May 4.—I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I caught a young dolphin.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

You know I had seen nothing of my sister’s children for years; I disapproved entirely of the father.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

I am rather inclined to believe in ‘the impulse from a vernal wood,’ though of course the artistic value of such an impulse depends entirely on the kind of temperament that receives it, so that the return to Nature would come to mean simply the advance to a great personality.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

The higher the type a man represents, the greater is the improbability that he will SUCCEED; the accidental, the law of irrationality in the general constitution of mankind, manifests itself most terribly in its destructive effect on the higher orders of men, the conditions of whose lives are delicate, diverse, and difficult to determine.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The chief who taught our lofty walls to yield, Lies pale in death, extended on the field.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Giannucolo, who had never been able to believe it true that Gualtieri should entertain his daughter to wife and went in daily expectation of this event, had kept her the clothes which she had put off the morning that Gualtieri had married her and now brought them to her; whereupon she donned them and addressed herself, as she had been wont to do, to the little offices of her father's house, enduring the cruel onslaught of hostile fortune with a stout heart.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

The result will be to show that, in assuming this idea as the explanation of Balder’s relation to the mistletoe, I assume a principle which is deeply engraved on the mind of primitive man.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

These privileges, indeed, depended entirely on the arbitrary will of the emperor, who revoked or restored them according to his caprice.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Sunt tormentorum ij lxxx gradus, partim intensiores.—Ita demum, exhaustis omnibus tormentis, sacris imbuuntur.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Jacob Bryant

Alcohol is as great a delusion and fraud in snake-bite as in everything else; instead of being an antidote, it increases the poisoning by its depressing effect on the heart.
— from A Handbook of Health by Woods Hutchinson

England is divided equally on this subject; about half the Mayors of provincial towns wearing robes and badges, with cocked hats and the other half confining themselves to a simple chain of office.
— from As the Crow Flies: From Corsica to Charing Cross by Walter Phelps Dodge

There was some honour in defeating enemies of that stamp.
— from Rodney by David Hannay

It appears that there is decisive evidence of the presence in this luminary of many elements known to exist in our own sun; amongst others are found sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, and bismuth.
— from Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction. by Richard A. (Richard Anthony) Proctor

It is impossible to tell how long it takes to boil; it depends entirely on the nature of the vegetable: for instance, spinach, as well as peas or any other vegetable, according to how tender it is, may take from three to twenty minutes to cook properly.
— from Hand-Book of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food by Pierre Blot

The main center and crank shafts are also 28 inches in diameter; each of the two plunger holes is 24 inches by 30 inches in section; and all the working parts are in proportion to those heretofore mentioned.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 by Various

*I answer at once your two letters; and I should probably have taken earlier notice of the first, had I not been in daily expectation of the second.
— from Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 2 (of 2) by Edward Gibbon

Dose , 1 ⁄ 2 to 1 wine-glassful, 3 or 4 times a day; in dropsy, especially of the belly ( ASCITES ).
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I by Richard Vine Tuson

Addison, bred among the preachers, has a little of the preacher's abstract tone, when talk between the friends draws them at times into direct expression of the sacred sense of life which made them one.
— from The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series by Steele, Richard, Sir

It is as affording an example of this human patchwork of fancy and fact, and as illustrating the impression deeply engraved on the popular mind, that the following incidents of the Queen's childhood and youth are given.
— from Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen — Volume 1 by Sarah Tytler