His short-cropped hair might have been a mere continuation of the sandy freckles on his forehead and face.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Look on me as dead; and truly if death be a mere change of state, I am dead.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The eunuch took an oath and said: “O king, thy wife is just as thou didst leave her; and Alexander is the best and most chaste of men.”
— from The Anabasis of Alexander or, The History of the Wars and Conquests of Alexander the Great by Arrian

But that Naso was by him banished in his old age, for the wanton poems of his youth, was but a mere covert of state over some secret cause: and besides, the books were neither banished nor called in.
— from Areopagitica A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England by John Milton

As to our estates and possessions, we have lost every thing; at last, our father has left us beggars ( weeps ); how can studying be any more carried on?
— from Nil Darpan; or, The Indigo Planting Mirror, A Drama. Translated from the Bengali by a Native. by Dinabandhu Mitra

Do you mean to tell me that a wise man should be so much affected by a mere coincidence of name!
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It is strictly a matter of duty; he is bound to give it according to his best and most conscientious opinion of the public good.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

And therefrom nevermore he could by any means come out for all the crafts that he could do.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

Then shall I not be useless in my generation!—Then shall I not stand a single mark of thy goodness to a poor worthless creature, that in herself is of so small account in the scale of beings, a mere cipher on the wrong side of a figure; but shall be placed on the right side; and, though nothing worth in myself, shall give signification by my place, and multiply the blessings I owe to thy goodness, which has distinguished me by so fair a lot!
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

A few, however, were here who had erected log-houses, cleared a little land, and were also in the possession of a stove or two; we halted at a group of four of these little dwellings, where, under a shed, a fine negro wench was occupied frying bacon and making cakes of wheaten flour for her master's supper, who, she informed us, was absent on a hunting expe
— from Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 2 (of 2) by Tyrone Power

To him all the dreadfulness, the mystery, the pain and the solitude have melted away, and death has become a mere change of place.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy. by Alexander Maclaren

If this be absent, magnitudes can only be compared when one is part of another, and then only the more or less, not the how much, can be decided" (p. 256).
— from An essay on the foundations of geometry by Bertrand Russell

Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me: 200 If by direct or by collateral hand
— from The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 8 of 9] by William Shakespeare

Miss Falkner made us a red bag and all our tenth goes into it, and then I take it to Mr. Errington, and he's going to build a mission church on Chilton Common with it!" Mona gasped, then she began to laugh.
— from Jill's Red Bag by Amy Le Feuvre

When once these got sight or scent of Jocko, they would quickly unite themselves into a pack, and, followed by a motley crowd of partly-dressed men and the children of the married soldiers (the most mischievous of all children), Jocko would lead them a chase round and round the yard, until some of the dogs got unpleasantly near, when he would turn round on his pursuers and chatter in the most laughable manner, which mostly kept them at bay until he had got second wind, and off he would go again.
— from The Young Dragoon: Every Day Life of a Soldier by Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks) Drayson

I am proud to be among my colleagues of the Congress whose legacy to their trust is their loyalty to their Nation.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

The polls were surrounded by a motley crowd of fellow-citizens, who beset the wayfarer with importunities to vote for this or that candidate; and as each wagon drove up and deposited its load of voters the new-comers were received with hurrahs and friendly hustlings.
— from Mark Gildersleeve: A Novel by John S. Sauzade