What in a colder nature would have been a mere intellectual phase was with her an unbearably emotional upheaval; and on the spot she made a resolution conceived in despair but carried out with logical coolness.
— from The Spirit of the Ghetto: Studies of the Jewish Quarter in New York by Hutchins Hapgood

People talk of modern civilization and the spirit of the age as though these expressions conveyed a clear and definite meaning, and represented certain ideas distinctly recognized as truth by all; as though this so-called spirit of the age were something as definite, as tangible, and of as efficacious an application as a code of civil law; and as though its practical working were one of truth and harmony; whereas, in reality, no incomprehensible jargon of words, no jumble of ideas, no jungle of thicket is so helplessly confused and impenetrable as the maze of struggling, confused, and contradictory theories supposed to constitute the spirit of the age and serve as the exponent of modern enlightenment.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 10, October, 1869 to March, 1870 by Various

Real macaroni in "Masaniello," and real champagne in "Don Giovanni," in order that Leporello may have opportunities for "comic business" in the supper scene, are demanded by the customs of the operatic stage.
— from A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Dutton Cook

Telephone messages and reports came in day and night without ceasing; but they did not prevent us from making the material side of our existence tolerably comfortable.
— from My Reminiscences of East Africa by General von (Paul Emil) Lettow-Vorbeck

The holding of this office, which Mr. Ainger rightly calls important, doubtless accounts for Twopenny’s constant good-humour and felicitous jesting about his own person.
— from Obiter Dicta: Second Series by Augustine Birrell

Finally the president of one of the large coal companies employed James McParlan, a remarkably clever Irish detective.
— from Our Foreigners: A Chronicle of Americans in the Making by Samuel Peter Orth