Sailings on the seas, Tillings of fields, walls, laws, and arms, and roads, Dress and the like, all prizes, all delights Of finer life, poems, pictures, chiselled shapes Of polished sculptures—all these arts were learned By practice and the mind's experience, As men walked forward step by eager step.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

Sore chagrined at this mischance and knowing not what to do, seeing himself thus from a very rich man in brief space grown in a manner poor, he determined either to die or repair his losses by pillage, so he might not return thither poor, whence he had departed rich.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

In Spagnoletto’s picture there are five large books, pen, ink, and hour-glass; but there is neither hermitage to be burnt nor female charms to be resisted.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

trade (which I cherish next to my life) being present, I think it might be a more agreeable proceeding to the assisting bystanders, that is to say, lime-burners.'
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

There were in her at the moment two beings, one drawing deep breaths of freedom and exhilaration, the other gasping for air in a little black prison-house of fears.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

All marvelled that a youth and a foreigner should disdain the carefully cooked dainties of the royal board and the luxurious banquet provided, as if it were some peasant's relish.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Di-chinchang rebong lumai-lumai Buat penuba batang ari, Sunggoh sahya sabrang sungei, Besar maksud datang kamari.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

Two or three of the boys had long been persons of consideration among us because they had been to St. Louis once and had a vague general knowledge of its wonders, but the day of their glory was over now.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] BOIROUGE, president of the Sancerre Court at the time when the Baronne de la Baudraye held social sway over that city.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

Mrs Breen in man’s frieze overcoat with loose bellows pockets, stands in the causeway, her roguish eyes wideopen, smiling in all her herbivorous buckteeth.)
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

A dirty little beetle Peers into motionless eyes Transfixed to their depths As by shining needles.
— from Precipitations by Evelyn Scott

11 A Lost Child 11 Little Mary 11 Girl and Angel 11 Girl Who Wouldn't go to Bed 12 Girl That Beat Her Sister 12 The Sulky Girl 12 Girl Who Sucked Her Fingers 12 The Greedy Little Girl 12 Girl Who Played With Fire 12 The Vulgar Little Lady 12 Peggy Won't 13 The Wonderful Shadows 13 Little Bo-Peep 14 Pammy Was A Pretty Girl 14 The Little Husband 14 I'm Governess 14 Meddlesome Matty 15 Girl Who Spilled the Ink 15 Girl Who Was Always Tasting 15 Sally the Lazy Girl 15 Girl Who Wouldn't Comb Her Hair 15 The Nasty Cross Girls 15 Little Red Riding Hood 16
— from Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 by E. W. (Edward William) Cole

To secure this union and render it more and more conscious was Father Hecker's ceaseless endeavor through life, both for himself and for those who fell under his influence, whether in cleansing the soul of all hindrances of sin and imperfection, or advancing it deeper and deeper into the divine life by prayer and the sacraments.
— from Life of Father Hecker by Walter Elliott

It was from the Governor of the city of Cartagena, and was addressed to “His Excellency Don Martin Enriquez, Viceroy of his Most Catholic Majesty’s Province of Mexico, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,” and was to the effect that, news having reached the writer from Lima that an epidemic of sickness had broken out among a large body of soldiers due to return home with that year’s plate fleet, the sailing of the Lima contingent had been postponed, to allow time for the epidemic to exhaust itself; and that therefore the departure of the convoy from Cartagena had likewise been postponed.
— from The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer by Harry Collingwood

"No," protested Herc, "not nervous, Ned; but—but—— Well, the fact is, I'd have liked a little preparation first, as the fellow said when he fell into the well on Luke Bates' place up home."
— from The Dreadnought Boys on Battle Practice by John Henry Goldfrap

The eighth also (Japetus) is a large body, probably at least equal to Jupiter's third satellite.
— from Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction. by Richard A. (Richard Anthony) Proctor

Suffice it to say that, by some authorities, the commencement of the stone period is placed at six thousand, and by others at three thousand years before the Christian era, the latter being probably nearest the truth.
— from The Story of Switzerland by Lina Hug

“and of the bisshop of London, Braybroke, putten a supplicacion to the kyng, the tenor wherof foloweth in this fourme; “To our full excellent right doutful sovereigne and ful graciouse lord the kyng.
— from A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 Written in the Fifteenth Century, and for the First Time Printed from MSS. in the British Museum by Anonymous

The hair is arranged in a similar form to figure I; the only difference being that the nœud of ribbon is replaced by a beautiful drooping branch of pink shaded roses and light foliage; a spray of the three green leaves being placed upon the centre of the front, just over the parting of the hair.
— from The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851 by Various