velleities

• He does not shout out his wishes or velleities, unless invited by his host to do so. —  Latest Articles
• Over and over again, when reading newspaper articles full of pompous words borrowed from Latin through French, when wearied with 'velleities' and 'solidarities' and 'altruisms' and 'homologators,' or when vainly endeavouring to discover the real meaning which lies hidden in a jungle of Parliamentary verbiage, I have said to myself, remembering my similar labour upon the 'Variae How like this is to Cassiodorus Sidenote: Lack of humour Sidenote: The letter about the sucking-fish Intellectually one of the chief deficiencies of our author--a deficiency in which perhaps his age and nation participated--was a lack of humour. —  The Letters of Cassiodorus Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator
• His tendencies, or, say, rather velleities--for they proved to be hardly more--were excellent, but he contrived no mechanism by which to convert them into institutions, and when pressed by gainsayers abandoned them An economist of mark in France whose democratic principles are well known[108] communicated to the French public the gist of certain curious documents in his possession. —  The Inside Story of the Peace Conference
• Not in practice, doubtless; but here was a question of feeling, a scrutiny of the soul's hidden velleities. —  Demos
• It started up in corrupt or sordid hearts, and swept all their blind velleities into its purifying flame of passion -- —  Robert Browning

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