All this seemed very pleasant, and Madame appeared goodness itself; and the teachers not so bad but they might be worse; and the pupils, perhaps, a little noisy and rough, but types of health and glee.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

On the whole though favouring preferably light opera of the Don Giovanni description and Martha , a gem in its line, he had a penchant , though with only a surface knowledge, for the severe classical school such as Mendelssohn.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

The farmer tills the soil, the miner digs in the earth, the weaver tends the loom, the mason carves the stone; the clever man invents, the shrewd man directs, the wise man studies, the inspired man sings—and all the result, the products of the labor of brain and muscle, are gathered into one stupendous stream and poured into their laps!
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The spindle follows, and displays the charms [pg 425] Of the fair spinster's breast and moving arms: Graceful in motion thus, his foe he plies, And treads each footstep ere the dust can rise; His glowing breath upon his shoulders plays: The admiring Greeks loud acclamations raise: To him they give their wishes, hearts, and eyes, And send their souls before him as he flies.
— from The Iliad by Homer

“I built a cottage for Susan and myself and made a gateway in the form of a Gothic Arch, by setting up a whale’s jaw bones.” — Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales .
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

i' th' market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

He thought it fine that he should be thus selected as the favorite of the richest and most attractive girl in town.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson

As men appear greater in proportion to the littleness of the objects by which they are surrounded, it may be assumed that the opinion entertained of the delegate will be so much the higher as talents are more rare among his constituents.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

There was here one Mary Thurston of Medfield, who seeing how it was with me, lent me a hat to wear; but as soon as I was gone, the squaw (who owned that Mary Thurston) came running after me, and got it away again.
— from Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson

He has therefore a certain leeway in which he can be sure of doing no harm, and may accomplish good, if he confines his propaganda to simple, factual and plainly honest statements on these subjects.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

In addition to these great and important provinces—that of Egypt in Africa, and Macedon and Greece in Europe—there were various other smaller ones in Asia Minor and in Syria, which were assigned to different generals and ministers of state who had been attached to the service of Alexander, and who all now claimed their several portions in the general distribution of power which took place after his death.
— from Pyrrhus Makers of History by Jacob Abbott

As they left the shed where my belongings were still being scrambled over, they glanced commiseratingly at me and glowered indignation at the officials that a lady should be so served.
— from Margaret Sanger: an autobiography. by Margaret Sanger

He is invoked by himself also, but he is a vanishing god, and his place is taken in most of the Vedic poems by the younger and more active god, Indra .
— from India: What can it teach us? A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller

“What, then, will avail, Masouda?” asked Godwin in a sad voice.
— from The Brethren by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

On Dec. 1, 1863, a patent, No. 40,763, was granted to Mr. Marks for the use of sponge rubber for constructing artificial feet and hands that dispensed with the articulated joints, and made a great improvement.
— from The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century. by Edward W. (Edward Wright) Byrn

For the right considering of God when I go unto him, and how or where I may find him gracious and merciful, is all in all; and mercy and grace is then obtained when we come to him as sitting upon a throne of grace.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

Moreover, it is an indisputable fact that the compilation of books constituting our present version is incomplete; for within the Bible itself more than a score of books, epistles, or other writings not included are mentioned, and generally in such a way as to show that those lost Scriptures were considered authentic and genuine.
— from The Vitality of Mormonism: Brief Essays on Distinctive Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by James E. (James Edward) Talmage

And my answer generally is, "Simply because you trust yourself."
— from The Master's Indwelling by Andrew Murray

In the American system, the process by which constitutions are made and governments instituted is by conventions of the people.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 94, August, 1865 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various