If we remain under the delusion that the native is a happy-go-lucky, lazy child of nature, who shuns as far as possible all labour and effort, waiting till the ripe fruits, so bountifully supplied by generous tropical Nature, fall into his mouth, we shall not be able to understand in the least his aims and motives in carrying out the Kula or any other enterprise.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

She sat down on the grass and looked at her companions, and they sat down and looked at her, and Toto found that for the first time in his life he was too tired to chase a butterfly that flew past his head; so he put out his tongue and panted and looked at Dorothy as if to ask what they should do next.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

But Egoism itself, and Malice itself, will never be argued out of a person; as little as a cat can be talked out of her inclination for mice.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

The late Superior from pure charity had him educated in the Convent, and He proved to be a model of virtue, and piety, and learning, and I know not what else besides:
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

The world does not demand that you be a physician, a lawyer, a farmer, or a merchant; but it does demand that whatever you do undertake, you will do it right, will do it with all your might and with all the ability you possess.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

5 The sacrifice of a hero gratified his revenge; the honors of the consulship elated his vanity; but his power was still imperfect and precarious, as long as the important posts of praefect of the East, and of praefect of Constantinople, were filled by Tatian, 6 and his son Proculus; whose united authority balanced, for some time,
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

It did not occur to Lothario that this man he had seen issuing at such an untimely hour from Anselmo’s house could have entered it on Leonela’s account, nor did he even remember there was such a person as Leonela; all he thought was that as Camilla had been light and yielding with him, so she had been with another; for this further penalty the erring woman’s sin brings with it, that her honour is distrusted even by him to whose overtures and persuasions she has yielded; and he believes her to have surrendered more easily to others, and gives implicit credence to every suspicion that comes into his mind.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

It is as pretty a letter as ever I saw, and does Lucy's head and heart great credit.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

A fox, a marten, and a weasel had all passed across lately, and of course then came the [258] exclamation that scarce fails from native lips when a fox track is seen: "I wonder if it were a black fox!"
— from Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska by Hudson Stuck

Men of intelligence and power are led away from their higher possibilities by it continually.
— from Light on the Path and Through the Gates of Gold by Mabel Collins

No doubt the marriage of so charming and popular a lady as the Viscountess Brooke will be a brilliant function.
— from The Imprudence of Prue by Sophie Fisher

"So you were lately in Berlin?" asked Piétri, again looking at Hansen expectantly.
— from For Sceptre and Crown: A Romance of the Present Time. Vol. 1 (of 2) by Gregor Samarow

I steadied myself by a post and looked again.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

In a moment they were up again, puffing a little and swearing a great deal.
— from Jack Tier; Or, The Florida Reef by James Fenimore Cooper

‘Here’s Mr. Sparkins!’ said Tom, who had been looking out at the window, ‘on such a black horse!’ There was Horatio, sure enough, on a large black horse, curvetting and prancing along, like an Astley’s supernumerary.
— from Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People by Charles Dickens

They also purchased a large assortment of such goods and trinkets as would prove acceptable to Indians, and supplied themselves with new blankets, and a few pairs of strong moccasins, of which they stood much in need.
— from The Dog Crusoe and his Master by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

There was a passionate revolt, a bitter heart-sickness on him; all the old freedom and peace and luxury and pleasure of the life he had left so long allured him with a terrible temptation; the honors of the rank that he should now have filled were not what he remembered.
— from Under Two Flags by Ouida

One evidently nurtured in luxury and ease, enduring the extremity of danger, fatigue, hardship, and privation, and lending a fire to his jaded followers by his heroic fortitude and example.
— from William Shakespeare as He Lived: An Historical Tale by Henry Curling