Yet still we seem justified, even at the earlier date, in speaking of these general ideas as Gnostic, guarding ourselves at the same time against misunderstanding with the twofold caution, that we here employ the term to express the simplest and most elementary conceptions of this tendency of thought, and that we do not postulate its use as a distinct designation of any sect or sects at this early date.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

I could not imagine how such a monstrous establishment could be tolerated, for it was almost impossible, under the circumstances, for the poor girls to get a husband.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This evasion therefore of general assent when men come to the use of reason, failing as it does, and leaving no difference between those supposed innate and other truths that are afterwards acquired and learnt, men have endeavoured to secure an universal assent to those they call maxims, by saying, they are generally assented to as soon as proposed, and the terms they are proposed in understood: seeing all men, even children, as soon as they hear and understand the terms, assent to these propositions, they think it is sufficient to prove them innate.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

He gazed for a moment or two without speaking at my enormous cock at full stand.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

Is she said to be amiable?" "I never heard any harm of her; indeed I hardly ever heard her mentioned; except that Mrs. Taylor did say this morning, that one day Miss Walker hinted to her, that she believed Mr. and Mrs. Ellison would not be sorry to have Miss Grey married, for she and Mrs. Ellison could never agree.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

His face was strong and merciless, evil, crafty, and vindictive, with a sensual mouth, hooked nose of ruddy colour, and shaped like the beak of a bird of prey.
— from Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker

He was more at ease than that first night at dinner, nearly a year before, and his shyness and modesty even commended him to Mrs. Morse, who was pleased at his manifest improvement.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

Let him who would sneer at my emotion close this volume here, for he will find little to his taste in my journeyings through Holy Land.”
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

But by changing your conduct, and treating your slaves as men, every cause of fear would be banished.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

It destroys mental power and memory, it blotches the complexion, dulls the eye, takes away the strength, and may even cause insanity.
— from What a Young Woman Ought to Know by Mary Wood-Allen

“The count smiled at my evident consciousness of the weakness of my concluding corollary, and observed that, by my own statement, the whole argument depended on the assertions of those who maintained that a navy could not exist without a press-gang.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 07 Patronage [part 1] by Maria Edgeworth

How such a man ever came to be so far from home in a half-civilized country was a mystery, but there he was, a bachelor and homeless man after twenty or thirty years on the pampas, with little or no money in his pocket, and no belongings except his horse—he never owned more than one at a time—and its cumbrous native saddle, and the saddle-bags in which he kept his wardrobe and whatever he possessed besides.
— from Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

Not only did they bear the stamp that the highest genius alone could affix, but nothing less than care, sympathy, and manly effort, could enable men to comprehend them.
— from Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 3 of 3 I. Agorè: Polities of the Homeric Age. II. Ilios: Trojans and Greeks Compared. III. Thalassa: The Outer Geography. IV. Aoidos: Some Points of the Poetry of Homer. by W. E. (William Ewart) Gladstone

[Pg xiii] than so-called Christian converts.—Missionary clergymen in China have not the confidence of the Chinese people, and draw their information as to Opium smoking from polluted sources.—Difference between Missionary clergymen in China and the clergymen of all denominations in England as regards knowledge of the people they live amongst.—Missionaries in China wholly responsible for the imposture prevailing in England as to Opium smoking in China.—Although the Chinese are a spirit-drinking people, they never drink to excess.—Drunkenness unknown amongst Chinese.—Chinese-American treaty a sham as regards Opium.—Sir J. H. Pease, M.P., duped by the “bogus” clause as to Opium.—His speech on the Opium question in 1881.—Chinese smoke Opium wherever they go.—As much Opium imported into China now as before the sham treaty.—Opium a luxury which only the well-to-do can freely indulge in.—Explanation of the means by which unfounded statements respecting Opium are propagated.—Apologue by way of example.—Proof of the state of things explained by the apologue furnished by the Rev. Storrs Turner and Dr. Ayres.—First fallacy, that the poppy is not indigenous to China, but has been recently introduced there, presumably by British agency, and the second fallacy, that Opium smoking in China is now and always has been confined to a small per-centage of the population, but which, owing to the importation into the country of Indian Opium, is rapidly increasing, refuted and the truth fully stated.—Testimony of Mr. W. Donald Spence and Mr. E. Colborne Baber, and Sir Rutherford Alcock.
— from The Truth about Opium Being a Refutation of the Fallacies of the Anti-Opium Society and a Defence of the Indo-China Opium Trade by William H. Brereton

he cried, "what's the matter?" "What is it?" called Jan from her berth, while women in the coach were screaming and men ere calling to one another.
— from The Curlytops at Uncle Frank's Ranch; Or, Little Folks on Ponyback by Howard Roger Garis

The heavy weight spree was usually the shortest and most exciting contest of the evening.
— from Princeton Stories by Jesse Lynch Williams

Dere wus one in Watson Field in de edge of Raleigh not long ago an' he made snakes an' made 'em crawl too.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration