Such characters do exist, notwithstanding the hardening influences around them.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. (Harriet Ann) Jacobs

Vile flatterers are constantly doing everything necessary to reduce them below the condition of man.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The Vilas sometimes appear gaily dancing their kolos beneath the branches of the Vishnia or Vistula cherry; sometimes a Vila is introduced comforting the sorrows of an enamoured deer; at other times collecting storms in the heavens; [579] now foretelling to a hero his impending death; [580] now ruthlessly casting down each night the walls of a rising fortress, till a young and lovely female is immured within them.
— from The Fairy Mythology Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries by Thomas Keightley

Her quiet, calm demeanor exhibited no trace of the suffering that had wrung her heart.
— from The Women of The American Revolution, Vol. 1 by E. F. (Elizabeth Fries) Ellet

She saw no softening of the stern expression, no kindling of the cold, dark eyes, no tinting of the deadly pallor of the face.
— from For Love of a Bedouin Maid by Voleur

There are some interesting remarks bearing upon our subject; but there are no sufficiently clear definitions, especially none to suit the laws of quite primitive peoples.
— from The Family among the Australian Aborigines, a Sociological Study by Bronislaw Malinowski

Read, for instance, what Pamphilus says to Galatea in the First Act (sc. iv.) of the Latin play— Alterius villa mea neptis mille salutes Per me mandavit officiumque tibi: Hec te cognoscit dictis et nomine tantum, Et te, si locus est, ipsa videre cupit— 48 and compare it with Don Melón’s address to Doña Endrina in the Libro de buen amor :— Señora, la mj sobrina, que en toledo seya,
— from Chapters on Spanish Literature by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

It is not claimed that all professing Christians have a firm grasp on reality; for when religion is no more than a superficial formality, its credulous devotees experience neither truth nor doubt; they are religious automatons.
— from What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul by Richard La Rue Swain