I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as to have the soul vivid and afflicted, without means to declare itself; as one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first cut out (were it not that in this kind of dying, the most silent seems to me the most graceful, if accompanied with a grave and constant countenance); or if those miserable prisoners, who fall into the hands of the base hangman soldiers of this age, by whom they are tormented with all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and impossible ransom; kept, in the meantime, in such condition and place, where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and their misery.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

For, to extend our thoughts a little further, the pressure which is brought to explain the cohesion of bodies [*dropped line] considered, as no doubt it is, finite, let any one send his contemplation to the extremities of the universe, and there see what conceivable hoops, what bond he can imagine to hold this mass of matter in so close a pressure together; from whence steel has its firmness, and the parts of a diamond their hardness and indissolubility.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

“But I say, Miss Morland, I shall come and pay my respects at Fullerton before it is long, if not disagreeable.”
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Yes, that man is somehow closely and painfully connected with me,” thought Prince Andrew, not yet clearly grasping what he saw before him.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

When I first visited that place in 1832 it was a dull insignificant village, which might, I suppose, contain a population of 1200 or 1500.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

After many instructions and cautions touching the fire, the water, the steam, the use of the levers, the necessity of keeping a sharp lookout ahead, etc., the Driver left me in sole command, as proud as a boy with his first bicycle.
— from Rancho Del Muerto, and Other Stories of Adventure by Various Authors, from "Outing" by Charles King

Let a coward be a monk in some cloister and pray for the sins of us fighters.”
— from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race by M. I. (Maud Isabel) Ebbutt

—Take equal quantities of lignum rhodium and anise, [148] in powder, with a little powder of dried Seville orange-peel, and the same of gum benzoin, or benjamin, and beat all together in a marble mortar: then, adding some gum-dragon, or tragacanth, dissolved in rose-water, put in a little civet; beat the whole again together; make up this mixture into small cakes, and place them on paper to dry.
— from Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts by Sarah Josepha Buell Hale

State elections biennial, in even-numbered years, meeting first Monday in September; congressional and presidential elections, Tuesday after first Monday in November; number Senators, 31; Representatives, 94; sessions of legislature biennial, in odd-numbered years, meeting second Monday in January; limit of session, 60 days; term of Senators, 4 years; of Representatives, 2 years.
— from Alden's Handy Atlas of the World Including One Hundred and Thirty-eight Colored Maps, Diagrams, Tables, Etc. by John B. (John Berry) Alden

You see the good cause advances! ’Tis Philip’s most successful warfare; thus Murray in Scotland, Coligny at Paris, and now the Prince of Orange at Delft have paid the penalty of heresy.
— from Drake; or, the Transfer of the Trident: A National Drama by William MacOubrey

After our marriage I shall come and pass the days from eight in the morning till six in the evening here.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

State elections, second Monday in September; congressional and presidential, Tuesday after first Monday in November; number Senators, 31; Representatives, 151; sessions biennial, in odd-numbered years, meeting first Wednesday in January; limit of session, none; terms of Senators and Representatives, 2 years each.
— from Alden's Handy Atlas of the World Including One Hundred and Thirty-eight Colored Maps, Diagrams, Tables, Etc. by John B. (John Berry) Alden

PREFACE xix Chief of the Staff for several months, is so complete and powerful that the need of a successor is not at once apparent.
— from Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War by G. F. R. (George Francis Robert) Henderson