how this Animal obtained the name of fisher I know not, but certain it is, that the name is not appropriate, as it does not prey on or Seek it as a prey-.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

how this animal obtained the name of fisher I know not, but certain it is, that the name is not appropriate, as it dose not prey on fish or seek it as a prey.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

} All is a ruin where rage knew no bounds: Chio is levelled, and loathed by the hounds, For shivered yest'reen was her lance; Sulphurous vapors envenom the place Where her true beauties of Beauty's true race Were lately linked close in the dance.
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

With what blind, absurd, and ridiculous stuff these oracles of the devil pleased and satisfied the people I really know not, but certain it is that innumerable attendants crowded about their doors every day.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

For, whether they were attracted by the lantern, or by the unaccustomed smell of a white man for which they had been waiting for the last thousand years or so, I know not; but certainly we were presently attacked by tens of thousands of the most blood-thirsty, pertinacious, and huge mosquitoes that I ever saw or read of.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Even then, when I knew nothing by comparison with what I know now, I looked at the family lawyer with an interest which I had never felt before in the presence of any man breathing who was a total stranger to me.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

His last words were—O, Partridge, they still ring in my ears—his last words were, when he gave me a sum of money—what it was I know not, but considerable I'm sure it was—his last words were—`I am resolved from this day forward, on no account to converse with you any more.'
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

— nga way kaldíru, kū́n n a barrio without pots, a humorous allusion to the place where a person heads after death. — kapitan n captain of the barrio, the barrio chief. — kawunsil n barrio council, the lawmaking body of the barrio.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

I answer, not by confining our influence to our own home circle, not by centering all our benevolent feelings upon our own kindred, not by caring naught for the culture of any minds, save those of our own darlings.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

But whether a man’s temper changes with prosperity, or his skill leaves him when, deprived of a confederate, and pursuing the game no longer professionally, he joins in it, like the rest of the world, for pastime, I know not; but certain it is, that in the seasons of 1774-75 I lost much money at ‘White’s’ and the ‘Cocoa-Tree,’ and was compelled to meet my losses by borrowing largely upon my wife’s annuities, insuring her Ladyship’s life, and so forth.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

Another troop, partisans of Sophia, were searching for Matviev, dragged him from the presence of the ex-Tsaritsa and near Blagovieshchenski Sobor he too was thrown on to the pikes of the Streltsi in the square below, and they were not content merely with killing now, but cut his body in morsels.
— from The Story of Moscow by Wirt Gerrare

Now, whether King Robert was of the blood of that Norman chief who felled his enemy’s horse with a blow of his fist, we know not; but certain it is,
— from A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla by Leigh Hunt

The beauty that is borne here in the face The bearer knows not, but commends itself To others' eyes; nor doth the eye itself- That most pure spirit of sense-behold itself, Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed Salutes each other with each other's form; For speculation turns not to itself
— from The History of Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

The emperor complaisantly affected to know no better, catching at everything to keep up his hopes; when all at once the first snows fell.
— from The Two Great Retreats of History by George Grote

When one of these old hags has entered upon a chant of this kind nothing but complete exhaustion induces her to stop, and the instant she pauses another takes up the burden of her song.
— from Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2 by Grey, George, Sir

How General Balkinsop manœuvred the great army of the Musconetcong; what fatherly, nay, grandmotherly care he took to keep us out of danger; how cautiously he spread, his nets for the enemy, and how rapidly he left them miles behind; how we killed nothing but chickens, wounded nothing but our own silly pride, and captured nothing but green apples and roasting ears; all this, and more, let history tell.
— from The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various

He was born at Kilbarron, near Ballyshannon, county Donegal, in the year 1580, and was educated principally in the south of Ireland, which was then more celebrated for its academies than the north.
— from An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack

"No army can conquer Kosciey, no bullet can reach him; you can only free Princess Miranda by killing him, and how you are to do it, you must learn from the old woman Jandza; I can only tell you where you will find the horse, that must carry you to her.
— from Polish Fairy Tales by A. J. (Antoni Józef) Gliński

He told me he knew nobody but college people: ‘I was altogether a student,’ he said with glee.
— from Vailima Letters Being Correspondence Addressed by Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin, November 1890-October 1894 by Robert Louis Stevenson

The bulwarks tower like the walls of a fortress; the enormous decks sweep with a sheer knowing no broken curve; the wheel-house lifts its windows above the life-boats, swarming sternward like a school of pilot-fish; still higher the bridges, often double-tiered, span and grip the sturdy stanchions; and dominating all, the elliptical funnels rake jauntily, and the yardless spars taper till they fine away at their shining trucks into graceful coach-whips.
— from Ocean Steamships A popular account of their construction, development, management and appliances by A. E. (Albert Edward) Seaton