there is scarcely any water at present in the plains and what there is, lies in small pools and is so strongly impregnated with the mineral salts that it is unfit for any purpose except the uce of the buffaloe.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The scene is laid in St. Petersburg, in MURASHKIN’S flat [MURASHKIN’S study.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

"Nothing in life is so precious as people!"
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

"I don't understand those philosophies," returned Sancho Panza; "all I know is I would I had the county as soon as I shall know how to govern it; for I have as much soul as another, and as much body as anyone, and I shall be as much king of my realm as any other of his; and being so I should do as I liked, and doing as I liked I should please myself, and pleasing myself I should be content, and when one is content he has nothing more to desire, and when one has nothing more to desire there is an end of it; so let the county come, and God be with you, and let us see one another, as one blind man said to the other."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“I don’t understand those philosophies,” returned Sancho Panza; “all I know is I would I had the county as soon as I shall know how to govern it; for I have as much soul as another, and as much body as anyone, and I shall be as much king of my realm as any other of his; and being so I should do as I liked, and doing as I liked I should please myself, and pleasing myself I should be content, and when one is content he has nothing more to desire, and when one has nothing more to desire there is an end of it; so let the county come, and God be with you, and let us see one another, as one blind man said to the other.”
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“I begin to think that very curious things happen in Lincoln Island!” said Pencroft.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

Up, and after much pleasant talke and being importuned by my wife and her two mayds, which are both good wenches, for me to buy a necklace of pearle for her, and I promising to give her one of L60 in two years at furthest, and in less if she pleases me in her painting, I went away and walked to Greenwich, in my way seeing a coffin with a dead body therein, dead of the plague, lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme, which was carried out last night, and the parish have not appointed any body to bury it; but only set a watch there day and night, that nobody should go thither or come thence, which is a most cruel thing: this disease making us more cruel to one another than if we are doggs.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The place where the temple is to be built having been divided on its length into six parts, deduct one and let the rest be given to its width.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

The introduction of inferiority into our work is like introducing subtle poison into the system.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

I will go farther, and dare to add, that what beauties I lose in some places, I give to others which had them not originally; but in this I may be partial to myself; let the reader judge, and I submit to his decision.
— from English literary criticism by Charles Edwyn Vaughan

At last Milly thought she had cornered Ernestine's favorite objection by a new scheme, which was nothing less than starting a model "Ideal Laundry" in some pretty country spot near the city, "where the water is clean and soft," and there were green lawns and hedges on which to spread the clothes, "as they do abroad."
— from One Woman's Life by Robert Herrick

He declares and approves the same reason in his work on Eternity (book 2, ch. 15) saying: 'Sunt qui dicant, nec displicet responsum: scelerati in locis infernis semper peccant, ideo semper puniuntur.'
— from Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von

TERENCE KIRKWOOD PATTEN OF NEW YORK "There is Luray," I said, pointing with my whip to the scattered houses of the village as they lay in the valley at our feet.
— from The Four-Pools Mystery by Jean Webster

“I like it,” said Patty; “it’s the first effect of Roman luxury I’ve seen.
— from Patty's Pleasure Trip by Carolyn Wells

She had been afraid to enter it lest it should put her to the torture.
— from The Creators: A Comedy by May Sinclair

After unsuccessful trial of the taxis, I might submit to be bled ad deliquium, and have a surgeon to attempt reduction during syncope; if somewhat more advanced in life, I should prefer the warm bath; if taxis then failed, I should certainly be operated on in a very few minutes afterwards.
— from Elements of Surgery by Robert Liston

During the first few months of its life it sleeps practically all of [Pg 79] the time—the period becoming gradually lessened as it grows older.
— from Health on the Farm: A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene by H. F. (Henry Fauntleroy) Harris

As a rule, actors who have appeared for the first time in London in such parts as Richard III., Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello, have played them previously for years in the country; and here comes a point about my audiences.
— from Henry Irving's Impressions of America Narrated in a Series of Sketches, Chronicles, and Conversations by Joseph Hatton