"You are not very substantial, I must admit," said the Emperor.
— from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

We behold in these people a weak, good-natured, and glistening idealism, which, above all, wished to exhibit noble attitudes and noble voices, something at once presumptuous and inoffensive, and animated by a cordial aversion to “cold” or “dry” reality—as also to anatomy, complete passions, and every kind of philosophical continence and scepticism, but especially towards the knowledge of nature in so far as it was impossible to use it as religious symbolism.
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I dare say you have been sorry for it, and that you won't do it again, and it's long ago now, and in short I want you to be very cheerful, and not very sad, this evening.'
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Here Fanny, who could not but listen, involuntarily shook her head, and Crawford was instantly by her side again, entreating to know her meaning; and as Edmund perceived, by his drawing in a chair, and sitting down close by her, that it was to be a very thorough attack, that looks and undertones were to be well tried, he sank as quietly as possible into a corner, turned his back, and took up a newspaper, very sincerely wishing that dear little Fanny might be persuaded into explaining away that shake of the head to the satisfaction of her ardent lover; and as earnestly trying to bury every sound of the business from himself in murmurs of his own, over the various advertisements of “A most desirable Estate in South Wales”; “To Parents and Guardians”; and a “Capital season'd Hunter.” Fanny, meanwhile, vexed with herself for not having been as motionless as she was speechless, and grieved to the heart to see Edmund's arrangements, was trying by everything in the power of her modest, gentle nature, to repulse Mr. Crawford, and avoid both his looks and inquiries; and he, unrepulsable, was persisting in both.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

There was besides in the inn, as servant, an Asturian lass with a broad face, flat poll, and snub nose, blind of one eye and not very sound in the other.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“Ah, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, so much has been fermenting in this heart that I have not known how to wait for your coming.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

As regards Giorgione himself, we have indeed to take note of all those negations and exceptions, by which, at first sight, a "new Vasari" seems merely to have confused our apprehension of a delightful object, to have explained away out of our inheritance from past time what seemed of high value there.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

They are never very shabby, they are never very spruce — Going cheerfully and carelessly and smoothly to the deuce.
— from In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses by Henry Lawson

She had already been out with Willie on a not very successful attempt to spear turtle in the open sea, but had never assisted at a chase a la sucker.
— from Madame Gilbert's Cannibal by Bennet Copplestone

How I took part in a not very successful Holiday Party.
— from My Friend Smith: A Story of School and City Life by Talbot Baines Reed

"The animals you refer to are now very scarce in these islands."
— from The Story of Malta by Maturin Murray Ballou

Whether or not he ever came to understand me—and I have been so tossed about since then that I am not very sure I understand myself—he soon perceived that I was perfectly in earnest; and after about ten days of argument, suddenly dropped the subject, and announced that he was wasting capital, and must go home at once.
— from The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson

After 1869, all naval vessels, steam or not, were required to have “full sail power,” and captains were on notice that they would pay for any coal they consumed other than for emergencies.
— from Charlestown Navy Yard: Boston National Historical Park, Massachusetts by United States. National Park Service

I wish parliament were assembled, that I may hear, and perhaps some day be heard;—but on this point I am not very sanguine.
— from The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals. Vol. 2 by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

Although nothing very sumptuous is to be expected on board-ship, yet there will be little or no cause to complain of deficiency.
— from The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2) or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company. by Thomas Williamson

You know enough about stage business to play the part of Robert Macaire very respectably and you also know that I am not very slow in Jaques Strop.
— from My Life: or the Adventures of Geo. Thompson Being the Auto-Biography of an Author. Written by Himself. by George Thompson

A nearer view shows a pair of semi-detached houses, built upon arches, and separated by a thoroughfare; the cleaner of the two is a hospital; the dingier, which is decorated with the brown- green stains, the normal complexion of tropical masonry, lodges the station Commandant and the medical officers.
— from Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 1 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir