Well, whatever comes, I shall not air my ignorance in this crowd, anyway.”
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

Hence it occurs that, unless very peculiar circumstances intervene, small nations are always united to large empires in the end, either by force or by their own consent: yet I am unacquainted with a more deplorable spectacle than that of a people unable either to defend or to maintain its independence.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

This good-humoured sally turned the conversation into a less disagreeable channel—But, lest you should think my scribble as tedious as Mrs Tabby’s clack, I shall not add another word, but that I am as usual Yours, J. MELFORD BATH, April 30.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Miss Murdstone shut her eyes, and disdainfully inclined her head; then, slowly opening her eyes, resumed: ‘David Copperfield, I shall not attempt to disguise the fact, that I formed an unfavourable opinion of you in your childhood.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The silence became almost painful when, by a violent effort, tearing himself from his pleasing reverie: “Madame,” said he at length, “I pray you to excuse my emotion, which must astonish you who are only accustomed to the happiness I meet here; but contentment is so new a sight to me, that I could never be weary of looking at yourself and your husband.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

You are no longer the witty, free young officer who told Madame Querini about the game of Pharaoh, and about the deposits made to your bank by the captain in so niggardly a manner that they were hardly worth mentioning.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This is, I believe, the reason why artists in general, and poets, principally, have been confined in so narrow a circle: they have been rather imitators of one another than of nature; and this with so faithful an uniformity, and to so remote an antiquity, that it is hard to say who gave the first model.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

" When Miss Pritchard came in, she noticed at once that Elsie looked very pale—almost ill.
— from Elsie Marley, Honey by Joslyn Gray

Undoubtedly all this unsmiling, deeply respectful manner was a mask, or we may go so far as to call it second nature, and was the result of living in a cottage in an agricultural district with adults or old people:—probably her grandmother was the poor little darling's model, and any big important-looking man she met was the lord of the manor!
— from A Traveller in Little Things by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

The history of news-writing and news-publishing is a mirror of many of the changes in social necessities and conveniences.
— from Knowledge is Power: A View of the Productive Forces of Modern Society and the Results of Labor, Capital and Skill. by Charles Knight

There is another sea coast in sight now, and when I sail away from it I hope to land on some one of the Isles of the Blest.
— from The Book of the Bush Containing Many Truthful Sketches of the Early Colonial Life of Squatters, Whalers, Convicts, Diggers, and Others Who Left Their Native Land and Never Returned by George Dunderdale

It dissolves in strong sulphuric acid with a rose-red colour, in strong nitric acid with an orange red colour, and in ferric chloride with emerald green colour. LANTHA′NIUM.
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume II by Richard Vine Tuson

"Consul, I shall not avoid this charge," replied Fouche, calmly, "and I am persuaded that Prance will follow with interest the course of a trial which will unveil an important secret—which will inform it that the rightful King of France, according to the opinion of Consul Bonaparte, did not die in the Temple under the tender care of Simon the cobbler, but is still alive, and is, therefore, the true heir of the crown.
— from Marie Antoinette and Her Son by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

Of course I said no, as usual, but I was rather pleased.
— from Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

This was provided with a cable of nails, the head of one being joined to the point of another; these the machines cut into separate nails and drove automatically.
— from A Manual of Shoemaking and Leather and Rubber Products by William H. (William Henry) Dooley

The figure given for the beam appears to be too small in this case, if the dimensions of the mast, 70½ ft., are correct, for such a long mast could hardly have been carried in so narrow a boat.
— from Ancient and Modern Ships, Part 1: Wooden Sailing Ships by Holmes, George Charles Vincent, Sir