He also looked upon virtue as a species of work, not wanting many arguments, or much instruction; and he taught that the wise man was sufficient for himself; for that everything that belonged to any one else belonged to him.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

After watching their antics for some time, and calculating the weight of their paws as they cuff each other, I satisfy a long ungratified Van Amburg ambition, by patting the youngest on the head and putting my hand (for an exceedingly brief instant) into his mouth, experiencing a certain fearful pleasure, remembering that although young he is a lion!
— from My Winter on the Nile Eighteenth Edition by Charles Dudley Warner

In obedience to the signal Murgatroyd turned on the repulsive force to half power, and the Astronef leapt up vertically a couple of thousand feet.
— from A Honeymoon in Space by George Chetwynd Griffith

Ver a Soie' 1859 pages 304, 209.) says that he has seen a number of moths with their wings reduced to a third, fourth, or tenth part of their normal dimensions, and even to mere short straight stumps: "il me semble qu'il y a la un veritable arret de developpement partiel."
— from The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 1 by Charles Darwin

His confusion was so apparent to himself that after a slight pause it seemed only natural to hear Angela say, in a low, unemphatic voice, as she played with her fork, “Do you mind this—so much?
— from Paths of Judgement by Anne Douglas Sedgwick

"I—I do not mind going to the sick-room with you now," she whispered, in a low, unsteady voice; and, all unconscious of what was to accrue from it, Dorothy followed her companion from the room and up to Jessie's chamber.
— from Pretty Madcap Dorothy; Or, How She Won a Lover by Laura Jean Libbey

Let us put aside untimely sentiment and assume that it is perfectly proper to sell at auction Shelley’s love letters, or that a letter of Poe’s grocer demanding in rude terms immediate payment of two dollars and fifty cents for food supplied, is a fitting library ornament if expensively framed together with the poet’s portrait, and let us visit a few of the important dealers in such literary property in New York.
— from Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction Rooms by Guido Bruno

For the few minutes it took the red roadster to slip under the green summits of Twin Peaks and by a maze of boulevards debouch at length upon Valencia and so into the busy length of Market Street their talk ran to commonplaces.
— from Burned Bridges by Bertrand W. Sinclair

In 1182 there was born at Assisi, a little Umbrian village, a boy whom his mother named John, but whom his father, a rich merchant, who had lately travelled in France, nicknamed ‘Francis’, or ‘the Frenchman’.
— from Europe in the Middle Ages by Ierne L. (Ierne Lifford) Plunket

This carried nearly every one else on deck, and left us virtually alone.
— from Miles Wallingford Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" by James Fenimore Cooper

I therefore read them a portion of the service, with a loud, unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon the occasion.
— from Dalziels' Illustrated Goldsmith by Oliver Goldsmith