‘Tis to our prejudice that men of understanding should so immoderately affect brevity; no doubt their reputation is the better by it, but in the meantime we are the worse.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Which saying of his gave perhaps matter and occasion to La Boetie to write his "Voluntary Servitude." Only to see him pick out a light action in a man's life, or a mere word that does not seem to amount even to that, is itself a whole discourse. 'Tis to our prejudice that men of understanding should so immoderately affect brevity; no doubt their reputation is the better by it, but in the meantime we are the worse.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 05 by Michel de Montaigne

Mr. Milford, up in the hammock, had been vaguely conscious for several minutes of unusual sounds somewhere in the neighborhood, but it was not until he reached the end of the chapter that he took any intelligent notice.
— from Georgina of the Rainbows by Annie F. (Annie Fellows) Johnston

How many of us sat sleeping I know not; but I woke up with a start, and there was Great Godfrey, with a candle in his hand, looking down strange at us, and us looking up strange at him.
— from Old Man Savarin, and Other Stories by Edward William Thomson

This Portière is Made of Unbleached Sheeting Stencilled in Persian Design.
— from Things Worth Doing and How To Do Them by Lina Beard

Most of us sought shelter in the neighbouring houses.
— from The Invasion of 1910, with a full account of the siege of London by William Le Queux

This contained two 20-inch M.L. Rodman guns, mounted on United States service iron carriages; and these formidable weapons commanded nearly seven-eighths of the horizon.
— from Under the Chilian Flag: A Tale of War between Chili and Peru by Harry Collingwood