She is nothing but a delusion.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

For what we use to name a shadow, sure Is naught but air deprived of light.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

There were huge fissures on the hillside, and displacements of the red soil, resembling more the chaos of some primary elementary upheaval than the work of man; while, halfway down, a long flume straddled its narrow body and disproportionate legs over the chasm, like an enormous fossil of some forgotten antediluvian.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

Slang is nothing but a dressing-room where the tongue having some bad action to perform, disguises itself.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Monuments there have been sundry, as appeareth by the tombs of marble yet remaining, seven in number, but all defaced.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

He was born in 1580, in Calabria, studied in Naples, became a doctor in Salernum, and then became professor of anatomy in his native town.
— from An Epitome of the History of Medicine by Roswell Park

If a song is nothing but a diversion, it comes from the devil!"
— from In the World by Maksim Gorky

His theology isn't half so much at fault as that of some theological seminary professors I know, who teach that sin is nothing but a disease and that nobody in particular is to blame for it.
— from The High Calling by Charles M. Sheldon

This is said in anticipation of certain strictures that will be likely to follow some of the incidents of our story, it not being always deemed an essential in an American critic, that he should understand his subject.
— from Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale by James Fenimore Cooper

Embarrassed, vexed, pressed and distressed, as are her citizens at this moment, yet their resolution is not shaken, their spirit is not broken; and, depend upon it, they will not see their commerce, their business, their prosperity and their happiness, [85] all sacrificed to preposterous schemes and political empiricism, without another, and a yet more vigorous struggle.
— from Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2) or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850 by Thomas Hart Benton

"Monsieur," said I, "not being a doctor with a diploma, I might refuse you, but I will not, provided you give me your word of honor that for one month you will rigorously obey my directions."
— from The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy by Brillat-Savarin