The fair writer was on the sea-coast, and in that way the delay had arisen; she enclosed double of what I had asked, and good-naturedly hinted that if I should never repay her, it would not absolutely ruin her.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

" Nelson, who used to say, that in sea affairs nothing is impossible, and nothing improbable, feared the more that this Frenchman might get out and elude his vigilance; because he was so especially desirous of catching him, and administering to him his own lying letter in a sandwich.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey

This vessel supplied each drop of water ever drunk upon the isle by the Cholos.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

My aunt resigned herself to doing without Françoise to some extent during our visits, knowing how much my mother appreciated the services of so active and intelligent a maid, one who looked as smart at five o'clock in the morning in her kitchen, under a cap whose stiff and dazzling frills seemed to be made of porcelain, as when dressed for churchgoing; who did everything in the right way, who toiled like a horse, whether she was well or ill, but without noise, without the appearance of doing anything; the only one of my aunt's maids who when Mamma asked for hot water or black coffee would bring them actually boiling; she was one of those servants who in a household seem least satisfactory, at first, to a stranger, doubtless because they take no pains to make a conquest of him and shew him no special attention, knowing very well that they have no real need of him, that he will cease to be invited to the house sooner than they will be dismissed from it; who, on the other hand, cling with most fidelity to those masters and mistresses who have tested and proved their real capacity, and do not look for that superficial responsiveness, that slavish affability, which may impress a stranger favourably, but often conceals an utter barrenness of spirit in which no amount of training can produce the least trace of individuality.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less improved forms.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

I believe he thought there was some evil deed on hand.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

At the request of the "Board on behalf of the United States Executive Department" of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, the paper canoe "Maria Theresa," and the cedar duck-boat "Centennial Republic," were deposited in the Smithsonian Department of the United States Government building, during the summer and fall of 1876.
— from Voyage of the Paper Canoe A Geographical Journey of 2500 Miles, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, During the Years 1874-5 by Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop

She had mapped out a case that would startle even dear old New York.
— from Nothing But the Truth by Frederic Stewart Isham

The slaves each dipped one of these into the vessel, and so eat their breakfast.
— from By England's Aid; Or, the Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585-1604 by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

What new witnesses, what proofs have been brought forward to change his conviction and opinion, which had been so energetically declared, of the innocence of Jesus? “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person ; see ye to it.
— from An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice With an Account of the Trial of Jesus by Simon Greenleaf

"God knows I would shed every drop of my blood a thousand times to save you.
— from The Old Dominion by Mary Johnston

It is surely a mistake to say, as some do, that as logic deals with the correctness of reasoning, so Ethics deals only with the correctness of conduct, and is not directly concerned with the processes by which we come to act correctly.[10] On the contrary, merely correct action may be ethically worthless, and conduct obtains its moral value from the motives or intentions which actuate and determine it.
— from Christianity and Ethics: A Handbook of Christian Ethics by Archibald B. D. (Archibald Browning Drysdale) Alexander