Nor is it merely that we can discern in Christ that close union of personality with perfection which forms the real distinction between the classical and romantic movement in life, but the very basis of his nature was the same as that of the nature of the artist—an intense and flamelike imagination.
— from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

She remembered that he had boasted of having no fear of seeing Mr. Darcy—that Mr. Darcy might leave the country, but that he should stand his ground; yet he had avoided the Netherfield ball the very next week.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

They say likewise that Domitian dreamed that a golden hump grew out of the back of his neck, which he considered as a certain sign of happy days for the empire after him.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

What is more unreasonable and foppish (say they) than for any man, out of ambition to some office, to bow, to scrape and cringe to the gaping rabble, to purchase their favour by bribes and donatives, to have their names cried up in the streets, to be carried about as it were for a fine sight upon the shoulders of the crowd, to have their effigies carved in brass, and put up in the market place for a monument of their popularity? Add to this, the affectation of new titles and distinctive badges of honour; nay, the very deifying of such as were the most bloody tyrants.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

, He scratched the back of his neck. -in-an(→) n 1 place where a hole or pit is dug up.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

To him succeeded FRODE, surnamed the Vigorous, who bore out his name by the strength of his body and mind.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

From the belief that essentially the old order does not change, being based on human nature which is always the same, and from a consequent skepticism of all that class of doctrine which the League of Nations stands for, the policy of France and of Clemenceau followed logically.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

They wanted to put a bell on his neck to avoid meeting him.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

It was Bianchon who was the first to move; he bent over his neighbor, and said in a low voice, “If that creature is going to stop here, and have dinner with us, I shall clear out.”
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

It is easy to imagine that the ardent young Professor of Natural Philosophy found the leisurely methods of his older colleagues much too slow, and in his enthusiasm anticipated consent to his demands by ordering his new instruments without waiting for committees and meetings and reports.
— from Lord Kelvin: An account of his scientific life and work by Andrew Gray

Siward, earl of Northumbria, invaded Scotland in behalf of his nephew Malcolm, and defeated the usurper Macbeth. 1066.
— from Outlines of English History from B.C. 55 to A.D. 1895 Arranged in Chronological Order by John Charles Curtis

With one hand at the back of his neck, he steered him, sputtering, to the door.
— from Affairs of State Being an Account of Certain Surprising Adventures Which Befell an American Family in the Land of Windmills by Burton Egbert Stevenson

Our mothers cried over us and begged us to give back our bribe and get back our honest names and save our families from shame, and come out and honorably confess.
— from The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories by Mark Twain

shame to serve a boy of his notions such a boorish trick, and you boys needn’t flatter yourselves that such a performance will do him a bit of good.
— from A Blundering Boy: A Humorous Story by Bruce Weston Munro

BY OLIVER HERFORD NEW YORK THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 1906 Copyright, 1905 and 1906, by THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY First impression, March, 1906 THE OUTING PRESS DEPOSIT, N. Y. CONTENTS PAGE
— from Side Show Studies by Francis Metcalfe

In these same days, as Chronology will teach us, hot old Marquis Mirabeau lies stricken down, at Argenteuil,—not within sound of these alarm-guns; for he properly is not there, and only the body of him now lies, deaf and cold forever.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

But the daughter of the House of Lorraine might well have been content with the curious beauty of her new capital.
— from A History of the Four Georges, Volume I by Justin McCarthy

“What will become of him now?”
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

Dave grunted and was uncomfortably conscious of an eerie tingling at the back of his neck.
— from Dave Dawson at Singapore by Robert Sidney Bowen