In his first estimate of the child's character he could not conceive that she had ever possessed a doll.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

For not to be passive as regards Reason, but to be always self-legislative, is indeed quite easy for the man who wishes only to be in accordance with his essential purpose, and does not desire to know what is beyond his Understanding.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

The latter, all taken up as he was with the wench and his exceeding pleasure and delight in her company, was none the less on his guard and himseeming he heard some scuffling of feet in the dormitory, he set his eye to a crevice and plainly saw the abbot stand hearkening unto him; whereby he understood but too well that the latter must have gotten wind of the wench's presence in his cell and knowing that sore punishment would ensue to him thereof, he was beyond measure chagrined.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

He had even published a dozen volumes of American history for no other purpose than to satisfy himself whether, by severest process of stating, with the least possible comment, such facts as seemed sure, in such order as seemed rigorously consequent, he could fix for a familiar moment a necessary sequence of human movement.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

It was observed of Apelles's Venus, that her flesh seemed as if she had been nourished by roses: his oratory would sometimes make one suspect that he eats potatoes and drinks whisky.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

With joy the saintly hermit heard Each pleasant and delightful word, And poured a benediction down On king and ministers and town.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The stranger recognised his friends immediately; and, darting forward and seizing Mr. Pickwick by the hand, dragged him to a seat with his usual impetuosity, talking all the while as if the whole of the arrangements were under his especial patronage and direction.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

In the two volumes of 1842 Tennyson carried to perfection all that was best in his earlier poems, and displayed powers of which he may have given some indication in his cruder efforts, but which must certainly have exceeded the expectation of the most sanguine of his rational admirers.
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

The houses, excepting perhaps a dozen, are of bamboo, roofed with palm-leaf, and enclosed by a slight paling of wood.
— from Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4 by Edmund Roberts

If he ever possessed any desire to adopt a political career, the actual condition of Athenian affairs must have quenched it.
— from A Critical History of Greek Philosophy by W. T. (Walter Terence) Stace

He had done his errand promptly and discreetly.
— from By What Authority? by Robert Hugh Benson

The "Fighting Fifth" derived their regimental name, the Northumberland Fusiliers, from Hugh, Earl Percy, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, who commanded the regiment during the American War of Independence.
— from British Regiments at the Front, The Story of Their Battle Honours by Reginald Hodder

I could not but admire his exemplary patience, and discovered by his whole behaviour, that he was then lying under the discipline of a curtain lecture.
— from The Tatler, Volume 4 by Steele, Richard, Sir

Although there is in one sense a language common to the whole country, yet not only has each province a dialect of its own, different from that of the others, but it has, so to speak, innumerable sub-dialects.
— from The Truth about Opium Being a Refutation of the Fallacies of the Anti-Opium Society and a Defence of the Indo-China Opium Trade by William H. Brereton

He evidently preferred a duet to a trio.
— from A Terrible Temptation: A Story of To-Day by Charles Reade

He enjoyed peculiar and distinctive status as a barrister, being consulted on legal matters by the Queen, although he held no place that in familiar parlance would entitle him to rank with her Crown Lawyers; and his biographers have agreed to call him Elizabeth's counsellor learned in the law.
— from A Book About Lawyers by John Cordy Jeaffreson

Political finality has ever proved a delusion,—as has the idea of finality in all human institutions.
— from North America — Volume 1 by Anthony Trollope