It's dangerous to set foot in a Forbidden Planet -- rarely do I escape with my wallet intact.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

When fibrous plant residues decay in the soil, the cellulose compounds are first converted into a series of complex organic acids, known as "humins," which undoubtedly have a significant effect upon the chemical and physical properties of the soil, but these have little interest or significance in a study of the chemistry of plant growth.
— from The Chemistry of Plant Life by Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher

Formerly, Poor Richard declares in one preface, no prince would make war or peace, nor any general fight a battle without first consulting an astrologer, who examined the aspects and configurations of the heavenly bodies, and marked the lucky hour.
— from Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Wiliam Cabell Bruce

As in a terrible dream he saw the sorrowing forms of his younger brother and sister, crouching at his feet, poor Rose drooping in the doorway, his father's trembling hands grasping a post of the high, old-fashioned bedstead, and, on the other side of the bed a youthful stranger, whose black dress and very black hair divinely framed a face and throat of milky whiteness.
— from An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada by G. Mercer (Graeme Mercer) Adam

And let the loud-rejoicing fall Plunge, roaring, down its rocky wall; And let the Indian's paddle play
— from Narrative and Legendary Poems, Complete Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier by John Greenleaf Whittier

It is said the committee decided upon the weight and rate limits after an “exhaustive investigation of all the parcels post systems of the world,” and it was pointed out that this investigation disclosed the fact that only “five powers” reported deficits in their postal services in 1909—Luxemburg, Chili, Greece, Mexico and Austria—the deficits ranging from $7,437 in Luxemburg to $1,693,157 in Austria.
— from Postal Riders and Raiders by W. H. Gantz

In their madness they had destroyed their brethren, the people of Israel, who ought to have been a safeguard for them to the north; now there was nothing and no man to prevent the Assyrians, or any other invaders, from pouring right down into their land.
— from Town and Country Sermons by Charles Kingsley

Shell after shell came whizzing over our heads; one struck ten yards on the right of our cart, another shaved our left, a third whizzed close by my head, causing a deafening sensation in my ears, and a fourth plumped right down in front of our leading horses, killing both.
— from South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 6 (of 8) From the Occupation of Pretoria to Mr. Kruger's Departure from South Africa, with a Summarised Account of the Guerilla War to March 1901 by Louis Creswicke

Raze these long blocks of brick and stone, These huge mill-monsters overgrown; Blot out the humbler piles as well, Where, moved like living shuttles, dwell The weaving genii of the bell; Tear from the wild Cocheco's track The dams that hold its torrents back; And let the loud-rejoicing fall Plunge, roaring, down its rocky wall; And let the Indian's paddle play On the unbridged Piscataqua!
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

As a matter of fact, Mr. Brick, the member for Peace river district in the Alberta legislature, started to cut on the last day of July, and he told Mr. Bredin that the grain was ready to cut a week earlier.
— from The Unexploited West A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada by Ernest J. Chambers

This he purposed to have had represented by some students, for the amusement of his friends; but Dalberg, for prudent reasons, dissuaded its performance.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 06, December 8, 1849 by Various