Again, taking into consideration that no one in our day, not only you, but actually no one, from the highest [pg 141] person to the lowest peasant, can shove mountains into the sea—except perhaps some one man in the world, or, at most, two, and they most likely are saving their souls in secret somewhere in the Egyptian desert, so you wouldn't find them—if so it be, if all the rest have no faith, will God curse all the rest?
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And it's manifest that all the Light between these two Rays TI and VS is bent in passing by the Hair, and turned aside from the Shadow IS, because if any part of this Light were not bent it would fall on the Paper within the Shadow, and there illuminate the Paper, contrary to experience.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

I wished I could have recalled it, as well for the honour of my oracle, which was seriously implicated by it, as for the sake of Steffani himself, whom I did not hate half so much since I was indebted to him for the treasure in my possession.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I love her now as intensely as I did the day we were married, while she, I believe, is as indifferent as ever, and I believe she is glad when I go away from home.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

They gained on the boys, but it didn’t do no good, the boys had too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Shall it be in a straight line, in a circle, or from above downwards, to the right or to the left?
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

They all knew very well that the enchanting countess’ illness arose from an inconvenience resulting from marrying two husbands at the same time, and that the Italian’s cure consisted in removing such inconvenience; but in Anna Pávlovna’s presence no one dared to think of this or even appear to know it.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

When these bowings and prostrations are over, a small apparatus for smoking is brought in and placed before the guest, after which tea and sweetmeats are served.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

Gentlemen, ‘Y OUR refusing to deliver up the Subjects of the King my Master, is somewhat surprizing, it being in a Time of Peace, and the detaining them consequently against the Law of Nations.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

She would "shoo" it away, only to see it back in a few seconds.
— from Under the Maples by John Burroughs

Well derie, when we first swore our way into the army, I thought Skinny was a coward; I figgered if he ever got in a regular scrap with Bill the Twicers hired patriots his knees would knock together like a pair of castnets played by a Spanish bull fiter; but I take it all back, Skinny in battel is a whole team and a cross dog under the waggin.
— from Love Letters of a Rookie to Julie by Barney Stone

An able English writer on the subject of Colonization thus notices this astounding fact:— "And here it may be well to observe, that as long as negro slavery lasts, all colonies on the African coast, of whatever description, must tend to support it, because, in all commerce, the supply is more or less proportioned to the demand.
— from The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume VII, Complete The Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life, and Criticism by John Greenleaf Whittier

I at one time thought they were due to an action continued during the whole time of the current, and expected that a steel magnet would have an influence according to its position in the helix, comparable to that of a soft iron bar, in assisting the effect.
— from Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 by Michael Faraday

"I'm ashamed to say it, but I always like the wicked fairies, too.
— from The Lilac Girl by Ralph Henry Barbour

These pictures were on single leaves of paper; the outlines were printed from engraved wood-blocks, but occasionally, it is believed, from metal plates cut in relief; they were taken off in a pale, brownish ink by rubbing on the back of the paper with a burnisher, and sometimes in black ink and with a press; they were then colored, either by hand or by means of a stencil plate, in order to make them more attractive to the people.
— from A History of Wood-Engraving by George Edward Woodberry

Several efforts have been made to secure it, but in all cases the would-be captor has lost his own head.
— from Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by Trumbull White

That there was a vast deal more in the pre-war diplomacy than appears in the printed dispatches, or in any dispatches, I am as convinced as Mr. Shaw is, but I am equally convinced that so far as we are concerned there was nothing in diplomacy, however secret, to contradict our public attitude.
— from New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915, With Index by Various

Where shall I be in a month, Christie?"
— from Christie's Old Organ Or, "Home, Sweet Home" by Walton, O. F., Mrs.