Such in brief is the history of the American nation, so gifted with political intelligence, so driven by sleepless energy, so proud of its achievements, and inwardly so contemptuous of the more polished but less liberal life of the Old World.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows

Much must be lost, left to itself, and resigned to the unprofitable flux that produced it.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

All things are here of HIM; from the black pines, Which are his shade on high, and the loud roar Of torrents, where he listeneth, to the vines Which slope his green path downward to the shore, Where the bowed waters meet him, and adore, Kissing his feet with murmurs; and the wood, The covert of old trees, with trunks all hoar, But light leaves, young as joy, stands where it stood, Offering to him, and his, a populous solitude.
— from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

Indeed, the helm had far better be left loose than lashed very fast, for the rudder is apt to be torn off by heavy seas if there be no room for the helm to play.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

With darkened brow and furious mien, Stripped of her gems and wreath, the queen In spotless beauty lay, Like heaven obscured with gathering cloud, When shades of midnight darkness shroud Each star's expiring ray.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

“You’ll lose your bet,” laughed Liputin.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Maggie rose from her seat as she threw out this illusory prospect, devoutly hoping that Apollyon was gullible; but her hope sank when the old gypsy-woman said, "Stop a bit, stop a bit, little lady; we'll take you home, all safe, when we've done supper; you shall ride home, like a lady."
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

are peculiarly calculated to suffer a sea-change; or whether a plain mutton-chop, and a glass or two of sherry, would be less likely of conversion into foreign and disconcerting material.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

This news—by closing up all prospects of my bringing Limping Lucy and Mr. Franklin together—at once stopped any further progress of mine on the way to discovery.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

They remained less than a week in that beautiful place, and then were off for Switzerland, Lucerne, Brienz, Interlaken, finally resting at the Hotel Beau Rivage, Ouchy, Lausanne, on beautiful Lake Leman.
— from Mark Twain: A Biography. Volume II, Part 2: 1886-1900 by Albert Bigelow Paine

Another species of mortal men, but little less wild to me than the musquash they hunted.
— from Journal 01, 1837-1846 The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 07 (of 20) by Henry David Thoreau

The minute Betty Leicester looked at Edith Banfield next day she saw that she was a little like Mary Beck, her own friend and Tideshead neighbor.
— from Betty Leicester's Christmas by Sarah Orne Jewett

The necessity for work of such a strenuous nature in the mere preliminaries of the process of planting a garden is due to the fact that the average back-yard has, up till the present time, been behaving less like a garden than anything else in the world.
— from Of All Things by Robert Benchley

Among those who joined in this mission were the Padre Preacher, Fray Juan de San Buena Ventura, and the Padre Preacher, Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, both living in the convent of the Santa Recolección of this city of Merida, and Brother Fray Tomás de Alcoser, lay friar, and Brother Lucas, lay Brother of the said convent.
— from History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII. by Philip Ainsworth Means

Donna Micaela arranged little booths, little lotteries, and little places of diversion under the arcades.
— from The Miracles of Antichrist: A Novel by Selma Lagerlöf

Being by descent a Barbary Jew, he wore the costume peculiar to that branch of his race—a black skull-cap; a long-skirted, collarless, cloth coat, buttoned close, the waist fastened with a belt; loose light-coloured trousers and yellow slippers—altogether he looked somewhat like an overgrown scholar of Christ's Hospital.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 434, December, 1851 by Various

As if drawn by one strangely mutual attraction, all eyes, even those of Zephoranim himself, turned instinctively toward the flashing Emblem, which appeared to burn like living fire on that perished mass of stiffening clay, . .
— from Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self by Marie Corelli

I wisht I could be laid ’long-side of her, an’ I’d stretch out my arms, an’ she’d come creepin’ to them, jes’ as she used.
— from In Wild Rose Time by Amanda M. Douglas