They would have vainly sought—had they ever dreamed of seeking—to express the highest truths through the humblest medium of familiar words and images.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

M. twice, and by his first wife (Eliz., dau. of Sir L. Palk, Bt.) was father of Adml.
— from The Waterloo Roll Call With Biographical Notes and Anecdotes by Charles Dalton

Methought this staff, mine office-badge in court, Was broke in twain; by whom I have forgot, But, as I think, it was by th' Cardinal; And on the pieces of the broken wand Were plac'd the heads of Edmund Duke of Somerset
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Earl Erland died of sickness at Nidaros, and is buried there; and Earl Paul died in Bergen.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

"In eighty days; on Saturday, the 21st of December, 1872, at a quarter before nine p.m. Good-bye, gentlemen." Phileas Fogg and his servant seated themselves in a first-class carriage at twenty minutes before nine; five minutes later the whistle screamed, and the train slowly glided out of the station.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

332 And Menelaus said about Odysseus, "Nor did anything ever divide or separate us, who loved and delighted in one another, till death's black cloud overshadowed us."
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

Extremely drunk, or soundly beaten.
— from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

—In the early decades of Spanish rule, the Philippines were poor in resources and the population was sparse, quite insufficient for the purposes of the Spanish colonizers.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows

,” he answered, “long before this the girl is either dead or she is safe far away, and in either event it is useless to look for her about here, since Van Vooren’s kraal is watched, and we know that she is not in it.”
— from Swallow: A Tale of the Great Trek by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Jonathan Edwards' exquisite description of Sarah Pierrepont at the age of thirteen, Mrs. Edwards' own account of her religious exercises after her marriage, and Goethe's "Confessions of a Beautiful Soul," always reminded me of some of its characteristic features.
— from The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss by George Lewis Prentiss

And so, in the police court reports every day, one sees these fines recorded.
— from Sketches New and Old by Mark Twain

In almost every department of science the spirit of inquiry is abroad, investigation is active; yet, in this department, every thing is left to chance and ignorance.
— from The American Reformed Cattle Doctor Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy management by George H. Dadd

Go now and dress for some half-past eight dinner, or some ten o’clock “at home;” and present yourself in spotless attire, with every hair arranged to perfection.
— from Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative; Vol. 3 of 3 Library Edition (1891), Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and Various other Additions. by Herbert Spencer

(Back) Footnote 861: The exact distribution of seats was as follows: Conservatives, 256; Liberals, 66; Solidarists, 53; Republicans, 32; Democrats, 9; Independents, 8.
— from The Governments of Europe by Frederic Austin Ogg

She had never even dreamed of such playing.
— from The Price of Things by Elinor Glyn

First desert, then green oases, then the long line of rude fortifications from Kantara downwards, with the camp fires smoking, groups of early busy Tommies and endless dumps of stores.
— from The Wanderings of a Spiritualist by Arthur Conan Doyle

The idea of a hotel, with all its intrusions upon his privacy and all its diversions, was not pleasant to Mr. Benedict; but he saw at once that no woman worthy of Jim could be expected to be happy in the woods entirely deprived of society.
— from Sevenoaks: A Story of Today by J. G. (Josiah Gilbert) Holland