This number holds no manner of proportion with the infinite diversity of human actions; the multiplication of our inventions will never arrive at the variety of examples; add to these a hundred times as many more, it will still not happen that, of events to come, there shall one be found that, in this vast number of millions of events so chosen and recorded, shall so tally with any other one, and be so exactly coupled and matched with it that there will not remain some circumstance and diversity which will require a diverse judgment.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The misery which has been for a brief space eased comes back again and tears his heart more cruelly than ever.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In a moment they constituted a word, which the goat seemed to have been trained to write, so little hesitation did it show in forming it, and Bérangère suddenly exclaimed, clasping her hands in admiration,— “Godmother Fleur-de-Lys, see what the goat has just done!” Fleur-de-Lys ran up and trembled.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

And indeed I was now inclining to the belief that he must be no Circle at all, but some extremely clever juggler; or else that the old wives' tales were true, and that after all there were such people as Enchanters and Magicians.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott

At the mention of Ella, Algernon crimsoned to the eyes, and became so exceedingly confused, that he could with difficulty stammer forth, by way of reply, the query as to the time when the important event was expected to take place.
— from Ella Barnwell A Historical Romance of Border Life by Emerson Bennett

In mediaeval times, when a bishop spoke ex cathedra, his authority, so far as it carried weight, came from two sources.
— from The Inside of the Cup — Complete by Winston Churchill

He walked in with a brisk step, eyed Charles up and down, and then, without much formality, asked for what he was wanted.
— from An African Millionaire: Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay by Grant Allen

But with deficient supplies, with much curtailed resources, with no helpful friends, heroism alone, however admirable and prolonged, was sure to be of no avail against an unmatched materially organized power, used to [123] its most efficiency by the severest military discipline, by national fanaticism worked to fury, and by soldierly enthusiasm carried to wildness.
— from England, Canada and the Great War by L. G. (Louis Georges) Desjardins