By the time that Lord John Russell's measure was being debated in the House of Commons, there was a new political animation in Middlemarch, and a new definition of parties which might show a decided change of balance if a new election came.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

He seems to do it as a great favour to me to offer to come in upon a way of getting of money, which they call Bottomry, [“The contract of bottomry is a negotiable instrument, which may be put in suit by the person to whom it is transferred; it is in use in all countries of maritime commerce and interests.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

They, however, insisted upon making history, turning a change of base into a nominal retreat, and begetting in themselves a brass-bound and untamable spirit which it took vast wealth and several years to humble.
— from Aladdin O'Brien by Gouverneur Morris

In novels heroes always do, and come clear off; but I am not writing fiction, and in real life I have always found discretion to be the better part of valour.
— from Pictures of Canadian Life: A Record of Actual Experiences by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie

Impregnated with the warmth of tropic climes, the Gulf Stream-as it has now come to be called,—then pours its genial floods across the North Atlantic, laving the western coasts of Britain, Ireland, and Norway, and investing each shore it strikes upon, with a climate far milder than that enjoyed by other lands situated in the same latitudes.
— from Letters from High Latitudes Being Some Account of a Voyage in 1856 of the Schooner Yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Meyen, and Spitzbergen by Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of

I am the cup of Djem [the royal cup], but that cup once broken, I am no longer anything.
— from The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam

There used to pass through the goodly streets, whether of Constantinople or Babylon I am not sure which—however, it makes no difference to my story—a quack doctor who, while beating a drum and clashing a pair of cymbals, announced his medicines and practised his cures.
— from Fairy Tales from Spain by José Muñoz Escámez

But the Christian Church is founded, not on a correct speculative knowledge of the ideas of Paul, but on the much surer ground: Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity ; and, holding this to be so, we might change the current strain of doctrinal theology from one end to the other, without, on that account, setting up any new church or bringing in any new religion.
— from St. Paul and Protestantism, with an Essay on Puritanism and the Church of England by Matthew Arnold

The trees are loaded with such numbers as can only be imagined and not expressed.
— from Letters from Switzerland and Travels in Italy by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I think he met her or someone belonging to her—at the Academy to-day; and that’s why he hasn’t come—— Oh, Betty, I am not happy about it—I am not happy at all!”
— from The Sorceress (complete) by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

It should be covered or brought in at night, and must not be allowed to get wet by rain while it is curing.
— from The Silent Readers: Sixth Reader by Ethel Maltby Gehres

The house had an evil reputation for the hocussing of sailors, which was done not only for the purpose of plundering them, but also to supply outgoing ships with crews, the men being carried on board insensible, and not coming to until the ship was well down the St. Lawrence.
— from The Captain of the Polestar, and Other Tales by Arthur Conan Doyle