Because there were two boats in his wake, and he supposed, no doubt, that they would of course come up to Pip very quickly, and pick him up; though, indeed, such considerations towards oarsmen jeopardized through their own timidity, is not always manifested by the hunters in all similar instances; and such instances not unfrequently occur; almost invariably in the fishery, a coward, so called, is marked with the same ruthless detestation peculiar to military navies and armies.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Pink of Chivalry : ‘Sovereign Cavalier;’ identified by his arms as Ser Giovanni Buiamonte, still alive in Florence in 1301, and if we are to judge from the text, the greatest usurer of all.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Some were Filipinos who ministered to the needs of the Spaniards, but the greater number were Sangleyes, or Chinese, “the mechanics in all trades and excellent workmen,” as an old Spanish chronicle says, continuing: “It is true that the city could not be maintained or preserved without the Sangleyes.” The Chinese conditions of these early days are worth recalling, for influences strikingly similar to those which affected the life of José Rizal in his native land were then at work.
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig

Then the woman who had called suddenly changed into a bee, and flew at and stung the beetle.
— from Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Faries by Yuk Yi

If creases should come in the ironing where they ought not to be, dab them over lightly with a sponge moistened with water and a few drops of starch and pass the iron over them again.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

"Here t'is Sunday mornin' and what wid my back, de dog, and de rheumatics in my feets, its [TR: 'done' crossed out] too late to go to church, so come in honey I'se glad to hab somebody to talk to.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration

But I observe that when Mrs. Dahlgren wishes to obtain more profit by her husband's inventions all objections vanish: she can appeal to Congressmen, she can address committees, she can, I hope, prevail.
— from Women and the Alphabet: A Series of Essays by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Those divers parts do not respectively maintain an essential order; for no sooner has the must been expressed from the grapes, and been styled brimstone or volatile spirits, than it continues so closely involved with the particles of tartar, which is fixed, as not to be in any way able to escape. 55.
— from Demoniality; or, Incubi and Succubi by Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

'When I shall receive the congregation,' saith Christ, 'I will judge uprightly,' that is faithfully (Psa 75:2).
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

In the cool Strangers' Club I met men of the Saxon breed, quiet Englishmen, quiet Americans, representatives of syndicates with millions of money at their backs, negotiating, wire-pulling, securing concessions for railroads, for developing stretches of that great back country of Brazil, as little explored as Central Africa, but the possibilities of which the world is realising and will scramble hungrily to turn into profit.
— from The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of Enterprise by John Foster Fraser

Nevertheless, she could be raised to the dignity of a legitimate wife so soon as she had fulfilled certain conditions of the Jews: she had to cut her hair and nails; to lay off the dress she was captured in, and exchange it for another that was given her; thereupon she had to mourn a whole month for her father and mother: she was, in a manner to be dead to her own people, become estranged from them: then could she climb into the conjugal bed.
— from Woman under socialism by August Bebel

The covert sneer conveyed in this speech made the peppery Italian fire up.
— from Jack Harkaway and His Son's Escape from the Brigands of Greece by Bracebridge Hemyng