But the value of a silver mine, even though there should not be another within a thousand miles of it, will not necessarily increase with the improvement of the country in which it is situated.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

hekaston gar tôn moriôn echei tina tonon symphyton, hô diôtheitai to peritton.
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen

That figure never moves; it never frowns and mouths as others do, that fill this place sometimes; but it is much more dreadful to me, even than the spirits that tempted me many years ago—it comes fresh from the grave; and is so very death-like.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Thus, a wounded prince or bandit chief, who is bleeding to death and too faint to move, except to the softest music (and then only upon his hands and knees), shall be seen to approach a cottage door for aid in such a series of writhings and twistings, and with such curlings up of the legs, and such rollings over and over, and such gettings up and tumblings down again, as could never be achieved save by a very strong man skilled in posture-making.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

In returning the extracts sent with it, he will refrain from mentioning any personal objection which he may entertain to this species of literature, and will merely say that the proposed additions to the manuscript are not necessary to the fulfilment of the purpose that he has in view.” (3.)
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Bramston in his Art of Politics says:— “Those who would captivate the well-bred throng, Should not too often speak, nor speak too long; Church, nor church matters, ever turn to sport, Nor make St. Stephen’s Chapel Dover Court .”
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

Charles selected one, cut it into two pieces and planed it with a fragment of windowpane, while the servant tore up sheets to make bandages, and Mademoiselle Emma tried to sew some pads.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

For a time, being of a buoyant disposition, they might feel that nothing could be more exhilarating than to swim in the void, altogether free from settled conditions, altogether the ignorant creators of each moment's vision.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

this confidence on our part, we know to be the effect of a series of uninterupted friendly intercouse, but the well known treachery of the natives by no means entitle them to such confidence, and we must check it's growth in our own minds, as well as those of our men, by recollecting ourselves, and repeating to our men, that our preservation depends on never loosing sight of this trait in their character, and being always prepared to meet it in whatever shape it may present itself.- The Mule deer are the same with those of the plains of the Missouri so frequently mentioned.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

I should have been apt to think; that the shuffling pace of the lame mistress added some new pleasure to the work, and some extraordinary titillation to those who were at the sport; but I have lately learnt that ancient philosophy has itself determined it, which says that the legs and thighs of lame women, not receiving, by reason of their imperfection, their due aliment, it falls out that the genital parts above are fuller and better supplied and much more vigorous; or else that this defect, hindering exercise, they who are troubled with it less dissipate their strength, and come more entire to the sports of Venus; which also is the reason why the Greeks decried the women-weavers as being more hot than other women by reason of their sedentary trade, which they carry on without any great exercise of the body.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

When I go into a room, you would say that I am the head of Medusa: everybody turns to stone.
— from Diderot and the Encyclopædists (Vol. 2 of 2) by John Morley

She motioned Ethel toward the staircase, and then with a formal inclination of the head, ushered her more unwelcome guest into a small parlor where there was a fire and a lamp burning.
— from Princess by M. G. (Mary Greenway) McClelland

Perhaps, indeed, such occurrences as these impressed the great mass of the public more even than the supernormal occurrences to which Black's famous article bore witness.
— from The Angel by Guy Thorne

In conjunction with other treatment, its use may even turn the scale towards recovery. Noise and Disease.
— from Papers on Health by John Kirk

What has been more effectual than the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ in carrying home the words to each heart, ' Son, thy sins be forgiven thee, rise up and walk '?
— from The Gospel of St. John: A Series of Discourses. New Edition by Frederick Denison Maurice

After some time, I lifted up my eyes to the sky, at first vacantly, and then with more attention, turning my head in all directions for a minute or two; after which I returned to the dingle.
— from The Pocket George Borrow Passages chosen from the works of George Borrow by George Borrow

But in this last point Privateers may become Pirates when they transgress the limits prescribed to them; and this is one of the reasons why we often see the former confounded with the latter.[94] Under these general definitions, we see that it is quite open to any citizen of the world to become a privateer under a foreign Sovran; and Martens goes on to say, that "there is nothing that prevents the granting of Letters of Marque, even to the subjects of neutral or allied powers who are able to solicit them; but since it is contrary to neutrality to suffer subjects to contribute by this means to the reinforcement of one of the belligerent powers, and to the annoyance of the other, states generally prohibit their subjects from taking Letters of Marque from a power, without the permission of their Sovereigns, and many treaties oblige them also to prohibit their subjects from doing it, as well as to forbid every species of armaments on the enemy's account, in their ports.
— from The Laws Of War, Affecting Commerce And Shipping by H. Byerley (Henry Byerley) Thomson

If we run in now and do up that Spanish fleet, we haven't men enough to take Santiago itself.
— from Fighting in Cuban Waters; Or, Under Schley on the Brooklyn by Edward Stratemeyer

"Poor child!" said Mrs. Elder, the tears springing to her eyes as she stooped down and kissed the wounded place.
— from Home Scenes and Home Influence; a series of tales and sketches by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur