At midnight it began to rain, and I never saw anything like it—indeed, I did not even see this, for it was too dark.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

The most obvious advantage of these slow and laborious inquiries is this: the scholar, while engaged in speculative studies, is actively using his body, gaining suppleness of limb, and training his hands to labour so that he will be able to make them useful when he is a man.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

My best thanks are due to Dr. Butcher, Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh, who from first to last has shown a lively interest in the present undertaking which I can never sufficiently acknowledge.
— from On the Sublime by active 1st century Longinus

“‘My sweet mamma, do not fear; have you ever seen anything like indiscretion in the last six weeks, although I was madly longing for you?
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, though I know a good bit about women, too.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

"Something a little inferior I shall of course put up with, but it must not be much.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen

In all such cases—and many could be given—if the age for reproduction were retarded, the character of the species, at least in its adult state, would be modified; nor is it improbable that the previous and earlier stages of development would in some cases be hurried through and finally lost.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

On such a line it is, of course, possible that two or more trains may require to follow each other without any travelling intermediately in the opposite direction.
— from How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use by Archibald Williams

Being engaged in such a labor, it is certain that no merely human teacher ever used words with the careful balancing, the skilful selection, the certain exactitude, that Jesus did.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation Including Some Strictures Upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert Spencer by Jesse Henry Jones

Whenever I sink to repose, You rouse me, you wretch, with a sneeze; And lastly, if I doze-a-doze, To wex me, you just wheeze-a-wheeze .” Then we have an Irish scene!
— from The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs, Vol. 1. (of 2) by Blanchard Jerrold

In a country where labor is scarce and highly paid, and where the rewards of patient industry in any calling are sure and large, it is not to be supposed that such a society as Aurora would have held together nineteen years if its members were not in every way satisfied with their plan of life, and with the results they have attained under it.
— from The Communistic Societies of the United States From Personal Visit and Observation by Charles Nordhoff

At that moment he stood facing the prisoners with the two others at his sides, all looking inquiringly into the faces of those who were taking their defeat so easily.
— from The Flying Machine Boys in the Wilds; Or, The Mystery of the Andes by Frank Walton

It hath béene said, that Polydor. earle Goodwine minded to marie his daughter to one of these brethren, and perceiuing that the elder brother Alfred would disdaine to haue hir, thought good to dispatch him, that the other taking hir to wife, hée might be next heire to the crowne, and so at length inioy it, as afterwards came to passe.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

The part played by things sexual in my life is still, I suppose, abnormally large; it is undoubtedly the largest single interest, though my outer life is determined almost wholly by other considerations.
— from Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy by Havelock Ellis

Fifthly, It makes the Coming of Christ, and his Propitiatory Sacrifice , which the Scripture affirms to have been the Fruit of God’s Love to the World, and transacted for the Sins and Salvation of all Men, to have been rather a Testimony of God’s Wrath to the World, and one of the greatest Judgments, and severest Acts of God’s Indignation towards Mankind , it being [Pg 93] only ordained to save a very few, and for the hardening, and augmenting the Condemnation of the far greater Number of Men, because they believe not truly in it; the Cause of which Unbelief again, as the Divines [so called] above assert, is the hidden Counsel of God: Certainly the Coming of Christ was never to them a Testimony of God’s Love, but rather of his implacable Wrath: And if the World may be taken for the far greater Number of such as live in it, God never loved the World, according to this Doctrine, but rather hated it greatly, in sending his Son to be crucified in it. §.
— from An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Being an explanation and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the people called Quakers by Robert Barclay

The past struggle has been good—the future will be good if we can but treat it rightly.' Just as the last gleams were fading on the tops of the Ormersfield coppices, she heard the hall-door, and James's footstep; and it was more than the ordinary music of his 'coming up the stair;' there was a spring and life in it that thrilled into her heart, and glanced in her eye, as she sat up in her chair, to welcome him with no forced smile.
— from Dynevor Terrace; Or, The Clue of Life — Volume 2 by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

end poem end container 138.png 110 It is a good instance of an always interesting literary anomaly that such a line, in its raucous sibilation, should have been produced by an accomplished musician, whereas unfailing melody belongs to Froude, who, loving naturally what he once called ‘the bright and silent pleasures of poetry,’ had small sense of music as an independent art.
— from Hurrell Froude: Memoranda and Comments by Louise Imogen Guiney