He shook his head, and advised that Heathcliff should be let alone; affirming, if the truth were known, Hareton would be found little else than a beggar.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

In the lower edge of the upper plank corresponding half circles are also cut, so that when they close, a row of holes is formed large enough to admit a negro's leg above the ankle, but not large enough to enable him to draw out his foot.
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

There was not a blade of grass to be seen in the paths, or a weed in the flower-beds; no fine lady ever trained and watered her geraniums, her cacti, and her rhododendrons, in her porcelain jardinière with more pains than this hitherto unseen gardener bestowed upon his little enclosure.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

For little eat they anything but flesh and the broth.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

Lady Jane was the old Earl's favourite daughter, and tended him and loved him sincerely: as for Lady Emily, the authoress of the "Washerwoman of Finchley Common," her denunciations of future punishment (at this period, for her opinions modified afterwards) were so awful that they used to frighten the timid old gentleman her father, and the physicians declared his fits always occurred after one of her Ladyship's sermons.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Though her love was so unalterably fixed on this unhappy youth, that, without the continuation of reciprocal regard, her life would have become an unsupportable burden, even amidst all the splendour of affluence and pomp; and although she foresaw, that, when his protection should cease, she must be left a wretched orphan in a foreign land, exposed to all the miseries of want; yet, such was the loftiness of her displeasure, that she disdained to complain, or even demand an explanation from the supposed author of her wrongs.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

When it boils, draw it from the fire long enough to add an ounce of coffee powder to a pound of water.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

It has been said that the provision which limits the appropriation of money for the support of an army to the period of two years would be unavailing, because the Executive, when once possessed of a force large enough to awe the people into submission, would find resources in that very force sufficient to enable him to dispense with supplies from the acts of the legislature.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

He informs us, too, that if we were to judge of the quantity of gold annually imported from the Brazils to Lisbon, by the amount of the tax paid to the king of Portugal, which it seems, is one-fifth of the standard metal, we might value it at eighteen millions of cruzadoes, or forty-five millions of French livres, equal to about twenty millions sterling.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

They have had the fortune, however, to please sundry critics, and to become the prey of many thieves; but are certainly very deficient in the three qualities here named; and, taken together with their illustrations, they form little else than a tissue of errors, partly his own, and partly copied from Lowth and Priestley.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

At the blunt end of the longest piece a ring is formed, large enough to admit of the point of a finger entering it; this is done by bending the wire back on itself a turn and a half, by the assistance of the round pincers.
— from How to Stuff Birds and Animals A valuable book giving instruction in collecting, preparing, mounting, and preserving birds, animals, and insects by Aaron A. Warford

Jesus denounced this statement as the first lie ever told, and Satan as the father of lies.
— from The Harp of God: Proof Conclusive That Millions Now Living Will Never Die by J. F. (Joseph Franklin) Rutherford

236 , the shaft runs through at an acute angle; hence the hole must be bored on a slant, or better still a slot cut through the floor long enough to allow for the slant.
— from Boat-Building and Boating by Daniel Carter Beard

The system of education in Scotland, though closely connected with its ecclesiastical establishment, owes its first legal existence to a statute passed in the year 1646 by the Parliament of that Kingdom for establishing schools in every parish, at the expense of the landholders, for the express purpose of teaching the poor.
— from The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805 Together with Other Documents, Official and Private, Relating to the Same Mission, to Which Is Prefixed an Account of the Life of Mr. Park by Mungo Park

The seamen had built a Fort large enough to accommodate themselves and the families of several Spanish fishermen.
— from A correct and authentic narrative of the Indian war in Florida with a description of Maj. Dade's massacre, and an account of the extreme suffering, for want of provision, of the army—having been obliged to eat horses' and dogs' flesh, &c, &c. by Barr, James, Captain

Now the butler at Mohair was a servant who had learned, from long experience, to anticipate every wish and whim of his master, and from the moment he descried the white sails of the yacht out of the windows of the butler's pantry his duty was clear as daylight.
— from The Celebrity, Volume 03 by Winston Churchill

That I am to have a chance for life even though against tremendous odds; even though outnumbered.
— from Clash of Arms: A Romance by John Bloundelle-Burton