Deceitful as an autumn cloud Which, though its thunderous voice be loud, On the dry earth no torrent sends, Such is the race of faithless friends.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

“The way to become rich is to make money, my dear Edna, not to save it,” he said.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin

Neither Rosalie nor myself ate a morsel, and the marquis who helped all the guests was discreet enough not to see that we left one course after another untouched.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

In glorious deeds each nerve they strained, And well their Warrior part sustained.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Dry, sister, dry each needless tear, Stint thy lament and banish fear, For Ráma and his brother go This day to Yáma's realm below.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

If you had never seen a horse, no description even, not to say no amount of remark, would bring the figure of a horse before your mind.
— from The Seaboard Parish Volume 1 by George MacDonald

Marshal Daun experienced nearly the same fate as General Melas, at the battle of Torgau, in the campaign of 1760.
— from The Officer's Manual: Napoleon's Maxims of War by Emperor of the French Napoleon I

Here they turned, and for five hours hurled back one advancing French column after another until eleven o'clock at night, when, fortunately for the attacking troops,—so at least thought Savary, who was with them,—it grew too dark, even near the summer solstice and in those high latitudes, to fight longer.
— from The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 3 (of 4) by William Milligan Sloane

Little personal events came to her in quick succession—half a dozen, eight, nine, ten such events,—in brief; she bore him no less than eleven children in the eight following years, but half of them came prematurely into the world, or died a few days old; only one, a girl, attained to maturity; she in after years became the wife of the Honourable Mr. Beltonleigh, who was created Lord D’Almaine, as may be remembered.
— from A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy

My reading gave me no standing among the boys Neither worse nor better because of the theatre Never appeals to the principle which sniffs, in his reader None of the passions are reasoned, Not very distinctly know their dreams from their experiences Now little notion what it was about, but I love its memory Our horrible sham of a slave-based freedom Pendennis Prejudice against certain words that I cannot overcome President Garfield Probably no dramatist ever needed the stage less Rape of the Lock Rapture of the new convert could not last Reservations as to the times when he is not a master Responsibility of finding him all we have been told he is Secretly admires the splendors he affects to despise Self-flattered scorn, his showy sighs, his facile satire Self-satisfied, intolerant, and hypocritical provinciality Should probably have wasted the time if I had not read them Slave-based freedom So long as we have social inequality we shall have snobs Society, as we have it, was necessarily a sham Somehow expressed the feelings of his day Somewhat too studied grace Speaks it is not with words and blood, but with words and ink Spit some hapless victim: make him suffer and the reader laugh Style is the man, and he cannot hide himself in any garb Surcharge all imitations of life and character Surcharged in the serious moods, and caricatured in the comic Swedenborg
— from Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Literature Essays by William Dean Howells

He was too clear-sighted, his spiritual senses were too acute, he was too much in deadly earnest, not to see that none of these aids were leading him to a solid ground of certainty on [pg 429] which he could base his hopes for time and for eternity; and he was too honest with himself to be persuaded that he was otherwise than his despair told him.
— from A History of the Reformation (Vol. 1 of 2) by Thomas M. (Thomas Martin) Lindsay

The mainframe just kept dialing each number till somebody picked up.
— from The Samurai Strategy by Thomas Hoover

It is furthermore to be noted, for the low countries of Belgie know it, and dailie experience (notwithstanding the sharpenesse of our lawes to the contrarie) dooth yet confirme it: that although our rams & weathers doo go thither from vs neuer so well headed according to their kind: yet after they haue remained there a while, they cast there their heads, and Shéepe without hornes.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison