We're shut up in a relatively confined area.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

According to the signal-man, it was in a ruinous condition, several of the iron wires being broken; and it was impossible to risk the passage.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

It is possible, therefore, and even probable, that the opinion which has prevailed was agreeable only to a minority of the nation, though a majority of that portion of it whom the institutions of the country have erected into a ruling class.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

Looking in at the door, after knocking in vain, I saw her sitting on the hearth in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of, the ashy fire.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

In fact, if a rational creature could ever reach this point, that he thoroughly likes to do all moral laws, this would mean that there does not exist in him even the possibility of a desire that would tempt him to deviate from them; for to overcome such a desire always costs the subject some sacrifice and therefore requires self-compulsion, that is, inward constraint to something that one does not quite like to do; and no creature can ever reach this stage of moral disposition.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

[41] Again, there is a belief that at Keeill Moirrey (Mary’s Church), near Glen Meay, a little old woman in a red cloak is sometimes seen coming over the mountain towards the keeill , ringing a bell, just about the hour when church service begins.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

On the loadstone that was placed on the right side the following iambic verse was curiously engraven in ancient Roman characters: Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Dot-and-go-One disencumbered himself of his timber leg and took his place, upon sound and healthy limbs, beside his fellow-rascal; then they roared out a rollicking ditty, and were reinforced by the whole crew, at the end of each stanza, in a rousing chorus.
— from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Her lips swelled out into a richer curve than ordinary, owing to the enforced tension of the muscles, but he did not know what was their usual appearance, so as to recognise the unwonted sullen defiance of the firm sweeping lines.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Organs in a rudimentary condition plainly show that an early progenitor had the organ in a fully developed state; and this in some instances necessarily implies an enormous amount of modification in the descendants.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

3. How does a broiler unit in a range cook meat?
— from Electricity for the 4-H Scientist Idaho Agricultural Extension Service Bulletin 396, June, 1962 by Eric B. Wilson

Too early had it flown from its southern abode; too early abandoned the warm airs, the flowers and leafage, of a more hospitable region, to find its way to a northern home; too early ventured into a rigorous clime; and now, shivering, faint, near to death, drooped its wings and hung its weary head, waiting for the end of its brief life to come.
— from What Answer? by Anna E. (Anna Elizabeth) Dickinson

This is a rich compound, at its very plainest, and may be made very rich indeed. Parboil 1, 2, or 3, according to the size of your dish.
— from The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping by Anne Cobbett

He smiled, however, gently upon his guest, and with a blush over his pale face, said, "I am rightly chastised, good young man; mean was I, methinks, and sordid to ta
— from The Last of the Barons — Volume 01 by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

I am rather careless and inconsequent in my mental attitude, and I certainly never could reason out anything—let alone a gruesome mystery like this.
— from A Chain of Evidence by Carolyn Wells

Hope is a rickety craft to trust one’s self to.
— from Farthest North, Vol. I Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 by Fridtjof Nansen

In a lathe the object turns upon centers against a tool; a planer carries its tool in a revolving cylinder, the work being fed in a straight line.
— from Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery by George Iles

Among others, a young man with a Cyclopean head and an immense pair of shoulders, dressed in a rose-colored caftan, and who emitted a succession of roars like those of a wounded lion; a lad of fifteen, handsome, bareheaded, and all in white, who passed three times, crying, “My God!
— from Morocco, Its People and Places by Edmondo De Amicis