Mean white , a term of contempt among negroes, in the old slavery days, for white men without landed property.
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

These characters are not in the original story, but are introduced by Shakespeare.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

The ends, as well as the means, are perfectly distinct; nor is the one subordinate to the other.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

They admit that the phrase is cumbrous, and that it would have been simpler to have said "all loss and expenditure of whatever description"; and they allow that the apparent emphasis of damage to the persons and property of civilians is unfortunate; but errors of draftsmanship should not, in their opinion, shut off the Allies from the rights inherent in victors.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

“Nothing is truer or sadder.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

↑ 31 Dokoh is a crescent-shaped breast-ornament rather than a necklace in the ordinary sense.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

Up and to the office, where I hear that Sir John Coventry is come over from Bredah, a nephew, I think, of Sir W. Coventry’s: but what message he brings I know not.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

And here it may be observed, that Nicholas was not, in the ordinary sense of the word, a young man of high spirit.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Now that the master was dead, he could find peace neither at his own hearth nor in the oppressive stillness of the streets nor among his friends and fellow-disciples.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

They are not to be reckoned among feræ naturæ ; indeed, though other species are chance visitors, the “mute swan” is never, strictly speaking, a wild bird in England; but they are private property, the Dyers’ and the Vintners’ Companies being among the principal owners.
— from Rivers of Great Britain. The Thames, from Source to Sea. Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial by Various

But O, no, they were too loyal for that, so to make their house more commodious, another room was added by building a nest in the other shoe.
— from Birds and All Nature, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 1900 by Various

First the legs and arms, then the muscles that support the head and back: the first sense that slumbers, according to his notions, is that of sight; then follow in regular succession the senses of taste, smell, hearing, and feeling.
— from Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen

And while meditating on the mutations of time and the strangeness of many events recorded in history, our friends passed from the harbor of Nagasaki into the open sea.
— from Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China by Thomas Wallace Knox

But what need is there of so many books of this sort?
— from Evenings at Home; Or, The Juvenile Budget Opened by John Aikin

All this is taught us by the spoons; for what need is there of spoons where there is nothing to eat but strong meat?
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

That the Lords and others particularly named in the Ordinance shall be Commissioners to joyne in aid and assistance of the said Earl, Chief Governour and Admirall of the said Plantations, and shall have power from Time to Time to provide for, order, and dispose of all things which they shall think most fit and advantageous for the well governing, securing, strengthening and preserving of the sayd Plantations, and chiefly for the advancement of the true Protestant Religion amongst the said Planters and Inhabitants, and the further enlarging and spreading of the Gospel of Christ amongst those that yet remain there in great Blindness and Ignorance.
— from The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 1 of 2. From 1620-1816 by Egerton Ryerson

He understood, in a strangely clear way, that what suffered now was not, in the ordinary sense, his own self, that is, his nerves, but the physical composition {26} of his body, which was being by degrees deprived of the one prime ingredient more necessary than all others.
— from The Diva's Ruby by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford