During the initial days of Chichikov’s sojourn, Tientietnikov feared rather to lose his independence, inasmuch as he thought that his guest might hamper his movements, and bring about alterations in the established routine of the place.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

For the exposure of this traitorous delusion, we are to look to the times, when it was the will of popery to put forth its strength; not to the present, when it is its will to lull us into a belief of its consistency with the constitution, in defiance of common sense, common experience, the spirit of British law, and the loud warnings of insulted and hazarded religion.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

‘I do, of course,’ said Nicholas, eagerly.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

He really has an affection for this original; which maintains its ground in defiance of common sense, and in despite of that contempt which he must certainly feel for her character and understanding.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

But as we know him, from his recorded utterances, and after nearly one century, and its diligence of collections, songs, letters, anecdotes, presenting the figure of the canny Scotchman in a fullness and detail wonderfully complete, and the lines mainly by his own hand, he forms to-day, in some respects, the most interesting personality among singers.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

One warrior ghoul With crispy locks and frosty eyes, and breath Chiller than death's,—naked, as scorning e'en To wear the trophies of his fierce renown— Before the Presence stood, and told in haste,— As half impatient of the wish to boast, Yet proud to serve so well—how he was called Wole , guardian of old Thug;—how from the South Came, ploughing slowly through the unwilling sea, A ship, crowded with mortals from that land; How, boldly, in defiance of commands Sent out by skirmishing Frosts, they still drew near, Passing the outer line of her domains; Daring to come, with their invading eyes, Where never mortals else had looked and lived.
— from The Arctic Queen by Unknown

It was therefore to be expected that the important discoveries of Columbus should encourage them to fresh attempts of this kind; it was also natural that such enterprises should originate especially in the Azores.
— from In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 2 of 2) by Fridtjof Nansen

"But it was only dreams, Canim, ill dreams of childhood, shadows of things not real, visions such as the dogs, sleeping in the sun-warmth, behold and whine out against."
— from Children of the Frost by Jack London

H2 anchor CHRIS FARRINGTON: ABLE SEAMAN "If you vas in der old country ships, a liddle shaver like you vood pe only der boy, und you vood wait on der able seamen.
— from Dutch Courage and Other Stories by Jack London

I will now give you an extract from Sir Rutherford Alcock’s paper, which is deserving of careful study:— I may say here, that although most of the staple arguments and misleading opinions on opium and its disastrous effects come from the missionaries in China, whose good faith I do not question, there is no stronger protest against exaggerated and sensational statements on record than has been supplied by one of their number, the late Dr. Medhurst, of whom it has been truly said, he was “one of the most able, experienced, zealous missionaries in China.”
— 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

I opine therefore, that the origin of this thought, which has universally held its ground with the whole of mankind and, in spite of so much conflicting experience, in defiance of common sense, has never been eradicated, must be sought at great depth: namely in the inward feeling of the omnipotence of the will in itself—of [341] that will, which constitutes at once the inner essence of Man and of the whole of Nature—and in the assumption connected with it that, somehow or other, this omnipotence might possibly for once make itself felt, even when proceeding from the individual.
— from On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature: Two Essays (revised edition) by Arthur Schopenhauer

The cruiser had gone about, upon our impudent display of colours; she was just then filling on the new tack; her ensign blew out quite plain to see; and even as we stared, there came a puff of smoke, and then a report, and a shot plunged in the waves a good way short of us.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 12 by Robert Louis Stevenson