It is conceivable that a speaker may be effective in spite of stumbling—but never because of it.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

So that it makes no difference whether you approve of moderate perturbations of mind, or of moderate injustice, moderate cowardice, and moderate intemperance; for whoever prescribes bounds to vice admits a part of it, which, as it is odious of itself, becomes the more so as it stands on slippery ground, and, being once set forward, glides on headlong, and cannot by any means be stopped.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

I shall be very glad to come;" but her eyes were full, and she held his hand an instant, as if she clung to it sure of succor and support.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

For as the physician, if it be expedient, infuses saffron or spikenard, aye, or uses some soothing fomentation or feeds his patient up liberally, and sometimes orders castor, "Or poley, 388 that so strong and foully smells," or pounds hellebore and compels him to drink it,—neither in the one case making unpleasantness, nor in the other pleasantness, his end and aim, but in both studying only the interest of his patient,—so the friend sometimes by praise and kindness, extolling him and gladdening his heart, leads him to what is noble, as Agamemnon, "Teucer, dear head, thou son of Telamon, Go on thus shooting, captain of thy men;" 389 or Diomede, "How could I e'er forget divine Odysseus?"
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

soon after he set out he met five canoes on board of which there were as many families of the Shah-ha-la nation decending the river in surch of subsistence.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

In this piece appeared the first dawning of the new system: there first appeared the idea (then only in speculation) of separating the court from the administration ; of carrying everything from national connection to personal regards; and of forming a regular party for that purpose, under the name of king's men .
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

Saying this, Mr. Brownlow looked around the office as if in search of some person who would afford him the required information.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Still more he feared that the Peloponnesians might ravage the continent in search of supplies.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

But, if the stars are said rather to signify these things than to effect them, so that that position of the stars is, as it were, a kind of speech predicting, not causing future things,—for this has been the opinion of men of no ordinary learning,—certainly the mathematicians are not wont so to speak, saying, for example, Mars in such or such a position signifies a homicide, but makes a homicide.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Yet it has all the faults of the current works of the infant science of statistics.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

But in spite of such injunctions I was doomed to learn, quite unexpectedly, something about goblins much grimmer than any which had been haunting me.
— from The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn, Volume 1 by Elizabeth Bisland

The spotted butterfly, that flits through the air, on fairy wing, or rests its downy pinions on the bosom of the fragrant rose; the bird that carols on the spray, or warbles sweetly through the air; the mountain bee, that comes humming round the summer flower, sipping its store of sweets, and even the drowsy hum of the summer-fly, as it floats in mazy circles, are all connecting links in nature's chain.
— from Withered Leaves from Memory's Garland by Abigail Stanley Hanna

Denmark temperate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers Dhekelia temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool winters Djibouti desert; torrid, dry Dominica tropical; moderated by northeast trade winds; heavy rainfall Dominican Republic tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature variation; seasonal variation in rainfall East Timor tropical; hot, humid; distinct rainy and dry seasons Ecuador tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations; tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands Egypt desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters El Salvador tropical; rainy season (May to October); dry season (November to April); tropical on coast; temperate in uplands Equatorial Guinea tropical; always hot, humid Eritrea hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands Estonia maritime, wet, moderate winters, cool summers Ethiopia tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation Europa Island tropical European Union cold temperate; potentially subarctic in the north to temperate; mild wet winters; hot dry summers in the south Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) cold marine; strong westerly winds, cloudy, humid; rain occurs on more than half of days in year; average annual rainfall is 24 inches in Stanley; occasional snow all year, except in January and February, but does not accumulate Faroe Islands mild winters, cool summers; usually overcast; foggy, windy
— from The 2007 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

When I spoke of sea air being good for Miss Ashleigh, I thought of our own northern coasts at a later time of the year, when I could escape myself for a few weeks and attend her.
— from A Strange Story — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

A remark follows which is not quite clear: “There is one observation which I have made, tho’ I would not yet lay any great stress upon it, that in families where any have been inoculated, those who have been afterwards seized never had an ill sort of smallpox, but always recovered very well.”
— from A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 2 (of 2) From the Extinction of Plague to the Present Time by Charles Creighton

“Molly, you're too beautiful to be true,” she declared, pausing in the hall to inspect the girl's young loveliness in its setting of shady hat and embroidered muslin frock.
— from The Hermit of Far End by Margaret Pedler

17 Chastity required in sower of seed, i. 115 sq. ; of hunter before hunting bears, ii.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12) by James George Frazer

If her son Harry has the accursed gift it comes from her blood; they say there is some old story connected with her family that accounts for it, but, as I never heard it, I don't know what it is.”
— from The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton