The prevalence of the doctrine of liberty may be accounted for, from another cause, viz.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

I have myself recently bred a foal from a bay mare (offspring of a Turkoman horse and a Flemish mare) by a bay English race-horse.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

"Well then, with that permission," said the curate, "I say my doubt is that, all I can do, I cannot persuade myself that the whole pack of knights-errant you, Senor Don Quixote, have mentioned, were really and truly persons of flesh and blood, that ever lived in the world; on the contrary, I suspect it to be all fiction, fable, and falsehood, and dreams told by men awakened from sleep, or rather still half asleep."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I’ve been a fightin’ for a bird and won him, that’s all.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

And then the usual dénouement after the fun had gone on fast and furious he got landed into hot water and had to be spirited away by a few friends, after a strong hint to a blind horse from John Mallon of Lower Castle Yard, so as not to be made amenable under section two of the criminal law amendment act, certain names of those subpœnaed being handed in but not divulged for reasons which will occur to anyone with a pick of brains.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

It does my heart good to see them forget business, and frolic for a day," answered Jo, who now spoke in a maternal way of all mankind.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

“The unbelieving dog,” answered Anwold, “kennels in the cell next your holiness.—St Dunstan, how it must be scraped and cleansed ere it be again fit for a Christian!”
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

The habit of fighting for its own sake, with dangerous weapons, made the Roman rabble terrible when the fray turned quite to earnest; the deadly hail of stones, well aimed by sling and hand, was familiar to every Roman from his childhood, and the sight of naked steel at arm's length inspired no sudden, keen and unaccustomed terror, when men had little but life to lose and set small value on that, throwing it into the balance for a word, rising in arms for a name, doing deeds of blood and flame for a handful of gold or a day of power.
— from Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 Studies from the Chronicles of Rome by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

Then keeping the legs still and the head facing forward all the time, sway the body round and round, going as far back, as far forward and down, and as far to the sides as you can.
— from Daily Training by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

She told him her story, patted his big head; and then, being fairly tired out, laid her wet cheek on his soft back, and fell fast asleep.
— from Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag, Volume 6 An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. by Louisa May Alcott

The city would again be populated; the country resume its beauty and fertility; the wilderness would be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
— from The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Volume 15 (of 32) The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Volume I by Alfred Tucker

He saw the finish line but a few feet ahead.
— from Tom Fairfield's Schooldays; or, The Chums of Elmwood Hall by Allen Chapman

My father, a naturalist, rushed away from gentle scientific pursuits in 1870 to bear arms for France against the Prussians.
— from The Big Fight (Gallipoli to the Somme) by David Fallon

It had been a fair fight, and a case of their lives or his.
— from Air Service Boys Over the Enemy's Lines; Or, The German Spy's Secret by Charles Amory Beach

He was already, at the time of his marriage, dreaded by the masters of his country as one likely to be a formidable foe; and [247] they only followed their usual illegal system of tyranny, in falling upon him so soon as he set foot in his own land, and thrusting him into prison.
— from A Lady's Tour in Corsica, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Gertrude Forde

Do not think so meanly of her as to suppose that she could be caught by a fair face, a graceful manner.
— from A Strange Story — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

[Pg 62] More than one passenger has been struck by a flying fish, and our landlady tells us of a tourist who went out for an evening ride in the motor boat to return with a black eye from the blow of a frightened flying fish.
— from Across the Continent by the Lincoln Highway by Effie Price Gladding