An ounce o' mother-wit is worth a pound o' clergy.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

One of the prisoners, after working at the problem for two or three days, with a piece of chalk, undertook to obtain the liberty of himself and his fellow-prisoners if they would follow his directions and move through the doorway Pg 123 from cell to cell in the order in which he should call out their numbers.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

His mother was a rich and haughty dame with all the aristocratic prejudices of colonial times.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Whereupon they fell to boiling of ground nuts, and parching of corn (as many as had it) for their provision; and in the morning away they went.
— from Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson

When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were saved from the fury of the soldiers, the former was about twelve, and the latter about six, years of age; and, as the eldest was thought to be of a sickly constitution, they obtained with the less difficulty a precarious and dependent life, from the affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible that the execution of these helpless orphans would have been esteemed, by all mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty.
— 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

But when he saw that a cross had been made on the door of the house, where the soldier lived, he took another piece of chalk and made crosses on all the doors in the town, so that the lady-in-waiting might not be able to find out the right door.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

The further explanation of this inner significance of all pain of conscience cannot be given till later.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

The monks and populace of Callinicum, 9111 an obscure town on the frontier of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism, and by that of their bishop, had tumultuously burnt a conventicle of the Valentinians, and a synagogue of the Jews.
— 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

He arranges papers on COKESON'S table; then goes to a covered washstand, raises the lid, and looks at himself in the mirror.
— from Justice by John Galsworthy

In short, there was always plenty of chaff flying concerning old Matt’s lodgings; but the cleverest never threshed out the grain of wheat they sought, for the old man was as close a tusk as was ever attacked by flail.
— from Mad: A Story of Dust and Ashes by George Manville Fenn

[Pg 347] sand men, was detached to Staten Island with the avowed purpose of crossing over into Jersey, and covering any movement which they might make towards New York.
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall

Was it the cause of our never failing to have a huge china bowl after dinner with a pail of 'cream that wad mak a caunle o' my finger,' to wash down the first strawberries of the season on the 4th of June?
— from Gairloch in North-West Ross-Shire Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History, with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree, and a Map and Illustrations by John H. (John Henry) Dixon

161 BERLANDIER’S GOLDEN ASTER IRON FLOWER Berlandier’s Golden Aster ( Chrysopsis berlandieri ) is common on roadside banks and prairies of Central and West Texas.
— from Texas Flowers in Natural Colors by Eula Whitehouse

So gave them a peck of corn, and fastened up safe.
— from The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

A pound of coffee, while you're about it."
— from Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun

Each selector, when operated, closes a pair of contacts.
— from Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy, Vol. 2 A General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. etc. by American School of Correspondence

He insists that the world is flat, he acknowledges that it is divided into two parts—Europe and Asia; but he can afford to laugh at those who draw maps of the world "without any sense to guide them," in which they make the whole world round as if drawn with a pair of compasses, with the ocean stream running round it, making Europe and Asia of equal size.
— from A Book of Discovery The History of the World's Exploration, From the Earliest Times to the Finding of the South Pole by M. B. (Margaret Bertha) Synge

Men do not care to admire you, they wish you to be pleased with them; they do not seek for instruction or even amusement from your discourse, but they do wish you to be made acquainted with their talents and powers of conversation; and the true man of genius will delicately make all who come in contact with him, feel the exquisite satisfaction of knowing that they have appeared to advantage.”
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley