The patron of La Jeune Amélie proposed as a place of landing the Island of Monte Cristo, which being completely deserted, and having neither soldiers nor revenue officers, seemed to have been placed in the midst of the ocean since the time of the heathen Olympus by Mercury, the god of merchants and robbers, classes of mankind which we in modern times have separated if not made distinct, but which antiquity appears to have included in the same category.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

Each time I dip a living creature into the bath of burning pain, I say, ‘This time I will burn out all the animal; this time I will make a rational creature of my own!’
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

“that all government is, at first, founded on a contract and that the most ancient rude combinations of mankind were formed chiefly by that principle.
— from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant

During the last few days he had made a real conquest of Miss Burnaby, who, with the one startling exception of the emotion betrayed by her at the séance, secretly struck both him and Blanche Farrow as the most commonplace human being with whom either had ever come in contact.
— from From out the Vasty Deep by Marie Belloc Lowndes

The fundamental principle of that school is to base the claims of Christianity mainly upon the appeal which the picture of the life, teaching, character, and personality of Christ makes to the moral and religious consciousness of mankind.
— from Philosophy and Religion Six Lectures Delivered at Cambridge by Hastings Rashdall

The superintendent has never seen much advantage from the use of medicine, and relies chiefly on management.
— from Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles by Daniel Hack Tuke

But there is cream, you see, for those who like it—boiled down and bottled for the use of the children before leaving home—one of Dominica's notions;" and here the smiling maid, with her little, respectful courtesy, tendered me a reviving cup of Miss Lamarque's morning beverage, Mocha, made to the last point of perfection, dripped and filtered over a spirit-lamp by Dominica, the skillful and neat-handed.
— from Sea and Shore A Sequel to "Miriam's Memoirs" by Catherine A. (Catherine Ann) Warfield

Letters of marque and reprisal? Coinage of money?
— from A Brief History of the United States by Joel Dorman Steele

It’s time for you to give me a RACKING criticism on my morning’s work.”
— from The Guest of Quesnay by Booth Tarkington

For me a Roman couch of mats was spread, while the natives squatted in the comfort of men whose legs are natural.
— from White Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien

In the heart of Asia lies the enormous, mysterious and rich country of Mongolia.
— from Beasts, Men and Gods by Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski

The words were scarcely out of his mouth when a roar of a thousand angry voices, followed by a sudden rush from the building of a mad and raging crowd, obliged Mr. Punch , for a moment, to pause.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari The Christmas Number, 1890 by Various

She was just plain Martha Bumps, to whom many a rural community owed much.
— from Virginia of Elk Creek Valley by Mary Ellen Chase