Drouet had what was a help in his business, a moderate sense of humour, and could tell a good story when the occasion required.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

In such cases there are generally strong natural inducements to disobey the stricter rule (in fact it would seem to be to the continual pressure of these inducements that the relaxation of the rule has been due): while at the same time the social sanction is weakened to such an extent that it is sometimes hard to say whether it outweighs a similar force on the other side.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

A General Trader of good Sense is pleasanter Company than a general Scholar; and Sir Andrew having a natural unaffected Eloquence, the Perspicuity of his Discourse gives the same Pleasure that Wit would in another Man.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

The Rovers being now pretty strong, they consulted together about getting some Place of Retreat, where they might lodge their Wealth, clean and repair their Ships, and make themselves a kind of Abode.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

I wouldn't call Tom a great success in life—but Claire does listen to what he says.
— from Plays by Susan Glaspell

Her lips, more than the cherries bright, A richer dye has graced them; They charm th' admiring gazer's sight, And sweetly tempt to taste them; Her smile is as the evening mild, When feather'd pairs are courting, And little lambkins wanton wild, In playful bands disporting.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

One fellow had a good voice, another fellow was a good actor, another could sing a good comic song, another was a good oarsman or a good racket player, another could tell a good story and so on.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

For every 1 kilogramme of carbide the available gasholder space must be: for the first 50 kilos., 20 litres; for the next 50 kilos., 15 litres; for amounts above 100 kilos., 10 litres per kilo.
— from Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use A Practical Handbook on the Production, Purification, and Subsequent Treatment of Acetylene for the Development of Light, Heat, and Power by W. J. Atkinson (William John Atkinson) Butterfield

No, he wouldn't have bet much on the chance that any great success of hers could reunite them.
— from Mary Wollaston by Henry Kitchell Webster

But at this time all the people were called together, and God spoke His law to them with His own voice.
— from Best Stories from the Best Book: An Illustrated Bible Companion for the Home by James Edson White

We very soon made off back again, and had not gone more than a couple of hundred yards before we came to a garden surrounding a farm-house.
— from With a Reservist in France A Personal Account of All the Engagements in Which the 1st Division 1st Corps Took Part, viz.: Mons (Including the Retirement), the Marne, the Aisne, First Battle of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Festubert, and Loos by F. A. Bolwell

The truth is he felt it, with his worn canvas trousers and Guernsey shirt, to be in some sense a last link to “home,” and he was loath to part with them.
— from The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

On he ran till he reached the hill, and crossed it, and came to a green spot beneath a rock, on the banks of the stream, when he could run no more, but fell down, and whether he fainted or fell asleep he could not tell. CHAPTER III.
— from The Gold Thread: A Story for the Young by Norman Macleod

The plan that we have worked out, and I hope improved upon year after year, has been the result of experience, and I refer to it now only as one contribution to a general subject which is of such great moment to earnest
— from Random Reminiscences of Men and Events by John D. (John Davison) Rockefeller

On the southern bank we came to a green spot at the mouth of the Little Missouri, [344] which is reckoned to be 1670 miles from the mouth of the Great Missouri.
— from Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 1 by Wied, Maximilian, Prinz von

If it is true, as claimed, that a good standard orange can be made by mixing red and yellow, then it should follow that when a red and yellow disk are combined and a smaller orange disk placed in front of them, that it ought to be possible to so adjust the proportion of red to yellow that by rotation the outer ring of color will match the central orange disk.
— from Elementary Color by Milton Bradley