It is Criticism that, recognising no position as final, and refusing to bind itself by the shallow shibboleths of any sect or school, creates that serene philosophic temper which loves truth for its own sake, and loves it not the less because it knows it to be unattainable.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

During the next three years so many immigrants came from Sogn and located in Norway Grove that the settlement came to be called “Sogn.”
— from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 by George T. (George Tobias) Flom

“It is life,” he said, “and life is not always beautiful.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

Stay a little, Is not this peece too streight?
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Yet, at this distant day, let me do him the simple justice to acknowledge that I can recall no occasion when the suggestions of my rival were on the side of those errors or follies so usual to his immature age and seeming inexperience; that his moral sense, at least, if not his general talents and worldly wisdom, was far keener than my own; and that I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

A rose "stalked and leaved" is not so limited, and will usually be found with a slightly longer stalk and several leaves; but these technical refinements of blazon, which are really unnecessary, are not greatly observed or taken into account.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

Society at large is naturally stronger and more active, individuals more subordinate and weak; the former does more, the latter less; and this is inevitably the case.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

The sensualist at least is not worldly, and though his nature be atrophied in all its higher part, there is not lacking, as we have seen, a certain internal and abstract spirituality in his experience.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

It was finished, it was complete, its materials were strong and lasting, it needed no furbishing up, no repairs; it merely needed to be let alone.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

The fibres of her growth had so twined around him, that if the idea of his regeneration departed from her, the hope of her own would sicken, at least, if not die.
— from Guild Court: A London Story by George MacDonald

"I have seldom seen anything like it, nurse!"
— from The Day of Judgment by Joseph Hocking

Such a line is now drawing between the slave and free states, I fear.
— from The Kentuckian in New-York; or, The Adventures of Three Southerns. Volume 1 (of 2) by William Alexander Caruthers

I should have liked to know why he asked me, if there was no doubt of it; but I suppose a lord is not necessarily a logician.
— from An American Girl in London by Sara Jeannette Duncan

Mrs. Maldon had never seen anything like it, never!
— from The Price of Love by Arnold Bennett

For this reason it is evident that every man living, and woman too, capable of reading a book, is a bookseller; so that society at large is nothing but one great bookselling firm.
— from The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

"My dear Tom," he said at last, "I never gave you credit for being a Solomon, but some day your wit may put your father to shame.
— from The Voice of the People by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow

The scenes are laid in New York, and deal with conditions among both the rich and poor.
— from Bobbie, General Manager: A Novel by Olive Higgins Prouty

A quotation will serve to give an idea of the materials which were in use for dress goods and the embellishments of women's gowns; "Some are of silk, some of velvet, some of grograin, some of taffeta, some of scarlet, and some of fine cloth of ten, twenty, or forty shillings the yard; but, if the whole garment be not of silk or velvet, then the same must be laid with lace two or three fingers broad all over the gown, or else the most part; or, if it be not so, as lace is not fine enough, now
— from Women of England by Bartlett Burleigh James