Having found such contradictions and difficulties in every system concerning external objects, and in the idea of matter, which we fancy so clear and determinate, We shall naturally expect still greater difficulties and contradictions in every hypothesis concerning our internal perceptions, and the nature of the mind, which we are apt to imagine so much more obscure, and uncertain.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Through the noise of the forest they could hear sounds such as the strained ear can always distinguish in every storm, so that it was difficult to make out whether people were calling for help or whether the wind was wailing in the chimney.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The local forms are moderately constant and distinct in each separate island; but when all from the several islands are compared together, the differences are seen to be so slight and graduated that it is impossible to define or describe them, though at the same time the extreme forms are sufficiently distinct.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

For the border: Work 10 rows of double crochet, a double in each stitch, around the entire garment, fronts, bottom and neck, widening at each of the lower corners in each row to form the miter.
— from Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet by Anonymous

As a young man he had never been able to carry a decision into effect, since he could never clearly distinguish his own pains from the pains of those he opposed.
— from The Narrow House by Evelyn Scott

[Page 6] Then there was Bob White, otherwise Robert White Quail, a Southern boy, warm of heart, a faithful friend, and upon whom the leader could always depend in emergencies; Step Hen Bingham, whose real name of course was Stephen, but upon appearing at school for the first time he had insisted that it was pronounced as though made up of two syllables; Davy Jones, an athletic lad; Giraffe, really Conrad, Stedman, but given the significant nick-name because of a habit he had of stretching an exceedingly long neck most outrageously; and last but far from least, a dudish looking boy who at home answered when they called him Edmund Maurice Travers Smith; but among his playmates he was known simply as "Smithy."
— from The Boy Scouts in the Rockies; Or, The Secret of the Hidden Silver Mine by Carter, Herbert, active 1909-1917

Tin tubes, full of grain, have been forced into the stomachs of turkeys, and in twenty-four hours have been found broken, compressed, and distorted into every shape.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

Articles produced in the colonies and demanded in England should be shipped to England only.
— from History of the United States by John Clark Ridpath

There came a day in early spring.
— from All Roads Lead to Calvary by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome