A beautiful collie dog lay upon the grass near his chair, watching the master’s face almost as tenderly as the master took in the still more magisterial physiognomy of the house; and a little bristling, bustling terrier bestowed a desultory attendance upon the other gentlemen.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

Cruel, revolting, and vile as slavery appears to our modern sense,—especially the earlier forms of slavery before the body of legislation, and, not less important, sentiment, which surrounded it later arose,—it still was a step forward, a distinct advance upon the older customs of cannibalism and wholesale slaughter.
— from Socialism: A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles by John Spargo

Some of the stones are gone, but one of the remaining sapphires is an antique intaglio representing upon one side a dauphin, and upon the other a monogram surmounted by a cross of the 5th or 6th century.
— from The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X by Sophia Beale

From complaisance towards the world, and from an unwillingness to appear disobliging and ungracious to our friends, we often allow our own privacy to be invaded.
— from Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine by Berthold Auerbach

He did not mind, but went on all day, as usual, through Oldbury, Tipton Oudley, and Hill Top, visiting his poor people.
— from Life of Father Ignatius of St. Paul, Passionist (The Hon. & Rev. George Spencer). by Pius a Sp. Sancto (Pius a Spiritu Sancto)

The things which are clear and distinct are usually things of our own creation.
— from Theism and Humanism Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered at the University of Glasgow, 1914 by Arthur James Balfour

It was like a knife-thrust in the back; such a devilish and unexpected turn of affairs that for half a second I had the same shuddery feeling that came to me the night I stooped over Hans Rutter and gasped at sight of what the fiends had done.
— from Raw Gold: A Novel by Bertrand W. Sinclair

But with his sadness, gloomy forebodings, and deep and unusual thoughts obtruded.
— from Wild Western Scenes A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer are Particularly Described by J. B. (John Beauchamp) Jones

It helps to show us what a deluding and unsatisfactory thing our body is.
— from The Ocean of Theosophy by William Quan Judge