The next person who questioned me was a wag, who began by asking if I had ever seen amputation performed; and I replying in the affirmative, he shook his head and said, “What!
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

CARLYLE FROM AMERICAN POINTS OF VIEW Later Thoughts and Jottings There is surely at present an inexplicable rapport (all the more piquant from its contradictoriness) between that deceas'd author and our United States of America—no matter whether it lasts or not{13} As we Westerners assume definite shape, and result in formations and fruitage unknown before, it is curious with what a new sense our eyes turn to representative outgrowths of crises and personages in the Old World.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Many are prostrate and in ruins.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Aldermen played an important rôle already before the Constitution of Egbert, but reached their highest power during the reign of Alfred the Great, who had married the daughter of an alderman.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

For gods as well as men hate the lie in the soul, or principle of falsehood; and as for any other form of lying which is used for a purpose and is regarded as innocent in certain exceptional cases—what need have the gods of this?
— from The Republic by Plato

It is the image of what the history it symbolises has more and more become for the world, paler and paler as it recedes into the distance.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

Though there is nothing I would not do to comfort an afflicted person, and I really believe that one should do all one can to show great sympathy to him for his misfortune, for miserable people are so foolish that this does them the greatest good in the world; yet I also hold that we should be content with expressing sympathy, and carefully avoid having any.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld

This feeling was so glad and so ghostly that I was in all peace and in rest, that there was nothing in earth that should have grieved me.
— from Revelations of Divine Love by of Norwich Julian

Pantagruel set up one trophy in memorial of their valour, and Panurge another in remembrance of the hares.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Owing to their pursuit of the higher learning of the times and their cultivation of all the feminine arts and graces, the hetæræ constituted a most interesting phenomenon in the social life of Greece, and played an important role in Greek culture, especially in Athens.
— from Greek Women by Mitchell Carroll

It may be strained or not, as preferred, and, if required, a little more vinegar or wine can be added, according to taste.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

For not alone was David more thin and worn; his cheeks had lost their colour, pinched and pale, and it required no special acuteness to detect how changed he was from the robust David of former years.
— from The Web of Time by Robert E. (Robert Edward) Knowles

Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, who returned to power when the war ended in October 1997, publicly expressed interest in moving forward on economic reforms and privatization and in renewing cooperation with international financial institutions.
— from The 2001 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

This Note is Legal Tender for all Debts, Public and Private, and is Redeemable in Lawful Money at the Treasury of the Kingdom of Superior.
— from And Then the Town Took Off by Richard Wilson

Let s (Fig. 16) be a disk free to rotate about its centre, and perforated at its rim with a series of holes.
— from Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach

On the members of the American Bahá’í Community, the envied custodians of a Divine Plan, the principal builders and defenders of a mighty Order and the recognized champions of an unspeakably glorious and precious Faith, a peculiar and inescapable responsibility must necessarily rest.
— from Citadel of Faith by Effendi Shoghi

But I am much mistaken, or she will herself, on half-an-hour's calm consideration, see the moral impossibilities which interpose between her, to me, most amazing plan and its realisation.'
— from Wylder's Hand by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

There is considerable evidence that many apparently normal individuals of our average population are in reality carriers of some form of neuropathic defect, some authorities placing the proportion provisionally at over thirty per cent.
— from Being Well-Born: An Introduction to Eugenics by Michael F. (Michael Frederic) Guyer