Upon investigation it turns out, however, that the plant and animal communities are in a state of unstable equilibrium, such that any change in the environment may destroy them.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

We had none of us ever seen the hired up-river boat before; and we did not know what it was when we did see it.
— from Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

In a most sympathetic letter Dr. Holmes told him of the illness, and the scenes which followed: "I listened to the sweet music which was sung over her as she lay, covered with flowers, in the pleasant parlor of her house, by the voices of those that loved her—I and my wife with me—and then we followed her to Mount Auburn, and saw her laid in the earth, and the blossoms showered down upon her with such tokens of affection and sorrow that the rough men, whose business makes them callous to common impressions, were moved as none of us ever saw them moved before.
— from Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to John S. Dwight; Brook Farm and Concord by George William Curtis

“But it has been the trade-mark of unselfishness ever since the days of the Crusaders,” declared Mr. Chick.
— from The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot by Holman Day

Just as Hegel in modern philosophy could only adequately formulate his conceptions through logical contradictions, so also, perhaps, under the veil of antagonisms of utterance, Empedocles sought to give a fuller vision,—Discord, in his own doctrine, not less than in his conception of nature, being thus the co-worker with Love.
— from A Short History of Greek Philosophy by J. (John) Marshall

This 'ere inspector was a man from London, and he might have spotted either of us——" "Enough," said the captain, with a displeased frown.
— from The Spider and the Fly; or, An Undesired Love by Charles Garvice

Under the term gymnastics, literally naked exercises, we here include those denuded of all utilities or ulterior ends save those of physical culture.
— from Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene by G. Stanley (Granville Stanley) Hall

Many cases of unreduced luxation are met with; I have seen it in both elbows of the same person; and I have had a dozen of cases, in as many months, of unreduced elbows shown too late for attempts at reduction.
— from Elements of Surgery by Robert Liston

All of our fancy uniforms and articles of no service in the field were packed into cases, turned over to the quartermaster's department and placed in storage in the then unfinished Corcoran Art Gallery, situated on Pennsylvania Avenue near our quarters, and none of us ever saw them again.
— from Ten years in the ranks, U.S. Army by Augustus Meyers

And they have re-echoed and reverberated it, they and the rest of us, ever since, to all lengths, down to the present day; as a fact quite agreed upon, and the preliminary item in Friedrich's character.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 01 by Thomas Carlyle

They visit the garret of Herr Novalis Octavianus Hornwunder, a maker of books to order upon every subject: they learn the mysteries of the manufacture.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 215, December 10, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

"Oh, you're one of us, eh?" said the guard-leader sardonically.
— from Pariah Planet by Murray Leinster