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momentous
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  • The modern Priory of Sion has a momentous duty.†   (source)
  • I got the feeling that this was in some way momentous, and that she needed to share it with someone, even if it was just me.†   (source)
  • The decision was being hailed as momentous, even though murders take place every day.†   (source)
  • She said it bravely, with chin upraised, and she blinked rapidly as she spoke, dazzled by the momentous truth she had revealed.†   (source)
  • Are we going to make a momentous decision?†   (source)
  • My own awakening feels as momentous.†   (source)
  • Part of me felt like something momentous was about to happen.†   (source)
  • We wouldn't disrespect this momentous occasion by allowing my ugly cyborg stepsister to attend.†   (source)
  • They traveled the length of the island with an air of disregarding it and being set on other business; they were less a progress than a momentous rise and fall of the whole ocean.†   (source)
  • It's such a momentous event.†   (source)
  • …the Times) by a young correspondent named James Morris who, twenty years later, having earned considerable esteem as a writer, would famously change his gender to female and his Christian name to Jan. As Morris wrote four decades after the momentous climb in Coronation Everest: The First Ascent and the Scoop That Crowned the Queen, It is hard to imagine now the almost mystical delight with which the coincidence of the two happenings [the coronation and the Everest ascent] was greeted…†   (source)
  • Holly was silent for a moment, processing this momentous revelation.†   (source)
  • I realize I have just spent two entire chapters essentially pointing out what a momentous event that was, our arrival to work with the elite mountain troops of the U.S. Army.†   (source)
  • I think this will be a momentous, uh, moment in the history of demo—†   (source)
  • The decision to leave home felt momentous, and the drive to California took a week.†   (source)
  • It hardly seems like there would have been time for them to make such a momentous decision, and I can't imagine them choosing to leave me behind.†   (source)
  • She felt like she was making a momentous decision.†   (source)
  • And as their seventh anniversary approached, they prepared the human universe for a momentous announcement.†   (source)
  • Nothing momentous, they're merely doing their job.†   (source)
  • When something momentous came to pass—a home run, a stolen base, a double play, a run batted in—his father would stir, blink two or three times, and by dint of habit bring his hand to rest on the spectacles sitting atop his magazine.†   (source)
  • In 1941, and since that is a momentous year (the beginning of World War II for the United States), the "fall" of 1941, just before the declaration of war, has a "closet" innuendo.†   (source)
  • Big events were happening in Cange, momentous events in Haiti.†   (source)
  • I cannot prove it, but it seems to me that Brom must have discovered something in Gil'ead when he was fighting Morzan and his dragon, something so momentous, it moved Brom to abandon everything that was his life up until then.†   (source)
  • I predict that one day, the forces of African society will achieve a momentous victory over the interloper.†   (source)
  • It is my great pleasure to celebrate this momentous occasion with you--my dearest friends in the world.†   (source)
  • He took the suitcase from the closet, feeling numb suddenly with the momentousness of these events, long expected but a surprise all the same.†   (source)
  • What did that have to do with this momentous rending of the veil, I wondered.†   (source)
  • Your mother and I had often taken you to the Concord Bridge where the Minutemen encountered the British soldiers that April morning so long ago, a momentous explosion in our nation's history.†   (source)
  • When the momentous day dawned, we all gathered the tools that DeSimon had directed us to bring and stood in the boiler room, waiting for direction.†   (source)
  • Of course the film was strange at first, elusive in its references and filled with baroque apparitions and hard to adapt to—you wouldn't want it any other way Overcomposed close-ups, momentous gesturing, actors trailing their immense bended shadows and there was something to study in every frame, the camera placement, the shapes and planes and then the juxtaposed shots, the sense of rhythmic contradiction, it was all spaces and volumes, it was tempo, mass and stress.†   (source)
  • Soon after that momentous visit to Tiananmen Square, we went on another trip, this time to an area on the outskirts of Beijing called Pingu.†   (source)
  • The realization often hit in the strangest of places—while pushing the cart in the fruit aisle of the grocery store or standing in line to buy movie tickets—but whenever it happened, it made something as simple as taking her hand an exquisite pleasure, something both momentous and gratifying.†   (source)
  • From where they stood, in a new coolness, the desert certainly appeared momentous, but not deadly.†   (source)
  • Then Jaime understood that something momentous was taking place.†   (source)
  • But the chaplain's impression of a prior meeting was of some occasion far more momentous and occult than that, of a significant encounter with Yossarian in some remote, submerged and perhaps even entirely spiritual epoch in which he had made the identical, foredooming admission that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, he could do to help him.†   (source)
  • Otis grew quiet for a moment, and then nodded, as if making a momentous decision.†   (source)
  • Thomas stumbled on an address by Sir William Osler to graduating medical students in which the man articulated this very thesis: The master-word is Work, a little one, as I have said, but fraught with momentous sequences if you can but write it on the tablets of your hearts, and bind it upon your foreheads.†   (source)
  • It is a momentous day…the dawn of a new era for humankind…and there is no time to waste.†   (source)
  • The main courtyard milled with dozens of reporters and local officials awaiting this momentous occasion.†   (source)
  • I thought of Macon, of that clock in the gym, of the momentous day I'd had, and held back everything.†   (source)
  • "It's a momentous event in any citizen's life.†   (source)
  • However, as the Congress desire i[t], I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service and for the support of the glorious Cause.†   (source)
  • For what was going on across the strip of red sand was too momentous.†   (source)
  • For as long as it held, they might pause to consider this momentous course.†   (source)
  • The letters said: "…. in a momentous drama giving the answer to the great problem: Should a woman tell?"†   (source)
  • The press was there in force, but I sensed that they understood, too, that the occasion wasn't particularly momentous or crucial to the disposition of actual events, the real violence and tension, even if they would portray it as such on the evening programs.†   (source)
  • In July, 1862, Congress passed the second confiscation act and Lincoln made his momentous decision to issue an emancipation proclamation.†   (source)
  • But this claim, itself hardly momentous, then opens onto something sadly like a forced march of the platitudes: We all like stories.†   (source)
  • It turned out the event was momentous: it shaped the rest of my life and absolutely convinced me I could live off the land.†   (source)
  • When she stopped, it was as though some momentous change of polarity had taken place inside her mind, one that had an immediate, pacifying effect on her body.†   (source)
  • Now, as a people, we have been called upon to make great and momentous decisions.†   (source)
  • On the eve of such momentous events, my dear Freddie, I think you should wear this amulet.†   (source)
  • His face set in an expressionless mask, manacled, gaunt and unshaven as he stood in disheveled prison fatigues, the ex-Commandant was clearly at the edge of embarking upon a momentous journey.†   (source)
  • Direction itself was made beautiful, momentous.†   (source)
  • For months we had been occupied with the most momentous encounter in the history of sport: Joe Louis had signed to fight Max Schmeling for a second time.†   (source)
  • On this momentous, hysteric day, however, these girls came for me.†   (source)
  • And it was as if whatever it was that was on her mind was very momentous.†   (source)
  • And it was like the look on the faces of the elders during that far-off and so momentous Sunday dinner.†   (source)
  • It should feel momentous, special, but it doesn't, because it's not real.   (source)
    momentous = important
  • History is the business of identifying momentous events from the comfort of a high-back chair.†   (source)
  • I would rather live in an age devoid of momentous events.†   (source)
  • We can't make snap judgments and reach momentous decisions on the spur of the moment, can we?†   (source)
  • David seemed poised on the cusp of something truly momentous.†   (source)
  • The advent of dawn pierced Roran's dreams and woke him with a sense of momentous expectation.†   (source)
  • But with a decision of "such momentous concern," she dared not try to influence him.†   (source)
  • No one else seemed willing to address the subject; it was too momentous.†   (source)
  • "The crisis is momentous," reported the Washington Federalist.†   (source)
  • One's own personal doings look small indeed, when faced with the momentous travails of History, which we can only trust are for the greater good.†   (source)
  • But the decision Sarawa and his friends were making carried huge responsibilities and, possibly, momentous consequences: They had to decide whether to take me in.†   (source)
  • At such times of more than ordinary brightness or darkness I used to faint, but on this day I asked Janet for her smelling salts and so remained upright, although leaning on her arm; and she said it would not have been in nature for me to have remained unmoved, on such a momentous occasion.†   (source)
  • The son of Grace and Ernest Turner, the daughter of Emily and Jack Tallis, the childhood friends, the university acquaintances, in a state of expansive, tranquil joy, confronted the momentous change they had achieved.†   (source)
  • Whether through careful consideration spawned by books and spirited debate over coffee at two in the morning, or simply from a natural proclivity, we must all eventually adopt a fundamental framework, some reasonably coherent system of causes and effects that will help us make sense not simply of momentous events, but of all the little actions and interactions that constitute our daily lives—be they deliberate or spontaneous, inevitable or unforeseen.†   (source)
  • The boys stared at him as they absorbed this and could not speak, for they knew that the business of newspapers was momentous: earthquakes and train crashes, what the government and nations did from day to day, and whether more money should be spent on guns in case Hitler attacked England.†   (source)
  • When her alarm sounded at five forty-five, she drifted upward from a soft pit of exhaustion, and in the several seconds of no-man's-land, between sleep and full consciousness, she became aware of some excitement in store, a treat, or a momentous change.†   (source)
  • It seemed so momentous.†   (source)
  • On September 26, Congress took the momentous step of appointing Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson as commissioners to the Court of France, to serve with Silas Deane.†   (source)
  • It was a momentous event.†   (source)
  • Pretend you're a spotlight, Obie told himself, a spotlight sweeping the place, stopping here and there, and lingering at other places, picking up the highlights of the thing, this momentous occasion.†   (source)
  • Once, up near the waterfall on the Siguvyaye River, Deo sat with Lonjino in the shade, and figuring his grandfather might be softened up from the beer he was drinking, Deo asked -- it was a momentous question -- "Sogo-kuru, can you give me just one cow?"†   (source)
  • John had wanted us to witness a momentous occasion, not simply a hole being dug into the earth (although I must confess here that the hole alone would have surely impressed me as well).†   (source)
  • That is indeed momentous news.†   (source)
  • We looked at each other in disbelief and glanced over at the warders, who seemed unaware that anything momentous had occurred.†   (source)
  • I N PHILADELPHIA, the same day as the British landing on Staten Island, July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress, in a momentous decision, voted to "dissolve the connection" with Great Britain.†   (source)
  • Yet conscious of the mosaic of colored stones mounted upon the wall opposite him, he also beheld, as if a glowing scrim draped over the mosaic, scenes of his life in Palancar Valley before momentous and bloody fate had intervened in his existence.†   (source)
  • Sometime before noon, having heard General Mifflin's report on the progress made by the British with their "approaches" during the night, as well as the strongly expressed views of Joseph Reed, and having looked things over himself, he made a momentous decision.†   (source)
  • Rearden started, and stopped abruptly, realizing that— it was the way, the only way left, realizing through how many twists of intellectual corruption upon corruption this boy had to struggle toward his momentous discovery.†   (source)
  • He heard mentions of her childhood, her friends and family, and her experiences among the Varden, which she spoke about most freely, describing raids and battles she participated in, treaties she helped to negotiate, her disputes with the dwarves, and the momentous events she witnessed during her tenure as ambassador.†   (source)
  • To James Lovell he wrote, "I should have wanted no motives or arguments to induce me to accept of this momentous trust, if I could be sure that the public would be benefited by it.†   (source)
  • On March 23, in a momentous step, the delegates resolved to permit the outfitting of privateers, "armed vessels," to prey on "the enemies of the United Colonies," a move Adams roundly supported.†   (source)
  • Further, he seems to have understood more clearly than any what a momentous day it was and in the privacy of two long letters to Abigail, he poured out his feelings as did no one else:The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America.†   (source)
  • His masterly acquaintance with the French language, his extensive correspondence in France, his great experience in life, his wisdom, his prudence, caution; his engaging addresses, united to his unshaken firmness in the present American system of politics and war, point him out as the fittest character for this momentous undertaking.†   (source)
