Example sentences of "the best of times " in BNC.

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1 I 'm not sure that a radial-arm saw is accurate enough for this at the best of times , but , at the moment , mine rattles up and down its rails like a train in the sidings , and is definitely not fit for the job .
2 Psycho-history is a derelict enterprise at the best of times , and who can be sure about the mental health of any of the great heroes of the past ?
3 A serious petrol shortage is only making things worse — bus travel , crowded at the best of times , is now cruel and inhumane .
4 This is hazardous at the best of times , using a crane and the natural motion of the sea to lock and unlock the mexeflote cells .
5 Death made little sense at the best of times .
6 With me coming from the North of England , everybody is pretty reserved up there at the best of times , so coming down to London and meeting Angie with an American accent and flitting around the room and speaking in a loud voice all the time , it was amazing .
7 But statements are unlikely to prevent a heightening of suspicions which are always fairly strong even at the best of times , and that could make it harder for the North to get the global climate convention it is seeking .
8 A combination of justified annoyance , guilt and weeks of overwork blew John McLeish 's temper to shreds instantly , and Francesca , seriously over-stressed and not one to duck a quarrel at the best of times , responded in kind .
9 Such a transfer is difficult to achieve at the best of times .
10 THESE are the best of times for Moody 's and Standard & Poor 's ( S&P ) , the two American companies that dominate the world business of rating government and corporate debt .
11 There were clearly changes occurring , and the borderlines between social classes , never very clear at the best of times , were probably less precise than they had been before the First World War — though class barriers were by no means collapsing in the real world of health , education and social opportunity .
12 They can be a bit thick at the best of times , ; you know that amphora you sent me ? well my lot only went and peed in it — I have to go now , Tony 's coming for his Osso Buco .
13 But back in LA , the tension between illusion and reality — taut at the best of times — has finally snapped .
14 This was brought home to me recently when I went into mine ( a rash and dangerous move at the best of times ) to fetch the hosepipe .
15 I do not like using the telephone at the best of times and was never very fond of small-talk , that tedious lubricant for rusty little minds .
16 He was in no state to break such news to a woman like Mrs Browning whose sensibilities were tender at the best of times .
17 Mother Bombie 's joints , stiff at the best of times , even after an internal oiling with home brew , seized up completely .
18 ‘ Do n't be ungrateful , ’ said Caroline , who was a bit above herself at the best of times .
19 Having teenagers is a humbling experience at the best of times — and having teenagers taking exams is the greatest leveller of all .
20 They were tasteless things , at the best of times — obscene , if you considered that the herrings had been cured with their innards still inside them .
21 The best of times , the worst of times ’
22 It was n't simply that he was managing to smile with his mouth full — a difficult enough task at the best of times — it was that his smile expressed so many real , positive qualities that it must be designed to sell something .
23 Life was not quite a state of nature or a question of the survival of the fittest , but in times of no food parcels the partition separating us from that state was unpleasantly thin and even at the best of times it was thin enough to be able to hear most of what went on on the other side .
24 Change is uncomfortable at the best of times and the patient is discomforted .
25 It is difficult to achieve at the best of times , but is , perhaps , especially problematic in education .
26 Telling you Christmas dinner 's no picnic for The Lady of the House at the best of times and this year was no exception .
27 A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times , but one of this size … .
28 Arthur Jaffe was not a benevolent man at the best of times .
29 It would be a brave private investor who would put up the huge initial capital or loans for what is , at the best of times , a high-risk , long-term investment when there is a prospect of long , drawn-out proceedings in the International Court of Justice — and even of a moratorium on activity .
30 Even in the best of times Scotland is a neurotic sort of place .
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