The latter scandal—as became a person of sense, and, more especially, a member of the Pyncheon family—Phoebe had set down for the absurdity which it unquestionably was.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A Neapolitan gentleman, whose name was the same as mine, expressed a wish to know me, and, hearing that I resided at the doctor’s, he called to congratulate him on the occasion of his feast-day, which happened to fall on the day following the ceremony at Sainte-Claire.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

By one theoretical school an attempt was made to systematise another material element also, by making the subsistence of troops, according to a previously established organism of the Army, the supreme legislator in the higher conduct of War.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

I said, We fellows of fortune, Mr. Williams, take sometimes a little more liberty with the world than we ought to do; wantoning, very probably, as you contemplative folks would say, in the sunbeams of a dangerous affluence; and cannot think of confining ourselves to the common paths, though the safest and most eligible, after all.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

How did day and night, sun and moon, earth and water, and fire come?
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Some are more enveloping and extensive, some less so; they are superposed upon each other; and between them all they let no individual elementary part of the universe escape.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James

They will begin by sending out into the country all the 541 inhabitants of the city who are more than ten years old, and will take possession of their children, who will be unaffected by the habits of their parents; these they will train in their own habits and laws, I mean in the laws which we have given them: and in this way the State and constitution of which we were speaking will soonest and most easily attain happiness, and the nation which has such a constitution will gain most.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

The Sun was styled by the Amonians, among other titles, Zan; as I have before shewn: and he was worshipped under this denomination all over Syria and Mesopotamia; especially at Emesa, Edessa, and Heliopolis.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Jacob Bryant

"This is surely a most extraordinary adventure," said the Woggle-Bug, who was greatly amazed; "for it upsets all the Natural Laws that I heard Professor Nowitall teach in the school-house."
— from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

So I sit at my ease, as befits a mahout,—not a mere hunter,—a mahout, I say, and a man who gets a pension at the end of his service.
— from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Green crops and roots fail, the aftermath in the meadows beneath will not grow, week after week ‘keep’ becomes scarcer and more expensive, and there is, in fact, a famine.
— from Wild Life in a Southern County by Richard Jefferies

sacrifici ai morti ed agli spiriti loro; e ne risulta un animismo fiorente accanto alla fede, mezzo dimenticata, in un Essere più grande.
— from Tuscan folk-lore and sketches, together with some other papers by Isabella Mary Anderton

10° 15′ E., wind dead north, upon the 20th of September, a most extraordinary animal had been seen.
— from Mythical Monsters by Charles Gould

Some of these are very simple words, especially the names of early weapons; some are more elaborate and more interesting in their derivation.
— from Stories That Words Tell Us by Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman) O'Neill

"She and Mrs. Edson are great favorites of mine, and I doubt not your pretty daughter would become one also, if I should get acquainted with her.
— from Eventide A Series of Tales and Poems by Effie Afton

At that moment a stir, a murmur, especially among the ladies in the gallery, and a turning of faces in the direction of the bar, took place as Reilly came forward, and stood erect in front of the judge.
— from Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

That is to say, a man entering at the age of forty, pays the rate at forty only, as long as he remains a member.
— from The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 by Various

Concepts, such as 'mass,' 'energy,' and the like, are no longer held to express realities the denial of which would be treason to science; they are simply descriptive notions whose truth consists in their utility: that is to say, in their ability to comprehend all the relevant facts in a simple description.
— from Recent Tendencies in Ethics Three Lectures to Clergy Given at Cambridge by W. R. (William Ritchie) Sorley