In 1885, Prjevalsky had found the Lob-nor an immense lake; four years later Prince Henri d'Orleans saw it greatly reduced in size, and Dr. Sven Hedin discovered but pools of water.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

Corpora lente augescunt, cito extinguuntur —All bodies are slow in growth, rapid in decay.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa / Fortuna —Common sense is generally rare in that position of life, i.e. , in high rank.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

Prices were like the roads of the period, steep in gradient, reflecting in their phases the local conditions, without engineering, levellings, or averages.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

So in grand red illumination from the blaze they took their cups of coffee, which Dane filled from the pot on the hearth; and handled their plates of porridge and cream; and but for the night's work in prospect, would have regarded it as a piece of grand fun.
— from The Gold of Chickaree by Susan Warner

It may, however, be owing to a consciousness of her importance in the sphere in which she has always moved; for she is greatly respected in the neighbouring village, and among the farmers’ wives, and has high authority in the household, ruling over the servants with quiet, but undisputed sway.
— from Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists by Washington Irving

'Shall I go right in and begin now?
— from The Depot Master by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

It is composed of the letter S in gold repeated indefinitely, either fixed on velvet or some material, or forming {117} the links of a chain.
— from Jewellery by H. Clifford (Harold Clifford) Smith

After this yet the herbe grewe still in greater reputation, inasmuch as that many hasted out of all corners to get some of this herbe.
— from Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce by E. R. Billings

She is generally represented in a sitting posture, holding in her hand the ankh , the key of life, an emblem of immortality.
— from Cleopatra's Needle A History of the London Obelisk, with an Exposition of the Hieroglyphics by King, James, Vicar of St. Mary's, Berwick-upon-Tweed

We are, he thinks, “not only angry with the individual thief who has robbed us, and with the individual sycophant who deceives our confiding nature, but we hate thieves and sycophants in general” ( Rhet. ii. 4).
— from The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong by Franz Brentano

Nickie seized it greedily, raised it to his lips, and then changed his mind, and hurled it at Thunder with a furious imprecation.
— from The Missing Link by Edward Dyson