" "Papa," said Sara, "you see, if I went out and bought a new doll every few days I should have more than I could be fond of.
— from A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Smith, D. D., lauded the bravery of the Baron and his men at the Battle of Yorktown, whereupon General Washington in thanking the members of the Society for their forethought in tendering the reception to the noble officer (he subsequently decorated Ferson with the “Order of the Cincinnati” for valor displayed) expressed his pleasure at being present among the people of his forefathers’ blood, as he claimed descent from the family of Wass, who emigrated from Denmark in the year A. D. 970, and settled in the County Durham, England, where they built a small town, calling it Wass-in-ga-tun (town of Wass.)”
— from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 by George T. (George Tobias) Flom

It was in this Aringay fight that one of the narrowest escapes from death in battle ever officially authenticated occurred.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

That this again is an unconscious excuse for delay is now pretty generally agreed, and it is needless to describe again the state of mind which, on the view explained in our last lecture, is the real cause of Hamlet's failure here.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

If the divisions intended for detachments are joined to the wings and the center,—that is, if those parts contain each four divisions instead of three,—and if one or two divisions be occasionally added to the wing which is likely to bear the brunt of an engagement, each wing will be a corps properly of four divisions; but detachments will generally reduce it to three, and sometimes two, while it might, again, be reinforced by a portion of the reserve until it reached five divisions.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

Light is admitted into the interior through a double screen of pierced marble, which tempers the glare of an Indian sky while its whiteness prevents the mellow effect from degenerating into gloom.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Proof.—Also evident from Def. iii.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

How A Dinner Is Given In A Great House When Mrs. Worldly gives a dinner, it means no effort on her part whatsoever beyond deciding upon the date and the principal guests who are to form the nucleus; every further detail is left to her subordinates—even to the completion of her list of guests.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

Ethan Frome drove in silence, the reins loosely held in his left hand, his brown seamed profile, under the helmet-like peak of the cap, relieved against the banks of snow like the bronze image of a hero.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Proof.—This proposition is evident from Def. i. For that of which the nature (considered in itself) involves existence is self—caused, and exists by the sole necessity of its own nature.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

The reason of this was that many weak—even dying-men would persist in wandering about, and would be found exhausted, frequently dead, in various parts of the City.
— from Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons by John McElroy

And here I cannot but smile to think how I have paid myself in showing the foppery of this kind of learning, who myself am so manifest an example; for, do I not the same thing throughout almost this whole composition?
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Every fact dispersed in its insulated state refuses all combination; cause and effect lie remote and obscured from each other; disguised by their ostensible pretexts, the true motives of actions in the great actors of the drama of history cannot be found in the chronological chronicler.
— from Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Isaac Disraeli

It takes time to see the ideas of leaders and experts filter down into the lower strata of society.
— from Catholic Problems in Western Canada by George Thomas Daly

He told me late on Christmas eve, after our simple domestic revels had sunk to rest and we sat together by the fire, that he had been visited the night before in wakeful hours by the finest fancy for a really good thing that he had ever felt descend in the darkness.
— from Embarrassments by Henry James

I cannot imagine the Quarter without actors and actresses in possession of dozens of its windows, the attraction to them less the associations with Garrick than the convenient proximity to the principal theatres; or without the Societies, Institutes, Leagues, Bureaus, [Pg 348] Companies, Associations, and I know not what else, that undertake the charge of everything under the sun, from ancient buildings to women's freedom; or without the clubs, where long-haired men and Liberty-gowned women meet to drink tea and dabble in anarchy; where more serious citizens propose to refashion the world and mankind, and, incidentally, British politics; where, in a word, philanthropists of every pattern fill the very air of the Quarter with reform, until my escape from degenerating into a reformer despite myself seems a daily miracle, and the sham Bohemianism of the one club willing to let the rest of the world take care of itself becomes almost a virtue.
— from Our House and London out of Our Windows by Elizabeth Robins Pennell

Avaunt such folly!—three in four you'll find, Of those who wear the veil—have changed their mind; Their fingers bite, and often do much worse: Those convent vows, full soon, become a curse; Such things at least have sometimes reached my ear (For doubtless I must speak from others here); Of his Boccace a merry tale has told, Which into rhyme I've put, as you'll behold.
— from Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine — Complete by Jean de La Fontaine

E For diagrams illustrating this chapter, see end of book.
— from The British Navy in Battle by Arthur Joseph Hungerford Pollen

The men had scarcely begun to congratulate themselves on their escape from death in the pack when they realized that they were under conditions of great peril.
— from True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World by A. W. (Adolphus Washington) Greely