of years of weary trying to please the one human being whom she loved, to gain one look of real heart-kindness from him?
— from Life in the Iron-Mills; Or, The Korl Woman by Rebecca Harding Davis

Thus a succession of generations or languages or religions constitutes no progress unless some ideal present at the beginning is transmitted to the end and reaches a better expression there; without this stability at the core no common standard exists and all comparison of value with value must be external and arbitrary.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

The chaplet of oak and acorns is sometimes known as a civic crown, but the term chaplet will more frequently be found giving place to the use of the word wreath, and a chaplet of laurel or roses, unless completely conjoined and figuring as a charge upon the shield, will be far more likely to be termed a wreath or garland of laurel or roses than a chaplet.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

*** Then Chairman, E. R. Brown, took charge of the meeting and introduced Col. Ingersoll as the greatest of living orators, referring to the time that the Colonel declared, a quarter of a century ago, in Rouse's Hall, Peoria, that from that time forth there would be one free man in Illinois, and expressing Indebtedness to him for what had been done since for the freedom and happiness of mankind, by his mighty brain, his great spirit and his gentle heart.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes by Robert Green Ingersoll

But to get one line of result often means days of labour over petty detail that does not show.
— from A Journal from Japan: A Daily Record of Life as Seen by a Scientist by Marie Carmichael Stopes

As noted in the opening chapter, the abduction of a woman, or even an immodest proposal to her, was punished in older un-christianized Scandinavia, by greater or lesser outlawry; rape being a capital crime, placing the culprit’s life in the hands of any man.
— from Woman, Church & State The Original Exposé of Male Collaboration Against the Female Sex by Matilda Joslyn Gage

We have not so much as a gleam of lake or river in the prospect; if there were, it would add greatly to the value of the place in my estimation.
— from A Study of Hawthorne by George Parsons Lathrop

Footnote 24 : i.e. , Maāt, the goddess of law, order, regularity, and the like, maketh the sun to rise each day in his appointed place and at his appointed time with absolute and unfailing regularity.
— from Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life by Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir

"A—LOOK 'ERE, YOU KNOW, MISTER, I DON'T WANT MY CART PUBLISHED, YOU KNOW, BUT IF ANY NICE GAL OR LADY OF RANK SHOULD WANT A COPY, WHY, YOU CAN SELL IT HER, YOU KNOW!" 158 AN INCIDENT OF TRAVEL.
— from John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, Vol. 3 (of 3) From the Collection of "Mr. Punch" by John Leech

Almost every steamer from California brought down a squad, greater or less, of recruits.
— from By-Ways of War: The Story of the Filibusters by James Jeffrey Roche

A day’s journey northeast of Huaynacotas are a group of lakes only recently hemmed in by flows from the small craters thereabouts.
— from The Andes of Southern Peru Geographical Reconnaissance along the Seventy-Third Meridian by Isaiah Bowman

In our boat Powell looked ahead, and gave orders "left" or "right," referring not to the direction in which he wished to go but to the oar which we were to pull with reference to our left or right not his. "Steady" meant to let the boat take her course.
— from The Romance of the Colorado River The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh