When he came to try the things on and we squeezed ourselves into the tight trousers and jackets adorned with basting threads, mother always frowned contemptuously and expressed her surprise: “Goodness knows what the fashions are coming to nowadays!
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

We shall merely have investigated a chapter in the natural history of the mind, and found that, as a matter of such natural history, God may be called the normal object of the mind's belief.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

After having dunned a countess, to no avail, for a hundred francs that was due her, she conceived the idea of carrying off the silverware, on display at a grand dinner to be given by her debtor one evening, as a pledge.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

In many quarters it happened, by reason of the narrow room, that a vessel was charging an enemy on one side and being charged herself on another, and that two or sometimes more ships had perforce got entangled round one, obliging the helmsmen to attend to defence here, offence there, not to one thing at once, but to many on all sides; while the huge din caused by the number of ships crashing together not only spread terror, but made the orders of the boatswains inaudible.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Two of the women who came that night belong in a certain measure to History.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

<che teco non mi risso!
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

could there not be made, or rather has there not been made a work altogether allegorical, out of the Homeric poems?
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Note 12 ( return ) [ The reader will note the extreme care which the writer takes to make it clear that none of the suitors were allowed to sleep in Ulysses' house.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

Public policy, that is to say, legislative considerations, are at the bottom of the matter; the considerations being, in this case, the nearness of the danger, the greatness of the harm, and the degree of apprehension felt.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes

After this, of course, the nearest wheat-ear begins to talk.
— from The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies by Walter Besant

He could take no food.
— from Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology) Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian by W. D. (William Drake) Westervelt

Solemnly and clear that impressive voice which so often had thrilled the crowds in that very square made answer,— "From the Church Militant you may divide me; but from the Church Triumphant, no,—that is above your power!"—and a light flashed out in his face as if a smile from Christ had shone down upon him.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 54, April, 1862 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

Of course the new administration did not act as if Virginia had seceded; the Rebels were allowed to gather arms at will and at leisure, Fortress Monroe came very near to falling into their hands, and Norfolk Navy Yard did so, with the destruction of half our best vessels, and ten millions of dollars worth of Government property—all which might have been avoided if they had taken a hint from a fool.
— from Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 by Henry Morford

Againe, when adultrie or sodomie is com̅ited by p̲fessors or church members, I fear it coms too near y
— from Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts by William Bradford

At the beginning of a pitched battle the knights (owners of chariots) dismounted, and formed a thick and serried line of infantry: behind them came the nameless host, concerning whose armour we have no information.
— from The World of Homer by Andrew Lang

But early the next morning he ordered his best horse to be saddled, as he thought it behooved him to make a good appearance on such an important occasion as carrying the news of his nephew’s marriage to the squire.
— from A Country Sweetheart by Dora Russell

He bounded up: his practised eye, Was turn’d upon the lurid sky, Lit by the flames, which mounting higher, Soon clothed the night in a robe of fire.
— from Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 3 A Collection of New and Popular Comic and Sentimental Songs. by Various

26 For nurses and mothers will talk to babes of even a few months old—although the innocents comprehend them not!
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 2/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds