| He felt silly that he'd allowed her muddled ravings to addle him in the first place. |
| In the process, the patient is willfully blinded to the conduct that inevitably causes his misery in the first place. |
| But what caused the cancer in the first place, and what can we do about it? |
| You may be wondering why she was ever with me in the first place, but there's no accounting for taste. |
| If Hannibal had listened too long to his accountants, he might not have set off in the first place. |
| But these are small quibbles, and the greater value of this book is that it has its readers asking such questions in the first place. |
