fair-seeming

[P] eople altered, at their pleasure, the customary significance of words to suit their deeds: irrational daring came to be considered the “manly courage of one loyal to his party”; prudent delay was thought a fair-seeming cowardice; a moderate attitude was deemed a mere shield for lack of virility, and a reasoned understanding with regard to all sides of an issue meant that one was indolent and of no use for anything.

The Volokh Conspiracy » “Free Gaza” Activists’ Version of the Ship Incident 2010

People altered, at their pleasure, the customary significance of words to suit their deeds: irrational daring came to be considered the “manly courage of one loyal to his party”; prudent delay was thought a fair-seeming cowardice; a moderate attitude was deemed a mere shield for lack of virility, and a reasoned understanding with regard to all sides of an issue meant that one was indolent and of no use for anything.

The Volokh Conspiracy » “Free Gaza” Activists’ Version of the Ship Incident 2010

If these demands are not met, it is difficult to see how trials in-absentia will meet the needs of the United States for a transparent, fair and fair-seeming mechanism to reestablish our moral authority.

Sharon Kelly: On the Ground at Guantanamo Bay 2008

Upon my parole, I am allowed certain privileges, to walk abroad in the sunlight, to take upon myself a fair-seeming shape, to drink wine and eat savory food.

Orphans of Chaos 2005

I was of no party in particular, I cared only that those devils in fair-seeming be destroyed as they destroyed so many of their slaves.

The Elvenbane Lackey, Mercedes 1991

Then they sought for a resting-place, and a hiding-place: for this land, fair-seeming still, was nonetheless now territory of the Enemy.

The Lord of the Rings Tolkien, J. R. R. 1954

O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here, possessing a fair-seeming form?

The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. 480? BC-406 BC Euripides

The fair-seeming bubble burst, and the rich man of one day found himself on the morrow virtually reduced to beggary.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 Various

Truly, this fair-seeming and wonderful civilisation was like the floor of a charnel-house or a field of battle; anywhere one drove a spade beneath its surface, he uncovered horrors, sights for the eyes and stenches for the nostrils that caused him to turn sick!

King Coal : a Novel Upton Sinclair 1923

But all this fair-seeming prospect was the prelude to one of the greatest national tragedies in history.

Bulgaria Frank Fox 1917