He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy.
— from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco

The horse made me a sign to go in first; it was a large room with a smooth clay floor, and a rack and manger, extending the whole length on one side.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, reconciliation or independance ; with some occasional remarks. 155 He who takes nature for his guide is not easily beaten out of his argument, and on that ground, I answer generally—That independance being a single simple line , contained within ourselves; and reconciliation, a matter exceedingly perplexed and complicated, and in which, a treacherous capricious court is to interfere, gives the answer without a doubt.
— from Common Sense by Thomas Paine

This work, truly very great and rich and most excellently executed, must have, in my judgment, amazed the world in those times, seeing, above all, that painting had lain so long in such great darkness; and to me, who saw it again in the year 1563, it appeared very beautiful, thinking how in so great darkness Cimabue could see so great light.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

The course through time of highest civilization, does it not wait the first glimpse of our contribution to its kosmic train of poems, bibles, first-class structures, perpetuities—Egypt and Palestine and India—Greece and Rome and mediaeval Europe—and so onward?
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Did he ever give you any offence?' 'Certes, no,' replied she; 'he never offended against me; the cause of the breach was the prate of an accursed friar, to whom I once confessed me and who, when I told him of the love I bore Tedaldo and the privacy I had with him, made such a racket about my ears that I tremble yet to think of it, telling me that, an I desisted not therefrom, I should go in the devil's mouth to the deepest deep of hell and there be cast into everlasting fire; whereupon there entered into me such a fear that I altogether determined to forswear all further converse with him, and that I 161 might have no occasion therefor, I would no longer receive his letters or messages; albeit I believe, had he persevered awhile, instead of getting him gone (as I presume) in despair, that, seeing him, as I did, waste away like snow in the sun, my harsh resolve would have yielded, for that I had no greater desire in the world.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

For this, thy well-aim'd arrow turn'd aside, Err'd from the dove, yet cut the cord that tied: Adown the mainmast fell the parted string, And the free bird to heaven displays her wing: Sea, shores, and skies, with loud applause resound, And Merion eager meditates the wound: He takes the bow, directs the shaft above, And following with his eye the soaring dove, Implores the god to speed it through the skies, With vows of firstling lambs, and grateful sacrific The dove, in airy circles as she wheels, Amid the clouds the piercing arrow feels; Quite through and through the point its passage found, And at his feet fell bloody to the ground.
— from The Iliad by Homer

It was very natural for the plebeians, oppressed by debt, or apprehensive of injuries, to implore the protection of some powerful chief, who acquired over their persons and property the same absolute right as, among the Greeks and Romans, a master exercised over his slaves.
— 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

The actual state of any animal, his given instincts and tensions, are undoubtedly the point of origin from which all changes and relations are morally estimated; and if this attitude is afterward itself subjected to estimation, that occurs by virtue of its affinity or conflict with the living will of another moment.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Everything going on all right about Mary Ellen’s costume?”
— from General John Regan by George A. Birmingham

And where, oh where, were the gardenias that she always wore during the time of year when they are rarest and most expensive?
— from If You Touch Them They Vanish by Gouverneur Morris

I cordially recommend his book to all readers, and my earnest hope is that medical missions will continue to flourish.
— from Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier A Record of Sixteen Years' Close Intercourse with the Natives of the Indian Marches by T. L. (Theodore Leighton) Pennell

Besides, the wind was querulous, and I didn't fancy a ride at midnight, even if my lady's quest were an urgent one.
— from Visionaries by James Huneker

I have found, in this affair, nothing except a rather agreeable mental exhilaration.”
— from The Fighting Chance by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

Thus V., shouting through [Pg 78] the rubber speaking-tube, one end of which was fixed inside my flying-cap, so that it always rested against my ear.
— from Cavalry of the Clouds by Alan Bott

I ordered coffee and rolls at my expense till I could call help.
— from Twice-born Men in America or, The Psychology of Conversion as Seen by a Christian Psychologist in Rescue Mission Work by Harriet Earhart Monroe

Everybody was happy, and Bradlaugh was an incendiary, a story-teller, a nuisance, who would make a rumpus and make everybody miserable, even in the Garden of Eden.
— from Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2) With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition by Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner