Often for hours together I could not tear myself away from her; I studied every gesture, every movement she made, listened to every vibration of her rich, silvery, but rather muffled voice; but strange to say, as the result of all my observations, I felt, mixed with a sweet and timid impression, a feeling of intense curiosity.
— from White Nights and Other Stories The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Volume X by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

At that meeting he was struck for the first time by the endless variety of men’s minds, which prevents a truth from ever presenting itself identically to two persons.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

He could not understand it; but there were symptoms of intelligence between them—he thought so at least—symptoms of admiration on his side, which, having once observed, he could not persuade himself to think entirely void of meaning, however he might wish to escape any of Emma's errors of imagination.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

This it is which is particularly salutary and profitable in the study of history, that you behold instances of every variety of conduct displayed [Pg 4] on a conspicuous monument; that from thence you may select for yourself and for your country that which you may imitate; thence note what is shameful in the undertaking, and shameful in the result, which you may avoid.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

[‘ wierd ’; weorðan] wyrdan = wierdan + wyrde I. n. speech, conversation : eloquence, verbosity : ordinance .
— from A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary For the Use of Students by J. R. Clark (John R. Clark) Hall

Upon the sort of screen, patterned with different states and impressions, which my consciousness would quietly unfold while I was reading, and which ranged from the most deeply hidden aspirations of my heart to the wholly external view of the horizon spread out before my eyes at the foot of the garden, what was from the first the most permanent and the most intimate part of me, the lever whose incessant movements controlled all the rest, was my belief in the philosophic richness and beauty of the book I was reading, and my desire to appropriate these to myself, whatever the book might be.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

In short, on an enlarged view of the business, the carpenter's terms appeared so ridiculously easy that Mr. Pyncheon could scarcely forbear laughing in his face.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Of strangely versatile, but forceful, character, he occupies a unique position in American history, combining in a wonderful degree the rough manhood of the pioneer, the eccentric vanity of the Indian, the stern dignity of the soldier, the genius of the statesman, and withal the high chivalry of a knight of the olden time.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

2. All such apprentices, not exceeding eight to every master or owner of any fishing vessel of fifty tons or upward; not exceeding seven to every vessel or boat of thirty-five tons, and under fifty; not exceeding six to every vessel of thirty tons, or under thirty-five; and not exceeding four to every boat under thirty tons burden, during the time of their apprenticeship, and till the age of twenty years; they continuing, for the time, in the business of fishing only.
— from The White Slaves of England by John C. Cobden

We have first considered the inception of the system as based fundamentally upon the type of land settlement and tenure, followed by a study of the growth of the slave population, which brings in the question of the local economic value of the slave.
— from The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 by Various

There is also an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

When partially dry we transferred it to a large cloth and continued the drying until every vestige of moisture was gone from it.
— from The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work by Mary Rogers Miller

but immediately added, "Adieu!"—like the Salve et vale ! of classical times.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

Upon this simple intimation, the reader will anticipate all the fascinations of picturesque scenery and eloquent description—so characteristic of every volume of the Waverley Novels , and in this expectation, he will not be disappointed.
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 373, Supplementary Number by Various

convicts, rated at 1 s. and 1 s. 2 d. for labourers, and 1 s. 5 d. per day for artificers, is calculated to amount to 6,578 4 7 £.14,362 12 7 Deduct allowances made, and articles supplied, by the Board of Ordnance 1,498 14 10½ Total Estimate of the value of the labour of Convicts in 1797 £.12,863 17 8½ -469- Upon this last statement the Select Committee on Finance (whose various elaborate Reports on the State of the Nation, do them immortal honour as Patriots and Legislators) very justly observe, that it is extremely difficult to calculate the value of labour, performed under such circumstances, with any degree of accuracy; and after several views of the subject a conclusion is drawn, that the net expence to the Public, for the maintenance of 1402 convicts in 1797, after deducting the estimated value of labour, amounted to 20,878 l. 14
— from A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention by Patrick Colquhoun