A month ago Jurgis had all but perished of starvation upon the streets; and now suddenly, as by the gift of a magic key, he had entered into a world where money and all the good things of life came freely.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

If such a dismal fiction is really regarded by serious inquirers as having any counterpart in savage society, and not simply as a useful abstraction, Dr. Malinowski’s account of the Kula in this book should [ xi ] help to lay the phantom by the heels; for he proves that the trade in useful objects, which forms part of the Kula system, is in the minds of the natives entirely subordinate in importance to the exchange of other objects, which serve no utilitarian purpose whatever.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

when since a no since when since, a no since, a no since when since, a no since, a no, a no since a no since, a no since, a no since.
— from Tender Buttons Objects—Food—Rooms by Gertrude Stein

"So soon," thought and said the Pope, "as the staff in his hand should bud and blossom, so soon might the soul of Tannhaeuser be saved, and no sooner; and it came to pass not long after that the dry wood of a staff which the Pope had carried in his hand was covered with leaves and flowers."
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

Might one say, "a nothing something", an "is, is not," I would say, this were it: and yet in some way was it even then, as being capable of receiving these visible and compound figures.
— from The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Of all those expensive and uncertain projects, however, which bring bankruptcy upon the greater part of the people who engage in them, there is none, perhaps, more perfectly ruinous than the search after new silver and gold mines.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I paid my fare and took my seat and never said a word, except to my friend here.
— from Liliom: A Legend in Seven Scenes and a Prologue by Ferenc Molnár

She shudders, and not strange, as she thinks:— “He murdered him .
— from The Death Shot: A Story Retold by Mayne Reid

President Downey stated that he had recently seen a great many of the brick manufacturers and the officers of the stone pool in regard to selling materials in case of a lockout, and they had assured him that they would stand by the contractors in case of a general strike, and not sell a dollars' worth of building material while the strike lasted.
— from 30,000 Locked Out: The Great Strike of the Building Trades in Chicago by James C. Beeks

There is no doubt that the incident happened; it is a simple and natural story, and carries the marks of credibility upon its face; but if it happened after the death of Joshua it did not happen before his death; one of these narrators borrowed the story from the other, or else both borrowed it from a common source; and one of them, certainly, put it in the wrong place,--one of them must have been mistaken as to the time when it occurred.
— from Who Wrote the Bible? : a Book for the People by Washington Gladden

An unknown upper housemaid was already suspect, and now she added mentally “some shop-girl friend.”
— from Cynthia's Chauffeur by Louis Tracy

He probably wants me to know that he is a graduate of some sort, but he fails to make it clear to me whether his degree was conferred by a high school, a normal school, a college, or a university.
— from Reveries of a Schoolmaster by Francis B. (Francis Bail) Pearson

" The early spring of 1832 brought to Springfield and New Salem a most joyful announcement.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete by Abraham Lincoln

Besides the dozen boys and girls of olive tint and several women of the Durán family, servants and negroes swarmed, and piccaninnies peered from every opening and corner.
— from Vagabonding down the Andes Being the Narrative of a Journey, Chiefly Afoot, from Panama to Buenos Aires by Harry Alverson Franck