A Perilous Love • Laura Jean Libbey

... upon this point. Children do not reflect upon this. Few ever sit down, calmly and consecutively, to recall the parental kindness, and therefore, would I ask each of you, my young friends, that you may obey this injunction, and be kindly affectionate towards father and mother, to consider their kindness to you. Why, if you look at it, you will hardly be able to find that they have any other care in the world, or any other object, than yourselves. What does that ...
— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various

... leader; we have but to obey," said Edwards. "Yet I think we owe it to our converts to stick to our work until we are ...
— The Spirit of the Border - A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley • Zane Grey

... had the opportunity of visiting Joseph in his cell and trying to persuade him to do her will. She would say, "This and that outrage have I executed against thee, but, as thou livest, I will put yet other outrages upon thee if thou dost not obey me." But Joseph replied, "The Lord ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... obedience; and immediately after asked the Duc de Noailles his opinion, who replied that it would be very sad to act thus, but that he was for it. Villars wished to paraphrase, but contained himself, and said he hoped the Parliament would obey. Pressed by the Regent, he proposed to wait for fresh news before deciding; but, pressed more closely, he declared for the interdiction, with an air of warmth and vexation, extremely marked. Nobody after this dared ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... it but to obey. Under the muzzle of the German officer's revolver, Chester was marched around to the front of the tent and ...
— The Boy Allies At Verdun • Clair W. Hayes

... said Diana, tossing her head. "I was sent out by Miss Wamsay 'cos I found the schoolroom too hot and I was sleepy. I can't obey you and Miss Wamsay both at the same time, can I? I did not come to you ...
— A Little Mother to the Others • L. T. Meade

... suggested to the Dissenters that, if they would only swallow their objections to Episcopacy and rejoin the Church of England, they might greatly strengthen the national organization for promoting Religion. In doing this they would only obey the natural instinct which bids all Christians worship together. "Securus colit orbis terrarum"—those pursue the purpose best who pursue it together. For, unless prevented by extraneous causes, they manifestly tend, as the history ...
— Matthew Arnold • G. W. E. Russell

... "it would afford us great pleasure to obey your polite invitation if it depended upon ourselves; but unfortunately the thing is impossible—Monsieur de Treville has forbidden it. Pass on your way, then; it is the best ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... repeated her question. But in the meantime it was evident a severe conflict was going on in Ida Mayhew's mind. How could she obey Mr. Eltinge's injunction to be honest and true, if she let this false impression concerning her behavior in the stage remain? How could she hope to win a particle of respect from Van Berg if she received ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe

... Private Beggs turned to obey the order. The officer in charge of the party came out of the door of a house half-way along the side of the square. Mrs. O'Halloran recognised him. It ...
— Our Casualty And Other Stories - 1918 • James Owen Hannay, AKA George A. Birmingham

... Other men may amuse themselves with subtle definitions or intricate ratiocination. Let them learn to be wise by easier means: let them observe the hind of the forest and the linnet of the grove: let them consider the life of animals, whose motions are regulated by instinct; they obey their guide, and are happy. Let us therefore at length cease to dispute, and learn to live: throw away the encumbrance of precepts, which they who utter them with so much pride and pomp do not understand, and carry with us this simple and ...
— Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia • Samuel Johnson

... to say about it, Colonel Gloame," declared Miss Kelly definitely. "The first thing required of a soldier is duty. It is your duty to obey when commanded by the officer of the night. In the first place, you've not told the story to every one here. Lieutenant King has just confessed that he never has heard of the Gloaming Ghosts and, furthermore, he laughed when I told him that you boasted ...
— Her Weight in Gold • George Barr McCutcheon

... be wondered at, seeing it was the natural result of the constant practice of what he learned—for all truth understood becomes duty. To him that obeys well, the truth comes easy; to him who does not obey, it comes not, or comes in forms of fear and dismay. The true, that is the obedient man, cannot help seeing the truth, for it is the very business of his being—the natural concern, the correlate of his soul. The religion of these two was obedience and prayer; their theories only the print ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... shall judge the world. In like manner we read in Exod. xix. 6, in the description of the reward for faithfulness: "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation;" comp. ver. 5: "And now if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, ye shall be a property unto me out of all people." In reference to the exalted dignity and glory, holiness occurs in Deut. vii. 6: "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself ...
— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2 • Ernst Hengstenberg

... protested, that if the gracious liberality of the emperor would permit them to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace, they should ever hold themselves bound, by the strongest obligations of duty and gratitude, to obey the laws, and to guard the limits, of the republic. These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors of the Goths, * who impatiently expected from the mouth of Valens an answer that must finally determine the fate of their unhappy countrymen. The emperor of the East ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... writing to Presto, only because it is Tuesday, a Monday bedad it will grow a task; but write when you have a mind.—No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no—Agad, agad, agad, agad, agad, agad; no, poor Stellakins.(26) Slids, I would the horse were in your—chamber! Have not I ordered Parvisol to obey your directions about him? And han't I said in my former letters that you may pickle him, and boil him, if you will? What do you trouble me about your horses for? Have I anything to do with them?—Revolutions a hindrance to me in my business? Revolutions ...
— The Journal to Stella • Jonathan Swift

... of this verse, separating it from all connection with the former part of the sentence, with which, however, it is connected in the Sacred Word, is based the dogma of the continued, unchangeable curse of inferiority of all the daughters of Eve, and their obligation to serve and implicitly obey their husbands. And yet if a wife, in obedience to the command of her husband, violates the law, either of God or man, she is the party held responsible. If she is not possessed of sufficient mental capacity to judge for herself ...
— Woman: Man's Equal • Thomas Webster

... needless fears the jealous nations fill, And always have been sav'd against their will: Who fifty millions sterling have disburs'd To be with peace, and too much plenty, curs'd; Who their old monarch eagerly undo, And yet uneasily obey the new. Search, Satire, search; a deep incision make: The poison's strong, the antidote's too weak. 'Tis pointed truth must manage this dispute, ...
— The True-Born Englishman - A Satire • Daniel Defoe

... what distractions he would be possessed, How he would pour himself in every strife, And well-nigh change his own identity, That it might keep from his capricious play His genuine self, and force him to obey, Even in his own despite, his being's law, Bade through the deep recesses of our breast The unregarded River of our Life, Pursue with indiscernible flow its way; And that we should not see The buried stream, and seem ...
— Memories • Max Muller

... your strife, Nor longer idly rave, sir; Tho' I am your wedded wife, Yet I am not your slave, sir. "One of two must still obey, Nancy, Nancy; Is it man or woman, say, My ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... the girl proceeded to obey; and as her mistress lay listlessly back in her large fauteuil, proceeded to remove each article of dress, without the slightest assistance from the languid form ...
— The Brother Clerks - A Tale of New-Orleans • Xariffa

... that thought is nothing but the organic function of the brain; and it has to obey the same laws in regard to exertion and repose as any other organic function. The brain can be ruined by overstrain, just like the eyes. As the function of the stomach is to digest, so it is that ...
— Counsels and Maxims - From The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... said Rose, kneeling. "I was wrong; it is for me to obey you, not to dictate. I speak no more." And, after kissing her mother and Josephine, she crept away, but she left her words sticking in ...
— White Lies • Charles Reade

... away, apparently prepared to obey his employer with all the energy he possessed. He went down the dimly-lighted stairs quickly, but he glanced nervously upwards, as if he fancied that Isidore Bamberger might have silently opened the door ...
— The Primadonna • F. Marion Crawford

... among his slaves, but as the most accomplished of gentlemen among his associates. The social equality was, however, always guarded from abuse by the most punctilious observance, on their side, of the reverence due to his pre-eminent rank. In that enchanted circle men appeared at least to obey, not from a hard necessity, but from a willing heart. The bondage in which they really lived was ennobled by that conventional code of honor which dictated and enforced it. They prostrated themselves before their fellow-man with no sense of self-abasement, and the ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various

