No Jew could drive a better bargain than Mrs. Tom; and her urchins, of whom she was the happy mother of five or six, were as cunning and avaricious as herself.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

540 C ); and there are many other figures of speech which are readily transferred from art to morals.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

Because they did not choose to grant what he demanded of them, Fernan de Magalhães ordered three boats to be equipped with a matter of fifty or sixty men, and went against the said place, which was on the 28th day of April, in the morning; there they found many people, who might well be as many as three thousand or four thousand men, who fought with such a good will that the said Fernan de Magalhães was killed there, with six of his men, in the year 1521.”
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

[30] of a tramps’ lodging-house “a map of the district, dotted here and there with memorandums of failure or success.”
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

Nevertheless, with the help of my tube, and being desirous of easing my mind of five or six days journall, I did venture to write it down from ever since this day se’nnight, and I think without hurting my eyes any more than they were before, which was very much, and so home to supper and to bed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Seeing then, that it is equally disgraceful to become a flatterer through trying only to please, as in avoiding flattery to destroy all friendship and intimacy by excessive freedom of speech, we must avoid both these extremes, and, as in any other case, make our freedom of speech agreeable by its moderation.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

From that moment, one found one’s self in revolt against the established order, and began to understand Jesus as in revolt against the established order .
— from The Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

pasta 2 n 1 mixture of flour or starch and water used as paste.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

She now found, that in spite of herself, she had always admitted a hope, while Edward remained single, that something would occur to prevent his marrying Lucy; that some resolution of his own, some mediation of friends, or some more eligible opportunity of establishment for the lady, would arise to assist the happiness of all.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

For one in this condition "the first idea in the presence of anything too vivacious is to retreat, and the most obvious form of social retreat is what we call affectation."
— from Among Famous Books by John Kelman

What an heterogeneous mixture of fine old sport, black legs and consciences, panting steeds and hearts bursting with expectation and despair, and the grand machinery of chance working with mathematical truth, and not unfrequently beneath luxury and the mere show of hospitality.
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 369, May 9, 1829 by Various

Nature has clearly marked out fields of specialization for different localities, and the effective use of mineral supplies is just as much a matter of specialization as the effective use of man's talents.
— from The Economic Aspect of Geology by C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Leith

It is easy, therefore, to understand the effect of applying the one set of terms to one party, the other to another, in a contest which had no just application whatever to the essential merits of freedom or slavery.
— from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 1 by Jefferson Davis

He attributed the change of species chiefly to the effect of changes in the conditions of life—such as climate, food, etc.—and especially to the desires and efforts of the animals themselves to improve their condition, leading to a modification of form or size in certain parts, owing to the well-known physiological law that all organs are strengthened by constant use, while they are weakened or even completely lost by disuse.
— from Darwinism (1889) An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications by Alfred Russel Wallace

Juana was barely seventeen years of age, alone, without mother or father or sister or brother, in a strange land, in the midst of a strange court, where all about her were speaking a strange language, and the wife of a youth whom she had never seen until the eve of her marriage!
— from Women of the Romance Countries by John R. (John Robert) Effinger

The Académie de Musique, or French Opera, subsequently migrated to the Salle d’Opéra, at the Hôtel Louvois, on the site of the present Square Louvois.
— from Paris and Its Story by Thomas Okey

"Do you mean of France, or still nearer the mezzo-giorno?
— from It was a Lover and His Lass by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant