Tell

“ Then he looked at me and said, ‘O my son, speak the truth and tell me how thou camest by the necklet.’ And he repeated the following verse:
To tell the whole truth is thy duty, although It bring thee to burn on the brasier of woe! ”

“ To tell thee what thou knewest and didst not heed.
Why shouldst thou heed? What could I do for thee,
To whom the whole world is willing to give its all
Holding that all less than the sight of thee? ”

“ They hold a secret sacred and only tell a friend, and then whisper in the ear, Silly told me this and you must keep it dear; when all have kept it and every body knows, true or false, they tell it as it goes. ”

“ If I am obliged always to tell the truth, how shall I fare when I once more go back to the wicked world? When I take a cow to market, have I always to point out the horn it hath lost, or the piece of skin that is torn? And when I talk to my betters, and would crave a boon of them, must I always tell them my real thoughts, instead of giving them the flattery which, let me tell you, Madam, goes a long way in obtaining a favour? ”

“ Tell it, if possible, with a sense of bestowing a blessing, and a delicate perception of the reception it meets in the group before you, and the pleasure and interest it arouses in them, so that in the telling there is that human setting which is a quickening of the spirit and a union of ideas, which is something quite new and different from the story, yet born of the story. ”

“ When you tell your first lie, bring it to me."
"I don't dare to tell lies, sir; mother says God hates liars; but 'those that speak the truth are his delight.'"
[39]
"That's true doctrine; and here we are." ”

“ This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you. ”

“ Where now was her proud motto, "Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra?" If she had but dared to bravely tell the truth as regarded herself, defying them to find out what she refused to tell concerning another, how light of heart she would now have felt! ”

“ Speak out like a man ... like a preacher of truth—what have I done?
What have you done, brother George—how do I know?
Matthew Paris ... are we never to meet again as we have met? never while we two breathe the breath of life?
I hope ... I do hope.... I am not less glad to see you than I should be; I do not mean to give you up, whatever others may do, but—but these are ticklish times brother, and just now (in a whisper) situated as we are, we cannot be too cautious. To tell you the truth ... ”

“ But, at any rate, one day a fat, podgy lady, vulgarly bedecked in satin and gold, goes up to Tell and points her splendid white parasol right at his chest. ‘Get up,’ says she, ‘and show yourself.’ Now Tell hasn’t the best of tempers at any time. ”

“ Suppose you had a secret, a real secret, something that nobody else knew and that you didn't want anybody else to know. And suppose you had the habit of talking to yourself. You might, without thinking, you know, tell that secret out loud to yourself, and some one might, just might happen to overhear! ”

“ Well, sir, you never can tell. That's a principle in life with me, sir, if you'll excuse my having such a thing, sir. ”

“ To tell you the truth—mind, this is strictly between ourselves, please; I shouldn't like your wife to know I said it—the women folk don't understand these things; but between you and me, you know, I think it does a man good to swear. ”

“ Tell Them, tell Them," she continued, "that the evidence is nil, and I'll tell them something else." She spoke it with such meaning that his face seemed to show a question, to which she was on the spot of replying "I'll tell them that you're a⸻" She stopped, however, changing it. "I'll tell them exactly the opposite. And I'll find out what you say—it won't take long—to do it. If we tell different stories, that possibly may save us." ”

“ I can’t tell a lie—not even when I hear one. ”

“ You know well, few better, how to acquit yourself in such a scene, and be sure that you address your sharpest wits to it. If he be ill and cannot write, tell him that he may trust you with a verbal answer. I have not said so in my note, but you may, and he will believe you; he reads men quickly, and he will see that you are in my confidence. ”

“ I will tell my story, and my reader shall judge for me. I will tell my story, and so contrive to pass some few hours of a long eternity, become so wearisome to me. ”

“ You tell your lies and you think nobody knows. But there are two people who know. ”

“ A man will tell you, or pretend to tell you,—for the chances are ten to one that he is wrong,—what sort of lingo was spoken in some particular island or province six hundred years before Christ. What good will that do any one, even if he were right? ”

“ “Because it’s always best to tell the truth,” Helen answered, her arm round him as he shook in his cot. ”

“ We have no weapons here; And see the wood of lances that surrounds us! MELCHTHAL. Oh! would to heaven that we had struck at once! God pardon those who counselled the delay! GESSLER (to TELL) . Now, to thy task! Men bear not arms for naught. 'Tis dangerous to carry deadly weapons, And on the archer oft his shaft recoils. This right these haughty peasant-churls assume Trenches upon their master's privileges. None should be armed but those who bear command. It pleases you wear the bow and bolt; Well, be it so. I will provide the mark. TELL (bends the bow and fixes the arrow) . ”

“ My soul of thee!
Tell thou the world, when my bones lie whitening
Amid the last homes of youth and eld,
That once there was one whose veins ran lightning
No eye beheld.
Tell how his boyhood was one drear night-hour,
How shone for him, through his griefs and gloom,
No star of all heaven sends to light our
Path to the tomb.
Roll on, my song, and to after ages
Tell how, disdaining all earth can give,
He would have taught men, from wisdom's pages,
The way to live. ”

“ and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; ”

“ Each has its own place. But whatever its quality, the story-teller is the passer-on, the interpreter, the transmitter. He comes bringing a gift. Always he gives; always he bears a message.
This granted, the first demand of the story-teller is not far to seek. No one can repeat a message he has not heard, or interpret what he does not understand. You cannot give, unless you first possess. The first demand of the story-teller is that he possess. He must feel the story. ”

“ Tell no man anything, for no man listens,
Yet hold thy lips ready to speak. ”

“ Since you are minded to keep silence at any cost, at least you can have no objection to my telling you a story. I have a goodly one in my mind even now, and if you say nothing to prevent me, I shall begin at once. ”

“ To the tale-teller, you must understand, the telling of the tale is the cutting of the natal cord. When the tale is told it exists outside oneself and often it is more living than the living man from whom it came. ”

“ In the depths of dialogue, his little craft may founder, but the much-loved words “Once upon a time” or “Long, long ago” arrest the attention immediately, even though the teller be not an artist; and having made a good beginning, he is reasonably sure of holding his hearers to the end. ”

“ Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent! ”

“ CHAPTER III THE TELLING OF FAIRY TALES The telling of stories refreshes the mind as a bath refreshes the body. It gives exercise to the intellect and its powers. It tests the judgments and feelings. The story-teller must wholly take into himself the life of which he speaks, must let it live and operate in himself freely. ”

“ Nobody even looked at me, unless I said something to them. I began to look for things that were different, things that I could show them, and say, see, this proves that I'm telling the truth, look at it—" He looked up helplessly. ”

“ I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me. ”

“ The fountain which leaps up fresh and living in every new life can never be exhausted till the springs of all life are dry. Tell me, O lover, gazing into those tender eyes uplifted to yours, twining the silken rings around your bronzed finger, pressing reverently the warm lips consecrated to you,—does it abate one jot or tittle of your happiness to know that eyes just as tender, curls just as silken, lips just as red, have stirred the hearts of men for a thousand years? ”

“ O Mother of Good Counsel, lend
⁠Intelligence to me!
Encompass me with wisdom,
⁠Thou Tower of Ivory!
"This is the Man of Lies," she says,
⁠"Disguised with fearful art:
He has the wounded hands and feet,
⁠But not the wounded heart." ”

“ And, as a general rule, it is more advisable to show your intelligence by saying nothing than by speaking out; for silence is a matter of prudence, whilst speech has something in it of vanity. ”

“ "It's you who are telling me; opening my eyes to things I'd looked at so long that I'd ceased to see them." ”

“ And now, O kind-hearted reader, I feel myself constrained, in the telling of this little story, to depart altogether from those principles of story-telling to which you probably have become accustomed, and to put the horse of my romance before the cart. There is a mystery respecting Mr. and Mrs. ”

“ but if it be reduced to one simple proposition, I fancy it may then have an answer.’—‘O sir,’ cried the ’Squire, ‘I am your most humble servant, I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. ”

“ Now that I know them all to be blotted out, and that I am an accepted person, I may the more freely confess them: the truth is, that one lie always paved the way for another, from hour to hour, from day to day, and from year to year ”

“ Asa-garth holy;
Met him there Thorr,
Moody in mid-yard,
And this was the speech
He first of all spoke:
X.
“Hast thou thy errand’s toil
Taken in vain?
Utter aloft now
All thy long story;
Often a sitting man’s
Mind misses something,
And lying men’s stories
Are lengthened with lies.” ”

“ Come, speak... Where is it? One word. One word only... and we will leave you in peace... And, to-morrow, when I have the list, you shall be free. Free, do you understand? But, in Heaven's name, speak!... ”

“ My confession then, O my God, in Thy sight, is made silently, and not silently. For in sound, it is silent; in affection, it cries aloud. For neither do I utter any thing right unto men, which Thou hast not before heard from me; nor dost Thou hear any such thing from me, which Thou hast not first said unto me. What then have I to do with men, that they should hear my confessions- as if they could heal all my infirmities- a race, curious to know the lives of others, slothful to amend their own? Why seek they to hear from me what I am; who will not hear from Thee what themselves are? ”

“ You seek sympathy, and all you get is the most evanescent sense of relief--if you get that much. For a confession, whatever it may be, stirs the secret depths of the hearer's character. Often depths that he himself is but dimly aware of. ”

“ There had seldom been a case in which he had not successfully employed a curious subterranean logic—an apparently wilful insistence upon what seemed at first glance the unvital and immaterial—as a preliminary to a swift volte-face by which he turned the evidence at a new and unexpected angle of inference, and drove home the doubt with a brilliant display of oratory which captivated and—for the moment—convinced. ”