We need only change man's situation to that in which he actually finds himself, and let the soul, fathomed and chastened as Dante left it, ask questions and draw answers from this steadier dream.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Mayor Chambon heard of dreadful rioting at the Theatre de la Nation: it had come to rioting, and even to fist-work, between the Decided and the Undecided, touching a new Drama called Ami des Lois ( Friend of the Laws ).
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Al momento sale Ciutti conduciendo a don Luis, que, embozado hasta los ojos, espera que se queden solos.
— from Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla

Malheureusement, cette attitude est à son tour contraire aux droits légitimes des auteurs.
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

"You have chosen a dreary lodging, my poor boy, and no wonder that you weep," said he.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

and Bellona dread, Flame in the front, and thunder at their head: This swells the tumult and the rage of fight; That shakes a spear that casts a dreadful light.
— from The Iliad by Homer

'You can't think the smoky air of a manufacturing town, all chimneys and dirt like Milton-Northern, would be better than this air, which is pure and sweet, if it is too soft and relaxing.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Thus ended the first delightful night I ever passed with that most charming and deliciously lascivious woman—the first of many scores that followed, but in none of which were her raptures more intense, if as much.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

As the Vettuvans are Chandalars, any distance less than sixty-four feet will pollute the higher castes.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

When Adam thus to Eve : Fair Consort, th’ hour Of night, and all things now retir’d to rest Mind us of like repose, since God hath set Labour and rest, as day and night to men Successive, and the timely dew of sleep Now falling with soft slumbrous weight inclines Our eye-lids; other Creatures all day long Rove idle unimploid, and less need rest; Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed, which declares his Dignitie, And the regard of Heav’n on all his waies; While other Animals unactive range, And of thir doings God takes no account.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

A stock-jobber, who would think of nothing but money,—who would examine my house-accounts as papa does yours, or else who would load me with cashmeres and diamonds, like Mme. de Thaller, to make of me a sign for his shop?
— from Other People's Money by Emile Gaboriau

If you reach Guerande from Croisic, after crossing a dreary landscape of salt-marshes, you will experience a strong sensation at sight of that vast fortification, which is still as good as ever.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

Perhaps, looking up at the curtained-window, where the young lady sat, these newsboys thought it was a fine thing to be Miss Olive Henderson, the heiress of Redmon, and live in a handsome house, with servants to wait on her, and nothing to do but play the piano, and drive about in her carriage all day long.
— from A Changed Heart: A Novel by May Agnes Fleming

She said: "I bet that fellow wouldn't expect his wife to stand behind a lace counter and take the sass of floorwalkers and buyers, as well as lady customers, all day long.
— from Sheila of Big Wreck Cove: A Story of Cape Cod by James A. Cooper

I believe there is always Golden Seal, but it is the kind that comes in bottles, and not in the gloom of “deep, cool, moist woods,” where Mrs. Creevey describes it as growing, along with other wildings of such sweet names or quaint as Celandine, and Dwarf Larkspur, and Squirrel-corn, and Dutchman’s breeches, and Pearlwort, and Wood-sorrel, and Bishop’s—cap, and Wintergreen, and Indian-pipe, and Snowberry, and Adder’s-tongue, and Wakerobin, and Dragon-root, and Adam-and-Eve, and twenty more, which must have got their names from some fairy of genius.
— from Literature and Life (Complete) by William Dean Howells

It seemed to him as if he were standing in cold and darkness looking in through the windows of her untroubled eyes at the warm, sunlit home which had once been his, when it had been exceeding well with him, but of which he had lost the key.
— from Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley

"But som' day I'm git de chance an' den leetle Du Mont she dismees Lapierre from de serveece.
— from The Gun-Brand by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx

The Queen, without having the genius of conversation and discussion, lacked neither aplomb nor a taste for the proprieties; she knew how to support, or, at least, to preside over a circle.
— from Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan — Volume 6 by Madame de Montespan

Let it happen, that the young lady to whom I will say, 'Please let down your pitcher, that I may drink,' and she will say, 'Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink,'— let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac.
— from The World English Bible (WEB): Genesis by Anonymous