  • If he could not speak to the river, and he could not, still he would try to read in the river's blue and violet skeins a working of the momentous event.†   (source)
  • It was Hiss's private study, his sanctuary and hideaway, also the place where he executed his most personal, confidential and momentous work.†   (source)
  • Taking trips tore all of us up inside, for they seemed, each journey away from home, something that might have been less selfishly undertaken, or something that would test us, or something that had better be momentous, to justify such a leap into the dark.†   (source)
  • It was filled with trouble, and though I wanted to retreat when I heard it I dared not, feeling something momentous in the air which impelled me on toward the voice and Sophie.†   (source)
  • Outside in the hallway (in memory, the momentous events of my life have often been accompanied by sharply illuminated little satellite images) Yetta Zimmerman and the poor elephantine Moishe Muskatblit were embroiled in a vigorous argument.†   (source)
  • , which may only indicate how truly momentous for me was this encounter with Leslie, or how doltish and complete was my seizure of passion—or simply how my suggestible mind was working at the age of twenty-two.†   (source)
  • Even though she had been momentarily restored from that trauma, she knew she was on a downward slide—hurtling fatally and rapidly down—and she could hardly bear to think what might have happened to her had not Nathan (blundering like herself into the library on that momentous day, searching for an out-of-print copy of a book of short stories by Ambrose Bierce; bless Bierce! praise Bierce!†   (source)
  • Watching them, you would know nothing of the momentousness of the news I had just imparted.†   (source)
  • Her body stiffened against his, and he felt a strange emotion within her: a sense of impending momentousness.†   (source)
  • As so often happens in life, the momentousness of an occasion is lost in the welter of a thousand details.†   (source)
  • The Bishop of that See will direct the beginning of momentous things.†   (source)
  • He told her the story of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford and the momentous slip of paper which he had once held between his fingers.†   (source)
  • The two faces looked down on the scene, two faces as different as could be possible in two men at the helm of so momentous an undertaking: Davis with the flat cheeks and cold eyes of an ascetic, his thin proud lips set firmly; Stephens with dark burning eyes deep socketed in a face that had known nothing but sickness and pain and had triumphed over them with humor and with fire—two faces that were greatly loved.†   (source)
  • Her face was clear and cold, like a kind of weather, though the long clean groove of her upper lip was ready to go into motion, as if she were going to break her silence with something momentous and long-matured; explain love to me, perhaps.†   (source)
  • …and distinguished in his mind that he had already his private code, his secret language, though he appeared the image of stark and uncompromising severity, with his high forehead and his fierce blue eyes, impeccably candid and pure, frowning slightly at the sight of human frailty, so that his mother, watching him guide his scissors neatly round the refrigerator, imagined him all red and ermine on the Bench or directing a stern and momentous enterprise in some crisis of public affairs.†   (source)
  • Had the political strategy of the moment called for a momentous human document of the stature of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln could have risen to the occasion.†   (source)
  • As dreams that were momentous by night may seem simply silly in the light of day, so the poet and the prophet can discover themselves playing the idiot before a jury of sober eyes.†   (source)
  • This meeting would be momentous and she felt no absolute surety of herself.†   (source)
  • The summer of that year had been a momentous one in the Southwest.†   (source)
  • He would know solid time again, the slow, momentous years of youth.†   (source)
  • I realized dimly enough that she might take some momentous step.†   (source)
  • It seemed simple and natural, yet momentous and staggering.†   (source)
  • It was a momentous and eventful day to all upon our plantation.†   (source)
  • Evidently in the fever of this momentous hour he had forgotten his prisoner.†   (source)
  • And it was Hayward who made a momentous discovery.†   (source)
  • One phrase of the momentous scrawl had caught his ear.†   (source)
  • So momentous was the call that Jim Cleve seemed to forget Joan, and she let him go without a word.†   (source)
  • I have come to a momentous decision, my boy.†   (source)
  • That's a very momentous social phenomenon.†   (source)
  • [momentously] Henry Straker: the moment of your life has arrived.†   (source)
  • The ardor which they display in small matters calms their zeal for momentous undertakings.†   (source)
  • Neither were the secondary actors in these momentous incidents forgotten.†   (source)
  • Now these three mates—Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, were momentous men.†   (source)
  • Where she could be placed became a subject of most melancholy and momentous consultation.†   (source)
  • This momentous pocket-book was a timely reminder to him of another transaction.†   (source)
  • The present is one of those momentous stages in the life of man.†   (source)
  • These were issues beyond the competency of a court of inquiry: it was a subtle and momentous quarrel as to the true essence of life, and did not want a judge.†   (source)
  • Rosemary had never before seen Dick's face utterly expressionless; she felt that this announcement was something momentous and she was inclined to exclaim with Mary "Oh, Dick!†   (source)
  • While Stillwell beamingly announced this momentous news to his team and supporters Monty and Link were striding up.†   (source)
  • But she knew, and Morel knew, that that act had caused something momentous to take place in her soul.†   (source)
  • ") He was usually delighted to have an "inside view" of the momentous world of motors but to-night he scarcely listened to Eddie Swanson's revelation: "If you want to go above the Javelin class, the Zeeco is a mighty good buy.†   (source)
  • When Sir Andrew once more looked at her, he only saw upon her face alarm at the untoward accident and relief at its happy issue; whilst the tiny and momentous note had apparently fluttered to the ground.†   (source)
  • A great calm settled over Hare; his blood ceased to race, his mind to riot; in August Naab's momentous word he knew the old man had found himself.†   (source)
  • Then he said that he had spoken in a light manner, and he hoped that if he had made a mistake in doing so on so grave, so momentous, and occasion for him, I would forgive him.†   (source)
  • I do not object so much to the cynical and satirical fables as to those in which momentous truths are taught by monkeys and foxes.†   (source)
  • These things passed through Newland Archer's mind a week later as he watched the Countess Olenska enter the van der Luyden drawing-room on the evening of the momentous dinner.†   (source)
  • There is a political aspect of this sex question which is too big for my comedy, and too momentous to be passed over without culpable frivolity.†   (source)
  • [Momentously] Still, I have never shut my eyes to the fact that there is a certain amount of tosh about the Salvation Army.†   (source)
  • On scrutinizing him, the prince soon saw that the general was quite a different man from what he had been the day before; he looked like one who had come to some momentous resolve.†   (source)
  • It was in June, two months after America's entrance into the war, that the momentous event happened—the visit of the great Percy Bresnahan, the millionaire president of the Velvet Motor Car Company of Boston, the one native son who was always to be mentioned to strangers.†   (source)
  • His advent apparently was momentous.†   (source)
  • For hours then she rode along a shady, fragrant trail, seeing the beauty of color and wildness, hearing the murmur and rush and roar of water, but all the while her mind revolved the sweet and momentous realization which had thrilled her—that the hunter, this strange man of the forest, so deeply versed in nature and so unfamiliar with emotion, aloof and simple and strong like the elements which had developed him, had fallen in love with her and did not know it.†   (source)
  • I am sure it is only necessary to put before so admirable a practitioner as Dr. Seward so simple, yet so momentous a wish, to ensure its fulfilment.†   (source)
  • The occasion was obscure, insignificant—what you will: a lost youngster, one in a million—but then he was one of us; an incident as completely devoid of importance as the flooding of an ant-heap, and yet the mystery of his attitude got hold of me as though he had been an individual in the forefront of his kind, as if the obscure truth involved were momentous enough to affect mankind's conception of itself….'†   (source)
  • She could not see, for her two eyes were closed, she could not hear, for the noise from the ball-room drowned the soft rustle of that momentous scrap of paper; nevertheless she knew-as if she had both seen and heard—that Sir Andrew was even now holding the paper to the flame of one of the candles.†   (source)
  • I try in vain to recall how I felt about it, and what its circumstances were; but it is not momentous in my recollection.†   (source)
  • Who has not frequently reflected on all the momentous things that we get out of that modest animal, the ornament of poultry-yards, that provides us at once with a soft pillow for our bed, with succulent flesh for our tables, and eggs?†   (source)
  • But when Herbert and I had held our momentous conversation, I was seized with a feverish conviction that I ought to hunt the matter down,—that I ought not to let it rest, but that I ought to see Mr. Jaggers, and come at the bare truth.†   (source)
  • Had he lived a century, the occurrences of the few momentous minutes during which he was in the lake would have produced a chastening effect on his character, if not always on his manner.†   (source)
  • The momentous interview was no sooner concluded, and Oliver composed to rest again, than the doctor, after wiping his eyes, and condemning them for being weak all at once, betook himself downstairs to open upon Mr. Giles.†   (source)
  • This mute conversation at such a momentous crisis would have riveted the attention of the most indifferent.†   (source)
  • Both the sisters seemed struck: not shocked or appalled; the tidings appeared in their eyes rather momentous than afflicting.†   (source)
  • The eldest of a large family, she was still considered by her father and mother as one of "the children," and the proposal that she should go to Orleans was a most momentous one to the family circle.†   (source)
  • This announcement, which implied or appeared to imply, the approval of all the persons concerned in this momentous affair, had been preceded by a scene to which our readers must be admitted.†   (source)
  • They went away each on his own account, and yet it was only in consequence of their going away that the momentous event was accomplished that will always remain the greatest glory of the Russian people.†   (source)
  • This subtle modulation marked a momentous discovery—the perception of an entirely new attitude on the part of her listener.†   (source)
  • He and Pestler, his chief, sat up two whole nights by the boy in that momentous and awful week when Georgy had the measles; and when you would have thought, from the mother's terror, that there had never been measles in the world before.†   (source)
  • It is of moment to her soul, and, therefore, as the worshipful Governor says, momentous to thine own, in whose charge hers is.†   (source)
  • A subject so momentous as that of suing Judge Temple was not very palatable to the present company in so public a place; and a short silence ensued, that was only interrupted by the opening of the door, and the entrance of Natty himself.†   (source)
  • A medical man likes to make psychological observations, and sometimes in the pursuit of such studies is too easily tempted into momentous prophecy which life and death easily set at nought.†   (source)
  • I was so occupied with Peepy that I lost the letter in detail, though I derived such a general impression from it of the momentous importance of Africa, and the utter insignificance of all other places and things, that I felt quite ashamed to have thought so little about it.†   (source)
  • In both cases the right is the same, but the exercise of the right is different; and this alteration produced the most momentous consequences.†   (source)
  • Not so, however, with the disciple of Linnaeus, during the momentous period that it remained a mooted point at the tribunal of his better judgment, whether the stout descendants of the squatter were not likely to dispute his right to traverse the prairie in freedom.†   (source)
  • III The First Customer MISS HEPZIBAH PYNCHEON sat in the oaken elbow-chair, with her hands over her face, giving way to that heavy down-sinking of the heart which most persons have experienced, when the image of hope itself seems ponderously moulded of lead, on the eve of an enterprise at once doubtful and momentous.†   (source)
  • Weaknesses and errors must be forgiven—alas! they are not alien to us—but the man who takes the wrong side on the momentous subject of the Hebrew points must be treated as the enemy of his race.†   (source)
  • The advent of a guest was in itself far from disconcerting; she had not yet divested herself of a young faith that each new acquaintance would exert some momentous influence on her life.†   (source)
  • There never was a Chivery a gentleman that ever I heard of, and I will not commit the meanness of making a false representation on a subject so momentous.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER 41 Containing some Romantic Passages between Mrs Nickleby and the Gentleman in the Small-clothes next Door Ever since her last momentous conversation with her son, Mrs Nickleby had begun to display unusual care in the adornment of her person, gradually superadding to those staid and matronly habiliments, which had, up to that time, formed her ordinary attire, a variety of embellishments and decorations, slight perhaps in themselves, but, taken together, and considered with…†   (source)
  • What can be more delightful than to find harmony of opinion in those we love, when a great and momentous decision has to be taken?†   (source)
