He was, however, by much entreaty, prevailed on to forbear the application of this medicine; but from serenading his patient every hunting morning with the horn under his window, it was impossible to withhold him; nor did he ever lay aside that hallow, with which he entered into all companies, when he visited Jones, without any regard to the sick person's being at that time either awake or asleep.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

So Aristotle was profoundly right when he said that "poetry is more serious and philosophical than history"; and Goethe, when he explained literature as "the humanization of the whole world."
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

He found it in politics; he ran against it in science; he struck it in everyday life, as though he were still Adam in the Garden of Eden between God who was unity, and Satan who was complexity, with no means of deciding which was truth.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

His large brown eyes seem to have gathered a longer vision, as is the way with eyes that have been short-sighted in early life, and they have a less vague, a more answering gaze; but in everything else one sees signs of a frame much enfeebled by the lapse of the sixteen years.
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

Hands lay as I had left him, all fallen together in a bundle and with his eyelids lowered as though he were too weak to bear the light.
— from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

[17] Grub-street: famous in English literature as the home of poor writers.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

On the occasion of their annual dinner the Fishermen were in the habit of exposing all their treasures, as if they were in a private house, especially the celebrated set of fish knives and forks which were, as it were, the insignia of the society, each being exquisitely wrought in silver in the form of a fish, and each loaded at the hilt with one large pearl.
— from The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Before either looked at them, he glanced across at the Girl and asked scornfully, perhaps enviously: "What do you see in him?"
— from The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco

Green groweth the wheat in the English land, And the honey-bee flieth on every hand.
— from Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough by William Morris

But it is not alone in the great Abbey that the rambler in London is impressed by poetic antiquity and touching historic association—always presuming that he has been a reader of English literature and that his reading has sunk into his mind.
— from Shakespeare's England by William Winter

With Paul on one side, and Mr. Bunn on the other, he was raced back to Elk Lodge, and there he was supplied plentifully with hot lemonade to ward off a cold.
— from The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound Or, The Proof on the Film by Laura Lee Hope

There was a moment’s lull, as everybody looked at the hors d’oeuvres that were being handed round.
— from Women in Love by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

The buffetting wind had lent a magnificent glow to her skin, her eyes were shining—she had altogether an excited look, as though her feelings had been strongly worked upon.
— from The Tree of Knowledge: A Novel by Reynolds, Baillie, Mrs.

This part of the township of Tyendenaga belongs almost exclusively to the Mohawk Indians, who have made a large settlement here, while the government has given them a good school for instructing their children in the Indian and English languages; and they have a resident clergyman of the Establishment always at hand, to minister to them the spiritual consolations of religion, and impart to them the blessed truths of the gospel.
— from Life in the Clearings versus the Bush by Susanna Moodie

What, but that it is utterly vile and melodramatic, contrary to Othello's expressed resolve, and quite unnecessary?—for a better effect would be produced, if the actor averted his head and with both hands pressed hard upon the pillow, trembling in every limb at the horrible deed he is forced, in mercy, to bring to a quick end.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 59, September, 1862 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various