We manufacture everything there (in our manufacturing cities) except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

The military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the proportion of women, children, and servants, supposes and requires at least a million of emigrants.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

From time to time he came across shop signs and read each carefully.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

To begin with, at its base there was a square of blue cardboard, representing a temple with porticoes, colonnades, and stucco statuettes all round, and in the niches constellations of gilt paper stars; then on the second stage was a dungeon of Savoy cake, surrounded by many fortifications in candied angelica, almonds, raisins, and quarters of oranges; and finally, on the upper platform a green field with rocks set in lakes of jam, nutshell boats, and a small Cupid balancing himself in a chocolate swing whose two uprights ended in real roses for balls at the top.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Nevertheless, it was indispensable that he should take a look into his conscience, after such shocks, and render to himself an account of himself.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

III Now on the place of slaughter Are cots and sheepfolds seen, And rows of vines, and fields of wheat, And apple-orchards green; The swine crush the big acorns That fall from Corne's oaks.
— from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

Mature beyond his years, the queen admired His sage reply, and with her train retired; There in her chamber as she sate apart, Revolved his words, and placed them in her heart.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

I'm silly and good for nothing ... and perhaps Alyosha's right, quite right, in not wanting to come and see such a ridiculous girl.”
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“He's in all right, Mr. Holmes,” cried a small street Arab, running up to us.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

On the little table close to where the dark head lay half hidden, Wark set the fragile burden down—did it with an emphasis that made cup and saucer shiver and run for support towards the round-bellied pot.
— from The Convert by Elizabeth Robins

“It’s all very well,” grumbled Norah; but she was plainly softening, and after a moment’s hesitation, she pushed back her chair and said slowly, “All right, I’ll go; but mind you are punctual with tea, for I don’t bargain to stay a moment after four o’clock.”
— from Sisters Three by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

To-day only the laird's crops are still sowed and reaped.
— from Our Journey to the Hebrides by Joseph Pennell

This is why Shakespeare, and in fact most of the classics, are so seldom actually read, and why we go for our serious reading to a book on “How to Read Character from Handwriting” or to a sensational volume on prostitution by one of our modern “sociologists.”
— from Thinking as a Science by Henry Hazlitt

But he had met with little success, and was now approaching the town gate, as they called it, which closed a short street at right angles to the principal one, when he came upon Mrs Catanach—on her knees, cleaning her doorstep.
— from Malcolm by George MacDonald

He advocated government inspection of prisons, a uniform system of discipline, strict classification and separation, secular and religious instruction, and the teaching of trades.
— from George Brown by John Lewis

I regret that the clever logician, instead of conceiving a statue smelling a rose, did not imagine it gifted with some instinct.
— from The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles by Jean-Henri Fabre

He was to offer, first, the surrender of the Continental System as far as Russia was concerned; and, second, such a reconstruction of the map of eastern Europe as would put an end to the grand duchy of Warsaw forever.
— from The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 3 (of 4) by William Milligan Sloane