He would gaze in admiration at the large eyes, the delicate features in which the imperfection of her skin might be surmised, the marvellous locks of hair that fell along her tired cheeks; and, adapting what he had already felt to be beautiful, on aesthetic grounds, to the idea of a living woman, he converted it into a series of physical merits which he congratulated himself on finding assembled in the person of one whom he might, ultimately, possess.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

He got shaved every morning, manicured his nails more carefully, changed his linen every two days, from a legitimate sense of what was proper, and out of respect for the national Order, of which he formed a part, and from that day he was another Caravan, scrupulously clean, majestic and condescending.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

I don't get to leave except to do field intelligence after a big Xnet hit.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

45 My two lips, eyes, thighs, differ from thy two, But so, as thine from one another doe; And, oh, no more; the likenesse being such, Why should they not alike in all parts touch?
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

Behold the family, the human law; everything that departs from this law is monstrous.
— from The Confession of a Child of the Century by Alfred de Musset

It is a solemn time, a time for quiet: a time in which it is well to leave even the dear faces, and to get you apart alone with God.
— from The Harvest of a Quiet Eye: Leisure Thoughts for Busy Lives by John Richard Vernon

It was almost dark when he arrived, but there was light enough to discern, from the ruined houses and the dead bodies of the murdered officers lying about, in what a merciless spirit the revolt had been perpetrated.
— from Forty-one years in India: from subaltern to commander-in-chief by Roberts, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, Earl

How strangely everything looked; even the dim fire had a sort of aureole about it, as her eyes rested there again; but when one looks through tears, all things are haloed mistily.
— from Mae Madden by Mary Murdoch Mason

“At least, ere the day fixed for the wedding,” answered Aram, with a grave and melancholy smile.
— from Eugene Aram — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

Any one whose enjoyments have been narrowed down by long sickness may prove their truth by recollecting how at last even the desire for impossible pleasures passes away.
— from A Noble Life by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

On the banks of the river Hiddekel, words of such wondrous importance were uttered to the lonely exile, that Daniel fainted, and was sick many days.
— from Love to the Uttermost Expositions of John XIII.-XXI. by F. B. (Frederick Brotherton) Meyer

The train, pausing only long enough to disgorge from the baggage-car a trunk or two and from the day-coaches a thin trickle of passengers, flung on into the wilderness, cracked bell clanking somewhat disdainfully.
— from The Bronze Bell by Louis Joseph Vance