Here are lively, bustling, extraordinary creatures, some beautiful, some grotesque, but all far apart from the life that we know in daily experience.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

Tom was a rather short, good-looking youth, with crisp black hair and long black eyelashes and soft, dark, possessed eyes.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

What pious ears could bear to hear that after a life spent in so many and severe distresses (if, indeed, that should be called a life at all which is rather a death, so utter that the love of this present death makes us fear that death which delivers us from it), that after evils so disastrous, and miseries of all kinds have at length been expiated and finished by the help of true religion and wisdom, and when we have thus attained to the vision of God, and have entered into bliss by the contemplation
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

A boy should know the condition of his heart and lungs before entering any contest.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

She was beautiful, and soft as May; a glowing yet delicate face; rich brown hair, and large blue eyes; not yet a mother, but with something of the dignity of the matron blending with the lingering timidity of the girl.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

The beds were, I thought, all empty, and the room itself without anyone but myself in it; and I, after looking about me for some time, and admiring especially an iron candlestick with two branches, which I should certainly know again, crept under one of the beds to reach the window; but as I got from under the bed, I heard someone crying; and looking up, while I was still upon my knees, I saw you--most assuredly you--as I see you now; a beautiful young lady, with golden hair and large blue eyes, and lips--your lips--you as you are here.
— from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

A shout was at that moment heard, as if issuing from the center of the rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at length been entered.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

I hope, my lords, it will be allowed, without difficulty, that I have, at least, been educated at the best school of war, and that nothing but natural incapacity can have hindered me from making some useful observations upon the discipline and government of armies, and the advantages and inconveniencies of the various plans upon which other nations regulate their forces.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Volume 10 Parlimentary Debates I by Samuel Johnson

It never had happened before, because Billy never had had a letter before, except notices about base ball and athletic association, but she meant it never should happen.
— from The City of Fire by Grace Livingston Hill

Every one of us is conscious of a struggle constantly going on in our hearts and lives between evil and good.
— from Letters to a Daughter and A Little Sermon to School Girls by Helen Ekin Starrett

There had been very few witnesses called—only the medical man, the men who had found the body, the girl at the farm, who declared that she had given the key to Mr. Hamleigh a little before eight that morning, that no one else had asked for the key till the men came from Mount Royal—that, to her knowledge, no one but the men at work on the farm had gone up the lane that morning.
— from Mount Royal: A Novel. Volume 3 of 3 by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

She had also lustrous brown eyes; but these were full of tears.
— from The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol by William John Locke

The window was so constructed as to swing back like a door, and being now open, the lady’s face was framed against the dark background of the room, producing the effect of a picture. ’Twas a strange face, sallow and curiously wrinkled, with a nose like the beak of a hawk, and large black eyes, which seemed to be endowed with the power of perpetual motion.
— from Happy Days for Boys and Girls by Various

These memorialists considered it of still greater importance to the negro that in the South they have acquired land, buildings, etc., valued at about five hundred million dollars.
— from Negro Migration during the War by Emmett J. (Emmett Jay) Scott

He must have been a handsome lad in health, for he had a fair, smooth forehead, shaded with brown, curling hair, and large, blue eyes, very sweet and gentle in their look.
— from Margaret Smith's Journal Part 1 from Volume V of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier by John Greenleaf Whittier

She was a little fairy figure, with a skin as white as the driven snow—light auburn hair, and large blue eyes; her dress was scanty, and showed a large portion of her taper legs.
— from Japhet in Search of a Father by Frederick Marryat

When told by an uncle that, if he went to the New Hebrides, the cannibals would eat him, he replied: “ You yourself will soon be dead and buried, and I had as lief be eaten by cannibals as by worms. ”
— from Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3) by Augustus Hopkins Strong