Concrete nouns have been preferred to abstract, root words to compounds and derivatives, even when the latter were of more frequent occurrence in Cæsar.
— from Latin for Beginners by Benjamin L. (Benjamin Leonard) D'Ooge

There is another observation I have made, from which I draw great advantage; which is, that in conferences and disputes, every word that seems to be good, is not immediately to be accepted.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

" This was greeted with an irreverent laugh, and the youth blushed deeply, and tried to look as if he had meant to insinuate what knowing people called a "double entendre." "Well—it's queer to have brought Miss Welland, anyhow," some one said in a low tone, with a side-glance at Archer.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Everything around seemed gloomy: a cold and damp easterly wind blew from the mountains, and black, heavy clouds spread over the plain.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

They never forgive us if they have once made a mistake BEFORE us (or even with REGARD to us)—they inevitably become our instinctive calumniators and detractors, even when they still remain our "friends.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

No more discussions sprang up; on the contrary, after dinner everyone was in the most amiable frame of mind.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

And whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable; or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless.
— from The Republic by Plato

102 represents the locking-frame of a cabin at Didcot, England, where an all-electric system has been installed.
— from How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use by Archibald Williams

Again, "Every period of linguistic life, with its constantly progressive changes of form and meaning, wipes out a part of the intermediates which connect a derived element with its original.
— from On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations. by Charles Hardwick

The greater width of these transepts made it difficult to join their aisles with those of the nave and choir, and were the cause of a curious and daring expedient, which will be described in the architectural account of the building.
— from Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of York A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Archi-Episcopal See by A. (Arthur) Clutton-Brock

The Opera House was again struck; and at the Presbyterian Church a dextrous effort was made to discover the "lost chord," which resulted in the organ's being for ever incapacitated to shed the soul of any music whatsoever.
— from The Siege of Kimberley Its Humorous and Social Side; Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902); Eighteen Weeks in Eighteen Chapters by T. Phelan

She advised and consulted and directed; even with the priests it was to be observed that her mild, "Well, Father, it seems to me," always won the day.
— from Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby by Kathleen Thompson Norris

"Lawrence will do," he said, "and he can associate Dick Eagle with him in the venture.
— from From Wealth to Poverty; Or, the Tricks of the Traffic. A Story of the Drink Curse by Austin Potter

Wherever we fly the devil still pursues us, and we carry a domestic enemy within our own breasts.
— from The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January, February, March by Alban Butler

But my circumstances preclude the calm and dispassionate examination which the subject deserves.
— from Letters from Spain by Joseph Blanco White

—This is the banner province in the protection of moose, caribou and deer, even while permitting them to be shot for sport.
— from Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation by William T. (William Temple) Hornaday

With two or three Europeans only to aid him, and no troops but the cowed and dispirited Egyptians, who had been driven into Khartoum from their other posts in the lost provinces, Gordon made a heroic defence.
— from A History of England Eleventh Edition by Charles Oman