It happens more frequently, as has been hinted, that a scientific head is placed on an ape's body, a fine exceptional understanding in a base soul, an occurrence by no means rare, especially among doctors and moral physiologists.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Now my father being entirely a water-drinker,—was a long time gravelled almost to death, in turning this as much to his advantage, as he did every other thing which the ancients did or said; and it was not till the seventh year of his marriage, after a thousand fruitless experiments and devices, that he hit upon an expedient which answered the purpose;—and that was, when any difficult and momentous point was to be settled in the family, which required great sobriety, and great spirit too, in its determination,—he fixed and set apart the first Sunday night in the month, and the Saturday night which immediately preceded it, to argue it over, in bed with my mother: By which contrivance, if you consider, Sir, with yourself,.. ..
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

ce of God in punishing men for the sins of their ancestors King, Duke and Duchess, and Madame Palmer, were Lady Batten how she was such a man’s whore Lady Batten to give me a spoonful of honey for my cold Lately too much given to seeing of plays, and expense Lay with her to-night, which I have not done these eight(days)
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

One evening Mr. Rudolph Block, of New York, found himself seated at dinner alongside Mr. Percival Pollard, the distinguished critic.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

But a different and more probable view may be suggested; namely, that the habit of uttering load reiterated sounds from a sense of pleasure, first led to the retraction of the corners of the mouth and of the upper lip, and to the contraction of the orbicular muscles; and that now, through association and long-continued habit, the same muscles are brought into slight play whenever any cause excites in us a feeling which, if stronger, would have led to laughter; and the result is a smile.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

Going to visit friends who knew me under the name of Guillaume Berlat, and amongst whom my resemblance to Arsène Lupin was a subject of many innocent jests, I could not assume a disguise, and my presence had been remarked.
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc

So he and I to the waterside, and our horses coming by the ferry, we by oars over to Lambeth, and from thence, with brave discourse by the way, rode to Woolwich, where we eat and drank at Mr. Peat’s, and discoursed of many businesses, and put in practice my new way of the Call-book, which will be of great use.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Summer arrived, and dogs and men packed on their backs, rafted across blue mountain lakes, and descended or ascended unknown rivers in slender boats whipsawed from the standing forest.
— from The Call of the Wild by Jack London

she asked; and as he remained sullenly dumb she went on: "I know so many who've tried to find it; and, believe me, they all got out by mistake at wayside stations: at places like Boulogne, or Pisa, or Monte Carlo—and it wasn't at all different from the old world they'd left, but only rather smaller and dingier and more promiscuous.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

When we find in Froissart, that the Comte de Foix knew in Bearn the defeat of John, king of Castile, at Jubera the next day after it happened, and the means by which he tells us he came to do so, we may be allowed to be a little merry at it, as also at what our annals report, that Pope Honorius, the same day that King Philip Augustus died at Mantes, performed his public obsequies at Rome, and commanded the like throughout Italy, the testimony of these authors not being, perhaps, of authority enough to restrain us.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Then Dora and Alice and Daisy and Mrs Pettigrew poured out the tea, and we handed cups and plates.
— from The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers by E. (Edith) Nesbit

Her anger was all directed against Mr. Plunkett.
— from Castle Blair: A Story of Youthful Days by Flora L. (Flora Louisa) Shaw

Of music and of art in general he was a devotee, as many passages in his novels attest.
— from Disraeli: A Study in Personality and Ideas by Walter Sichel

But, even if they also have another distinct and more primitive ancestry of their own, not associated with the Papuo-Melanesian types, or even with the pure Papuan types, found on the coast and in the plains, one would imagine that contact with these types would have caused the Mafulu people to learn something of the more advanced art which these other peoples display and that we should not have to record a sudden drop from artistic designs embodying curves and natural imitative art to a system confined to straight lines, zig-zags, and spots.
— from The Mafulu: Mountain People of British New Guinea by Robert Wood Williamson

There exists, thus, in the perspective field of every sense a portion which exercises on all the rest a different and more powerful influence than the rest upon one another.
— from Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach

I can look at Disappointments and Misfortunes, Pain and Sickness, Death itself, and, what is worse than Death, the Loss of those who are dearest to me, with Indifference, so long as I keep in view the Pleasures of Eternity, and the State of Being in which there will be no Fears nor Apprehensions, Pains nor Sorrows, Sickness nor Separation.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

For him, whom I have this night caused to be surprized, even as he came forth of your close contrived conveyance, and detaine as my prisoner, I have resolved how to proceed with him: but concerning thy selfe, mine oppressions are so many and violent, as I know not what to say of thee.
— from The Decameron (Day 1 to Day 5) Containing an hundred pleasant Novels by Giovanni Boccaccio