Now, this gentleman had a younger brother of still better appearance than himself, who had tried life as a Cornet of Dragoons, and found it a bore; and had afterwards tried it in the train of an English minister abroad, and found it a bore; and had then strolled to Jerusalem, and got bored there; and had then gone yachting about the world, and got bored everywhere.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

So I began; and whatsoever truth I had read in those other books, I found here amid the praise of Thy Grace; that whoso sees, may not so glory as if he had not received, not only what he sees, but also that he sees (for what hath he, which he hath not received?), and that he may be not only admonished to behold Thee, who art ever the same, but also healed, to hold Thee; and that he who cannot see afar off, may yet walk on the way, whereby he may arrive, and behold, and hold Thee.
— from The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The young suddenly disperse on your approach, at a signal from the mother, as if a whirlwind had swept them away, and they so exactly resemble the dried leaves and twigs that many a traveler has placed his foot in the midst of a brood, and heard the whir of the old bird as she flew off, and her anxious calls and mewing, or seen her trail her wings to attract his attention, without suspecting their neighborhood.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

188 His unsuspected testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold challenge of Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the fears as well as the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him, that if he persists in his cruel intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and that he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank, senators and matrons of nobles' extraction, and the friends or relations of his most intimate friends.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Of the strange connection between this artistic bias and his taste in the domain of morality I was also to become aware, to my horror, in due course.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

He writes as the idealist, describing men not as they are but as he thinks they should be; he has no humor, and his mission is not to amuse but to reform.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

Thus "the most pious Edward" of England used to lay his royal hand upon the ailing subjects and make them whole— a crowd of wretched souls That stay his cure: their malady convinces The great essay of art; but at his touch, Such sanctity hath Heaven given his hand, They presently amend, as the "Doctor" in Macbeth hath it.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

He sometimes bursts out into exclamations of rage and insane fury against all that we honour as best and holiest, that sound less the voice of human lips than the echoes of the final place of agony and despair.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Silk weaving was among the most cherished arts of Andalusia; it is said that there were no less than one hundred and thirty thousand weavers in Cordova alone; but Almeria had the greatest name for her silks and carpets.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

The depression in the prices of agricultural products had been greatly relieved and a buoyant and hopeful tone was beginning to be felt by all our people.
— from A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 9, part 1: Benjamin Harrison by Benjamin Harrison

It is sometimes customary to apply borax and honey to the mouth for thrush; but it is always better to treat the disease constitutionally rather than locally.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

it was too dreary for any but a Hollander to bear.
— from Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 by Margaret Fuller

Buonaparte having begun to talk of public affairs, Bernadotte allowed him to enlarge on the necessity of a change in the government; and at last, perceiving that Buonaparte, aware of the awkwardness of his situation, was exaggerating the unfavourable circumstances in the situation of France,—"But, general," said Bernadotte, "the Russians are beaten in Switzerland, and have retired into Bohemia; a line of defence is maintained between the Alps and the Ligurian Apennines; we are in possession of Genoa; Holland is saved—the Russian army that was there is destroyed, and the English army has retired to England:—15,000 insurgents have just been dispersed in the department of the Upper Garonne, and constrained to take refuge in Spain:—at this moment we are busied in raising two hundred auxiliary battalions of 1000 men each, and 40,000 cavalry; and in three months at most, we shall not know what to do with this multitude of torrents.
— from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume II. by Walter Scott

Although a man, he seemed still a boy, and his two-and-twenty years looked like only seventeen; he was serious, and did not appear to know that there was on the earth a being called woman.
— from Les Misérables, v. 3/5: Marius by Victor Hugo

It was not an amusement; it was a diabolical punishment, and even a genius of mental aberrations could never conclude that it was anything but a horror to the muscles and a crime against the back.
— from Men, Women, and Boats by Stephen Crane

At the very far end of this in the warm darkness he puts bits of straw and feathers to make a bed, and here the young are hatched.
— from The Children's Book of London by G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton

“I am going now truly to recount a life which from the time of its ceasing has been, in the other world, the continual subject of the cavils of contending parties; the one making me as black as hell, the other as pure and innocent as the inhabitants of this blessed place; the mist of prejudice blinding their eyes, and zeal for what they themselves profess, making everything appear in that light which they think most conduces to its honor.
— from A Journey from This World to the Next by Henry Fielding

Two daughters were also born at Henderson, the first of whom, Lucy, died in infancy and was buried in her father's garden.
— from Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 1 of 2 by John Wilson Townsend