At the Renaissance and the German club he used always to be a little drunk, to spend a lot of money on women, patiently put up with all their tricks—for instance, when Vanda poured the beer on his head, he only smiled and shook his finger at her—but now he looked dull and sleepy; he had the pompous, chilly expression of a superior, and he was chewing something.
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

You can read in a few minutes or a few hours a poem or a book with only pleasure and delight, but the days and months of weary plodding over details and dreary drudgery often required to produce it would stagger belief.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

These chaplets are sometimes made of white paper, in imitation of flowers, and inside of them is generally a pair of white gloves.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

The beetle soon, of sweet revenge in quest, Flew to the old, gnarl'd mountain oak, Which proudly bore that haughty eagle's nest.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

He asked me of what parentage I was; I told him, of as good as he; so he laugh'd and let me go.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

But I must tell you, now my thoughts revolt; For he’s no man on whom perfections wait That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate, You are a fair viol, and your sense the strings; Who, finger’d to make man his lawful music, Would draw heaven down, and all the gods to hearken; But being play’d upon before your time,
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Above all those beauties, I could see the shape of two globes which Apelles would have taken for the model of those of his lovely Venus, and the rapid, inequal movement of which proved to me that those ravishing hillocks were animated.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

samsuy n k.o. hood made of woven palm leaflets covering the entire head and back, worn as a protection against rain.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

An elderly surgeon came every morning to dress her wound, during which operation her maid only was present, but I used to go, in my morning dishabille, to the girl’s room, and to wait there, so as to be the first to hear how my dear one was.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

So I promised to look for another site, though I saw how much she desired to have her tomb connected with the sanctuary of her favourite goddess—— Then—I have already told the clever brown witch—then the immortals, Divinity, Fate, or whatever we call the power which guides the world and our lives according to eternal laws and its own mysterious, omnipotent will, permitted a rascally deed, from which I think may come deliverance for you and a source of pleasure to the Queen in these days of trial.” “Man, man!
— from Cleopatra — Complete by Georg Ebers

Many a man who would have been restrained from the commission of sins of this class by motives of worldly prudence or considerations of humanity, has been hurried into sin by not attending to this warning.
— from Private Papers of William Wilberforce by William Wilberforce

I will also add to the remarks I have made (for I am not going to enter at large upon this subject), that I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes, if there was no law to keep them from it; but as judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of the State which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 5: 1858-1862 by Abraham Lincoln

This Spanish work is rare, but the description reminds us of a specimen belonging to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford (Plate 82 )—a square of linen, worked with ostriches, turkeys, and eagles in gold and black silk stitches.
— from Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess

Rhyolites may occur with porphyritic structure, in which case the presence of the larger feldspar crystals will help to distinguish whether they are orthoclase or not, making the determination easier.
— from Field Book of Common Rocks and Minerals For identifying the Rocks and Minerals of the United States and interpreting their Origins and Meanings by Frederic Brewster Loomis

An hour later, when Dick retired to Mr Pepson’s house, the details of an expedition had been roughly drafted, and on the following morning orders were published.
— from With Wolseley to Kumasi: A Tale of the First Ashanti War by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton

—The body or material of which porcelain is made.
— from Chats on English China by Arthur Hayden

I ordered the men to keep themselves as quiet as possible so that we in no way disturbed these poor creatures; and when at length the party moved off we passed them in a diagonal direction so as to give them an opportunity of seeing us without frightening them.
— from Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2 by Grey, George, Sir