... whilom own'd my sway, And bow'd obsequious to my nod, Now sees me destin'd to obey, And bend ...
— Oriental Literature - The Literature of Arabia • Anonymous

... submitted. Thus bees, when their prince appears, compose their quarrels and unite in one swarm. So much did justice and good government prevail in that state, that I am surprised at those who say the Lacedaemonians knew indeed how to obey, but not how to govern: and on this occasion quote the saying of king Theopompus, who, when one told him that Sparta was preserved by the good administration of its kings, replied, "Nay, rather by the obedience ...
— Ideal Commonwealths • Various

... upset the Directory, but that when all was ready Napoleon judged that the time was not ripe. Lanfrey, however, rather enlarges what Dumas says; see Dumas, tome iii. p. 167. See also the very remarkable conversation of Napoleon with Miot de Melito just before leaving Italy for Rastadt: "I cannot obey any longer. I have tasted the pleasures of command, and I cannot renounce it. My decision is taken. If I cannot be master, I shall quit France." (Miot, tome ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... away, with that look of weary listlessness that had grown habitual to her, and rose from her grassy couch with a sigh, to obey his directions. She found Eunice in the sewing room, with Agnes Darling, and gave her her orders to pack up, and be prepared to start next morning. Then she went back to her seat under the old apple-tree, and lay on the warm grass in a ...
— Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters - A Novel • May Agnes Fleming

... I should be more savage then the beasts that Orpheus charmed into civility, should I remain inexorable to the intreaties of so sweet an orator, whose perfections are such that I cannot but account it as great a glory to obey you, as it would make me sensible of shame to refuse any thing you should command, though it were to sacrifice my life and honour, which are the only jewels I ever prized in my prosperity, and which is all that Fortune hath ...
— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand

... universal frame began: When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, Arise, ye more than dead! Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony, to harmony, Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... blow—or by the hand of our own bosom-friend, who may have been a member unknown to us through all the years of our intimacy. Sometimes the death is delayed—sometimes it follows close on the treachery. It is our first business to know how to wait—our second business to know how to obey when the word is spoken. Some of us may wait our lives through, and may not be wanted. Some of us may be called to the work, or to the preparation for the work, the very day of our admission. I myself—the little, easy, ...
— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins

... were not fit to manage for ourselves. Each of us wanted to do a different way, and we were like a flock of poor little sheep without a shepherd. You do not know, children, what a comfort it is to have rules one must obey." ...
— "Us" - An Old Fashioned Story • Mary Louisa S. Molesworth

... what friend of the race or of humanity can desire to retain them among us? The voice of nature and of experience proclaims, that America is our home and Africa is theirs; and let us, in a spirit of true kindness and sympathy for them, obey the mandate. ...
— The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... balance of change upon their return from the ship—'he must see the captain before sailing.' To enforce his command the sturdy Highlander, who was more than a match for the two, took up his loaded musket and intimated what the consequences would be if they refused to obey orders. This had the desired effect. The rowers pulled with might and main, and in a few minutes the passengers were left safe and sound on board the gallant ship, and surrounded by a sympathising and hospitable crew. The fugitives were at last safe, despite ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... attempted to excuse the act on account of some private misunderstanding with Mr. Baines some months previous, and that the order to wear his pistol was given before he had time to put on his clothes. There had, however, been a distinct refusal to obey the orders of the officer in charge of the party, and those orders were neither vexatious or unreasonable, as they were simply in enforcement of well-established regulations. I therefore cautioned Mr. Flood that unless his future conduct was more satisfactory than it had ...
— Journals of Australian Explorations • A C and F T Gregory

... English law, and feel so much for English liberty; and now, since that's the case, I'll own to you frankly, that in the main I'm much of your mind—and for my own particular share, I'd as lieve the Admiralty had sent me to hell as have ordered me to press on the Thames. But my business is to obey orders—which I will do, by the blessing of God—so good morning to you. As to law, and justice, and all that, talk to him,' said the captain, pointing with his thumb over his left shoulder to me ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. VII - Patronage • Maria Edgeworth

... waking, wherever you are, you must obey my commands. You cannot refuse. What I tell you to do, while in your present state, you must do while in a normal condition. You ...
— Frank Merriwell's Pursuit - How to Win • Burt L. Standish

... punished with imprisonment, torture, confiscation of property, and death. To enforce these penalties the greater part of Scotland—especially the south and west— was overrun by troops, and treated as if it were a conquered country. The people—holding that in some matters it is incumbent to "obey God rather than man," and that they were bound "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together"—resolved to set the intolerable law at defiance, and ...
— Hunted and Harried • R.M. Ballantyne

... Canalis answered with a bow, "I will obey you, in spite of the selfish instinct which prompts us to show a rival no favor; but you ...
— A Distinguished Provincial at Paris • Honore de Balzac

... thin branches and throw them on the fire," said the doctor; and I hurried to obey his command, when there was another awful howling roar, and the creature, whatever it was, charged at me; but I threw on the branches all the same, when the fire leaped up with a tremendous blaze, lighting the ...
— Bunyip Land - A Story of Adventure in New Guinea • George Manville Fenn

... that they would rather go to jail than obey such a law. At a meeting at Albert Hall the Resisters were addressed by a duchess who was "supported by a man-servant." What can a mere Act of Parliament do when confronted by such a combination as that? Passive resistance ...
— Humanly Speaking • Samuel McChord Crothers

... advantage in various ways. In the first place, like the warlock in the fairy tales who has deposited his life outside of himself in some safe place, the Fan wizard now deems himself invulnerable. Moreover, the animal with which he has exchanged blood has become his familiar, and will obey any orders he may choose to give it; so he makes use of it to injure and kill his enemies. For that reason the creature with whom he establishes the relation of blood-brotherhood is never a tame or domestic animal, but always a ferocious ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... Delighted to obey her dear Roger's every wish, she had acquired the accomplishments she had lacked; she played the piano fairly well, and sang sweetly. Ignorant of the customs of a world that would have treated her as an outcast, and which she would not have cared for even ...
— A Second Home • Honore de Balzac

... deputation of girls in national costume; to Barbantane, where the best dancers are; to Faraman, famous for its wild bulls and Camargue horses. And as the name of Jansoulet, joined to that of the Bey of Tunis, flared at the end of all these messages, on all sides they hastened to obey; the telegraph wires were never still, messengers wore out horses on the roads. And this little Sardanapalus of the stage called Cardailhac repeated ever, "There's something to work on here," happy to scatter gold at random like handfuls of seed, to ...
— The Nabob • Alphonse Daudet

... ranking officer who took command when I became unconscious, gathered his men together and returned to Lexington. Soon after the Confederates returned. The first man who entered my room was a guerrilla, followed by a dozen or more men who seemed to obey him. He was personally known to me and had been my enemy from before the war. He said he and his men had just shot a lieutenant of a Cass county company whom they found wounded and that he would shoot me and my brother. While he was standing ...
— The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself • Cole Younger

... do with ease. By his family connections he was naturally designated as the leader of the popular, Marian party. He was the nephew of Marius and the son-in-law of Cinna. Sulla had spared his life, although he had courageously refused to obey the dictator's command to put away his wife; but he had been obliged to quit Rome. At the funeral of Julia, the widow of Marius, he had been bold enough to exhibit the bust of that hero,—an act ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher

... our remonstrances to be always sapping the foundation of all knowledge—of grammar which rules even kings, and makes them, with a high hand, obey her laws. ...
— The Learned Women • Moliere (Poquelin)

... will have to obey their princes," said the stranger, with a watchful glance; "and if they command it, will war against ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach

... Are they not dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance before the tribunal of heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the body, as well as we? Have we any other master but Jesus Christ alone? Is he not their master as well as ours?—What right then, have we to obey and call any other master, but Himself? How we could be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as good as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is shut up with the Lord and we cannot precisely tell—but I declare, ...
— Walker's Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life - And Also Garnet's Address to the Slaves of the United States of America • David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet

... visage silenced Julia for the moment, and she tremblingly went towards the door to obey his orders when the bell gave out such a vigorous and sustained peal that she sank down in a colossal heap on the floor, and then went into violent hysterics. (I assure my readers that I am not exaggerating matters ...
— Amona; The Child; And The Beast; And Others - From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other - Stories" - 1902 • Louis Becke

... guard," he said hoarsely; but when Kenkenes made as if to obey, the king stayed him in ...
— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller

... obey, and all went well until I reached mid-stream. Then, the wire beginning to sag threateningly towards the water, Mac flung his whole weight on to his end of it, and, to his horror, I shot up into the air like ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn

... to command even by the Mobiles or the National Guard, of whom I have just spoken disparagingly; and no doubt both corps will soon claim and win the right to choose their officers. But if elected, no matter by whom, I shall make a preliminary condition; the men under me shall train, and drill, and obey,—soldiers of a very different kind from the youthful Pekins nourished on absinthe and self-conceit, and applauding that Bombastes Furioso, M. Hugo, when he assures the enemy that Paris will draw an idea from its scabbard. But here comes Savarin. ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... use of the catheter is once commenced, even when the enlargement is not very great, it is with the utmost difficulty that we have been able to induce patients to leave off its use. The bladder, becoming accustomed to its use, refuses to obey the will without this help. The irritation set up in the parts by the friction of the catheter causes inflammation and exudation in the lining membrane. This extends to the structure of the prostate itself and increases the hypertrophy ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... silently seconded by the long-wicked candle, burning within half an inch of its socket. They hastily agreed that Titmouse should immediately write to Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, a proper [i. e. a most abject] letter, solemnly pledging himself to obey their injunctions in everything for the future, and offering them a handsome reward for their ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren

... this sad emergency, I would not, for ten times the value of my life, lose the opportunity it gives me. I can now show you a small part of my gratitude by serving those you love. Besides, as you say, that telegram is such a pathetic cry of distress that, were you all strangers, I would obey its unconscious command. But ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe

... sir,' said Athos to Monsieur de Treville, in a calm but enfeebled voice—'my comrades told me that you asked for me, and I hastened to obey your summons.' ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various

... representations and even ignored many of the proofs he adduced. They had failed to find the picture he had drawn in Spain of the Indians an entirely accurate one, and they resisted his reiterated demand that they should scrupulously obey the injunction to at once deprive all royal judges and officials of their encomiendas. The exasperation of Las Casas at this time pushed him to excesses which aroused such a storm of ill-feeling and hostility against him that his good friends the Dominicans feared for his life and insisted ...
— Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings • Francis Augustus MacNutt

... world worketh death. For a minister of the New Testament to advance such doctrine as will give hopes to their hearers that all will be happy in a future state, whether they have repented or no, is not preaching as Christ and his apostles preached. If we know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, what will be the consequence? See 2 Thes. i. 8, 9. Ministers are directed by the inspired apostle Paul; see in his epistles to Timothy and Titus. See 2 Tim. 4th chap. from 1st to the end, the 5th verse, which I would entreat ...
— A Series of Letters In Defence of Divine Revelation • Hosea Ballou

... They saw their friends and were seen by them. Once in the year they left home for a couple of months and went,—wherever the daughter wished. Sometimes there was a week or two in London; sometimes in Paris or Switzerland. The mother seemed to be only there to obey the daughter's behests, and Cecilia was the most affectionate of masters. Nothing could have been less disturbed or more happy than their lives. No doubt there was present in Cecilia's manner a certain looking down upon her mother,—of ...
— Kept in the Dark • Anthony Trollope

... that creeter—oh, how I hate to! But you know my principles," sez she; "you know I always said that wives ort to obey ...
— Samantha at the World's Fair • Marietta Holley



Words linked to "Obey" :   obeisance, mind, adjust, take orders, heed, follow, comply, disobey, adapt, obedience, obedient, conform, abide by



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