Oh, Madam Mina, good women tell all their lives, and by day and by hour and by minute, such things that angels can read; and we men who wish to know have in us something of angels’ eyes.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

Small, like a bean, dark and dull in color, Marked by a slight groove in the centre of its hull.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

On each side every hamlet Pours forth its joyous crowd, Shouting lads and baying dogs, And children laughing loud, And old men weeping fondly As Rhea's boys go by, And maids who shriek to see the heads, Yet, shrieking, press more nigh.
— from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

The times are wild; contention, like a horse Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose And bears down all before him.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, [224] and do lean and beg day and night continually.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Looks like a boozing den after a thick night."
— from Bull-dog Drummond: The Adventures of a Demobilised Officer Who Found Peace Dull by H. C. (Herman Cyril) McNeile

You commence at one end with spreading a layer of peat on the ground, say, ten feet square and four inches in depth; then a layer of lime on this and another of barn dung, each two inches thick; then another layer of peat, as before, and then the lime and barn dung, as before, until in this way the heap is raised about four feet high, and let the last layer be of peat: then commence another ten feet square along side of this, and raise it as before, till you raise it to the same height; then with another ten feet square, at the end of this mass, and so on, till the heap is completed.
— from The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 03 (1820) by Various

[301] All now repaired on deck, where, it is reported, that Mr. Barns’s presentiment proved but too well-founded; for, that while he was preaching, a most unexpected squall came on a sudden—took hold of the ship—gave her one thorough shake—and laid her on her beam-ends; and, that all being in confusion, the men in crowds running forward with the ropes to shorten sail, &c. &c., it was some time before he, Mr. Barns, was missed, and that when he was missed, while one talked of lowering a boat down, and another ran to look over the ship’s side, it was Mr. Montgomery, who at length discovered him, feet uppermost, in the lee scuppers, where the first reel of the vessel had tumbled him, with the heavy cannonade slides, and what not else besides, heaped on top of him.
— from First Love: A Novel. Vol. 1 of 3 by Mrs. (Margracia) Loudon

She was so scandalized at the luxury and bold debauchery at court that she decided to give up the marriage; she had detected the intrigues and falsity of both the king and Catherine, and had a foreboding of evil.
— from Women of Modern France (Illustrated) Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 7 (of 10) by Hugo P. (Hugo Paul) Thieme

He went back to his hotel at last for ten minutes, and refreshed himself by dressing a little and by drinking a glass of wine.
— from The Bostonians, Vol. II (of II) by Henry James

Margaret's words have both weight and wit, and her wit bites sometimes; but it is like a blooded dog and will not hurt a friend.
— from Sir Christopher: A Romance of a Maryland Manor in 1644 by Maud Wilder Goodwin

The air of an Egyptian March morning, which was wont to be so balmy, now oppressed both man and beast, choking their lungs and seeming to weigh upon them like a burden destroying all joy in life.
— from Joshua — Volume 1 by Georg Ebers

She traversed the Po, Bologna, Ferrara, and stopped at Lucca, attended by dread and the unfavourable reports, which were usually spread around our patriotic armies; but she was internally supported by her extreme confidence in her husband’s good fortune.
— from Memoirs of the life, exile, and conversations of the Emperor Napoleon. (Vol. III) by Las Cases, Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné, comte de