To waive, therefore, a circumstance which, though mentioned in conformity to the exact rules of biography, is not greatly material, I proceed to things of more consequence.
— from Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1 by Henry Fielding

This new Tontine structure is said to have been the first real office building in New York City.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

The evil we have to fear from a fool who succeeds by right of birth, is neither so great nor so sure.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

The registry office being in no way warned, raised no objections, and the substitution was effected in the most simple manner in the world.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Consequently the ultimate appeal is to the taste of the public, for art, if it be not the desire to give pleasure by the representation of beauty, is nothing.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

To scratch dirt over scandal for money, And exhume it to the winds for revenge, Or to sell papers, Crushing reputations, or bodies, if need be, To win at any cost, save your own life.
— from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

This entire discrepancy between one social fact and all those which accompany it, and the radical opposition between its nature and the progressive movement which is the boast of the modern world, and which has successively swept away everything else of an analogous character, surely affords, to a conscientious observer of human tendencies, serious matter for reflection.
— from The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill

The existence, however, of the ruins of Babylon is now perfectly established.
— from Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2) With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition by Charles Bucke

Mrs. Lincoln created an excitement in the autumn of 1867 by offering for sale, in a small up-stairs room on Broadway, in New York, what purported to be her wardrobe while she was at the White House.
— from Perley's Reminiscences, v. 1-2 of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis by Benjamin Perley Poore

That it should have taken years to gain such strength, and to reduce so largely the risk of breakage, is not in itself surprising.
— from Learning to Fly: A Practical Manual for Beginners by Claude Grahame-White

The one is ennui —that stagnation of life and feeling which results from the absence of all motives to exertion; and by which the justice of Providence has so fully compensated the partiality of fortune, that it may be fairly doubted whether, upon the whole, the race of beggars is not happier than the race of lords; and whether those vulgar wants that are sometimes so importunate, are not, in this world, the chief ministers of enjoyment.
— from The Young Lady's Mentor A Guide to the Formation of Character. In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends by Anonymous

The short flight of steel steps, which did duty as an officer’s gangway, was hastily lowered from the starboard side of the submarine, and the party received on board in Navy style.
— from The Dreadnought Boys on a Submarine by John Henry Goldfrap

I must now explain that Samakoff, which is nestled in the heart of a picturesque valley formed by the rough triangle of the Kilo Dagh, the Kadir Tèré, and the De mir Kapou Dagh at the head of the Balabancha range of Balkans, is not only one of the wealthiest towns in the principality,—thanks to the iron mines by which it is surrounded,—but is also famous and dear to Bulgarians by reason of the presence there of the American Mission School, whose principals rendered such devoted and signal service to the oppressed Christians throughout the terrible time of the massacres of 1876 and the war of 1877.
— from The Great War of 189-: A Forecast by Frank Scudamore

Moreover, the relation of beauty in nature and beauty in art forms a part of the science of aesthetics, and finds again its proper place.
— from Aesthetical Essays of Friedrich Schiller by Friedrich Schiller