She accepted, but at the same time she assured me that her father had taken care to provide her with all necessaries.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Has any psychologist explored the mind of the sightless and been able to say, "There is no sensation here"?
— from The World I Live In by Helen Keller

Impressed by this view of the misery and disorder which pervaded society, and fatigued with jostling against artificial fools, Rousseau became enamoured of solitude, and, being at the same time an optimist, he labours with uncommon eloquence to prove that man was naturally a solitary animal.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

One rule should apply to all these aquatic excursions, and that is, that the gentleman who invites the ladies, should there be any, and who is, therefore, at the trouble of getting up the party, should always be allowed to steer the boat, unless he decline the post, for he has the advantage of more intimate acquaintance with the ladies, whom he will have to entertain on the trip, and the post of honor should be given him as a compliment to his kindness in undertaking the preliminaries.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

So they went out again and brought in a saddle and some arm bands, and the saddle was another turtle, which they fastened on the uktena’s back, and the bracelets were living slimy snakes, which they got ready to twist around the hunter’s wrists.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

says that she had a son a bishop, and this she says timidly, afraid that she may not be believed. . . .
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

For the first moments Startsev was struck now by what he saw for the first time in his life, and what he would probably never see again; a world not like anything else, a world in which the moonlight was as soft and beautiful, as though slumbering here in its cradle, where there was no life, none whatever; but in every dark poplar, in every tomb, there was felt the presence of a mystery that promised a life peaceful, beautiful, eternal.
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

What appears to me most to be dreaded is that, in the midst of the small incessant occupations of private life, ambition should lose its vigor and its greatness—that the passions of man should abate, but at the same time be lowered, so that the march of society should every day become more tranquil and less aspiring.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Eva stole away; but after that, she assiduously gave Mammy reading lessons.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Uncle always says one thing; but as I am alive, I saw a boat at the shore.
— from The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 2 (of 2) by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Narrowly escaping capture at sea, he managed to raise a force of 6,000 or 7,000 men, besieged Exeter and Taunton unsuccessfully, and then ran away without striking a blow, and took sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire.
— from Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 1 (of 3) by Richard Bagwell

Sped and blown abaft the sunset Like a shriek the storm has caught; But the helm is lashed to windward,
— from Ballads of Lost Haven: A Book of the Sea by Bliss Carman

The Highlanders stormed a building at the Secunderabagh by tearing the tiles off the roof, at Sir Colin’s own suggestion, and dropping into the building that way.
— from The Story of the British Army by Charles Cooper King

Night attacks are proverbially hazardous and hard to conduct, and it cannot be disputed that Victor showed an excessive temerity in endeavouring to deliver such a blow at the steady British troops, at an hour when it was impossible to guarantee proper co-operation among the attacking columns.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 2, Jan.-Sep. 1809 From the Battle of Corunna to the End of the Talavera Campaign by Charles Oman

Disgrace, and sorrow, and bereavement, and the stings of remorse, and the suffering of punishment—the forfeiture of a guilty past, and the gloom of a lonely future—these things unmanned him, bowed him down, poisoned his tranquillity of mind, unhinged every energy of his soul, seemed to dry up the very springs of life.
— from St. Winifred's; or, The World of School by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar

The gunny sacks are beyond, and the sauerkraut last.
— from The Pike's Peak Rush; Or, Terry in the New Gold Fields by Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin

I remember very well the account of a séance at [Pg 87] a gathering of prominent Americans in Paris in 1853, of which the following is an abstract:— Thick masses of cotton were bound firmly over his eyes in such a manner as to render it impossible for him to see in the ordinary way, and in this condition he described pictures, read signatures of letters folded in several envelopes, played games of cards with almost uniform success, and, being asked to select the best pianist in the room from a number present, who simply presented their hands for his inspection, he quickly selected a young man not yet eighteen years old, who had won four first prizes at the Conservatoire, and was really the best pianist of his age in Europe.
— from Telepathy and the Subliminal Self by R. Osgood (Rufus Osgood) Mason

This little verse should be sent with every invitation to the sociable, accompanied by a tiny sock made of silk or lawn.
— from Bright Ideas for Entertaining by Linscott, Herbert B., Mrs.