There is nothing peculiarly heraldic about the lion passant, statant, dormant, couchant, or salient, and though heraldic artists may for the sake of artistic appearance distort the brute away from his natural figure, the rampant is alone the position which exists not in nature; and if the argument is to be applied to the bitter end, heraldry must be taken back to the very earliest instance which exists of any representation of a lion.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

“Why?” “Pyotr Stepanovitch is an astronomer, and has learnt all God’s planets, but even he may be criticised.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He could not have dropped from the sky, or come all that way alone: it must be either his master, the rat-catcher, or somebody else that had brought him; so, repressing my extravagant caresses, and endeavouring to repress his likewise, I looked round, and beheld—Mr. Weston!
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

She advised me to take Emily Scott because Emily had money of her own and was a pattern housekeeper.
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

His applications for peace became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere; but the inflexible Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim, that Rome could not be safe, as long as Carthage existed in a hostile state.
— 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 may be stern; he may be exacting; he may be ambitious yet; but his is the sternness of the warrior Greatheart, who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

The hangings were of damask, the carpets from Alencon, and the bed, especially, had more the look of a fine lady’s couch, with its trimmings of fine lace and its embroidered counterpane, than that of a man who had made a vow that he would endeavor to gain Heaven by fasting and mortification.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

Blackstone expresses himself more in detail, if not more energetically, than Delolme, in the following terms:—"The power and jurisdiction of Parliament, says Sir Edward Coke (4 Inst. 36), 'is so transcendent and absolute that it cannot be confined, either for causes or persons, within any bounds.'
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

But even here may be traced some of the main defects of Indian philosophy—lack of clearness and consistency, with a tendency to make reasoning depend on mere words.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

There were many who said that with respect to comeliness, strength, and bodily expertness, he might be considered the third remarkably distinguished for these that Norway had ever produced.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

I do not pretend to tell how all these things really are; but I do insist that a statement that cannot possibly be comprehended by any human being, and that appears utterly impossible, repugnant to every fact of experience, and contrary to everything that we really know, must be rejected by every honest man.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes by Robert Green Ingersoll

The actual significance of hand-shaking, the time-worn symbolism of the rite, had never before entered her mind.
— from The Silver Poppy by Arthur Stringer

Her brother eyed her morosely, then resumed his remarks.
— from The Prince and Betty by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

To any man, who would rise in the world, one thing must become evident; he must know that
— from Rambles with John Burroughs by R. J. H. (Robert John Henderson) De Loach

Her father has given her the very best musical advantages, but he insists that she shall put college before even her music.”
— from Marjorie Dean at Hamilton Arms by Josephine Chase

If rank 252 and money come with love and virtue, also, I should accept them gratefully, and enjoy your good fortune; but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be had in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

One can go into a theological library today and find stacks and stacks of volumes on religion, ethics, theology, casuistry, exegesis, philosophy, the Bible, ecclesiastical history, mysticism, [8] apologetics, metaphysics and a dozen other subjects, all designed to illuminate, define and expound the realities that Jesus taught; but somehow they seem worthless when we note the clear grasp of the inner truth that the simple Indian had achieved without their help.
— from Hidden from the Prudent The 7th William Penn Lecture, May 8, 1921 by Paul Jones

by E. H. Moorehouse.
— from The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce by William Denison Lyman

Ten days passed on in this manner; the lady becoming every hour more irritable, the gentleman every hour more indifferent.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 06 by Maria Edgeworth

But even he might have known that, if you trust the bluest-eyed of gazelles to do such things for you, she will probably marry a market-gardener.
— from A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by George Saintsbury