It was amusing, too, when we had dined, and rattled down a steep pass, having no other moving power than the weight of the carriages themselves, to see the engine released, long after us, come buzzing down alone, like a great insect, its back of green and gold so shining in the sun, that if it had spread a pair of wings and soared away, no one would have had occasion, as I fancied, for the least surprise.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

Thus, in my opinion, he proved himself no ordinary man, as, by so granting the people a moderate degree of liberty, he more easily maintained the authority of the nobles.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Púlus hárì, None of my tosses of the coin failed.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

To the count’s entreaties they only replied by hints of the difficulty or impropriety of summoning the spirits in the presence of a stranger, or of one who might perchance have no other motive than the gratification of a vain curiosity; but they only meant to whet the edge of his appetite by this delay, and would have been sorry indeed if the count had been discouraged.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

In a city where a great revenue is spent, to employ with advantage a capital for any other purpose than for supplying the consumption of that city, is probably more difficult than in one in which the inferior ranks of people have no other maintenance but what they derive from the employment of such a capital.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The officer pointed with his hand to the smoke visible on the left beyond the river, and the same stern and serious expression that Pierre had noticed on many of the faces he had met came into his face.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

I answer that, Fault has the nature of evil more than pain has; not only more than pain of sense, consisting in the privation of corporeal goods, which kind of pain appeals to most men; but also more than any kind of pain, thus taking pain in its most general meaning, so as to include privation of grace or glory.
— from Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint

I take this to be its Genuine Definition, for though the Incomparable Erasmus takes Elegance and Novelty into the Character of a Proverb it seems to be an Error: for a Proverb has not only more Honour and Authority from Antiquity, but a Sentence never comes up to that Title till it has pass'd for Sterling some Competent time, and receiv'd its Dignity from the Consent of an Age at least.
— from Proverb Lore Many sayings, wise or otherwise, on many subjects, gleaned from many sources by F. Edward (Frederick Edward) Hulme

The pretended pilgrims, having no other means of communication with the prisoner, were singing for his information the tragic fates of his brother, Count Horn, and of his friend, Count Egmont.
— from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-84) by John Lothrop Motley

It is true that Protestantism had no other method to pursue, and that every objection which it could make to the private interpretation of the sacred text would be a striking inconsistency, an apostasy from its own principles, and a denial of its own origin; but at the same time, this is its most decided condemnation.
— from Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their effects on the civilization of Europe by Jaime Luciano Balmes

This being a licensed public house, numerous objections may be made to it; but under the superintendance of that humane magistrate, William Hamper, Esq.
— from A Description of Modern Birmingham Whereunto Are Annexed Observations Made during an Excursion Round the Town, in the Summer of 1818, Including Warwick and Leamington by Charles Pye

To start a new solution of some crucial problem, to track some new undercurrent of concealed significance in a passage hitherto neglected or misconstrued, is to a critic of this higher class a delight as keen as that of scientific discovery to students of another sort: the pity is that he can bring no such certain or immediate test to verify the value of his discovery as lies ready to the hand of the man of science.
— from A Study of Shakespeare by Algernon Charles Swinburne

That it might be conspicuous to all that the Publican has need of mercy.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

+ Nation 105:515 N 8 ‘17 360w Reviewed by H. W. Boynton + Nation 105:601 N 29 ‘17 90w “This unusual and complex study of character is told with a lightness and mastery of touch and a delightful, pervasive humor not often met in the ordinary run of novels.”
— from The Book Review Digest, Volume 13, 1917 Thirteenth Annual Cumulation Reviews of 1917 Books by Various

“But, papa,” replied his daughter, with a melancholy smile, “I think I know some persons, who, although very loud and vehement in their outcry against Popery, have, nevertheless, on more than one or two occasions, harbored Papists in their house, and concealed even priests, when the minions of the law were in search of them.”
— from Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton