The hearth is always so clean and neat that it is evident that a fire is only kindled there on great occasions; the stone chimney-piece is adorned by a couple of vases filled with faded artificial flowers imprisoned under glass shades, on either side of a bluish marble clock in the very worst taste.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

Then his road lay through a forest, and in the midst of it was a splendid castle, and near the castle stood a tree, but quite on the top of the tree, he saw a singing, soaring lark.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent What choice to choose for delicacy best, What order, so contrived as not to mix Tastes, not well joined, inelegant, but bring Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change; Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields In India East or West, or middle shore In Pontus or the Punick coast, or where Alcinous reigned, fruit of all kinds, in coat Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell, She gathers, tribute large, and on the board Heaps with unsparing hand; for drink the grape She crushes, inoffensive must, and meaths From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressed She tempers dulcet creams; nor these to hold Wants her fit vessels pure; then strows the ground With rose and odours from the shrub unfumed.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

Though government be an invention very advantageous, and even in some circumstances absolutely necessary to mankind; it is not necessary in all circumstances, nor is it impossible for men to preserve society for some time, without having recourse to such an invention.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Because the arts are plainly birthright matters, For fables we to ancient Greece are debtors; But still this field could not be reap'd so clean As not to let us, later comers, glean.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

If the twins could but do some crowning act, now, to climax it, something unusual, something startling, something to concentrate upon themselves the company’s loftiest admiration, something in the nature of an electric surprise— Here a prodigious slam-banging broke out below, and everybody rushed down to see.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

The believers in special creations are not the only reasoners who have made free use of hypothetical possibilities.
— from The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer by John Gerard

She can add nothing to the evidence of the truth, however often she may exemplify it.
— from The Philosophy of Natural Theology An Essay in confutation of the scepticism of the present day by William Jackson

“In the young, however, its influence is much more seriously felt; and even those who have indulged so cautiously as not to break down the health or the mind, cannot know how much their physical energy, mental vigor, or moral purity, have been affected by the indulgence.
— from A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses. by L. (Léopold) Deslandes

Good cleaning is a most essential point in the management of a horse; and the horse ought to be so clean as not to soil your hand, or your pocket-handkerchief, if drawn over his back.
— from The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally by Mrs. (Jane) Loudon

The board of examiners at the New York customs district may at any time, with the approval of the Civil Service Commission, order an examination for promotion, and at least five days before the examination is to take place shall cause a notice to be posted conspicuously in the office for which such examination is to be held, and shall state in said notice the class or classes to test fitness for promotion to which the examination is to be held and the time and place of examination.
— from A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 8, part 3: Grover Cleveland, First Term by Grover Cleveland

Suddenly came a notification to these unsuspecting farmers that not they, but Astor, owned the land.
— from History of the Great American Fortunes, Vol. I Conditions in Settlement and Colonial Times by Gustavus Myers

Alas, those who would find a resting-place for the spirit in the relations of man to man seem not to reckon that the very essence—if such a term may be used of so contingent a nature—that the very essence of this world's life is motion and change and contention, and that Peace spreads her wings in another and purer atmosphere.
— from Shelburne Essays, Third Series by Paul Elmer More

And so, full of his project, as a preliminary, he got up and sauntered past that part of the inn where he knew was the count’s sleeping chamber, and noticed that it had one window opening upon one of the little wooden galleries which was approached from the outside by a winding stair.
— from Troubadour Tales by Evaleen Stein