But a defect that is ridiculous, as soon as it feels itself to be so, endeavours to modify itself, or at least to appear as though it did. Were Harpagon to see us laugh at his miserliness, I do not say that he would get rid of it, but he would either show it less or show it differently.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

the wind has been against us all day.—I saw the choke cherry the yellow and red courant bushes; the wild rose appears now to be in full bloom as are also the prickley pear which are numerous in these plains.—We also saw some Indian Lodges of sticks today which did not appear to have been long evacuated.—some coal appear in the bluffs.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

“Four dogs,” said I. “Large or small?” “Immense,” said I.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

(See Gaudin.) H2 anchor X XIMEUSE, fief situated in Lorraine; original spelling of the name Simeuse, which came to to be written with an S on account of its pronunciation.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

Just at the point where consistency would demand this confession, there is a vague murmur in the manifest dream, something is lost or suppressed.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

The scene is laid on SEREBRAKOFF'S country place H2 anchor UNCLE VANYA H2 anchor ACT
— from Uncle Vanya: Scenes from Country Life in Four Acts by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Somewhere in the night of time he had built a bridge—a bridge that spanned illimitable levels of shining seas; but the Deluge had swept it away, leaving this one island under heaven for Findlayson and his companion, sole survivors of the breed of Man.
— from The Day's Work - Volume 1 by Rudyard Kipling

[ Her tresses fall suddenly over her head, as she is leaning out so, and stream over PÉLLÉAS] PÉLLÉAS.
— from Pélléas and Mélisande; Alladine and Palomides; Home by Maurice Maeterlinck

The study of the garden wall now became sensationally interesting; likewise of sundry old trees within the enclosure.
— from Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the Marches by Emily Sarah Holt

Heathenism, which was nourished by and in turn bred irrational ideas, deceit, and immorality, was obliged to surrender its life of shams, and make room for another form of religion.
— from History of the Jews, Vol. 2 (of 6) by Heinrich Graetz

So I looked on staring as if I wondered at this, but the thing gave me occasion to play my part the better.
— from The Adventurous Simplicissimus being the description of the Life of a Strange vagabond named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim by Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen