But though this conclusion from the coherence of appearances may seem to be of the same nature with our reasonings concerning causes and effects; as being derived from custom, and regulated by past experience; we shall find upon examination, that they are at the bottom considerably different from each other, and that this inference arises from the understanding, and from custom in an indirect and oblique manner.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

I found Uriah reading a great fat book, with such demonstrative attention, that his lank forefinger followed up every line as he read, and made clammy tracks along the page (or so I fully believed) like a snail.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

He went there as flies go to a candle, and he would sit down at one of the little round tables and ask for a “bock,” which he would drink slowly, feeling uneasy every time a customer got up to go.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

"But you will not find it easy to break the news to her, for her plans for us extend over a couple of weeks."
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Then did they fall upon each other, and Sir Galahad drew forth his sword, and smote on the right hand and on the left, and slew so mightily that all who saw him thought he was a monster and no earthly man.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

The entrance of supper somewhat interrupted the complacent discourse of Madame Cheron and the painful considerations, which it had forced upon Emily.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

Shall we cry shame on the brutality of those who hamstring cattle: and spare the lights of Freedom upon earth who notch the ears of men and women, cut pleasant posies in the shrinking flesh, learn to write with pens of red-hot iron on the human face, rack their poetic fancies for liveries of mutilation which their slaves shall wear for life and carry to the grave, breaking living limbs as did the soldiery who mocked and slew the Saviour of the world, and set defenceless creatures up for targets!
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

It must not be supposed that he was delivered from all those obsessions of the memory which force us, even when happy, even when satisfied, to glance sadly behind us.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

How, then, in 18 all the time that has elapsed before I came into being should not a gulf be filled up even of much greater size than this by a river so great and so active? 12.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

Indeed, both the farmers and laborers in the parishes of Freshitt and Tipton would have felt a sad lack of conversation but for the stories about what Mrs. Cadwallader said and did: a lady of immeasurably high birth, descended, as it were, from unknown earls, dim as the crowd of heroic shades—who pleaded poverty, pared down prices, and cut jokes in the most companionable manner, though with a turn of tongue that let you know who she was.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

He felt utterly exhausted.
— from Many Kingdoms by Elizabeth Garver Jordan

From N. PORGES, Ph.D., Rabbi, Leipsic, Germany: Even the most conscientious Jew may, without hesitation, recognize that in view of the immense effect and success of his life, Jesus has become a figure of the highest order in the history of religion, and that the noble man, the pure character, the mild heart-winning personality, come forth unmistakable even from the mythical cover which surrounds his person.
— from Tarry thou till I come; or, Salathiel, the wandering Jew. by George Croly

Ergo, an augmentation of its frame Follows upon each novelty of forms.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

Their dress seems to exercise a fascination upon Europeans which the costume of any other eastern country fails to do.
— from The Inhabitants of the Philippines by Frederic H. Sawyer

I find upon examination that every fact connected with the case necessary to the determination of the question whether the claim should be appropriated for has already been found and stated by the Court of Claims in a published opinion.
— from A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 9, part 1: Benjamin Harrison by Benjamin Harrison

Being almost invariably selected when a lieutenant to command a company without an officer, I was with one exception alone with no company commander to observe and report my work, and my different regimental commanders didn't take sufficient interest to do so, even if where they could observe it; but the fact that I was almost invariably selected to command different companies in battle when needed and that I overslaughed several lieutenants when promoted Captain, should have been reason enough for at least one brevet during the war, if nothing more, which since, in the regular army, would have saved me from frequent undeserved embarrassment.
— from Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864 by Lemuel Abijah Abbott

His love for them was unusual; perhaps it can only be fully understood emotionally by us: like all men who are capable of very great love, Nietzsche lent the objects of his affection anything they might happen to lack in the way of greatness, and when at last his eyes were opened, genuine pain, not malice, was the motive of even the most bitter of his diatribes.
— from Thoughts out of Season, Part I David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer - Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche