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Example sentences for "could not bring himself"

  • There was a manliness in this which would have touched Sir Thomas had he been in a better humour, but, as it was, he had been so much irritated by the young man's manner, that he could not bring himself to be just.

  • Sir Thomas could not quite make up his mind whether the meeting was to be allowed or not, but he could not bring himself at the spur of the moment to refuse his sanction.

  • But the questions were put to him in so distasteful a way that he could not bring himself to be confidential.

  • But he could not bring himself to say it.

  • He could not bring himself to offer it as if the old man were a beggar.

  • He could not bring himself to use dearest or darling, and he hated to address her as Emily, so finally he began with the word dear.

  • He could not bring himself to say what was in his heart.

  • He would willingly have done so as far as she was concerned; but he could not bring himself to do it on his own part.

  • But useless as it must soon be to him, he could not bring himself to believe that it was not still all-powerful with others.

  • Even he could not bring himself to tell her that he had married her with no other view.

  • Then there arose within his own bosom an immense desire to know that secret, so that if possible he might do something to relieve her pain;--but he could not bring himself to ask further questions.

  • He had promised to come on the Sunday afternoon, but he could not bring himself to believe in that theory of books and poetry put forward by Mrs. Masters.

  • He could not bring himself at the spur of the moment to repudiate the idea by which Trevelyan was actuated.

  • He could not bring himself to do that, I should say.

  • He could not bring himself to write upon his slate or to spell out upon his fingers the dread words, "I am dying;" and Phebe was not old or experienced enough to read the signs of an approaching death.

  • But though he was reckless of his life, he could not bring himself to be guilty of suicide.

  • But Felicita's portrait he could not bring himself to give up.

  • Mark hadn't noticed it, but all the same he hunted around on the mantel until he found the well-blackened corn-cob, but he could not bring himself to light it.

  • The latter did not wait for him, but mounted and rode homeward; and he was in so anxious and unsettled a frame of mind that he could not bring himself to take his papers from his pocket.

  • He could not bring himself down to work, so he went to town twice each day, and always came back to report the loss of another ship belonging to the expedition.

  • He could not bring himself to marry a wife out of Mrs Askerton's drawing-room, nor could he expect his mother to receive a young woman brought into the family under such circumstances.

  • But to Captain Aylmer himself, he could not bring himself to say pleasant things or to express pleasant wishes.

  • He reached Taunton in the middle of the night during the small hours of the morning in a winter night; but yet he could not bring himself to go to bed.

  • If she loved this 'accursed beast,' let her marry him; only for that was now his one difficulty only he could not bring himself to think it possible that she should love him.

  • He could not bring himself to have to do with Mr. Slope.

  • He, however, stated that he could not bring himself to believe that Mr. Slope had any real anxiety such as that he had pretended.

  • Grantly; but he could not bring himself to mention Mr. Slope's name.

  • He was lacking neither in taste nor intelligence; but he could not bring himself to admire anything modern.

  • He confessed blushingly that he had already written verses on the sadness of life, but he could not bring himself to recite them, in spite of Jean-Christophe's entreaties.

  • He went to the door again: and trembling with love and fear, with his hand on the latch he could not bring himself to open it.

  • He wrote to her again, and this time he could not bring himself altogether to exercise the constraint which he had imposed on himself for the first letter.

  • Even in his anger he could not have written to his son without using the ordinary terms of affection, and in his anger he could not bring himself to use those terms.

  • Had Miss Demolines been christened Mary, or Fanny, or Jane, I think that John Eames would now have called her by either of those names; but Madalina was such a mouthful that he could not bring himself to use it at once.

  • He could not bring himself to think of taking Clara Van Siever as the model that was to sit before him for the rest of his life.

  • In order to pay his models Haydon was obliged to pawn one of his two lay-figures, since he could not bring himself to part with any more books.

  • He could not bring himself to see their truth.

  • He was striving to do his duty by the head of his family, but he could not bring himself to say that the marriage between Lady Anna Lovel and the tailor was a happy event.

  • He could not bring himself to say so to the Countess or to any of those lawyers, when he was sent for and told that because of the lowliness of his position a marriage between him and the highly born heiress was impossible.

  • Though he now was nearly sure that this last ground of enmity was at an end, and though he had come to the Earl for certain purposes of his own, he could not bring himself to feel that there should be good fellowship between them.

  • Yet he could not bring himself to let these men have their way with him.

  • He thought that he could have dropped the book containing the will into the sea, though he could not bring himself to burn the will itself.

  • He confessed to himself his own weakness, though he could not bring himself to confess his own guilt.

  • The heir expectant was then convinced that it would have been better for him to have followed the advice which Isabel had given him, but yet he could not bring himself to believe that the advice had been disinterested.

  • He could not bring himself to destroy it, and surely, sooner or later, it would be found.

  • And then he could not bring himself to talk about Mary Lowther, and to tell their joint secrets.

  • His heart was so tender towards her that he could not bring himself to propose to her the cold and unpleasant safety of a Reformatory.

  • When spoken to on the subject by Mr. Fenwick, he declared that the feeling among the gentry was so strong against his brother-in-law, that he could not bring himself to put himself forward.


  • The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "could not bring himself" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.


    Some common collocations, pairs and triplets of words:
    called great; could come; could count; could desire; could detect; could discern; could earn; could get; could guess; could just; could look; could not; could not help being; could not help feeling; could not help smiling; could observe; could only have been; could procure; could recover; could rise; could still; could summon; could venture; could you; shut himself; somatic cells