Having arrived at this comfortable frame of mind (to which she had been greatly assisted by certain short interjectional remarks of the philosophical George), Mrs Jarley consoled Nell with many kind words, and requested as a personal favour that whenever she thought of Miss Monflathers, she would do nothing else but laugh at her, all the days of her life.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Housewives describe a small uncomfortable room as “a POKY hole.”
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

When we hear any other speaker, even a very good one, he produces absolutely no effect upon us, or not much, whereas the mere fragments of you and your words, even at second-hand, and however imperfectly repeated, amaze and possess the souls of every man, woman, and child who comes within hearing of them.
— from Symposium by Plato

She gives a word-portrait of them, apes their manners, pretends to know their little ridiculous aspects and passions, and for each invents a romance.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

“Jean, wild with remorse and also possibly touched with gratitude, made up his mind to marry her.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

We now again begged of him, in the name of God, and the emperor our master, to forward us his papers within the space of three days by a royal secretary, that he might read them to us; as we were ready, and also promised to act up strictly to his majesty's commands, if his documents were correct.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

in obl. cases) quick, nimble, ready, active, alert, prompt , CP, Gl, Mt .
— from A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary For the Use of Students by J. R. Clark (John R. Clark) Hall

The rational opinions of the Pelagians were propagated from Britain to Rome, Africa, and Palestine, and silently expired in a superstitious age.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Then the First Bearer, slinging the basket of the Rice-child about her neck (by means of the red cloth before referred to), took an umbrella 217 from one of the party, and opened it to shield the Rice-child from the effects of the sun, and when the Pawang had reseated herself and repeated an Arabic prayer (standing erect again at the end of it with her hands clasped above her head), this part of the ceremony came to an end.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

You are permitted, indeed, to go to the common pits and carry off an armful of mummies, if you like; but there is no pleasure in the disturbance of this sort of mummy; he may perhaps be a late Roman; he has no history, no real antiquity, and probably not a scarabæus of any value about him.
— from My Winter on the Nile Eighteenth Edition by Charles Dudley Warner

It is curious to note, however, the change in the nomenclature of places in the endeavour to eliminate the religious and aristocratic prefixes and suffixes with which many of the Breton place-names were endowed.
— from Rambles in Brittany by M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

In the first scene Cain is introduced, rebelling against toils imposed on him by an offence committed before he was born,—"I sought not to be born"—the answer, that toil is a good, being precluded by its authoritative representation as a punishment; in which mood he is confirmed by the entrance and reasonings of the Tempter, who identifies the Deity with Seva the Destroyer, hints at the dreadful visitation of the yet untasted death; when Adah, entering, takes him at first for an angel, and then recognizes him as a fiend.
— from Byron by John Nichol

I do not think that there can be any rightful appropriation, as private property, of objects of natural beauty.
— from Passages from the English Notebooks, Complete by Nathaniel Hawthorne

That is to say, all mythology is regarded as a sort of primitive science, or, at any rate, as a precursor of philosophy.
— from Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind by Wilhelm Max Wundt

"I will go there to-morrow and make arrangements for her reception as a pupil," he replies.
— from Countess Vera; or, The Oath of Vengeance by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

It has no beauty, no grace, no detail, nothing that charms or detains you; it is simply very old and very big, - so big and so old that this simple impression is enough, and it takes its place in your recollections as a perfect specimen of a superannuated stronghold.
— from A Little Tour in France by Henry James

I have had several men on leave bring me revolvers and automatic pistols, asking me to test them, as they could not hit anything with them at the Front.
— from The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It by Walter Winans

Other parts of the building were enveloped in the thickest darkness, illumined at intervals by flashes of lightning, which allowed him to distinguish a number of gibing and chattering skeletons, running about and pursuing each other, or playing at leap-frog over one another’s backs.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay