He then applied himself to the vice of lying, on which head he was altogether as learned as he had been on the other.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Taking in his hands the plantain leaves on which he stood, he runs away as fast as he can without looking back.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

II Now let us see, in the light of what has gone before, the line to take for creating an ideally comic type of character, comic in itself, in its origin, and in all its manifestations.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

Lessons of wisdom have never such power over us as when they are wrought into the heart through the groundwork of a story which engages the passions.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

“He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of what he said.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

He ran to Porthos and threw himself into his arms; the whole body of servants, arranged in a semi-circle at a respectful distance, looked on with humble curiosity.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

MIRVAN has just communicated to me an anecdote concerning Lord Orville, which has much surprised, half pleased, and half pained me.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

Is it far from here?" he asks, good-humouredly making light of what he has done as she gets up and curtsys.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

My lord cardinal had a ruddy face and bright holy eyes, and sat in his sanguine robes with his cap on his head, looking out with his lips pursed at the clerks and monks that babbled together beyond the barrier.
— from The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary by Robert Hugh Benson

Plentiful libations of wine, honey, and milk were poured upon the ground, and the mourners smote the earth with their feet, while they uttered supplications to Hermes, Hecate, and Pluto.
— from Philothea: A Grecian Romance by Lydia Maria Child

Lashing out with his legs Hythe churned up a column of water.
— from The Rival Submarines by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman

With all this he was exceedingly sagacious and cunning, and seemed to penetrate the meaning of our discourse, though spoke in a language of which he did not understand a syllable.
— from Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5) In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 by James Bruce

Al came over to her and laid one white hand on her shoulder.
— from Cheerful—By Request by Edna Ferber

Charcole Wood For making 3 tuns per week of bar iron 9 loads 18 loads Per annum 450 loads 900 loads “Yet,” he says, “by this barring of iron alone with pit-cole, by his invention 30,000 loads of wood have been preserved for the general good, which otherwayes must have been had and consumed.”
— from The Curiosities of Dudley and the Black Country, From 1800 to 1860 Also an Account of the Trials and Sufferings of Dud Dudley, with His Mettallum Martis: Etc. by C. F. G. Clark

It is said of him that he was never at sea but twice in his life: once when he came from France, and once when he left this country, and on neither occasion did he sail under the "Jolly Roger," as the pirate flag was sometimes called.
— from Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts by Frank Richard Stockton

Voltaire had no intention of going to Saint Petersburg; he had created a little Court of Letters, of which he himself was the Czar, and for the first time in his life he was experiencing a degree of genuine content.
— from Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 by Elbert Hubbard

After breakfast the Abbe de Sponde carried off his guest, as agreed upon the previous evening, to show him the various houses in Alencon which could be bought, and the lots of lands on which he might build.
— from An Old Maid by Honoré de Balzac