Compared with Greek work it lacks that subtle variety in the modelling that gives vitality.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

" Once a friend who was learning the manual alphabet kept making "g," which is like the hand of a sign-post, for "h," which is made with two fingers extended.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

It don’t glimmer where I live, the sun don’t.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

Hammond took the cars at Madison, and I rode alone to Augusta, Georgia, where I left the horse and returned to Charleston and Fort Moultrie by rail.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

Consulting secret with the blue-eyed maid, Still in the dome divine Ulysses stay'd: Revenge mature for act inflamed his breast; And thus the son the fervent sire address'd: "Instant convey those steely stores of war To distant rooms, disposed with secret care: The cause demanded by the suitor-train, To soothe their fears, a specious reason feign: Say, since Ulysses left his natal coast, Obscene with smoke, their beamy lustre lost, His arms deform the roof they wont adorn: From the glad walls inglorious lumber torn. Suggest, that Jove the peaceful thought inspired, Lest they, by sight of swords to fury fired, Dishonest wounds, or violence of soul, Defame the bridal feast and friendly bowl."
— from The Odyssey by Homer

I was glad when I learnt that Milicent was so near us; and her company would be a soothing solace to me now; but she is still in town with her mother; there is no one at the Grove but little Esther and her French governess, for Walter is always away.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

What is capable of truly purifying the world is not the mere agitation of its elements, but their organisation into a natural body that shall exude what redounds and absorb or generate what is lacking to the perfect expression of its soul.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Truly if these reasons be good, which I leave to future time to determine, it may be done for little cost.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

In the course of fifty years the banks taught one many wise lessons for which an insect had to be grateful whether it liked them or not; but of all the lessons Adams learned from them, none compared in dramatic effect with that of July 22, 1893, when, after talking silver all the morning with Senator Cameron on the top of their travelling-carriage crossing the Furka Pass, they reached Lucerne in the afternoon, where Adams found letters from his brothers requesting his immediate return to Boston because the community was bankrupt and he was probably a beggar.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

As they wound along the course of the creek, always up and up, the great walls imperceptibly lowered their rims.
— from The Heritage of the Desert: A Novel by Zane Grey

Then, as now, gondoliers worked indoors like the servants when not busy with the boats, and slept in the house.
— from Marietta: A Maid of Venice by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

he continued, with an emphasis on the word, and a glance at the Cardinal, which shot from betwixt his long dark eyelashes as a dagger gleams when it leaves the scabbard.
— from Quentin Durward by Walter Scott

The waters of the Rhone are at least three times greater than those of the Arve, and are of a transparent blue colour, whilst those of the Arve are of a milky hue, something like the appearance of the Rhone when it first enters the Lake of Geneva, where it leaves the tint it acquired from the mountain snows and torrents.
— from A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium, during the summer and autumn of 1814 by Richard Boyle Bernard

Anxiety is shown in the following letter written at 16 Gold St., New York, March 24th, to "Mr. Hyer, Bordenton, N. J." "Dear Sir,—I received your letter by Mr. Nixon, and also a former letter, but I have been so unwell this winter with a fit of gout, tho' not so bad as I had at Bordenton about twenty years ago, that I could not write, and after I got better I got a fall on the ice in the garden where I lodge that threw me back for above a month.
— from The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2. (of 2) With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England by Moncure Daniel Conway

"No, indeed, my good woman, I like this much better than your lower room; the society of this charming child will make the time seem very short, and surely, adorable Blanche, you will not be cruel enough to refuse to keep me company."
— from The Barber of Paris by Paul de Kock

I go into mystery instead, as cheaper and more lasting—a sort of gas which is likely to be continually supplied by the decomposition of the elephants.
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

‘Nay (continued this good woman), I like that you should know something of all kinds of writings, where neither morals nor manners are offended; for if you read plays, and consider them as you ought, you will neglect and despise what is light and useless, whilst you will imprint on your mind’s every useful lesson that is to be drawn from them.
— from The Governess; Or, The Little Female Academy by Sarah Fielding