Tener tanto mérito, y vivir condenado a un pasar mediano, a una condición humilde, porque no, señor tío, no se ensoberbezca usted...
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

It is not fear; it is rather that we have nothing more to fear from men; it is that the worm "man" is in the foreground and pullulates; it is that the "tame man," the wretched mediocre and unedifying creature, has learnt to consider himself a goal and a pinnacle, an inner meaning, an historic principle, a "higher man"; yes, it is that he has a certain right so to consider himself, in so far as he feels that in contrast to that excess of deformity, disease, exhaustion, and effeteness whose odour is beginning to pollute present-day Europe, he at any rate has achieved a relative success, he at any rate still says "yes" to life.
— from The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

A rebuke might possibly have been irritating, though it is much more probable that Isabel would have taken it in good part; but, strange to say, the words that Madame Merle actually used caused her the first feeling of displeasure she had known this ally to excite.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

t kindness, and reposed in me an unbounded confidence; he even paid attention to my morals; and would never suffer me to deceive him, or tell lies, of which he used to tell me the consequences; and that if I did so God would not love me; so that, from all this tenderness, I had never once supposed, in all my dreams of freedom, that he would think of detaining me any longer than I wished.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

They seemed affectionate to his memory, and universally commended his expertness in book-keeping.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

Only that morning her Grace, in spite of her unapproachable maid and unlimited care, had seen an additional line around her mouth that had warned her of youth's decline, and now to meet some one oblivious of this line is sweet to her.
— from Mrs. Geoffrey by Duchess

When the charge galvanic tingled through the cable, At the polar focus of the wire electric Suddenly appeared a white-faced man among us Called himself "DE SAUTY."
— from The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 06 Poems from the Breakfast Table Series by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Within less than four years the annexation of Texas to the Union has been consummated; all conflicting title to the Oregon Territory south of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, being all that was insisted on by any of my predecessors, has been adjusted, and New Mexico and Upper California have been acquired by treaty.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

Why, he is so much above us common, humdrum sort of fellows, that we ought to get down on our knees when he condescends to show himself."
— from Northern Lands; Or, Young America in Russia and Prussia by Oliver Optic

Caddy, who had been there since the break of day, had taken the domestic reins entirely from the hands of the mistress of the mansion, and usurped command herself.
— from The Garies and Their Friends by Frank J. Webb

Mysterious and untraceable contributions had poured in upon hospitals, orphan asylums, societies for the protection of animals, and other philanthropic organizations.
— from The Gray Phantom by Herman Landon

Ignorance, especially with the working-man's wife, will generally be found to be the cause of the aversion which many housewives have to the cooking of fish; even in middle and upper class households much ignorance as to the kinds of fish and the best means of making use of them prevails.
— from A Handbook of Fish Cookery: How to buy, dress, cook, and eat fish by Lucy H. (Lucy Helen) Yates

Accustomed to be furnished with all the appliances of easy life and luxury, the great middle and upper classes have never perhaps given a [Pg 500] thought as to the manner in which these wants and appliances are supplied.
— from Curiosities of Civilization by Andrew Wynter

In the twinkle of an eyelid, I saw that there was some mortal mistake in the measurement; as, unless Cursecowl had lost beef at no allowance, I knew, judging from the past, that it would not peep on his corpus by four inches.
— from The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself by D. M. (David Macbeth) Moir