Terrified lest they should be called upon to part, not only with the sun and moon, but also with Freya, the personification of the youth and beauty of the world, the gods turned upon Loki, and threatened to kill him unless he devised some means of hindering the architect from finishing the work within the specified time.
— from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber

See, here, Sir, are my bellowes, And my falſe belly, and my Mouſe , and all
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson

In the United States a man builds a house to spend his latter years in it, and he sells it before the roof is on: he plants a garden, and lets it just as the trees are coming into bearing: he brings a field into tillage, and leaves other men to gather the crops: he embraces a profession, and gives it up: he settles in a place, which he soon afterwards leaves, to carry his changeable longings elsewhere.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Seven o’clock had just struck, and M. Bertuccio, according to the command which had been given him, had two hours before left for Auteuil, when a cab stopped at the door, and after depositing its occupant at the gate, immediately hurried away, as if ashamed of its employment.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

The objects are too fine to remain long in the same aspect or situation; and must be apprehended in an instant, by a superior penetration, derived from nature, and improved by habit and reflexion.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

As soon as we were seated in front of the fire I began to tell her the story, to which she listened with all the attention a young girl can give to such a matter; but as I had thought it well to pass over some of the details, she could not properly understand what crime it was that Tiretta had committed.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Agreeably surprised to hear himself accosted in such a manner, by a person whose equipage seemed to promise far other designs, he thanked her in the most grateful terms for her humanity, with the appellation of kind countrywoman; gave her to understand that he was colonel of a regiment of horse; that he had fallen in consequence of a shot he received in his breast at the beginning of the action; and, finally, entreated her to procure some carriage on which he might be removed to his tent.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Through many perturbations and squalls, and much backing and filling, the ship, upon the whole, makes unmistakably for her destination.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

I turned and looked at her,—a look that must have frightened her, for I heard her say: “ Ah, mon bien aimé , will you desert me now?”
— from The Wasted Generation by Owen Johnson

'Proof!' said the Colonel, 'the thing is as clear as daylight: here are Mr. Sampson and Miss Bertram, and you yourself at once recognise the young gentleman as his father's image; and he himself recollects all the very peculiar circumstances preceding his leaving this country.
— from Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete by Walter Scott

She has plenty of good sense and may be able to talk Ida into a reasonable frame of mind."
— from The Spider by Fergus Hume

With these considerations before us, we shall submit such plans of barn structures as may be adapted for general use, where shelters for the farm crops, and farm stock, are required; and which may, in their interior arrangement, be fitted for almost any locality of our country, as the judgment and the wants of the builder may require.
— from Rural Architecture Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings by Lewis Falley Allen

My Faust was old Michael Scott; a much better and more likely original than Faust.
— from Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Whatever is true will bear to be related, whatever is rational will endure to be explained; but when we delight to brood in secret over future happiness, and silently to employ our meditations upon schemes of which we are conscious that the bare mention would expose us to derision and contempt; we should then remember, that we are cheating ourselves by voluntary delusions; and giving up to the unreal mockeries of fancy, those hours in which solid advantages might be attained by sober thought and rational assiduity.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 04 The Adventurer; The Idler by Samuel Johnson

I must say that I believe that every word he says about marriage being a desirable institution, and every word he says with reference to the enjoyments and happiness it engenders, is said as honestly and truly as anything probably ever uttered by any man.
— from Autobiographical Sketches by Annie Besant

Mr. Joseph bustled about most energetically, throwing down the tongs, and shovel, and bellows, while he pulled the fire to pieces, raked out ashes and brands, and then, in a twinkling, was at the woodpile, from whence he selected a massive backlog and forestick, with accompaniments, which were soon roaring and crackling in the chimney.
— from The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings by Harriet Beecher Stowe

All Greece, to be sure, was favored by the natural beauty of its atmosphere, seas, and mountains, but Attica was perhaps the most favored portion of all, Around her coasts, rocky often and broken by pebbly beaches and little craggy peninsulas, surged the deep blue Ćgean, the most glorious expanse of ocean in the world.
— from A Day in Old Athens; a Picture of Athenian Life by William Stearns Davis