As to maneuvers for breaking through a line and calculations upon the co-operation of columns proceeding from the general front of the army, with the intention of effecting large detours around an enemy's flank, it may be stated that their result is always doubtful, since it depends upon such an accurate execution of carefully-arranged plans as is rarely seen.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

Nevertheless, from her dull eyes there escaped a look, an ineffable look, a profound, lugubrious, imperturbable look, incessantly fixed upon a corner of the cell which could not be seen from without; a gaze which seemed to fix all the sombre thoughts of that soul in distress upon some mysterious object.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

At length, worn out with anxiety, she determined to call loudly for assistance from her casement, and was advancing to it, when, whether the terror of her mind gave her ideal sounds, or that real ones did come, she thought footsteps were ascending the private stair-case; and, expecting to see its door unclose, she forgot all other cause of alarm, and retreated towards the corridor.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The salvation of the world from its unnecessary sufferings is dependent upon such an equitable sharing of the labor involved in the making and operating of the machines of production and distribution, and upon such an equitable sharing of the products as shall issue in a classless mankind by doing away, through a revolution, with the class which lives by owning the means and machines of production and distribution.
— from Communism and Christianism Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View by William Montgomery Brown

It is pathetic to see young men in college struggling in desperate, uncomplaining sacrifice to obtain an education, and all the while mistaking the end of their effort.
— from The Gate of Appreciation: Studies in the Relation of Art to Life by Carleton Eldredge Noyes

"A stroke is drawn under such words.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

Such a correction is effected by turning the plate on its face on a hard substance, hammering on the back until the surface is driven up smooth and then entering the design anew.
— from What Philately Teaches A Lecture Delivered before the Section on Philately of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, February 24, 1899 by John N. (John Nicholas) Luff

she said; "I dote upon seeing you in a temper."
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

In the contests in which superiority is dependent upon skill and agility no restrictions need be placed upon the efforts of the contestants; but in those that are a test of strength and endurance it is well to call a contest a "draw," when the men are equally matched and the contest is likely to be drawn out to the point of exhaustion of one or both contestants.
— from Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss

So I did understand something, you see.
— from Miss Pat at School by Pemberton Ginther