They gave me a fright, for I thought they were, without doubt, devils, and they understood no less that I might be so, swathed in my ferns and matting.
— from Captain Cuellar's Adventures in Connaught & Ulster A.D. 1588. To Which Is Added an Introduction and Complete Translation of Captain Cuellar's Narrative of the Spanish Armada and His Adventures in Ireland by Cuellar, Francisco de, active 16th century

He became the leader of the Bar, without making a fortune; for in those times lawyers did not know how to charge, any more than city doctors.
— from Beacon Lights of History, Volume 11: American Founders by John Lord

They said they should make a fight for it; that they were worth a good deal more than six Afghans.
— from At the Court of the Amîr: A Narrative by John Alfred Gray

I saw that my speculation was ruined by their dishonesty, and there was no remedy, and, like all human events, that ended it, and I had to abandon my Sandwich Island expedition and throw my anticipated fortune from it to the winds.
— from The Adventures of a Forty-niner An Historic Description of California, with Events and Ideas of San Francisco and Its People in Those Early Days by Daniel Knower

The red herring of annexation was drawn across the trail, and many a farmer followed it to the polling booth.
— from The Canadian Dominion: A Chronicle of Our Northern Neighbor by Oscar D. (Oscar Douglas) Skelton

As Larry saw and felt that moment, it was a moment so large that words would only make a faltering failure in trying to express it.
— from Children of the Whirlwind by Leroy Scott

There is a lack of appreciation of the simple and obvious fact that, if the chief misfortunes of Russia are famine and unemployment, these misfortunes cannot be overcome by any outbursts of enthusiasm, but only by thorough and universal organization and discipline, in order to increase the production of bread for men and fuel for industry, to transport it in time, and to distribute it in the right way.
— from Bolshevism: The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy by John Spargo