Prince Vasíli now said with a prophet’s pride.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The said Panurge resolved the problem very neatly, saying, That which makes asses to have such great ears is that their dams did put no biggins on their heads, as Alliaco mentioneth in his Suppositions.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Pope very neatly suggests that it may be the critic rather than the poet who is asleep.
— from The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems by Alexander Pope

I am referring to the substitution of assertion for argument; to the frequency of arbitrary and sometimes petulant verdicts, not seldom unsupported even by a single quotation from the work condemned, which might at least have explained the critic's meaning, if it did not prove the justice of his sentence.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Primus vestrum non sum
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

Martial has given us a very pretty Picture of one of this Species in the following Epigram: Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem, Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Small minds cannot grasp great ideas; to their narrow comprehension, their purblind vision, nothing seems really great and important but themselves.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Optimum igitur ingenium tuum valde commendamus atque probamus, teque hortamur ut velis pro laude et gloria tua, et pro voluptate nimia singulare opus inchoatum perficere, nec labori parcas.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

He was obliged to pass very near Sam, however, and the scrutinising glance of that gentleman enabled him to detect, under all these appalling twists of feature, something too like the small eyes of Mr. Job Trotter to be easily mistaken.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Pero Velazquez no siente de este modo.
— from Novelas Cortas by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

_#_Industrial production: growth rate 0.0% (1988 est.); accounts for less than 4% of GDP _#_Electricity: 5,000 kW capacity; 13 million kWh produced, 190 kWh per capita (1990) _#_Industries: fishing, handicrafts _#_Agriculture: accounts for 30% of GDP (including fishing); copra and fish contribute about 95% to exports; subsistence farming predominates; food crops—taro, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, vegetables; not self-sufficient in food _#_Economic aid: Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-88), $258 million _#_Currency: Australian dollar (plural—dollars); 1 Australian dollar ($A) = 100 cents _#_Exchange rates: Australian dollars ($A) per US$1—1.2834 (January 1991), 1.2799 (1990), 1.2618 (1989), 1.2752 (1988), 1.4267 (1987), 1.4905 (1986), 1.4269 (1985) _#_Fiscal year:
— from The 1991 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

And whereas the kings high waie laie sometime through Wilton, licence was obteined of the king and Richard bishop of Salisburie, to remooue that passage vnto new Salisburie in like maner, and vpon this occasion was the maine bridge made ouer Auon at Harneham.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

If we follow northward from "Queen-Hithe" along the shore, we pass into a region where the ancient wharves of commerce, ruined in 1815, have never been rebuilt; and only slender pathways for pleasure voyagers now stretch above the submerged foundations.
— from Oldport Days by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

One who had been chairman at one of these meetings assured me that on a particular occasion, having called a “general dealer” to order, the party very nearly split his head open with a quart measure.
— from London Labour and the London Poor (Vol. 1 of 4) by Henry Mayhew

[Pg 77] concerning the colour of the hair of 1220 insane persons (omitting the grey-haired) in the New Brunswick Asylum; although as the racial mixture is certainly not quite identical, and the nomenclature probably varies, no strict comparison is possible.
— from The Criminal by Havelock Ellis

“Well, did I guess aright?” cried Grenfell, as Vyner stood reading the letter over for the third time; “is his answer what I predicted?” “Very nearly so,” said the other, as he handed him the letter to read.
— from Luttrell Of Arran by Charles James Lever

Some people were passing very near, surely they would go past in a moment?
— from The Mormon Prophet by L. (Lily) Dougall

The Master's face was turned aside from her; His eyes looked far away, as if he saw Something beyond her sight; and yet she knew That he was listening; for her pleading voice No sooner ceased than he put forth his hand To touch her brow, and very gently spoke: “Thou seekest for thyself a wondrous gift,— The opening of the second gate, a gift That many wise men have desired in vain:
— from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke by Henry Van Dyke