What pen could describe it?
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

'When I was in the Country last Summer, I was often in Company with a Couple of charming Women, who had all the Wit and Beauty one could desire in Female Companions, with a Dash of Coquetry, that from time to time gave me a great many agreeable Torments.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Deus Angelos misit ad tutelam cultumque generis humani; sed illos cum hominibus commorantes, dominator ille terrae salacissimus paulatim ad vitia pellexit, et mulierum congressibus inquinavit.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

And though these two causes are often confounded (for there is some difficulty in distinguishing them), yet, as they proceed from very different motives, so they are as clearly distinct in their operations: for indeed, the affectation which arises from vanity is nearer to truth than the other, as it hath not that violent repugnancy of nature to struggle with, which that of the hypocrite hath.
— from Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1 by Henry Fielding

According to him, the fountain was near a village called Donacon, in the country of the Thespians.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

There is thus a certain difficulty in perceiving the exact date of two impressions when they do not interest our attention equally, and when they are of a disparate sort.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

For we here find, that the understanding or imagination can draw inferences from past experience, without reflecting on it; much more without forming any principle concerning it, or reasoning upon that principle.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

A TRIVIAL INCIDENT IT was a sunny August midday as, in company with a Russian prince who had come down in the world, I drove into the immense so-called Shabelsky pine-forest where we were intending to look for woodcocks.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Then let the trumpets sound The tucket sonance and the note to mount; For our approach shall so much dare the field That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Why, instead of meeting the morning with uplifted hands and the already desponding cry, “I have so much to do I cannot decide what to lay hold of first!” we should not behold our path already mapped out by our provident study over-night—its certain duties; its probable stumbling-blocks; recreation, devotion and rest—each in its proper place?
— from Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea by Marion Harland

The next morning I landed with Mr. Roe, and climbed the summit of Rocky Head before the sun rose; in the ascent we crossed several deep ravines which, together with the hills, were thickly covered with a wiry grass (spinifex) growing over and amongst heaps of rocks that were piled up in all directions as if it had been done purposely; the greater part of the surface of the island being covered with these stones, we had a considerable difficulty in advancing, and it was not without some labour that we arrived at the summit of the hill.
— from Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 1 by Philip Parker King

You can do it—I can't.
— from The Texan A Story of the Cattle Country by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx

Frugal as it was, it was a sumptuous banquet compared with their late fare; and the poor famished creatures devoured it ravenously, feeling, when it was finished, that they could have disposed of thrice as much.
— from The Pirate Island: A Story of the South Pacific by Harry Collingwood

In the upper part there are three iron cylinders built upon [177] 9-inch brickwork, which is carried down into the mottled clay.
— from Water Supply: the Present Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells With Geological Considerations and Examples of Wells Executed by Ernest Spon

— Puttana madonna, che ci dia i quattrini!
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

[5] The case referred to, being attended with considerable doubt, is omitted.
— from Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented by William Tebb

"Captain Dynamite is not in an
— from A Voyage with Captain Dynamite by Charles Edward Rich