People vociferate, shout, howl, there they break forth and writhe with enjoyment; gayety roars; sarcasm flames forth, joviality is flaunted like a red flag; two jades there drag farce blossomed forth into an apotheosis; it is the triumphal car of laughter.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Although the private secretary saw in this delay--which he attributed to Mr. Seward's good sense--no reason for changing his opinion about the views of the British Government, he had no choice but to sit down again at his table, and go on copying papers, filing letters, and reading newspaper accoun
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

He opened a third and fourth letter, and read.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

If the fourth right arch, instead of the fourth left (aorta), remained pervious , the systemic aortic arch would then be turned to the right side of the vertebral column, and have the trachea and oesophagus on its left .
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

" "What a pity she hadn't met and married a fellow like Ford long ago," ruminated Gilbert.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida : ­ Perseverance, dear, my lord, Keeps honour bright: To have done, is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail In monumental mockery.
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

Old Kamehameha I., was dead, and his son, Liholiho, the new King was a free liver, a roystering, dissolute fellow, and hated the restraints of the ancient tabu.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

Once, for nearly a minute, the whole room melted, as it were, into one golden-gray mist, through which silver and glass and fabrics glowed [68] only as harmonious notes of colour, and wherein the face of his hostess seemed to float like a reflection in troubled water.
— from The Transgression of Andrew Vane: A Novel by Guy Wetmore Carryl

Now all Time belongs to him, and he walks without hurry; now all the World belongs to him, and he steps firmly, like a ruler, like a king, like one who is infinitely and joyfully alone in the world.
— from The Crushed Flower, and Other Stories by Leonid Andreyev

He began throwing sand out from under his feet like a record-busting rotary snow plough.
— from Lady Luck by Hugh Wiley

Few of the bodies were ever [Pg 12] found, but with the casks of whisky it was different, doubtless because the latter would float longer and resist buffeting better.
— from Down the Columbia by Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome) Freeman

The characters in these plays talk on the stage exactly as they would talk off it; they have neither aspirations nor aspirates; they are taken directly from life and reproduce its vulgarity down to the smallest detail; they present the gait, manner, costume and accent of real people; they would pass unnoticed in a third-class railway carriage.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

But a man's friends, as a rule, are the worst judges of his probable choice of a partner for life: and Rupert Osborne was drawn to Rose de Bercy because she possessed in superabundance those lively qualities and volatile charms in which he was himself deficient.
— from The de Bercy Affair by Louis Tracy

On the first day of the year snipers, from the battalions in line, established themselves in the German front line and remained there all day.
— from The 56th Division (1st London Territorial Division) by C. H. (Charles Humble) Dudley Ward

If I have taken up arms for liberty and right, and God sees not fit to crown those efforts of ours with victory, it is not that the cause is not rightful, nor that He will desert the right, but that His time is not yet, or that He has other means in store by which to work.
— from In Taunton town : a story of the rebellion of James Duke of Monmouth in 1685 by Evelyn Everett-Green

This sum, it is anticipated, will suffice to provide for lowering and refixing the whole of the Free Seats, and to make them more commodious for the use of the poor; to improve the seats generally throughout the Church; to alter and improve the position and character of the Pulpit and Reading Desk; to paint, grain, and varnish the whole of the seats; and so give an appropriate appearance to the Chancel of the Church.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 173, February 19, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various