I pick them up, and on one of them I recognize the handwriting of Mihail Fyodorovitch and accidentally read a bit of a word “passionat...”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

They might have been replaced by equally prodigious things, of course, but their nature and results are beyond our guessing.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain

Indeed they could do no other, for the English had gotten the advantage of the wind, and their ships being much easier managed, and ready with incredible celerity to come upon the enemy with a full course, and then to tack and retack and be on every side at their pleasure.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

I was once told by a near relative of mine, that having in her childhood fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of death but for the critical assistance which reached her, she saw in a moment her whole life, in its minutest incidents, arrayed before her simultaneously as in a mirror; and she had a faculty developed as suddenly for comprehending the whole and every part.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

Voltaire was in Lorraine, and Rameau also; both of whom were employed on the opera of the Temple of Glory, and could not give their attention to this.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

To remedy which our cozening dames and damsels brought him his fodder in their apronlaps and as soon as his belly was full he would rear up on his hind quarters to show their ladyships a mystery and roar and bellow out of him in bulls’ language and they all after him.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

Now that we have considered all the fine arts in the general way that is suitable to our point of view, beginning with architecture, the peculiar end of which is to elucidate the objectification of will at the lowest grades of its visibility, in which it shows itself as the dumb unconscious tendency of the mass in accordance with laws, and yet already reveals a breach of the unity of will with itself in a conflict between gravity and rigidity—and ending with the consideration of tragedy, which presents to us at the highest grades of the objectification of will this very conflict with itself in terrible magnitude and distinctness; we find that there is still another fine art which has been excluded from our consideration, and had to be excluded, for in the systematic connection of our exposition there was no fitting place for it—I mean music .
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Taste, if it mean anything but a paltry connoisseurship, must mean a general susceptibility to truth and nobleness; a sense to discern and a heart to love and reverence all beauty, order, goodness, wheresoever found and in whatsoever form and accompaniment.
— 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.

"Thus fell at an early age one of the brightest ornaments of his profession; one who, whether at the head of a regiment, a brigade, or a corps, had alike displayed the talents of command; who was not less beloved in his private, than enthusiastically admired in his public character; and whose only fault, if it may be so deemed, was an excess of gallantry, enterprise, and devotion to the service."
— from Historical Record of the Fourth, or the King's Own, Regiment of Foot Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1680, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1839 by Richard Cannon

Strain the juice of fifty stewing oysters, then look them over carefully and remove all bits of shell.
— from Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions by Mary A. Wilson

The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based on the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a mana principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she may contaminate man with her weakness.
— from Taboo and Genetics A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of the Family by Phyllis Mary Blanchard

'Sir,' replied his father, 'I thought it decent and right and proper to consult him as the nearest magistrate as soon as report of the intended outrage reached my ears; and although he declined, out of deference and respect, as became our relative situations, to concur in the order, yet he did entirely approve of my arrangement.'
— from Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete by Walter Scott

On our return to the brig, we passed over a clear sandy bottom that would have afforded better anchorage than where we had brought up; for the vessel was not only exposed to a considerable swell but the ground was so foul that in weighing the anchor the following morning one of the flukes hooked a rock and broke off, besides which the cable was much rubbed.
— from Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by Philip Parker King

The social need of one another rests at bottom on a common, functional development; and the common, functional service is its natural opportunity.
— from Women and Economics A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The salaried native policeman of the reserve, wearing a white stove-pipe hat with feathers, and a ridiculous blue coat, and Heaven alone knows what other absurdities, rode around, boasting of deeds he never performed, while a white cur made him all the more ridiculous by chasing him and yelping at his horse's tail.
— from On Canada's Frontier Sketches of History, Sport, and Adventure and of the Indians, Missionaries, Fur-traders, and Newer Settlers of Western Canada by Julian Ralph

The dining-room fireplace is featured by the celebrated Eighth of January mantelpiece, a rustic affair built of pieces of rough hickory by one of Jackson’s veterans of the Battle of New Orleans who made it as a monumental labor of love, working on it all by himself and working only on successive anniversaries of the battle until he got it finished on January 8, 1839.
— from The Hermitage, Home of Old Hickory by Stanley F. Horn

“He has declared he could destroy it and rebuild a better one, in three days at that.”
— from Mary Magdalen: A Chronicle by Edgar Saltus

At length she said, "Now, now I am ready," and Bertha opened the door of the outer chamber.
— from The Robber, A Tale. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James