The prevarication and white lies which a mind that keeps itself ambitiously pure is as uneasy under as a great artist under the false touches that no eye detects but his own, are worn as lightly as mere trimmings when once the actions have become a lie.
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

She had taken the first flush of his youth and brought from his unplumbed depths tenderness that had surprised him, gentleness and unselfishness that he had never given to another creature.
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

The poor young man is struggling painfully for breath, his great dark eyes with a glaze already upon them, and the choking faint but audible in his throat.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

As he mused thus he heard the rustle of grass, and, upon turning his head, discovered the loud soldier.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane

HELMER goes and unlocks the hall door.]
— from A Doll's House : a play by Henrik Ibsen

During her absence, a neighbor had seen two gypsies ascend up to it with a bundle in their arms, then descend again, after closing the door.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

As the evening grew late, Norton, smarting under the repeated charges of being a metaphysician, clutching his chair to keep from jumping to his feet, his gray eyes snapping and his girlish face grown harsh and sure, made a grand attack upon their position.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

"How we got out of the Slough and through the Wicket Gate by resolving to be good, and up the steep hill by trying; and that maybe the house over there, full of splendid things, is going to be our Palace Beautiful."
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

The purpose of this pamphlet, at which it aims directly or obliquely in every page, is to persuade the public of three or four of the most difficult points in the world,—that all the advantages of the late war were on the part of the Bourbon alliance; that the peace of Paris perfectly consulted the dignity and interest of this country; and that the American Stamp Act was a masterpiece of policy and finance; that the only good minister this nation has enjoyed since his Majesty's accession, is the Earl of Bute; and the only good managers of revenue we have seen are Lord Despenser and Mr. George Grenville; and, under the description of men of virtue and ability, he holds them out to us as the only persons fit to put our affairs in order.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

The Sacristan removed the frontal from the High Altar, to show them the golden reliquary that enshrines the dust of San Guido, and unveiled the three fine altar-pieces, attributed to Giacomo Fiorentino, "San Guido Shipwrecked," "San Guide's Return," and "The Good Death of San Guido.
— from The Lady Paramount by Henry Harland

The man had stumbled across the gully and up toward the barn.
— from The Search by Grace Livingston Hill

Previously, however, on September 9, a considerable portion of the Egyptian army from Tel-el-Kebir again attacked the position at Kassassin at daylight; but we were too strong for them, their opportunity was gone, and under the orders of General Willis our troops
— from Recollections of a Military Life by Adye, John, Sir

‘If your ma, who took you every Sunday to meeting, should know that her boy was paying attention to married women;—if Drench, Glauber, and Co., your employers, were to know that their confidential agent was a gambler, and unfit to be trusted with their money, how long do you think your connection would last with them, and who would afterwards employ you?’
— from The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh; and the Irish Sketch Book by William Makepeace Thackeray

So overweening a place does it take in this man’s art that I believe the words to hold and use his meaning, rather than the meaning to compass and grasp and use the word.
— from Hearts of Controversy by Alice Meynell

Then, returning to his seat, he dived into one of his voluminous pockets, from which he produced the flask handed to him an hour before by Glover, and, unscrewing the top, drained its contents.
— from Hector Graeme by Evelyn Brentwood

Here again we have to be on guard against understanding the aim too narrowly.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

Not so, for "the wrath of God abideth " upon the disobedient.
— from Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume II by Charles Henry Mackintosh

Another gentleman, writing from Grantown, assures us that "One night in 1878, two men, one of whom was blind, entered the village of Grantown and inquired as to the [Pg 582] nearest route to Tomintoul.
— from The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales by James (Archaeologist) Grant

There is no part of a man's dress that makes or mars his appearance so much as his hat; not that it is its striking beauty when new, or a want of it when old, that is most materially concerned in producing either of the above effects; the grand point is the form , and the position which it is made to assume on the head; yet how few there are who give the least attention to either, except indeed military men, and they in general are uncommonly tasty, affording the best example of the precise style in which a hat should be worn.
— from Lloyd's Treatise on Hats, with Twenty-Four Engravings Containing Novel Delineations of His Various Shapes, Shewing the Manner in Which They Should Be Worn... by Robert Lloyd