mischief quotes

  • All punishment ismischief: all punishment in itself is evil.

    -Jeremy Bentham
      An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, ch.13.

  •    And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother isdead, and heisleft alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Genesis 42:38.

  • And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Exodus 21:23^4.

  • He delights to expose the raw nerves of evil, showing it as a force in the world, a skeletonlike figure working visible mischief in the ordinary everydayaffairs of men and women and children.

    - Richard Church
    Of Graham Greene. Recalled on Greene's death in the NewYork Times, 4  Apr1991.

  • But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.

    -William Cowper
      The Task, bk.5,'The Winter Morning Walk', l.187^92.

  • A Learned Woman is thought to be a Comet, that bodes Mischief, when ever it appears.

    - Bathsua   b. c.1600 Makin
      An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen In Religion, Manners,  Art and Tongues, With  An  Answer to the Objections against this Way of Education.

  • Ye ken weel eneugh that women and gear are at the bottom of a'the mischief in this warld.

    - Sir Walter Scott
      Rob Roy to Francis Osbaldistone. Rob Roy, ch.35.

  • 'Poe,' I said,'was perhaps the first great nonstop literary drinker of the American nineteenth century. He made the indulgences of Coleridge and De Quincey seem like a bit of mischief in the kitchen with the cooking sherry.

    -James Grover Thurber
      Alarms and Diversions,'The Moribundant Life, or, Grow Old Along withWhom?'.

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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