As the human eye in a dark room dilates its pupil, draws in the little light that there is, partially distinguishes objects by degrees, and at last knows them quite well, so it is in War with the experienced soldier, whilst the novice is only met by pitch dark night.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

He wrote his Life of Demosthenes, at least after his return to Chaeroneia: he says ( Life of Demosthenes , c. 2), that he had not time to exercise himself in the Latin Language during his residence at Rome, being much occupied with public business, and giving lessons in philosophy.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

Those whom I have inspired with love by letting them see me, I have by words undeceived, and if their longings live on hope—and I have given none to Chrysostom or to any other—it cannot justly be said that the death of any is my doing, for it was rather his own obstinacy than my cruelty that killed him; and if it be made a charge against me that his wishes were honourable, and that therefore I was bound to yield to them, I answer that when on this very spot where now his grave is made he declared to me his purity of purpose, I told him that mine was to live in perpetual solitude, and that the earth alone should enjoy the fruits of my retirement and the spoils of my beauty; and if, after this open avowal, he chose to persist against hope and steer against the wind, what wonder is it that he should sink in the depths of his infatuation?
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

dahundahun n any insect that looks like a leaf.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Immediately the line, levelling their gun barrels like poles, bent down their heads, moved on and quickened their step; in vain the gentry endeavoured to check them from in front and shot from the side; the line passed over half the yard without resistance.
— from Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by Adam Mickiewicz

2 plimsoll line, indicating the load line of a ship.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

For these were the most eminent races in ancient time, the second being a Pelasgian and the first a Hellenic race: and the one never migrated from its place in any direction, while the other was very exceedingly given to wanderings; for in the reign of Deucalion this race dwelt in Pthiotis, and in the time of Doros the son of Hellen in the land lying below Ossa and Olympos, which is called Histiaiotis; and when it was driven from Histiaiotis by the sons of Cadmos, it dwelt in Pindos and was called Makednian; and thence it moved afterwards to Dryopis, and from Dryopis it came finally to Peloponnesus, and began to be called Dorian.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

As they turned into the little lane that led across the fields to the Point they met a man coming out of it—a man of such extraordinary appearance that for a moment they both frankly stared.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Mitalidhay ang mga babáyi sa kataw-anan níyang isturya, The ladies laughed at his funny stories.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

That is the fundamental and subterranean secret; that is the last lie in hell.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

But I suppose I did it too late, like everything else I've done."
— from The Divine Fire by May Sinclair

G. W. had never seen anybody in the world in the least like her.
— from A Little Dusky Hero by Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock

He thought it fun to play follow-my-leader behind Clementina in their little lodgings, or to hide and startle her.
— from Froth: A Novel by Armando Palacio Valdés

What is the "language" (lit., lip) which he "knew not"?
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 2 Psalms XXXIX.-LXXXIX. by Alexander Maclaren

It was a broken axle under the tender; a tested steel shaft which had outlived the pounding race across the mountains only to fall apart in the last level mile of the home stretch.
— from The Helpers by Francis Lynde

προσώπῳ μηδὲν Ἑριννύος τραγικῆς παραλλάττουσαν, σαίρουσαν δὲ καλλύντρω τινὶ τὴν οἰκίαν.—He happened to be sitting late in the evening in a corridor of the house in solitary meditation: suddenly a sound was heard in the further end of the portico, and looking up, he saw in the lingering light the form of a majestic woman, in dress and face like the Fury as she appears in tragedy—sweeping the house with a brush.
— from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 6 (of 8) by William Wordsworth

Whether on clust'ring pinions ye are there, Where rich snows blossom on the Myrtle-trees, 40 Or with fond languishment around my fair Sigh in the loose luxuriance of her hair; O heed the spell, and hither wing your way, Like far-off music, voyaging the breeze!
— from The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 1 and 2 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

He had promised in the last letter that he would go down to Wendover again for Whitsuntide, and this time he firmly determined nothing should keep him from his obvious and delectable fate.
— from Halcyone by Elinor Glyn

In the light leading strings of careless joy!
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 by Various