The Tuscarora, formerly eastern neighbors of the Cherokee, told “a long tale of a great rattlesnake, which, a great while ago, lived by a creek in that river, which was Neus, and that it killed abundance of Indians; but at last a bald eagle killed it, and they were rid of a serpent that used to devour whole canoes full of Indians at a time” (Lawson, Carolina, p. 346).
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

And this principle of growth—this principle of always preserving a belt of country round our cities would be ever kept in mind till, in course of time, we should have a cluster of cities, not of course arranged in the precise geometrical form of my diagram, but so grouped around a Central City that each inhabitant of the whole group, though in one sense living in a town of small size, would be in reality living in, and would enjoy all the advantages of, a great and most beautiful city; and yet all the fresh delights of the country—field, hedgerow, and wood-land—not prim parks and gardens merely—would be within a very few minutes walk or ride.
— from Garden Cities of To-Morrow Being the Second Edition of "To-Morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform" by Howard, Ebenezer, Sir

What the term “practical” stands for is difficult to say, but everybody knows it, and everybody has seen, who has cared about children at all, that there are practical children.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

I was ready to greet her quite as an old friend; but every kindly impulse was checked by the look of cold distrust she cast upon me on opening the door.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

He has a right to wear the kilt, or ancient Highland dress, with the purse, pistol, and durk—a broad yellow ribbon, fixed to the chanter-pipe, is thrown over his shoulder, and trails along the ground, while he performs the function of his minstrelsy; and this, I suppose, is analogous to the pennon or flag which was formerly carried before every knight in battle.—He plays before the laird every Sunday in his way to the kirk, which he circles three times, performing the family march which implies defiance to all the enemies of the clan; and every morning he plays a full hour by the clock, in the great hall, marching backwards and forwards all the time, with a solemn pace, attended by the laird’s kinsmen, who seem much delighted with the music—In this exercise, he indulges them with a variety of pibrochs or airs, suited to the different passions, which he would either excite or assuage.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

(Since this lecture was written I have read some remarks on Shakespeare's soliloquies to much the same effect by E. Kilian in the Jahrbuch d. deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft for 1903.)
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

The violence of her feelings, which must wear her out, may be easily kept in irritation.
— from Lady Susan by Jane Austen

And this will be easily known if we feel our dispositions any way influenced thereby; and that they are so is evident from many other instances, as well as the music at the Olympic games; and this confessedly fills the soul with enthusiasm; but enthusiasm is an affection of the soul which strongly agitates the disposition.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

It is common knowledge that the dividends were cut to two per cent., and are at the present time, the best ever known in the copper business, only four per cent., and that they have been cut under eight per cent., so they either could not have been twelve to sixteen per cent.
— from Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated by Thomas William Lawson

Then winding my kerchief tightly about my temples, I bade Big Etienne knot it for me, and for the time I thought no more of that sword-scratch.
— from The Forge in the Forest Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briart; and How He Crossed the Black Abbé; and of His Adventures in a Strange Fellowship by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

Barry has been exceedingly kind in staying with us,
— from The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 2 by Maria Edgeworth

But everybody knew it was of no use.
— from The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War by Arthur Machen

But everyone knows instances of actors and actresses who are nought minus their war-paint; of painters who might be grocers, and of poets as un-ideal in appearance as any publican or butterman.
— from The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X by Sophia Beale

"Because everybody knew idiom you meant."
— from Problematic Characters: A Novel by Friedrich Spielhagen

No time for breath; each knows it is to the death, and plenty of rest awaits one or both, perchance, in a few moments.
— from The Fifth of November A Romance of the Stuarts by Charles S. Bentley

In the West End a thing may be “awfully nice,” though nothing can be at once awful and nice; in the East End the adjective may be quite as inappropriate, but everybody knows its signification; and so with other parts of speech.
— from The Criminal & the Community by James Devon

"'If he persisted in spite of that first advice (which in my opinion is the best), and asked you for a second piece of advice?" "'Then, madame, I would tell him to obtain the cancelling of his exile, to buy a plot of ground in France and to make use of the immense popularity of his name to get himself elected a deputy, to try by his talent to win over the majority of the Chamber, and to use it to depose Louis-Philippe and become elected king in his stead.' "'You think,' said the Comtesse de Saint-Leu, with a melancholy smile, 'that all other methods would fail?' "'I am convinced of it.'
— from My Memoirs, Vol. VI, 1832 to 1833 by Alexandre Dumas