inconsiderate, thoughtless. absent, abstracted, distrait; absentminded, lost; lost in thought, wrapped in thought; rapt, in the clouds, bemused; dreaming on other things, musing on other things; preoccupied, engrossed &c. (attentive) 457; daydreaming, in a reverie &c. n.; off one's guard &c. (inexpectant) 508[obs3]; napping; dreamy; caught napping.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread"; "To err is human, to forgive divine"; "A little learning is a dangerous thing,"--these lines, and many more like them from the same source, have found their way into our common speech, and are used, without thinking of the author, whenever we need an apt quotation.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

She felt like a lost person who has traveled down a long lane in good hope of escape, and, just as the night descends finds his progress barred by a bridge-less river whose further shore, if it has one, is lost in the darkness.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

In the shade of Cook's Court, at most times a shady place, Mr. Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper—foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey-brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India-rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape and green ferret; in pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands—glass and leaden—pen-knives, scissors, bodkins, and other small office-cutlery; in short, in articles too numerous to mention, ever since he was out of his time and went into partnership with Peffer.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The first day he held himself aloof from her, as far as he could without any flagrant breach of hospitality: since that he has been friendly and civil, but nothing more—in my presence, at least, nor, I think, at any other time; for she seems haughty and displeased, and Lord Lowborough is manifestly more cheerful, and more cordial towards his host than before.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Camilla when she saw him, drawing a long line in front of her on the floor with the dagger, said to him, “Lothario, pay attention to what I say to thee: if by any chance thou darest to cross this line thou seest, or even approach it, the instant I see thee attempt it that same instant will I pierce my bosom with this dagger that I hold in my hand; and before thou answerest me a word desire thee to listen to a few from me, and afterwards thou shalt reply as may please thee.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Ma poscia ch'ebber colto lor viaggio su per la punta, dandole quel guizzo che dato avea la lingua in lor passaggio, udimmo dire:
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

For life is a dream a little less inconstant.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Now, the brown owl, in spite of proverbial wisdom gained during a long life in the dim seclusion of the woods, is occasionally apt to blunder.
— from Creatures of the Night: A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain by Alfred Wellesley Rees

An expression made use of by the evangelist Luke might seem to suggest that all the people had been baptized for that day at least (Luke iii. 21); so that perhaps the crowds had dispersed, and the great prophet was alone with one or two of those young disciples of whom we have spoken.
— from John the Baptist by F. B. (Frederick Brotherton) Meyer

Thus surely came love to Michael Berrington, as he gathered primrose-posies in the sunshine of a spring day, and looked long into a young maid's laughing eyes.
— from A Blot on the Scutcheon by Mabel Winifred Knowles

I do believe that if during a long life I were always gazing at undulating verdant meadows, dotted over with reddish-brown houses, I should always experience the same pleasure in looking at them.
— from Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

A door at left leads into a bedroom.
— from War Brides: A Play in One Act by Marion Craig Wentworth

Auersperg sat down and laughed, laughed in a way that made John's face turn red.
— from The Forest of Swords: A Story of Paris and the Marne by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

So I scrooched down and laid low in that old nest, and didn't move or let on in any way that I was there.
— from How Mr. Rabbit Lost his Tail Hollow Tree Stories by Albert Bigelow Paine

“Some of the neighbors are out with dogs and lanterns, looking, I’m sure, for the spies,” she announced excitedly, “and they are coming up the lane!”
— from Chasing an Iron Horse Or, A Boy's Adventures in the Civil War by Edward Robins