“Well,” said Syme, “if he’s that particular kind of old gentleman, if you’re quite sure that he’s a large and fat old gentleman in grey clothes, you may take my word for it that the elephant has not run away with him.
— from The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

As the fair serpent of Zmudz called giwojtos , though, lying amid the heather, it seems to slumber, still crawls along, for by turns it shows silver and golden, until it suddenly vanishes from the eye in the moss or ferns; so the brook wound and hid among the alders, which showed black on the far horizon, raising their light forms, indistinct to the eye, like spirits half seen and half in mist.
— from Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by Adam Mickiewicz

As members of distinct classes have often been adapted by successive slight modifications to live under nearly similar circumstances,—to inhabit for instance the three elements of land, air, and water,—we can perhaps understand how it is that a numerical parallelism has sometimes been observed between the sub-groups in distinct classes.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

As she clearly discerns beforehand the only road which can lead to domestic happiness, she enters upon it at once, and follows it to the end without seeking to turn back.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

The fact is that the eye does not always give a true impression, but very often leads the mind to form a false judgment.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

Casting up which new curious handful of dust ( through the Printing-press ), to breed what it can and may, Mirabeau stalks forth into the Third Estate.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

For which reason I am not afraid to insert in it several private articles, which will spend their use amongst the men that are now living, and that concern the particular knowledge of some who will see further into them than every common reader.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Like an old fool, I thought that every one would have the same opinions as I had; and he evidently could not agree with me.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Where masses of people are gathered together in England, caste is submerged, and with it the English reserve; equality exists for the moment, and every individual is free; so free from any consciousness of fetters, indeed, that the Englishman’s habit of watching himself and guarding himself against any injudicious exposure of his feelings is forgotten, and falls into abeyance—and to such a degree indeed, that he will bravely applaud all by himself if he wants to—an exhibition of daring which is unusual elsewhere in the world.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

But I think they are extremely Unjust to me in this Imputation: All that I contend for is, that those Excellencies, which are to be regarded but in the second Place, should not precede more weighty Considerations.
— from The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series by Steele, Richard, Sir

There are instances of brief summing up of a case by judges, but few in the terms expressed by this worthy judge.
— from Law and Laughter by D. Macleod (Donald Macleod) Malloch

The "Corkonians" took the train for Seville, and it was a corker in length for it took three engines and all the first-class carriages in Andalusia to carry us to our destination.
— from A Fantasy of Mediterranean Travel by Samuel G. (Samuel Gamble) Bayne

Writers on liturgy answer, 1st to offer to God the first fruits of our day, of our work, of our devotion, following in this the example of Christ, Who from His first entry into the world offered Himself to His Father for the salvation of mankind.
— from The Divine Office A Study of the Roman Breviary by Edward J. Quigley

The richest and most distinguished families in the town envied them this meat, disgusting as it was, for the shortage of fodder had made nearly all the horses sick and even the flesh of those dying of disease was distributed.
— from The Memoirs of General Baron de Marbot by Marbot, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine-Marcelin, baron de

The badger retreats as the sappers advance, and unfortunately the earth extends farther in than the Earthstopper imagined; but that is a trifling matter, as every stroke of the pick is bringing him nearer to the prize.
— from Wild Life at the Land's End Observations of the Habits and Haunts of the Fox, Badger, Otter, Seal, Hare and of Their Pursuers in Cornwall by J. C. (John Coulson) Tregarthen

The western columns, i.e. Rundle's, Clement's, Paget's, and Hunter's, are to force a simultaneous entrance into the Fouriesberg valley, and having got the enemy's force jammed against the Basuto border, to force it to turn eastward up the rugged Caledon valley, the only two exits to which are, we hope, by this time held by Bruce-Hamilton and Macdonald.
— from With Rimington by L. March (Lisle March) Phillipps

It may also be said that in the calcareous earth fire, in the talcose earths the air, in the argillaceous earth water has exercised its influence and displaced the Earthy.
— from Elements of Physiophilosophy by Lorenz Oken

[181] The enlarged form is first found in the two editions of the discourse printed by Grüneberg at Wittenberg in 1521, one in Latin and the other in German, which are based as to the remaining portion on notes on the subject emanating from Luther.
— from Luther, vol. 2 of 6 by Hartmann Grisar

[95] between the Lebanons, with nothing from it to the Euphrates.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Isaiah, Volume 1 (of 2) by George Adam Smith