  • On his way home, on the evening he set aside for this momentous purpose, he took the precaution of stepping into a chemist's shop and buying a bottle of the very strongest smelling-salts.†   (source)
  • She was too much excited by these thoughts to do anything but light stitching in a warm corner of the dining-room, with the outside of this momentous letter lying on the table before her.†   (source)
  • One way and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb.†   (source)
  • In the grammar of Mrs Merdle's verbs on this momentous subject, there was only one mood, the Imperative; and that Mood had only one Tense, the Present.†   (source)
  • …the fall of Moscow, and now wrote French verses in albums concerning his share in the affair—this man did not understand the meaning of what was happening but merely wanted to do something himself that would astonish people, to perform some patriotically heroic feat; and like a child he made sport of the momentous, and unavoidable event—the abandonment and burning of Moscow—and tried with his puny hand now to speed and now to stay the enormous, popular tide that bore him along with it.†   (source)
  • Could the Judge but quaff a glass, it might enable him to shake off the unaccountable lethargy which (for the ten intervening minutes, and five to boot, are already past) has made him such a laggard at this momentous dinner.†   (source)
  • It does not directly coerce the subject, but it renders the majority more absolute over those in power; it does not confer an unbounded authority on the legislator which can be exerted at some momentous crisis, but it establishes a temperate and regular influence, which is at all times available.†   (source)
  • During the momentous hour that succeeded, the encampment resembled a hive of troubled bees, who only awaited the appearance and example of their leader to take some distant and momentous flight.†   (source)
  • Influenced by these momentous considerations the whole party lay, musing on their situation, until thoughts grew weary, and sleep finally settled on them all, one after another.†   (source)
  • Hester could only account for the child's character—and even then most vaguely and imperfectly—by recalling what she herself had been during that momentous period while Pearl was imbibing her soul from the spiritual world, and her bodily frame from its material of earth.†   (source)
  • This momentous conversation ended in a few minutes with warm acknowledgments paid by the German to the Icelandic Professor.†   (source)
  • Although Natty Bumppo had certainly made hundreds of more momentous shots at his enemies or his game, yet he never exerted himself more to excel.†   (source)
  • …to her was then as nearly as possible what it had been before; she was sure he did not mean there should be any change, and that it was only her own conscience that could fancy any; but her aunt was soon quarrelling with her; and when she found how much and how unpleasantly her having only walked out without her aunt's knowledge could be dwelt on, she felt all the reason she had to bless the kindness which saved her from the same spirit of reproach, exerted on a more momentous subject.†   (source)
  • Without disputing a truth so momentous, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmesdale's story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a man's friends—and especially a clergyman's—will sometimes uphold his character, when proofs, clear as the mid-day sunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin-stained creature of the dust.†   (source)
  • That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation; it comes in the very midst of his earnestness, so that what just before might have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part of the general joke.†   (source)
  • The moment for the latter had now arrived, and the preparations were made with a dignity and solemnity suited to the momentous interests of the occasion.†   (source)
  • Meanwhile, in his conversation with Raffles, he had learned something momentous, something which entered actively into the struggle of his longings and terrors.†   (source)
  • However, as Mrs. Hollister thought there was something like actual service in the present appearances, and was, in consequence, too busily engaged with certain preparations of her own, to make her comments; as Benjamin was absent, and Monsieur Le Quoi too happy to find fault with anything, the corps escaped criticism and comparison altogether on this momentous day, when they certainly had greater need of self-confidence than on any other previous occasion.†   (source)
  • Why, I find myself at the very period when I might shine most in society, and should most like for very momentous reasons to shine in society—I find myself in a situation which to a certain extent disqualifies me for going into society.†   (source)
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