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disinterested
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  • And when he pointed out, refusing to respect her pretense at disinterestedness, that he had only two barns built, instead of the fifteen or twenty of a big farmer, and that he could not expect to make thousands, even if the season were good, she brushed this warning aside.†   (source)
  • "Try 'in the Tehlin's cassock,' " I suggested disinterestedly.†   (source)
  • What are we going to observe disinterestedly?†   (source)
  • But this idea of Quality took issue with that very supposition…of objectivity and disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • But when we stop and think about it disinterestedly, in terms of this stuck screw, we begin to see that this whole idea of disinterested observation is silly.†   (source)
  • Love of country and belief in the cause were noble sentiments, Washington continued, but even among the officers, those who acted "upon principles of disinterestedness" were "no more than a drop in the ocean."†   (source)
  • No one then will congratulate you with purer disinterestedness than myself…… I have no ambition to govern men.†   (source)
  • Why keep this thing alive, this rumor of disinterestedness?†   (source)
  • The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring twopence what other people say about it, is by that very fact fore-armed against some of our subtlest modes of attack.†   (source)
  • There was a bare wooden stage with two hairy-stemmed palm trees on each end and four girls in the center, swaying gently, disinterestedly.†   (source)
  • Of course you don't expect younger men to have this kind of evening-Mississippi serenity, but there wasn't much disinterestedness or contemplation in either of them.†   (source)
  • I think more disinterestedly than I could when I was young and must dig furiously like a child rummaging in a bran-pie to discover my self.†   (source)
  • Well, I should hate to lose your friendship," she said primly and, with an attempt at disinterestedness, bent down to pull the blanket closer about Ella Lorena's head.†   (source)
  • He halted to blow on them, to cry disinterestedly.†   (source)
  • And you at least love me disinterestedly.†   (source)
  • Henrietta continued therefore disinterestedly, without the sense of an advantage.†   (source)
  • Your sweetness and disinterestedness are really angelic; I do not know what to say to you.†   (source)
  • I thought Mr. Jaggers glanced at Joe, as if he considered him a fool for his disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • I was simply developing her, entirely disinterestedly, trying to rouse her to protest….†   (source)
  • And he's ready to do that in spite of all his nobility and disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • Dear Doctor Manette, I love your daughter fondly, dearly, disinterestedly, devotedly.†   (source)
  • Heroism and disinterestedness are rising up, here and there, in the earth.†   (source)
  • The real name of devotion is disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • His disinterestedness was no less tremendous than his devotion.†   (source)
  • UNDERSHAFT [tearing out the cheque and pocketing the book as he rises and goes past Cusins to Mrs Baines] I also, Mrs Baines, may claim a little disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • She was obliged, of course, to admit that Swann was most generous with his money, but she would add, pouting: "It's not the same thing, you see, with him," and, as a matter of fact, what appealed to her imagination was not the practice of disinterestedness, but its vocabulary.†   (source)
  • While other members of that aristocracy to which by birth he belonged were incensed at the innovators mainly because their theories were inimical to the privileged classes, not alone Captain Vere disinterestedly opposed them because they seemed to him incapable of embodiment in lasting institutions, but at war with the peace of the world and the true welfare of mankind.†   (source)
  • She reaped the reward to which disinterestedness is entitled, and found an agreeable companion in her niece.†   (source)
  • He came to Trantridge two or three years ago to preach on behalf of some missionary society; and I, wretched fellow that I was, insulted him when, in his disinterestedness, he tried to reason with me and show me the way.†   (source)
  • Lily felt really virtuous as she dispensed the sum in sops to her tradesmen, and the fact that a fresh order accompanied each payment did not lessen her sense of disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • Mr. Gryce was touched by her disinterestedness, and, to escape from the threatened vacuity of the afternoon, had taken her advice and departed mournfully, in a dust-hood and goggles: as the motor-car plunged down the avenue she smiled at his resemblance to a baffled beetle.†   (source)
  • Miss Stepney was not sufficiently familiar with the classic drama to have recalled in advance how bearers of bad tidings are proverbially received, but she now had a rapid vision of forfeited dinners and a reduced wardrobe as the possible consequence of her disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • …with extravagant tastes and no money had better marry the first rich man she could get; but with the subject of discussion at his side, turning to him for sympathy, making him feel that he understood her better than her dearest friends, and confirming the assurance by the appeal of her exquisite nearness, he was ready to swear that such a marriage was a desecration, and that, as a man of honour, he was bound to do all he could to protect her from the results of her disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • But even this disinterestedness was attended with no inconsiderable cost, to my knowledge, for before Peepy was sufficiently decorated to walk hand in hand with the professor of deportment, he had to be newly dressed, at the expense of Caddy and her husband, from top to toe.†   (source)
  • It clearly being incumbent on some one to say, "Much better," Mr. Lorry said it; perhaps not quite disinterestedly, but with the interested object of squeezing himself back again.†   (source)
  • The reader who recollects the history of Balthasar as given by himself at the meeting in the desert will understand the effect of Ben-Hur's assertion of disinterestedness upon that worthy.†   (source)
  • I am sure I loved that baby quite as truly, quite as tenderly, with greater purity and more disinterestedness, than can enter into the best love of a later time of life, high and ennobling as it is.†   (source)
  • It is only necessary for one powerful nation like Russia—barbaric as she is said to be—to place herself disinterestedly at the head of an alliance having for its object the maintenance of the balance of power of Europe, and it would save the world!†   (source)
  • The latter could not comprehend the other's motives; he had often heard of his disinterestedness, justice, and truth; and in several instances they had led him into grave errors, on that principle by which a frank and open-mouthed diplomatist is said to keep his secrets better than one that is close-mouthed and wily.†   (source)
  • The reddleman's disinterestedness was so well deserving of respect that it overshot respect by being barely comprehended; and she almost thought it absurd.†   (source)
  • She could just find selfishness enough to wonder whether Edmund had written to Miss Crawford before this summons came, but no sentiment dwelt long with her that was not purely affectionate and disinterestedly anxious.†   (source)
  • "If you've not been requested by Lord Warburton to argue with me, then you're doing it disinterestedly—or for the love of argument."†   (source)
  • There disinterestedness vanishes.†   (source)
  • Then you can quit your house, leaving your jewels and giving up your jointure, and every one's mouth will be filled with praises of your disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • The veteran soon caused this set of patriotic disinterestedness to be followed by another of private munificence, that, however little it accorded with prudence, was in perfect conformity with the simple integrity of his own views.†   (source)
  • But his wife's expostulations awoke his half-slumbering regrets; and Tom's manly disinterestedness increased the unpleasantness of his feelings.†   (source)
  • And the outspoken honesty of his character was such that on any subject, even that of her love for, or marriage with, another man, the same disinterestedness of opinion might be calculated on, and be had for the asking.†   (source)
  • This avowal was considered so honourable to Tim, that neither Mrs Nickleby nor Miss La Creevy could sufficiently extol it; and stimulated by their praises, Tim launched out into several other declarations also manifesting the disinterestedness of his heart, and a great devotion to the fair sex: which were received with no less approbation.†   (source)
  • Amongst the public men of democracies there are hardly any but men of great disinterestedness or extreme mediocrity who seek to oppose the centralization of government: the former are scarce, the latter powerless.†   (source)
  • —Assured of the love of such a woman—the disinterested love, for Jane Fairfax's character vouches for her disinterestedness; every thing in his favour,—equality of situation—I mean, as far as regards society, and all the habits and manners that are important; equality in every point but one—and that one, since the purity of her heart is not to be doubted, such as must increase his felicity, for it will be his to bestow the only advantages she wants.†   (source)
  • But for a moment this attitude of interposition and disinterestedness, this carrying of messages and redeeming of promises, brought back the sense that her companion was a dangerous woman.†   (source)
  • Was Mrs. Tristram simply finding out that she was jealous of her dear friend on the other side of the Seine, and that in undertaking to provide Newman with an ideal wife she had counted too much on her own disinterestedness?†   (source)
  • He assured John Chivery when he had returned his handkerchief to his pocket, that he did all honour to his disinterestedness and to the fidelity of his remembrance of Miss Dorrit.†   (source)
  • I have never doubted his disinterestedness and his honesty …. his scrupulous honesty …. in money matters.†   (source)
  • It must be noted that when Katerina Ivanovna exalted anyone's connections and fortune, it was without any ulterior motive, quite disinterestedly, for the mere pleasure of adding to the consequence of the person praised.†   (source)
  • The seventh party consisted of the sort of people who are always to be found, especially around young sovereigns, and of whom there were particularly many round Alexander—generals and imperial aides-de-camp passionately devoted to the Emperor, not merely as a monarch but as a man, adoring him sincerely and disinterestedly, as Rostov had done in 1805, and who saw in him not only all the virtues but all human capabilities as well.†   (source)
  • Your name is celebrated, your position magnificent; and then the Comte de Morcerf is a soldier, and it is pleasing to see the integrity of a Bayard united to the poverty of a Duguesclin; disinterestedness is the brightest ray in which a noble sword can shine.†   (source)
  • He had every well-grounded reason for solid attachment; he knew her to have all the worth that could justify the warmest hopes of lasting happiness with her; her conduct at this very time, by speaking the disinterestedness and delicacy of her character (qualities which he believed most rare indeed), was of a sort to heighten all his wishes, and confirm all his resolutions.†   (source)
  • Mr Lillyvick stood higher than ever; for he had shown his power; hinted at his property and testamentary intentions; gained great credit for disinterestedness and virtue; and, in addition to all, was finally accommodated with a much larger tumbler of punch than that which Newman Noggs had so feloniously made off with.†   (source)
  • A brilliant achievement may win for you the favor of a people at one stroke; but to earn the love and respect of the population which surrounds you, a long succession of little services rendered and of obscure good deeds—a constant habit of kindness, and an established reputation for disinterestedness—will be required.†   (source)
  • To Mr Henry Gowan, as the time approached, Clennam tried to convey by all quiet and unpretending means, that he was frankly and disinterestedly desirous of tendering him any friendship he would accept.†   (source)
  • She ought to marry some one of whose disinterestedness she shall herself be sure; and there would be no such proof of that as his having a fortune of his own.†   (source)
  • Knowing all the sterling qualities of the man, his truth, integrity of purpose, courage, self-devotion, disinterestedness, it was far from unreasonable to suppose that qualities like these would produce a deep impression on any female heart; and the father erred principally in fancying that the daughter might know as it might be by intuition what he himself had acquired by years of intercourse and adventure.†   (source)
  • To the present moment, I believe it to have been referable to some pure fire of generosity and disinterestedness in my love for her, that I could not endure the thought of her stooping to that hound.†   (source)
  • It was agreed that the three millions should be intrusted to Danglars to invest; some persons had warned the young man of the circumstances of his future father-in-law, who had of late sustained repeated losses; but with sublime disinterestedness and confidence the young man refused to listen, or to express a single doubt to the baron.†   (source)
  • …and one which could not fail to redound to his advantage in every point of view, since the very circumstance of his having extorted from Ralph Nickleby his real design in introducing his niece to such society, coupled with his extreme disinterestedness in communicating it so freely to his friend, could not but advance his interests in that quarter, and greatly facilitate the passage of coin (pretty frequent and speedy already) from the pockets of Lord Frederick Verisopht to those…†   (source)
  • One thousand guineas to the youngest daughter her patron might have at fifty, or (if he had none) brother's youngest daughter, on her coming of age, "as the remembrance his disinterestedness may like best, of his protection of a friendless young orphan girl."†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, whatever may be the contrast, all these toilers, from the highest to the most nocturnal, from the wisest to the most foolish, possess one likeness, and this is it: disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • This young man's disinterestedness appeared so very ludicrous in the eyes of Miss Rugg, that she was obliged to effect a precipitate retirement from the company, and to sit upon the stairs until she had had her laugh out.†   (source)
  • At the appointed hour, with as much disinterestedness as an actor who answers to his cue, in obedience to the divine stage-manager, they enter the tomb.†   (source)
  • The ceremony was effective up to a certain point, and would have been wholly so throughout, if Miss Rugg, as she raised her glass to her lips in completion of it, had not happened to look at Young John; when she was again so overcome by the contemptible comicality of his disinterestedness as to splutter some ambrosial drops of rum and water around, and withdraw in confusion.†   (source)
  • Bar, with his little insinuating jury droop, and fingering his persuasive double eye-glass, hoped he might be excused if he mentioned to one of the greatest converters of the root of all evil into the root of all good, who had for a long time reflected a shining lustre on the annals even of our commercial country—if he mentioned, disinterestedly, and as, what we lawyers called in our pedantic way, amicus curiae, a fact that had come by accident within his knowledge.†   (source)
  • Marius surveyed by a calm and real, although peculiar light, what passed before his eyes, even the most indifferent deeds and men; he pronounced a just criticism on everything with a sort of honest dejection and candid disinterestedness.†   (source)
  • And for your own sake too, or you are carrying your disinterestedness beyond reason.†   (source)
  • My sweet Catherine, in your generous heart I know it would signify nothing; but we must not expect such disinterestedness in many.†   (source)
  • …sir (for here again I will suppose the subject of my letter resembling Dr. Franklin), praised your frugality, diligence and temperance, which he considered as a pattern for all youth; but it is singular that he should have forgotten your modesty and your disinterestedness, without which you never could have waited for your advancement, or found your situation in the mean time comfortable; which is a strong lesson to show the poverty of glory and the importance of regulating our minds.†   (source)
  • …myself, that I had certainly found the honest man I wanted, and that I could never put myself into better hands; so I told him with a great deal of frankness that I had never met with a man or woman yet that I could trust, or in whom I could think myself safe, but that I saw he was so disinterestedly concerned for my safety, that I said I would freely trust him with the management of that little I had, if he would accept to be steward for a poor widow that could give him no salary.†   (source)
  • Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals?†   (source)
  • …to that poor woman and her family brought to a happy conclusion, began to apply himself to his own concerns; but here, lest many of my readers should censure his folly for thus troubling himself with the affairs of others, and lest some few should think he acted more disinterestedly than indeed he did, we think proper to assure our reader, that he was so far from being unconcerned in this matter, that he had indeed a very considerable interest in bringing it to that final consummation.†   (source)
  • He thought he discerned in him much good sense, though a little too much tainted with town-foppery; but what recommended him most to Jones were some sentiments of great generosity and humanity, which occasionally dropt from him; and particularly many expressions of the highest disinterestedness in the affair of love.†   (source)
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  • Remembering the chickens, I wondered at the plausibility of Caravaggio's scene: no one had that look on their face— that tranquil, disinterested expression—when taking off something's head.†   (source)
  • He looks up at them, disinterested and maybe disgusted by the baby, because he wanders deeper into the recesses of the cluttered store to get away.†   (source)
  • A tall black woman in a tailored suit, her short-clipped hair touched with gray, slipped out from behind the wheel, handed the car keys to the doorman, and cast a disinterested glance at the house on the hill.†   (source)
  • I asked, in a kindly, disinterested manner.†   (source)
  • But she maintained an infuriatingly disinterested expression, as if she hadn't the slightest awareness of the hunt that was underway.†   (source)
  • Their long-standing antagonism kept university scientists free of contaminating industry ties, and whenever debate arose about technological matters, disinterested scientists were available to discuss the issues at the highest levels.†   (source)
  • "Huh," said Pete, in that same oddly disinterested, curious tone, as if, I see now, all he was doing by then was waiting to see what would happen.†   (source)
  • Kohler shrugged, apparently disinterested.†   (source)
  • For Quackenbush had been systematically disliked since he first set foot in Devon, with careless, disinterested insults coming at him from the beginning, voting for and applauding the class leaders through years of attaining nothing he wanted for himself.†   (source)
  • Or at least, they pretend to," he adds with a disinterested shrug.†   (source)
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  • Gritting her teeth, she glanced around, but the nearby guards and servants remained as disinterested as a concrete wall.†   (source)
  • "Ah," I said in a politely disinterested tone, looking for my soda again.†   (source)
  • It's hard to tell how quickly they'll reach the police—the volunteers seem utterly disinterested.†   (source)
  • He gave active encouragement to every religious and civic society in the city and had a special interest in the Patriotic Junta, composed of politically disinterested influential citizens who urged governments and local businesses to adopt progressive ideas that were too daring for the time.†   (source)
  • Normally when you have a new idea to present in an academic environment you're supposed to be objective and disinterested in it.†   (source)
  • As always he looked disinterested.†   (source)
  • When I learned how repulsive this disinterested violence was, that it was repulsive because it was disinterested, my shame floundered about for refuge.†   (source)
  • All the Finches had straight incisive eyebrows and heavy-lidded eyes; when they looked slant-wise, up, or straight ahead, a disinterested observer would catch a glimpse of what May-comb called Family Resemblance.†   (source)
  • Jules came across sullen, brooding, and completely disinterested in Vee's company or anyone else's.†   (source)
  • Except for this moment, Smith, and Hickock too, affected a courtroom attitude that was simultaneously uninterested and disinterested; they chewed gum and tapped their feet with languid impatience as the state summoned its first witness.†   (source)
  • One or two of the boys watch in a disinterested manner.†   (source)
  • Actually, this was not disinterested affection: there was a considerable traffic in children among homosexuals here, I learned later.†   (source)
  • I tried to make my voice sound as disinterested as possible, but Grandmere ignored my bad attitude.†   (source)
  • (From the ironing board, like someone disinterested and old) Don't be so nasty, Bennie.†   (source)
  • Maybe a fashion Maven went to the East Village, looking for new ideas, and found out that you could get these really cool old Hush Puppies at a certain thrift store, for a very good price, and told his friends, who bought the shoes for themselves because there is something about the personal, disinterested, expert opinion of a Maven that makes us all sit up and listen.†   (source)
  • She still greeted me, but in a disinterested way.†   (source)
  • Furious, she willed him to take it away, but his hand never budged, and he continued to stare at her with the same blank, disinterested look.†   (source)
  • My mother, deep in conversation with one of our neighbors, glanced over in a disinterested way, as if this methodic burning and destruction of the main course was someone else's problem.†   (source)
  • I was probing him for details, and he spoke for seven or eight disinterested minutes.†   (source)
  • Would he only sit, disinterested, on the boy's arm, while Cort struck him brainless with the ironwood?†   (source)
  • I'm in the curious camp myself; but I'm trying to act disinterested.†   (source)
  • It watched them with a lazy, disinterested expression, as if it came across marooned travelers every other day.†   (source)
  • He nodded, disinterested.†   (source)
  • Bits and pieces coalesced in my mind: the thin rim of stubble my dad had developed after a few days on the island; the way my mom, without realizing it, would fiddle with her wedding ring when my dad talked too long about something that disinterested her; my dad's darting eyes, always checking the horizon on his never-ending search for birds.†   (source)
  • Disinterested.†   (source)
  • I almost stopped in my tracks but remembered to keep walking and to look disinterested.†   (source)
  • He was either so crushed by his own words that he couldn't proceed with his charade, or he truly did not care for her and was now disinterested.†   (source)
  • He didn't know me, his help was disinterested ….†   (source)
  • "The disinterested and patriotic principles which led you to the field have also led you to glory," read a formal letter of gratitude.†   (source)
  • Some men find the cool, disinterested, and understated attractive.†   (source)
  • Nothing could have been more disinterested: serpent to the core.†   (source)
  • The consideration it received was respectful, because it came from people who were disinterested.†   (source)
  • Disinterested and uninterested—"two very different words, and they should not be confused," the first meaning unprejudiced, the second not interested.†   (source)
  • "A Fomorian giant," replied a disinterested Dr. Rasmussen.†   (source)
  • Some small part of me probably fathomed what he intended, and yet I simply watched the scene like a disinterested spectator, whose instant glint of prescience is somehow self-fulfilling.†   (source)
  • "General Service Administration," intoned a disinterested switchboard operator.†   (source)
  • The goat gave her a disinterested glance.†   (source)
  • Most of the complaints have come from such civic-minded and disinterested groups as various Fish and Game clubs, while members of the business community — in particular the manufacturers of some well-known brands of ammunition — have lent their weight to the support of these legitimate grievances of the voting public of this Great Dominion, because their grievance is the complaint that the wolves are killing all the deer, and more and more of our fellow citizens are coming back from…†   (source)
  • Given these considerations, along with the disinterested manner I affected, I am almost sure that it never crossed either Sophie's or Nathan's mind that I might be a serious contender for her affections.†   (source)
  • Disinter—disinterested—disjoin—dis(She backtracks, indignant.†   (source)
  • HOWARD is disinterested, continues to search the ground.†   (source)
  • In the morning the hounds came back, disinterested, and the men were too tired to beat the banks properly.†   (source)
  • DUDARD: It was obviously a disinterested gesture on his part.†   (source)
  • But it may be that President John Adams, surely as disinterested as well as wise a public servant as we ever had, came much nearer to the truth when he wrote in his Defense of the Constitution of the United States: "It is not true, in fact, that any people ever existed who love the public better than themselves."†   (source)
  • Grumbling a few disinterested epithets, they moved away.†   (source)
  • He was exhausted, and Maximilian Kohler seemed disinterested in winning any hospitality awards.†   (source)
  • Peabody stepped into the glass tube, gave a disinterested glance at the city below as they climbed.†   (source)
  • So Taggart Transcontinental is just a disinterested observer, is it, Mr. Willers?†   (source)
  • No one wrote about these shippers, because they were men who were not disinterested.†   (source)
  • Disinterested, disjoin—Where's disipline [sic]?†   (source)
  • Most of the best scientists, he knows, have private incomes, which allows them the possibility of disinterested research.†   (source)
  • With furious, disinterested fingers, Henry reached beneath the neck of her dress, drew out the offending appurtenances, and flung them as far as he could into the night.†   (source)
  • But when we stop and think about it disinterestedly, in terms of this stuck screw, we begin to see that this whole idea of disinterested observation is silly.†   (source)
  • In fact, throughout the morning announcements he seems disinterested and distracted, like he can't wait to get on with his day.†   (source)
  • They were old enough to be irritable when and where they chose, tired enough to look forward to death, disinterested enough to accept the idea of pain while ignoring the presence of pain.†   (source)
  • Black men, white men, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Jews, Poles, whatever—all were inadequate and weak, all came under their jaundiced eyes and were the recipients of their disinterested wrath.†   (source)
  • To a disinterested observer it was merely one more xiao wan ju, a legacy to a first son from a once unworthy fisherman who had struck minor riches — a crazy night of mah-jong, hashish from the Triangle, smuggled jewels out of Macao — who cared?†   (source)
  • Whenever people around him became excited, Manchek seemed to grow more disinterested, until he appeared about to fall asleep.†   (source)
  • If you weren't one of the few golden children, anointed early for the AP-Ivy League fast track, you made your choices with the minimal and usually disinterested help of one of the three guidance counselors allotted for the entire class.†   (source)
  • He is as disinterested as the Being which made him: he is pro-found in his views, and accurate in his judgment except where knowledge of the world is necessary to form a judgment.†   (source)
  • He greatly regretted that "the indiscretion of a printer" had doubtless offended his "friend Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the most honest and disinterested men alive, I have cordial esteem," despite "his apostasy to hereditary monarchy."†   (source)
  • He may have spoken about Iwo for only seven or eight disinterested minutes to Elizabeth Van Gorp on their first date.†   (source)
  • I don't think there's a distinction between disinterested and uninterested, which by the way is a very modern distinction.†   (source)
  • With Ser Endrew dead and Ser Alliser disinterested, Castle Black had no master-at-arms, so Jon had taken it on himself to work with some of the rawer recruits; Satin, Horse, Hop-Robin with his clubfoot, Arron and Emrick.†   (source)
  • If that's not the explanation, then I must invoke a disinterested God who leaves us to our own devices, neither causing nor preventing tornadoes or pestilence, but a God who will now and then stick his thumb on the spinning wheel so that a father who put a continent between himself and his sons should find himself in the same room as one of them.†   (source)
  • He couldn't tear his mind away from the woman who watched him walk as if he was disinterested in her.†   (source)
  • Even among officers, those who acted with true "disinterestedness" were "no more than a drop in the ocean," wrote this most disinterested and selfless of officers.†   (source)
  • For most of the history of these two words they were used interchangeably, and only relatively recently did someone say disinterested means one thing and uninterested means another.†   (source)
  • Years later, reflecting from the perspective of old age, he himself would call it the most exhausting case he ever undertook, but conclude with pardonable pride that his part in the defense was "one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country."†   (source)
  • That people are no longer bothering about the distinction between uninterested and disinterested "doesn't really matter in the long run," Sheidlower believes.†   (source)
  • Taggart knew, as they all knew, to what disinterested motive Mr. Mouch would always be ready to sacrifice his personal friendships.†   (source)
  • A group that called itself "Committee of Disinterested Citizens" collected signatures on a petition demanding a year's study of the John Galt Line by government experts before the first train were allowed to run.†   (source)
  • If you cringe when someone says between you and I; bristle at the word hopefully; detest prioritize; if you cherish the distinction between disinterested and uninterested and deplore their being treated as synonyms; if you wonder what's happened to education when you hear criteria used as a singular--then you are probably part of the large body of Americans who feel our language is in a state of serious decline.†   (source)
  • And since there is no such thing as 'non-practical knowledge' or any sort of 'disinterested' action, since they scorn the use of their science for the purpose and profit of life, they deliver their science to the service of death, to the only practical purpose it can ever have for looters: to inventing weapons of coercion and destruction.†   (source)
  • He wrote his wife that he wished he was in a financial position to vacate his office without doing his family injustice:This world is a miserable one to me except in its connection with you…… I get a great many complimentary letters from the North, very few from Mississippi…… Can it be true that the South will condemn the disinterested love of those who, perceiving her real interests, offer their unarmored breasts as barriers against the invasion of error?†   (source)
  • Hence I am not a disinterested seeker, like Louis, after perfection through the sand.†   (source)
  • She was powerless against his cool mind, his disinterested words.†   (source)
  • The gist of his argument is this: that we have been completely disinterested.†   (source)
  • …of horsemen rode up and sat their horses quietly and watched, and the architect in his formal coat and his Paris hat and his expression of grim and embittered amazement lurked about the environs of the scene with his air something between a casual and bitterly disinterested spectator and a condemned and conscientious ghost—amazement, General Compson said, not at the others and what they were doing so much as at himself, at the inexplicable and incredible fact of his own presence.†   (source)
  • It seemed to be sufficient for Heaven that for a while in Peru a disinterested love had flowered and faded.†   (source)
  • But that was what she wanted us to believe--"an old baba like me"--and accordingly we took her at her word to be old disinterested wisdom who had put by her vanity.†   (source)
  • "He'll work too, I suppose," but her tone was disinterested, as if her thoughts were already on something else.†   (source)
  • …after we first kissed, and leave me, at first, confused and guilty, but later, as I came to grasp the pattern of things, merely impatient for the next day when she would appear at the court, swinging her racket, her face so smooth, young, healthy and apparently disinterested, though comradely, that I could not equate it with the face I remembered with the eyelids drooping and the damp, starlight-or-moonlight-glistening lips parted for the quick, shallow breath or the unashamed sigh.†   (source)
  • It is this: in what we have done, and whatever you may think of it, we have been perfectly disinterested.†   (source)
  • Did you ever in your novel reading come across the old situation of the disinterested wife falling in love with her own husband?†   (source)
  • They guard as jealously as the Enemy Himself the secret of what really lies behind this pretence of disinterested love.†   (source)
  • Thanks to his scientific mind he understood—a proof of disinterested intelligence which had pleased her and comforted her enormously.†   (source)
  • For centuries Daedalus has represented the type of the artist-scientist: that curiously disinterested, almost diabolic human phenomenon, beyond the normal bounds of social judgment, dedicated to the morals not of his time but of his art.†   (source)
  • There was something disinterested in his ambition: a kind of virtue in his desire to catch the sleek respected guest of the first communion party.†   (source)
  • He was polite and disinterested and she missed his interest, perverse though it had been, missed the old days of bickering and retort.†   (source)
  • So, as I said at the beginning, please give us at least the credit for being completely disinterested in this business.†   (source)
  • "Going far?" asked the smaller man in a pleasant disinterested way.†   (source)
  • The love of parents for their children is the only emotion which is quite disinterested.†   (source)
  • —glances fall upon us, curious or disinterested, nothing more.†   (source)
  • Of them all, Richard seemed to him the best, he said—the most disinterested.†   (source)
  • Moreover, his love of sincerity, not being disinterested, had not improved his character.†   (source)
  • Judith was not altogether as disinterested in her feelings as she affected to be.†   (source)
  • You may one of these days reap the reward of your disinterested devotion.†   (source)
  • I'm sure it's disinterested; I feel that.†   (source)
  • I must do the young men of New York the justice to say that they strike me as very disinterested.†   (source)
  • Miss Crawford's countenance, as Julia spoke, might have amused a disinterested observer.†   (source)
  • Will HE be so disinterested when he has the spending of her money?†   (source)
  • 'He is a disinterested, honest man,' observed Arkady.†   (source)
  • He's a completely disinterested party on this question.†   (source)
  • This procedure of theirs, to be sure, was very disinterested and benevolent of them.†   (source)
  • The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.†   (source)
  • What follows has another (and I hope more disinterested) purpose.†   (source)
  • "Well, 'a was not new," Mr. Fairway replied, with a disinterested gaze.†   (source)
  • His choice is disinterested at least, for he must know my father can give her nothing.†   (source)
  • Woodcourt is his disinterested friend," I answered.†   (source)
  • But he really is disinterested, and above small jealousy and spite, I have heard?†   (source)
  • She wants to be disinterested: as if she were the only person who's in danger of not being so!†   (source)
  • Lord Warburton was as disinterested as he need be, and she was no more to him than she need wish.†   (source)
  • And so he will see that you are disinterested.†   (source)
  • But he is really a disinterested, unworldly fellow," said Mr. Farebrother, smiling.†   (source)
  • He forgets nothing that is disinterested and good.'†   (source)
  • Venture to appear as disinterested as you are!" said Mrs. Penniman ingeniously.†   (source)
  • There are men who fall helplessly into the workhouse because they are good far nothing; but there are also men who are there because they are strongminded enough to disregard the social convention (obviously not a disinterested one on the part of the ratepayer) which bids a man live by heavy and badly paid drudgery when he has the alternative of walking into the workhouse, announcing himself as a destitute person, and legally compelling the Guardians to feed, clothe and house him…†   (source)
  • Next was Campion, managing somehow to restrain his most blatant effeminacy, and even to visit upon those near him a certain disinterested motherliness.†   (source)
  • Felix, though an offshoot from a far more recent point in the devolution of theology than his father, was less self-sacrificing and disinterested.†   (source)
  • When we had grown more accustomed to this religious darkness we could discern in her features a disinterested love of all humanity, blended with a tender respect for the 'upper classes' which raised to the most honourable quarter of her heart the hope of receiving her due reward.†   (source)
  • Christminster society was criticized, the dons, magistrates, and other people in authority being sincerely pitied for their shortcomings, while opinions on how they ought to conduct themselves and their affairs to be properly respected, were exchanged in a large-minded and disinterested manner.†   (source)
  • She appears to regard their number and value as evidence of the disinterested affection of the contracting parties.†   (source)
  • She scarcely liked that because she was afraid of him and herself, and now she looked at him, trying to appear a little cold or at least disinterested, but it was a very weak effort.†   (source)
  • The doorkeeper often questions him, asking about where he's from and many other things, but these are disinterested questions such as great men ask, and he always ends up by telling him he still can't let him in.†   (source)
  • It was completely disinterested, and besides, it had a quality which could only exist between women, between women just grown up.†   (source)
  • It was not that she wanted them to be more disinterested; but she would have liked them to be more picturesque.†   (source)
  • She had not known that men could be so disinterested, chivalrous, protective, in their love for women as he.†   (source)
  • Because of his parents, and in spite of his looks, which were really agreeable and more appealing than most, he was inclined to misinterpret the interested looks which were cast at him occasionally by young girls in very different walks of life from him—the contemptuous and yet rather inviting way in which they looked to see if he were interested or disinterested, brave or cowardly.†   (source)
  • Looking at his loved one as she appeared to him now, in his tender thought the sweetest and most disinterested comrade that he had ever had, living largely in vivid imaginings, so ethereal a creature that her spirit could be seen trembling through her limbs, he felt heartily ashamed of his earthliness in spending the hours he had spent in Arabella's company.†   (source)
  • …very conscious of the importance of his service, as he says, 'I'm powerful,' he has respect for his superiors, as he says, 'I'm only the lowliest of the doormen', he's not talkative, as through all these years the only questions he asks are 'disinterested', he's not corruptible, as when he's offered a gift he says, 'I'll only accept this so that you don't think there's anything you've failed to do,' as far as fulfilling his duty goes he can be neither ruffled nor begged, as it says…†   (source)
  • Nothing could be more disinterested or happier than the dreams with which these announcements filled my mind, dreams which took their form from the inevitable associations of the words forming the title of the play, and also from the colour of the bills, still damp and wrinkled with paste, on which those words stood out.†   (source)
  • And this pleasure, different from every other, had in the end created in him a need of her, which she alone, by her presence or by her letters, could assuage, almost as disinterested, almost as artistic, as perverse as another need which characterised this new period in Swann's life, when the sereness, the depression of the preceding years had been followed by a sort of spiritual superabundance, without his knowing to what he owed this unlooked-for enrichment of his life, any more than…†   (source)
  • …tempted to regret that, for months past, he had done nothing but visit Odette, he would assure himself that he was not unreasonable in giving up much of his time to the study of an inestimably precious work of art, cast for once in a new, a different, an especially charming metal, in an unmatched exemplar which he would contemplate at one moment with the humble, spiritual, disinterested mind of an artist, at another with the pride, the selfishness, the sensual thrill of a collector.†   (source)
  • What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation: of all the conflicts and all the sacrifices that ennoble us most.†   (source)
  • Accordingly, if any disinterested persons are present, he turns to them for some reinforcement for his own faltering mind.†   (source)
  • This was his plan of amends—of atonement—for inheriting their father's estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.†   (source)
  • The result was that the two parted, after a long dialogue, unconvinced, and distrustful of each other's motives, though the distrust of the guide, like all that was connected with the man, partook of his own upright, disinterested, and ingenuous nature.†   (source)
  • "Does medical jurisprudence provide nothing against these infringements?" said Mr. Hackbutt, with a disinterested desire to offer his lights.†   (source)
  • If you think so, you must have a strange opinion of me; you must regard me as a plotting profligate — a base and low rake who has been simulating disinterested love in order to draw you into a snare deliberately laid, and strip you of honour and rob you of self— respect.†   (source)
  • I, who have so disinterested an affection for you, may increase your miseries tenfold by being an obstacle to your wishes.†   (source)
  • Throughout the whole province "Uncle" had the reputation of being the most honorable and disinterested of cranks.†   (source)
  • Closed doors, windows, and shutters were to be seen everywhere, in the most distant and most "disinterested" quarters.†   (source)
  • But not being able to secure her as a wife, the disinterested Fred quite approved of her as a sister-in-law.†   (source)
  • It is—we say it without censure, nor in diminution of the claim which it indefeasibly possesses on beings of another mould—it is always selfish in its essence; and we must give it leave to be so, and heap up our heroic and disinterested love upon it so much the more, without a recompense.†   (source)
  • "Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch."†   (source)
  • According to all accounts, he had even in the past, whenever the subject of the three thousand roubles was touched on, flown into a perfect frenzy, and yet he was reported to be a disinterested and not grasping man.†   (source)
  • But, we must say, at the present moment d'Artagnan was ruled by a feeling much more noble and disinterested.†   (source)
  • The case of Gridley is in no essential altered from one of actual occurrence, made public by a disinterested person who was professionally acquainted with the whole of the monstrous wrong from beginning to end.†   (source)
  • Yet the crowd was denser now than during the morning hours, the frivolous contingent of visitors, including journeymen out for a holiday, a stray soldier or two come on furlough, village shopkeepers, and the like, having latterly flocked in; persons whose activities found a congenial field among the peep-shows, toy-stands, waxworks, inspired monsters, disinterested medical men who travelled for the public good, thimble-riggers, nick-nack vendors, and readers of Fate.†   (source)
  • Having quoted this extraordinary and most disinterested testimony to her daughter's excellence, Mrs Nickleby stopped to breathe; and Miss Knag, finding that the discourse was turning upon family greatness, lost no time in striking in, with a small reminiscence on her own account.†   (source)
  • This ardent love it is—this proud, disinterested love of what is true—which raises men to the abstract sources of truth, to draw their mother-knowledge thence.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER XX PERPLEXITY—GRINDING THE SHEARS—A QUARREL "He is so disinterested and kind to offer me all that I can desire," Bathsheba mused.†   (source)
  • "Well, I could do wi't, if so be ye want to get rid on't," said the disinterested cousin, walking quickly away with the bundle, lest Chad's Bess should change her mind.†   (source)
  • He was the most disinterested of men,—did everything for Society, and got as little for himself out of all his gain and care, as a man might.†   (source)
  • Such, however, is not the case in civil causes; then the judge appears as a disinterested arbiter between the conflicting passions of the parties.†   (source)
  • It is hardly necessary to say the secret was sacredly kept from the excellent curator; we were simply disinterested travellers visiting Iceland out of harmless curiosity.†   (source)
  • We argued, as we thought then rather logically, that no social class was so good, so true, and so disinterested as to be trusted wholly with the political destiny of its neighbors; that in every state the best arbiters of their own welfare are the persons directly affected; consequently that it is only by arming every hand with a ballot,—with the right to have a voice in the policy of the state,—that the greatest good to the greatest number could be attained.†   (source)
  • But stranger things have happened; and when we cease to care for each other as we do now, it will be the means of confirming us in that sort of true disinterested friendship which I can already look forward to with pleasure.†   (source)
  • When my friend came for the letters, I said, "God bless and reward you, Peter, for this disinterested kindness.†   (source)
  • For I am generally disinterested in my love, and think I could be content to make a figure before Miss Larkins, and expire.†   (source)
