This phrase bowled me over, for the proportion thus bluntly stated in figures gave me so logical a conception of his exalted expectations, that I hurried away at once to the director to warn him that the enterprise on which we had embarked would not, after all, prove as easy as we thought.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

For our physical life consists of a series of changes, for the most part periodically recurrent with slight modification after short intervals: and it is difficult to see why we should attach the idea of “disturbance” or “restoration of equilibrium” to any one among these normal processes rather than any other:— e.g. it is difficult to see why the condition of having expended energy should be regarded as a departure from equilibrium any more than the condition of having just taken in nutriment.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

Yet he continued to work almost to the last, and distributed copies of his Ethic Epistles to his friends about three weeks before his death, with the smiling remark that like the dying Socrates he was dispensing his morality among his friends.
— from The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems by Alexander Pope

Getico, 524) dwells with more complacency on his early exploits against the Romans.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

I mean, not without the consciousness of having earnestly endeavoured to kindle young minds, and to guard them against the temptations of scorners, by showing that the scheme of Christianity, as taught in the liturgy and homilies of our Church, though not discoverable by human reason, is yet in accordance with it; that link follows link by necessary consequence; that Religion passes out of the ken of Reason only where the eye of Reason has reached its own horizon; and that Faith is then but its continuation: even as the day softens away into the sweet twilight, and twilight, hushed and breathless, steals into the darkness.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

‘But we can see him, an obscure conqueror of fame, tearing himself out of the arms of a jealous love at the sign, at the call of his exalted egoism.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

After waiting ten or a dozen years for some one to show consciousness of his existence, even a Terebratula would be pleased and grateful for a compliment which implied that the new President of Harvard College wanted his help; but Adams knew nothing about history, and much less about teaching, while he knew more than enough about Harvard College; and wrote at once to thank President Eliot, with much regret that the honor should be above his powers.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

M. de Sanvitali had left Venice, and the Parmesan government had placed his estates in chancery in consequence of his extravagant expenditure.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

She would save him from the curse of his early environment, and she would save him from himself in spite of himself.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

The light from a large lamp was brilliant, and I could observe his every expression with ease,—he was evidently labouring under strong excitement, and in a few moments I saw him pour out a stiff "second-mate's nip" of neat brandy, and gulp it down.
— from Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume I) by Augustus F. Lindley

It might be but yesterday that the horrified Gil Blas recognised the comrades of his early escapades walking among the condemned in the procession of the Auto-da-fé .
— from Northern Spain by Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram

However, his look of surprise was not lost upon Miss Patricia Fairfield, who saw him out 102 of the corner of her eye, even though she was apparently engrossed with Mr. Drayton.
— from Patty's Social Season by Carolyn Wells

The white man ground his knuckles into the corners of his eyes, emitting that snore final and querulous of a middle-aged man awakened rudely.
— from A Christmas Garland by Beerbohm, Max, Sir

Some impulse now drew him to effect what he had long been contemplating, to remove that sinister thing beyond all chance of human eye ever falling upon it again.
— from The Heath Hover Mystery by Bertram Mitford

She remained motionless, seemingly apathetic; still an almost imperceptible contraction of her eyebrows evidenced the internal emotion she endured."
— from The Indian Scout: A Story of the Aztec City by Gustave Aimard