She was patient—a martyr, indeed—but she forebore to pray for enemies, lest, in spite of her forgiving aspirations, the words of the blessing should stubbornly twist themselves into a curse.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

—The German, who possesses the secret of knowing how to be tedious in spite of wit, knowledge, and feeling, and who has habituated himself to consider tediousness as moral, is in dread in the presence of French esprit lest it should tear out the eyes of morality—but a dread mingled with “fascination,” like that experienced by the little bird in the presence of the rattlesnake.
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Once was my sire, though now, for ever lost, In Stygian gloom he glides a pensive ghost!
— from The Odyssey by Homer

Then from each limb in swift descent Dropped many a sparkling ornament: On earth they rested dim and pale Like fallen stars when virtues fail.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The easiest method of learning the alphabet is by grouping the various letters together as follows: For all letters from A to G, one arm only is used, making a quarter of a circle for each letter in succession.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

,” replied the old fellow, “ere long I shall be in another land.”
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

That these were found in a limited quantity, I believe about seventeen in number, tends to show that they are warp weights, for only a few are required for every loom, in spite of the considerable number shown in the non-technical illustration of Penelope’s loom.
— from Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms by H. Ling (Henry Ling) Roth

Did your father ever live in Syracuse?"
— from From the Valley of the Missing by Grace Miller White

Indeed, I think that for everyday living, I should find him the more agreeable companion of the two.
— from Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories; Second Series by James Edmund Dunning

In dark weather these wires carried the current for electric lights in shed and boat.
— from The Submarine Boys on Duty Life on a Diving Torpedo Boat by Victor G. Durham

At the close of his work our author attempts to console his readers for having demolished their evangelical belief in the following eloquent language:— "In surrendering its miraculous element and its claims to supernatural origin, therefore, the religion of Jesus does not lose its virtue, or the qualities which have made it a blessing to humanity.
— from The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth by M. H. (Matthew Henry) Habershon

Romanes, a prominent disciple of Darwin, ended in Christian theism, and Wallace, the discoverer of “the struggle for existence,” landed in spiritualism.
— from Naturalism and Religion by Rudolf Otto