  • My daughters are plain, disinterested girls, but their hearts are in the right place, and they've conceived an attachment for you which does them honour—I say, which does them honour.†   (source)
  • 'Exactly so; he is disinterested.†   (source)
  • Had he, in lending to this stranger the aid of his key, and in making some other man than himself emerge from that portal, the pure and disinterested intention of rescuing an assassin?†   (source)
  • Jane, you are docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant, and courageous; very gentle, and very heroic: cease to mistrust yourself — I can trust you unreservedly.†   (source)
  • To have lost is less disturbing than to wonder if we may possibly have won: and Eustacia could now, like other people at such a stage, take a standing-point outside herself, observe herself as a disinterested spectator, and think what a sport for Heaven this woman Eustacia was.†   (source)
  • …was no sooner gone than he sat down and wrote him a cutting note, in which he remarked that he had never on any former occasion had the honour of receiving his congratulations (which was true, though indeed there had not been anything particular to congratulate him upon), and that he begged, on behalf of himself and family, to repudiate the Marshal's offer, with all those thanks which its disinterested character and its perfect independence of all worldly considerations demanded.†   (source)
  • "Well," said Mrs. Weston, smiling, "you give him credit for more simple, disinterested benevolence in this instance than I do; for while Miss Bates was speaking, a suspicion darted into my head, and I have never been able to get it out again.†   (source)
  • Considerations of duty and responsibility apart, the change might have taken its rise in feelings of the purest and most disinterested charity.†   (source)
  • Bilibin, who had not lost his reputation of an exceedingly clever man, and who was one of the disinterested friends so brilliant a woman as Helene always has—men friends who can never change into lovers—once gave her his view of the matter at a small and intimate gathering.†   (source)
  • Nothing could have occurred more likely to awaken all Judith's generous regrets, or to aid her in her purpose, by adding the stimulant of a disinterested desire to atone to her other impulses, and cloaking all under a guise so winning and natural, as greatly to lessen the unpleasant feature of a forwardness unbecoming the sex.†   (source)
  • Mr. Edmund Bertram, as you do not act yourself, you will be a disinterested adviser; and, therefore, I apply to you.†   (source)
  • The only thing, then, which remains to be done is to proceed, and to accelerate the union of private with public interests, since the period of disinterested patriotism is gone by forever.†   (source)
  • How could I make such a proposition, especially to a woman who always professes to be so entirely disinterested?†   (source)
  • …of those removals to which all midshipmen are liable, and especially such midshipmen as every captain wishes to get rid of, been six months on board Captain Frederick Wentworth's frigate, the Laconia; and from the Laconia he had, under the influence of his captain, written the only two letters which his father and mother had ever received from him during the whole of his absence; that is to say, the only two disinterested letters; all the rest had been mere applications for money.†   (source)
  • They inflict no useless ills; and they are happy to relieve the griefs of others, when they can do so without much hurting themselves; they are not disinterested, but they are humane.†   (source)
  • …to be trusted no more nor less than churchyard epitaphs; yet, as it sometimes happens that a person departs this life who is really deserving of all the praises the stone cutter carves over his bones; who IS a good Christian, a good parent, child, wife, or husband; who actually DOES leave a disconsolate family to mourn his loss; so in academies of the male and female sex it occurs every now and then that the pupil is fully worthy of the praises bestowed by the disinterested instructor.†   (source)
  • Mrs Musgrove had got Mrs Harville's children away as much as she could, every possible supply from Uppercross had been furnished, to lighten the inconvenience to the Harvilles, while the Harvilles had been wanting them to come to dinner every day; and in short, it seemed to have been only a struggle on each side as to which should be most disinterested and hospitable.†   (source)
  • "Ah then, you're not disinterested!"†   (source)
  • A letter without name, without address, without date, without signature, pressing and disinterested, an enigma composed of truths, a message of love made to be brought by an angel and read by a virgin, an appointment made beyond the bounds of earth, the love-letter of a phantom to a shade.†   (source)
  • His conviction of her regard for him was sometimes very strong; he could look back on a long course of encouragement, and she was as perfect in disinterested attachment as in everything else.†   (source)
  • Amongst a multitude of men you will find a selfish, mercantile, and trading taste for the discoveries of the mind, which must not be confounded with that disinterested passion which is kindled in the heart of the few.†   (source)
  • There is one sort of patriotic attachment which principally arises from that instinctive, disinterested, and undefinable feeling which connects the affections of man with his birthplace.†   (source)
  • Through the beaming smile with which he regarded me as he reasoned thus, there now broke forth a look of disinterested benevolence quite astonishing.†   (source)
  • 'I am so anxious to know you, so anxious to cultivate your good opinion, so desirous that there should be a delicious kind of harmonious family understanding between us,' said Sir Mulberry, 'that you mustn't think I'm disinterested in what I do.†   (source)
  • But he had a chivalrous nature (was not the disinterested service of woman among the ideal glories of old chivalry?†   (source)
  • They were both so truly respectable in their happiness, so disinterested in every sensation; thought so much of Jane; so much of every body, and so little of themselves, that every kindly feeling was at work for them.†   (source)
  • "But," said Danglars,—who, on his part, did not perceive how soon the conversation, which was at first disinterested, was turning to a business transaction,—"there is, doubtless, a part of your fortune your father could not refuse you?"†   (source)
  • 'Indeed they must,' said I. 'You will find her,' pursued my aunt, 'as good, as beautiful, as earnest, as disinterested, as she has always been.†   (source)
  • The child fixed her eyes on Isabel with a still, disinterested gaze which seemed void of an intention, yet conscious of an attraction.†   (source)
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