Passing a summer several years since at Edgartown, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, I became acquainted with a certain carver of tombstones who had travelled and voyaged thither from the interior of Massachusetts in search of professional employment.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

All the world is in search of peace; every heart that ever beat has sought for peace, and many have been the methods employed to secure it.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

"You are aware—or probably, in this half-educated age, you are not aware—that the country round some parts of the Amazon is still only partially explored, and that a great number of tributaries, some of them entirely uncharted, run into the main river.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

From this time, an inviolable sphere of peace encompassed the lowly heart of the oppressed one,—an ever-present Saviour hallowed it as a temple.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Political defence is becoming less and less available, and economic defence is still only partially effective.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

One of the worst of these was, the wanton and indiscriminate seizure of papers, even in cases where the safety of the state was not pretended in justification of so harsh a proceeding.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

cried all the Mrs. Wittitterleys of Paris, as they thronged to his house in search of pleasant excitement; “ So wonderful! ” said the pseudo-philosophers, who would believe anything if it were the fashion; “ So amusing! ” said the worn-out debauchés, who had drained the cup of sensuality to its dregs, and who longed to see lovely women in convulsions, with the hope that they might gain some new emotions from the sight.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Erling was often out in summer on plundering expeditions, and procured for himself means of living; for he continued his usual way of high and splendid living, although now he had fewer and less convenient fiefs than in the time of his brother-in-law King Olaf Trygvason.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

I sold or pledged everything I possessed, and I contracted debts which I could not possibly pay.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

It is no longer possible to speak of idealistic social or political effects: the Net is entirely commercialised.
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

I mean the transmission of intelligible signals or perhaps even power to any distance without the use of wires.
— from The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting by Thomas Commerford Martin

Use your noblest powers of thought freely in the bank; strain and develop your ability to improve and control in the engine-room; train and exert your judgment in literature and art; push and brighten and sharpen your reason in science or political economy.
— from Men, Women, and Gods; and Other Lectures by Helen H. (Helen Hamilton) Gardener

Ex vi huius intentionis efficacis excogitavit media apta ad consecutionem talis finis, et videns in aliquibus hominibus esse aptum medium in solo originali peccato eos relinquere, in aliis vero permittere, ut cadant in haec vel illa peccata actualia ac in illis perseverent, has permissiones per subsequentem electionem approbavit.
— from Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic Treatise by Joseph Pohle

In his eyes it must appear somewhat ridiculous that two enemies taunting each other with insupportable insults should obligingly provide each other with metrical spacing and neat and convenient rhymes.
— from Varied Types by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Ladies are now invading every domain of intellect, but the details as to University costume happened to be furnished by the severe and really intricate studies of Professor E. G. Clark.
— from The Customs of Old England by F. J. (Frederick John) Snell

There is no so wretched and coarse a soul, wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine; no soul so buried in sloth and ignorance, but it will sally at one end or another; and how it comes to pass that a man blind and asleep to everything else, shall be found sprightly, clear, and excellent in some one particular effect, we are to inquire of our masters: but the beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things; if not instructed, at least capable of being so; which I say to accuse my own; for whether it be through infirmity or negligence (and to neglect that which lies at our feet, which we have in our hands, and what nearest concerns the use of life, is far from my doctrine) there is not a soul in the world so awkward as mine, and so ignorant of many common things, and such as a man cannot without shame fail to know.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 11 by Michel de Montaigne

In spite of persecution, even to imprisonment, they sang "The Lord's song in a strange land," and in simplicity of faith sowed the seed from which future harvests were to spring.
— from The Lutherans of New York Their Story and Their Problems by George Unangst Wenner

Winston Morgan was from the South, and he drew upon its store of picturesque endearments to express his joy and pride in his own Peggy.
— from The Tin Soldier by Temple Bailey