She began to pull the basket over, and now, in spite of all protest, she had swung over and was going down.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

My answer is: Thou canst indeed turn aside thy purpose; but since the truth of providence is ever at hand to see that thou canst, and whether thou dost, and whither thou turnest thyself, thou canst not avoid the Divine foreknowledge, even as thou canst not escape the sight of a present spectator, although of thy free will thou turn thyself to various actions.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

This paste made regular “pipe-clay,” with which they manufactured bowls, cups molded on stones of a proper size, great jars and pots to hold water, etc.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

The man who had been spoken of as “Pavlicheff’s son,” although he gave the name of Antip Burdovsky, was about twenty-two years of age, fair, thin and rather tall.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

On my arrival here, I found my predecessor (General Hovey) had issued an order permitting the departure south of all persons subject to the conscript law of the Southern Confederacy.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

No person ought to be punished simply for being drunk; but a soldier or a policeman should be punished for being drunk on duty.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

The character of Theodosius imposed on his minister the task of hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes restrained, the abuse of power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the indolent slumber of a prince still capable of exerting the abilities and the virtue, which had raised him to the throne.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

(→) n 1 internode, section of a plant stem between two successive nodes.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

We speak of Apollo and of Diana—they were born here; of the metamorphosis of Syrinx into a reed—it was done here; of the great god Pan—he dwelt in the caves of this hill of Coressus; of the Amazons—this was their best prized home; of Bacchus and Hercules both fought the warlike women here; of the Cyclops—they laid the ponderous marble blocks of some of the ruins yonder; of Homer—this was one of his many birthplaces; of Cirmon of Athens; of Alcibiades, Lysander, Agesilaus—they visited here; so did Alexander the Great; so did Hannibal and Antiochus, Scipio, Lucullus and Sylla; Brutus, Cassius, Pompey, Cicero, and Augustus; Antony was a judge in this place, and left his seat in the open court, while the advocates were speaking, to run after Cleopatra, who passed the door; from this city these two sailed on pleasure excursions, in galleys with silver oars and perfumed sails, and with companies of beautiful girls to serve them, and actors and musicians to amuse them; in days that seem almost modern, so remote are they from the early history of this city, Paul the Apostle preached the new religion here, and so did John, and here it is supposed the former was pitted against wild beasts, for in 1 Corinthians, xv.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

The idea of a plain surface is as little susceptible of a precise standard as that of a right line; nor have we any other means of distinguishing such a surface, than its general appearance.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Real stars, rolling afar in the infinite ether, are too distant to "stand over" a particular spot on this planet This was an ideal star.
— from Flowers of Freethought (Second Series) by G. W. (George William) Foote

To a generation of men who had heard no preaching, or, if any, nothing they could understand, the enthusiastic discourses of these men were like refreshing showers on a parched soil; for in the thirteenth century the sermon had fallen into such disuse that an obscure and insignificant preacher created a great sensation in Paris, although his preaching was rude and simple.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 05, April 1867 to September 1867 by Various

I shall go in my war paint; and if I am obstructed the nation will have the unusual spectacle of a private secretary with a pen over one ear a tomahawk over the other.
— from Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 3 (1876-1885) by Mark Twain

Once on a time Old Bagrovo stood on a pretty stream, the Maina, which took its rise from the Mossy Lakes three versts distant; and also along the whole settlement there stretched a lake, not broad but long and clear, and deep in the middle, with a bottom of white sand; and another streamlet, called The White Spring, issued from this lake.
— from A Russian Gentleman by S. T. (Sergei Timofeevich) Aksakov

It is not very safe for a lone trapper in the forest to undertake the setting of a powerful steel trap without clamps.
— from Steel Traps Describes the Various Makes and Tells How to Use Them, Also Chapters on Care of Pelts, Etc. by A. R. (Arthur Robert) Harding

During the life of her husband, Mrs. Hancock was of necessity much in the gay world, in which she occupied a position so distinguished.
— from The Women of The American Revolution, Vol. 1 by E. F. (Elizabeth Fries) Ellet