The illustrated and satirical English journals were as frequently seen in California as in Massachusetts; and the author records that he has experienced more difficulty in procuring a copy of “Punch” in an English provincial town than was his fortune at “Red Dog” or “One-Horse Gulch.”
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

The other is that war cannot be shown to have been a cause of progress in anything except the wealth or power of a state which extends its dominions by conquest or draws tribute from the vanquished.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

This taking a toll from a great crowd of people is an excessively troublesome thing.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

"The best chance of pleasure, in an easterly rain, I take it, is in a man's own house, with a nice little fire in the chimney.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The illustrated and satirical English journals were as frequently seen in California as in Massachusetts; and the author records that he has experienced more difficulty in procuring a copy of ‘Punch’ in an English provincial town than was his fortune at ‘Red Dog’ or ‘One-Horse Gulch.’” MAIN STREET, NEVADA CITY, 1852 From a photograph in the possession of Colonel Thomas L. Livermore
— from The Life of Bret Harte, with Some Account of the California Pioneers by Henry Childs Merwin

The dread of the French protectorate was much accentuated by the enforced restitution of ancient buildings, the most conspicuous examples of which occurred in the city of Peking itself, and even within the area of the imperial palace.
— from The Englishman in China During the Victorian Era, Vol. 2 (of 2) As Illustrated in the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., D.C.L., Many Years Consul and Minister in China and Japan by Alexander Michie

The free class in a slave state is always, in one sense, the most patriotic class of people in an empire; for their patriotism is not simply the patriotism of other people, but an aggregate of lust of power and distinction and supremacy.
— from Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In 1362 English superseded French as the spoken language of the law courts; next year the Chancellor opened Parliament in an English speech; and in 1385 Trevisa complained that boys at grammar-schools “know no more French than their left heel.”
— from Chaucer and His England by G. G. (George Gordon) Coulton

After commenting on the "tardy consolation for an evil which we have neglected to avert," and after remarking that "in the national point of view the case of Poland is an exact counterpart to that of Circassia," the letter thus concluded: "Against such a state of things it is surely time for all who feel as I do to protest."
— from Arrows of the Chace, vol. 2/2 being a collection of scattered letters published chiefly in the daily newspapers 1840-1880 by John Ruskin

This criticism applies to Beneke, according to whom Morality is "a development of human nature which exists as such within us, and which we need only continue or promote"; it applies equally to Reid and Dugald Stewart, who describe it as an inclination, which has become a habit or a principle, to act according to the dictates of conscience.
— from Morals and the Evolution of Man by Max Simon Nordau

The column of Phocas is also erect; and you see some portions of the Rostra fitted together out of fragments discovered near by.
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Rome, Complete by Émile Zola

Mrs. Montgomery was herself disposed to entertain the same opinion; she, however, laughed [63] at the romantic deduction attempted to be made by Frances, that Edmund therefore must be the child of parents in an exalted rank in life.
— from First Love: A Novel. Vol. 1 of 3 by Mrs. (Margracia) Loudon

Not without ample reason, I believe, for Mr Bracebridge was a man possessed of very rare qualities; and Oaklands, his place, was one of the most delightful houses to visit at in the country, or probably, in all England; that is to say, young men and boys, and indeed young people, generally, found it so.
— from Ernest Bracebridge: School Days by William Henry Giles Kingston

His father told, in turn, the plan his corporation was considering, of putting in an electric railway plant at Cairo.
— from Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather