Two hundred and fifty quintals of quicksilver and three millions of piastres were the reward of this enterprise; and it is characteristic of Nelson that the chance by which he missed a share in such a prize is never mentioned in any of his letters; nor is it likely that it ever excited even a momentary feeling of vexation.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey

A piece of good luck like that happens very suddenly, and perhaps I need only be a little venturesome.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

There coming much company after dinner to my Lord, my wife and I slunk away to the Opera, where we saw “Witt in a Constable,” the first time that it is acted; but so silly a play I never saw I think in my life.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Such a proof is necessary, moreover, because without it the principle might be liable to the imputation of being a mere gratuitous assertion.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

My pupils are as stupid as posts; I nearly died of exasperation.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Thus I learned to covet, dissemble, lie, and, at length, to steal, a propensity I never felt the least idea of before, though since that time I have never been able entirely to divest myself of it.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

So she stood up, unpinned the brown straw and put it neatly in the rack beside the dress-basket, stripped off her brown kid gloves, paired them in a tight roll and put them in the crown of the hat for safety, and then sat down again, more comfortably this time, her feet crossed, the papers on her lap.
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

But such a predisposition is no 'unconscious idea;' it is only a particular collocation of the molecules in certain tracts of the brain.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

"Sure, just the same as Pennsylvania is named after the Pennsylvania Railroad," Roy said.
— from Pee-Wee Harris Adrift by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

The violation of the sanctity of the grave is said to be needful, for the instruction of the medical pupil, but let each one about to inter a mother, husband, child, or friend, say shall I devote this object of my affection to such a purpose; if not, the only safe coffin is Bridgman’s PATENT WROUGHT-IRON ONE , charged the same price as a wooden one, and is a superior substitute for lead.
— from The Diary of a Resurrectionist, 1811-1812 To Which Are Added an Account of the Resurrection Men in London and a Short History of the Passing of the Anatomy Act by James Blake Bailey

Such a person is not greatly to be pitied, and if he had fortunately possessed a small competency we might now look upon him as a prosperous man: but his only property consisted of a good working library and five hundred dollars which a friend had given him.
— from Sketches from Concord and Appledore Concord thirty years ago; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Louisa M. Alcott; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Matthew Arnold; David A. Wasson; Wendell Phillips; Appledore and its visitors; John Greenleaf Whittier by Frank Preston Stearns

Owing to the sweeping drives of the SS and police in November 1942, about 115,000 hectares of farmland . . .
— from Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 3 by Various

Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering in Northern South Australia. 8vo, 12 s. D’Anvers.
— from The Earl of Beaconsfield by James Anthony Froude

If we are led up to none of the enkindled summits of the soul, and plunged into none of its abysses, that is no reason why we should fail to be struck by the pale flame of strenuous self-possession, or touched by the ingenuousness and simplicity of the speaker's accents.
— from Critical Miscellanies, (Vol. 3 of 3), Essay 2: The Death of Mr Mill; Essay 3: Mr Mill's Autobiography by John Morley

The pity of the suffering and poor is not like the scorn of the rich and worldly.
— from The Bravo: A Tale by James Fenimore Cooper

[55] sometimes thinks himself very clever, and, recognising a little bit of the story as having happened to the author, jumps to the conclusion that such and such a passage is necessarily autobiographical.
— from Goldsmith English Men of Letters Series by William Black

In that half-hour the thermometer must have fallen at least fifty Fahrenheit degrees; and such a phenomenon is not rare upon the plains of Texas.
— from The War Trail: The Hunt of the Wild Horse by Mayne Reid