It is because you have not a mind large enough to see that there is anything better than your own conduct and your own petty aims."
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The girl, seeing that it was late, albeit the old man's words affrighted her, said, 'An it please God, He will keep both you and me from that annoy; and even if it befall me, it were a much less evil to be maltreated of men than to be mangled of the wild beasts in the woods.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

There is even a more legitimate excuse than that.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

Government, it has been said, by taking the management of the turnpikes into its own hands, and by employing the soldiers, who would work for a very small addition to their pay, could keep the roads in good order, at a much less expense than it can be done by trustees, who have no other workmen to employ, but such as derive their whole subsistence from their wages.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I was seriously affected, without knowing how much, by late events; and my long exposure to the fierce wind had confused me.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Dark as midnight in her black dress, her haggard beauty and her unutterable woe, she had looked at me long enough to appear to say that her right to sit at my table was as good as mine to sit at hers.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

If thereupon he accept Duell, considering all men lawfully endeavour to obtain the good opinion of them that have the Soveraign Power, he ought not in reason to be rigorously punished; seeing part of the fault may be discharged on the punisher; which I say, not as wishing liberty of private revenges, or any other kind of disobedience; but a care in Governours, not to countenance any thing obliquely, which directly they forbid.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

I rode home slowly; whip-in-hand And soil’d bank-notes all ready, stood The Farmer who farm’d all my land, Except the little Park and Wood; And with the accustom’d compliment Of talk, and beef, and frothing beer, I, my own steward, took my rent, Three hundred pounds for half the year; Our witnesses the Cook and Groom, We sign’d the lease for seven years more, And bade Good-day; then to my room I went, and closed and lock’d the door, And cast myself down on my bed,
— from The Angel in the House by Coventry Patmore

He clung on for a moment, long enough to drag the god over backward.
— from White Fang by Jack London

The traffic, too, is increasing very slowly, and it seems that much is still wanting to assist its development to a much larger extent than heretofore.
— from India and Indian Engineering. Three lectures delivered at the Royal Engineer Institute, Chatham, in July 1872 by J. G. (Julius George) Medley

Soldiers in barracks are even well fed, housed, and clothed, at a much less expense than it costs the solitary labourer to eat his dry bread in his own cottage; and the expenses of such communities, if once established, would very soon be paid by their receipts.
— from Olla Podrida by Frederick Marryat

[164] what original ornament should be: I only set them forth as examples of new compositions, and must leave each to clothe his own thoughts with a befitting expression of his individual original ideas.
— from Principles of Decorative Design Fourth Edition by Christopher Dresser

As a mere laboratory experiment the manufacture of liquid air in small quantities has been known for twenty years or more.
— from The Romance of Modern Invention Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c. by Archibald Williams

I am also convinced that such auxiliary buildings can be erected at much less expense than would be incurred by the enlargement and alteration of the asylum itself.
— from Curiosities of Civilization by Andrew Wynter

The carved architectural ornaments of the façade are rich and elaborate in the extreme, though figured sculpture is used to a much less extent than in Northern portals of the same age.
— from A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volume 1, 3rd ed. From the Earliest Times to the Present Day by James Fergusson

These responses which indicated a wider and more lasting effect than I had hoped to produce, led me to plan for the publication of the book close on the heels of the concluding installment of the serial but in this I was disappointed.
— from A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland

They could have no interest in rebellion, they could gain nothing by it; and might lose every thing; nor do I think they dream of such a thing.
— from The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 by American Anti-Slavery Society