This is at the bottom, a dictate of common sense, or the instinct of self-defence, peculiar to ignorant weakness; resembling that instinct, which makes a fish muddy the water it swims in to elude its enemy, instead of boldly facing it in the clear stream.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

The palace Enter the old DUCHESS OF YORK, with the SON and DAUGHTER of CLARENCE SON.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

D’Artagnan looked at Porthos with that air of wonder which a cunning man cannot help feeling at displays of crass stupidity.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

I slept the sleep of the just, and awoke late to find aunt sucking my stiff-standing prick at the very instant it was filling her mouth with a deluge of creamy spunk.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

It would be a deed of charity, so the charitable professor applied himself to it with all his heart, slowly repeating the question.
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal

In similar manner he collected lists of strong phrases, the phrases of living language, phrases that bit like acid and scorched like flame, or that glowed and were mellow and luscious in the midst of the arid desert of common speech.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

"My dear mistress," replied the bird, "your cooks are very good and you can safely leave all to them, except that you must be careful to have a dish of cucumbers, stuffed with pearl sauce, served with the first course.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

He turned a little out of his way to take leave of M. Barreaux, whom he found botanizing in the wood near his chateau, and who, when he was told the purpose of St. Aubert's visit, expressed a degree of concern, such as his friend had thought it was scarcely possible for him to feel on any similar occasion.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

What is equally important, they are exhibiting a degree of common sense and self-control which is causing better relations to exist between the races, and is causing the Southern white man to learn to believe in the value of educating the men and women of my race.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

One of the most attractive departments of child study is that which investigates the means of deciding from external manifestations of form, proportion, action, voice, and attitude the nature and condition of the brain and neurological system of the child.
— from Dickens As an Educator by James L. (James Laughlin) Hughes

They are dull of comprehension, slow of speech, bashful but otherwise bold of person, and red of skin.
— from Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 by Jasper Danckaerts

The organ of hearing is a capsule containing an otolite and coloured spots placed between the orifices; the uppermost orifice or mouth is surrounded by eight eye-specks, and six of a deep orange colour surround the lateral one, a nerve-centre between the two supplies the animal with nerves.
— from On Molecular and Microscopic Science, Volume 2 (of 2) by Mary Somerville

From a comparison of the temperatures and pressures thus found by experiment, empirical formulæ have been constructed, which exhibit, with an approximation sufficiently close for practice, this relation; and these formulæ may accordingly be used for the computation of tables exhibiting the pressures, temperatures, and densities of common steam; and such tables will have sufficient numerical accuracy for all practical purposes.
— from The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated (Seventh Edition) With an Account of Its Invention and Progressive Improvement, and Its Application to Navigation and Railways; Including Also a Memoir of Watt by Dionysius Lardner

Do not the constructive fingers of Watt, Fulton, Whittemore, and Arkwright, predict the fusible, hard, and temperable texture of metals, the properties of stone, water, and wood? the lovely attributes of the maiden child predict the refinements and decorations of civil society?
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Volume 62, No. 386, December, 1847 by Various

This book by “the first of living criminal sociologists,” is divided into four parts: Data of criminal anthropology; Data of criminal statistics; Positive theory of penal responsibility; Practical reforms.
— from The Book Review Digest, Volume 13, 1917 Thirteenth Annual Cumulation Reviews of 1917 Books by Various

In the meantime bands of murderers, thieves and robbers were roaming unrestrained among the unarmed and defenseless citizens, committing all manner of plunder, and driving off cattle, sheep and horses, abusing and insulting women.
— from The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry, and Travels by Parley P. (Parley Parker) Pratt

If we are not to say that the Atonement, as a work carried through in the sufferings and death of Christ, sufferings and death determined by our sin, is vicarious or substitutionary, what are we to call it?
— from The Atonement and the Modern Mind by James Denney