The resisting power of numbers, the unattackable stolidity of a great multitude, was the haunting fear of his sinister loneliness.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

The appearance of uniformity in their boundaries vanishes under higher telescopic power, and they appear to be generally decidedly elliptical; they yield a gaseous spectrum with strong evidence of the presence of 'nebulium,' the unknown substance which gives evidence of its presence in the spectrum of every true nebula, and has, so far (with one doubtful exception) been found nowhere else.
— from Through the Telescope by James Baikie

The majority was, for example, for the passage of a direct primary law that would, first, take the control of politics out of the hands of political bosses big and little, and, second, give the people of California the privilege of naming their United States Senators, a privilege already enjoyed by the people of the more progressive States of the Union.
— from Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 by Franklin Hichborn

Eventually, I am sure California will adopt the Oregon plan of naming the United States Senator, which to my way of thinking is the most common sense, the fairest, the most American plan.
— from Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 by Franklin Hichborn

However, in 1835, under pressure of necessity, the United States having a claim against France which it wished to bring forward, offered the heirs of Beaumarchais the choice of taking 800,000 francs and considering the affair closed, or nothing.
— from Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence, Vol. 2 by Elizabeth Sarah Kite

Huh! People ought not to use such spensive dishes.
— from Janice Day, the Young Homemaker by Helen Beecher Long