with a grain of salt

In another year, stories about the strange new face of an A-list actress might draw chortles and cackles.

And I have not had the first morsel of food prepared from this grain offered me since I reached the shores of Europe.

Now-a-days it is the bankrupt who flouts, and his too confiding creditors who are jeered and laughed at.

The Afghan was true to his salt, and their own retainers, who had come with them from Lucknow, remained steadfast at this crisis.

He felt himself the meanest, vilest thing a-crawl upon this sinful earth, and she—dear God!

Even if poverty were gone, the flail could still beat hard enough upon the grain and chaff of humanity.