but inventing his own curious designs, at which we still wonder.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

[65] Mr. Rowe’s sister added:—‘If we as children did anything wrong, the old folks would say to us, “The piskies will carry you away if you do that again.”’ Witch-Doctors.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

But in the absence of a final purpose which pure Reason alone can supply (because all purposes in the world are empirically conditioned, and can contain nothing absolutely good but only what is good for this or that regarded as a contingent design), and which alone would teach me what properties, what degree, and what relation of the Supreme Cause to nature I have to think in order to judge of nature as a teleological system; how and with what right do I dare to extend at pleasure my very limited concept of that original Understanding (which I can base on my limited knowledge of the world), of the Might of that original Being in actualising its Ideas, and of its Will to do so, and complete this into the Idea of an Allwise, Infinite Being?
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

‘The Princess can do anything with the Duke.’
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

“Two very lovely but shamefaced girls had a cause, of some consequence, depending at Westminster, that indispensably required their personal appearance.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Now to this presupposition, for which they can have no ground in experience, and which consequently is merely metaphysical, I oppose a transcendental demonstration, which it is true will not explain the difference in the filling up of spaces, but which nevertheless completely does away with the supposed necessity of the above-mentioned presupposition that we cannot explain the said difference otherwise than by the hypothesis of empty spaces.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

In ceremonial distributions as well as in the Kula, the present is thrown down by the giver, sometimes actually, sometimes only given in an abrupt manner, and often it is not even picked up by the receiver, but by some insignificant person in his following.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

In this room, when I had died of grief, and long-deferred hope, two wily harpies divided the wealth for which I had contested during a wretched existence, and of which, at last, not one farthing was left for my unhappy descendants.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

You now are dust; but still the honeyed voice Of your sweet converse doth and will survive; Nor can fell death, which all things else destroys, Lay upon that his ruthless conquering grasp.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

It was one of the white nights of that region, when the full moon, shining like sun-lighted snow and hanging so low in the sky that it seems to be dropping earthward, fills the clear, dry air with a silvery radiance and floods the barren plain with a transfiguring whiteness, in which the gray sands glimmer as if with some unearthly light of their own.
— from Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories by Florence Finch Kelly

We simply make ourselves miserable and our communications depressing; and, worst of all, we bring dishonor on the cause of Christ.
— from Life and Times of David. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. VI by Charles Henry Mackintosh

The hostility of the British settlers to the French is by no means so great as is so carefully and constantly described, and would altogether cease, if not kept continually alive by Upper Canadian demonstration, and that desire to rule exclusively which has so long been the bane of this fine colony.
— from Canada and the Canadians, Vol. 1 by Bonnycastle, Richard Henry, Sir

—Off early, and pouring rain came down; as we advance the country is undulating.
— from The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 Continued By A Narrative Of His Last Moments And Sufferings, Obtained From His Faithful Servants Chuma And Susi by David Livingstone

I assert further, that the earth is that particular kind of a globe which is termed an oblate spheroid; because it is found by measurement in the direction of the meridian, that the length on the surface of the earth which subtends a given angle at its centre, diminishes as we recede from the equator and approach the poles.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive by John Stuart Mill

Yet what American can drive about Washington now and say it is not worth the cost?
— from Some Cities and San Francisco, and Resurgam by Hubert Howe Bancroft

It was beginning to rain, and the cool, damp air was pleasant, but she shivered and turned back to the room that still kept its silent mistress' secret, as she had kept it, even in death.
— from An American Suffragette by Isaac Newton Stevens

From this time begins the history of "Castle Dangerous," as we may term this period of the nascent city , now commencing, when there began a constant struggle with the daily risks of life.
— from Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760 by William H. (William Henry) Atherton

The road was getting rougher, and the houses, dotted about in dark silhouettes against the sky-line, had a curiously deserted and worn appearance.
— from Bullets & Billets by Bruce Bairnsfather

"Yes, they're splendid cottages, dry and warm, and no danger of fire," replied the bárin, a frown crossing his youthful face as he perceived the peasant's involuntary sarcasm.
— from A Russian Proprietor, and Other Stories by Tolstoy, Leo, graf