To equip so small a book with a preface is, I am half afraid, to sin against proportion. But a preface is more than an author can resist, for it is the reward of his labours. When the foundation stone is laid, the architect appears with his plans, and struts for an hour before the public eye. So with the writer in his preface: he may have never a word to say, but he must show himself for a moment in the portico, hat in hand, and with an urbane demeanour.英文原著 · 《An Inland Voyage》
We have a proof of this in the preface of the author to the reader with which the _Mare au Diable_ begins. This preface would be disconcerting to any one who does not remember the intellectual atmosphere in which it was written.英文原著 · 《George Sand》
(Preface, p. ix); IB. (Preface, p. ix); IB. Table Chhronologique (in what Volume this is, you cannot yet say; seems preliminary to a GENERAL INDEX, which is infinitely wanted, but has not yet appeared to this Editor's aid), p.英文原著 · 《History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 16》
I have read your preface, and it seems to me excellent. (310/1. "Studies in the Theory of Descent." By A. Weismann. Translated and Edited by Raphael Meldola; with a Prefatory Notice by C. Darwin and a Translator's Preface. See Letter 291.) I am sorry in many ways, including the honour of England as a scientific country, that your translation has as yet sold badly. Does the publisher or do you lose by it?英文原著 · 《More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I》
{396a} "Notes upon George Borrow" prefaced to an edition of Lavengro. Ward, Lock & Co. {398a} Mr W. Elvin in the Athenaeum, 6th Aug. {399a} John Wilson Croker (1780-1857): Politician and Essayist; friend of Canning and Peel. At one time Temporary Chief Secretary for Ireland and later Secretary of the Admiralty. Supposed to have been the original of Rigby in Disraeli's Coningsby. {399b} Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, "Notes upon George Borrow" prefaced to an edition of Lavengro.英文原著 · 《The Life of George Borrow》
Please, Iet me preface this by saying: I'd Iike to buy everybody a round of drlnks...美剧 · 《Sex and the city》
All right, But I'm given to understand that When you have something awkward to discuss with someone, It's more palatable to preface it with banal chit chat.美剧 · 《The Big Bang Theory》