Farther back beyond the dark trees a roof glittered with dew, to the right was a leafy tree with brilliantly white trunk and branches, and above it shone the moon, nearly at its full, in a pale, almost starless, spring sky.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

IMG IMAGE END Some few days after that they had refreshed themselves, he went to see the city, and was beheld of everybody there with great admiration; for the people of Paris are so sottish, so badot, so foolish and fond by nature, that a juggler, a carrier of indulgences, a sumpter-horse, or mule with cymbals or tinkling bells, a blind fiddler in the middle of a cross lane, shall draw a greater confluence of people together than an evangelical preacher.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

She listened for steps, cries, the noise of the ploughs, and she stopped short, white, and trembling more than the aspen leaves swaying overhead.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Ayaw puksía ang silyu sa subri, Do not tear the stamp off the envelope.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

In the meantime Herr Stein had been to see the other patricians of the Evangelical party, and spoke so strongly to them that these gentlemen were quite excited.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, We will in France, by God's grace, play a set Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

You must forgive the trouble I have put you to,” said Pierre, and seeing Savélich smile, he thought: “But how strange it is that he should not know that now there is no Petersburg for me, and that that must be settled first of all!
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The night hours passed, and still she softly paced, or tranquilly seated herself, without the falling of a tear, and only now and then a long deep breath rather than a sigh.
— from Trumps by George William Curtis

"Maybe she changed her plan after she started," suggested Dotty delorously.
— from Two Little Women on a Holiday by Carolyn Wells

I looked round, and saw that I was in a typical "ground-floor front," with the usual cheap lace curtains, hideous wall paper, and slightly stuffy smell.
— from A Rogue by Compulsion An Affair of the Secret Service by Victor Bridges

One can't forget the glance of that blue eye, in a hurry; nor the waving of those golden locks; nor the breezy grace of that lithe figure; nor those scarlet lips, nor the bright, glad sparkle of the whole face; and then she is not a bit proud; although she steps so like a queen she would shake hands just as quick with a horny palm as with a kid glove.
— from The Life and Beauties of Fanny Fern by William U. Moulton

Neither this, however, nor the old brown frock nor the diadem nor the button, made a difference for Maisie in the charm put forth through everything, the charm of Mrs. Wix's conveying that somehow, in her ugliness and her poverty, she was peculiarly and soothingly safe; safer than any one in the world, than papa, than mamma, than the lady with the arched eyebrows; safer even, though so much less beautiful, than Miss Overmore, on whose loveliness, as she supposed it, the little girl was faintly conscious that one couldn't rest with quite the same tucked-in and kissed-for-good-night feeling.
— from What Maisie Knew by Henry James

The definitions show so much acuteness of thought and command of language, and the passages quoted from poets, divines, and philosophers are so skilfully selected, that a leisure 21 hour may always be very agreeably spent in turning over the pages.
— from Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson, with a Selection from his Essay on Johnson by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron