The fairest spots are overshadowed by the passing clouds of a general storm, though there may yet be lights of safety in many a dwelling.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 402, April, 1849 by Various

As to my time in town, sir, I hope it won't be long; but, long or short, I must stop at my ould place, the Brazen Head, for not an hour's comfort I could have in any other place, many thanks to you.
— from The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

I don't say this because none of them used bad language or smoked in my presence.
— from An American Girl in London by Sara Jeannette Duncan

He had chosen to manage every thing himself without contradiction and almost without counsel; but, like other such imperious masters, he now found that when trouble came the privilege of dictatorship brought with it an almost unsupportable burden.
— from Harry Heathcote of Gangoil: A Tale of Australian Bush-Life by Anthony Trollope

"Demon!" cried Don Torribio, "Whoever thou may'st be, lead on, since it must be so!
— from Stoneheart: A Romance by Gustave Aimard

Grief seems more like ashes than like fire; but as grief has been love once, so it may become love again.
— from The Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes: An Index of the Project Gutenberg Editions by Oliver Wendell Holmes

It may be that of a broad stumpy hand, or of a long thin one; it may be large or small; it may even show lines corresponding to the principal creases of the palm.
— from Finger Prints by Francis Galton

ust as in a monastery, though it might be large or small in magnitude, simple or gorgeous in style, with more or fewer offices and appendages, according to the number and wealth of the establishment, yet there was always a certain suite of conventual buildings, church, chapter refectory, dormitory, &c., arranged in a certain order, which formed the cloister; and this cloister was the nucleus of all the rest of the buildings of the establishment; so, in a reclusorium, or anchorhold, there was always a “cell” of a certain construction, to which all things else, parlours or chapels, apartments for servants and guests, yards and gardens, were accidental appendages.
— from Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages Third Edition by Edward Lewes Cutts