If the sophist declares that what his nature attaches him to is not "really" a good, because it would not be a good, perhaps, for a different creature, he is a false interpreter of his own heart, and rather discreditably stultifies his honest feelings and actions by those theoretical valuations which, in guise of a mystical ethics, he gives out to the world.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

A Dirge The wintry west extends his blast, And hail and rain does blaw; Or the stormy north sends driving forth
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

The wild Succory hath divers long leaves lying on the ground, very much cut in or torn on the edges, on both sides, even to the middle rib, ending in a point; sometimes it hath a rib down to the middle of the leaves, from among which rises up a hard, round, woody stalk, spreading into many branches, set with smaller and less divided leaves on them up to the tops, where stand the flowers, which are like the garden kind, and the seed is also (only take notice that the flowers of the garden kind are gone in on a sunny day, they being so cold, that they are not able to endure the beams of the sun, and therefore more delight in the shade)
— 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

Mrs. Zarubkin had never given him a really decent order—just a few things for the house and some mending.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The canon and the curate, however, prevented him, but the barber so contrived it that he got Don Quixote under him, and rained down upon him such a shower of fisticuffs that the poor knight's face streamed with blood as freely as his own.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I received from you yesterday, after office hours, a report dealing with the condition of the water at the Baths.
— from An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

Clark, October 27, 1805] October 27th Sunday 1805 a verry windy night and morning wind from the West and hard, Send out hunters and they killed 4 deer 1 pheasent and a Squirel the 2 Chiefs and party Continue with us, we treat them well give them to eate & Smoke, they were joined by Seven others, from below who Stayed about 3 hours and returned down the river in a pet, Soon after the Chiefs deturmined to go home we had them put across the river the wind verry high, we took a vocabelary of the Languages of the 2 nations, the one liveing at the Falls call themselves E-nee-shur The other resideing at the levels or narrows in a village on the Std.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Consilio etiam unius hominis addita rei dicitur fides; namque Proculus Julius sollicita civitate desiderio (163) regis, et infensa Patribus, gravis, ut traditur, quamvis magnae rei auctor, in concionem prodit.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

What is the good of doing it in such a world as this?'—all this, and whatever else passed in a sickening round through Hamlet's mind, was not the healthy and right deliberation of a man with such a task, but otiose thinking hardly deserving the name of thought, an unconscious weaving of pretexts for inaction, aimless tossings on a sick bed, symptoms of melancholy which only increased it by deepening self-contempt.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

When now he managed his caresses and endearments so artfully, as to insinuate the most soothing consolations for the past pain and the most pleasing expectations of future pleasure, but whilst mere modesty kept my eyes from seeing his and rather declined them, I had a glimpse of that instrument of mischief which was now, obviously even to me, who had scarce had snatches of a comparative observation of it, resuming its capacity to renew it, and grew greatly alarming with its increase of size, as he bore it no doubt designedly, hard and stiff against one of my hands carelessly dropt; but then he employed such tender prefacing, such winning progressions, that my returning passion of desire being now so strongly prompted by the engaging circumstances of the sight and incendiary touch of his naked glowing beauties, I yield at length at the force of the present impressions, and he obtained of my tacit blushing consent all the gratifications of pleasure left in the power of my poor person to bestow, after he had cropt its richest flower, during my suspension of life, and abilities to guard it.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

In a moment, however, he recovered himself and rushed desperately at the face of the bluff.
— from Reube Dare's Shad Boat: A Tale of the Tide Country by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

I shall have a reply directly to a question I have asked.
— from By Birth a Lady by George Manville Fenn

What a contrast between this humour and the strange scene in the drawing-room at James Steerforth's home after Rosa Dartle had sung the strange weird Irish song to the accompaniment of her harp!
— from Charles Dickens and Music by James T. (James Thomas) Lightwood

I hope to goodness Ju won't get herself all run down!"
— from Mother: A Story by Kathleen Thompson Norris

I might here make report how the pike, carp, and some other of our river fishes are sold by inches of clean fish, from the eyes or gills to the crotch of the tails, but it is needless: also how the pike as he ageth receiveth divers names, as from a fry to a gilthead , from a gilthead to a pod , from a pod to a jack , from a jack to a pickerel , from a pickerel to a pike , and last of all to a luce ; also that a salmon is the first year a gravellin , and commonly as big as a herring, the second a salmon peal , the third a pug , and the fourth a salmon : but this is in like sort unnecessary.
— from Elizabethan England From 'A Description of England,' by William Harrison by William Harrison

She was ever struggling with his foolish whims and fancies; as, for instance, when he furiously insisted upon having a cutlet cooked, saying that he was very hungry, and roundly declaring that Doctor Cazenove was an ass and didn't know what was good for him.
— from The Joy of Life [La joie de vivre] by Émile Zola

I heard Captain Miller relate this anecdote, which occurred in the battle of Alleghany Mountain, December 12, 1861: A boy in his company was having a regular duel with a Federal infantryman, whose shots several times passed close to the boy's head.
— from The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson In Which is Told the Part Taken by the Rockbridge Artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia by Edward Alexander Moore

The four sisters dressed hastily and ran down to greet their little friends from Meadow Street, as well as Mrs. Kranz and Joe Maroni.
— from The Corner House Girls' Odd Find Where they made it, and What the Strange Discovery led to by Grace Brooks Hill

I'm afraid I shall have a rough drive.'
— from Celibates by George Moore