A large and varied collection of books loft by this man to his daughter showed his tastes, for besides carrying on his lucrative profession as a lawyer, he had devoted himself to the study of literature and science.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

She could make them bug out when she wanted to make me laugh, or make them soft and sad, or lazy and sleepy in a way that made me melt into a puddle of horniness.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Surprise and hope are strongly supported by the need, felt at the age of sixteen, of love and sadness.
— from On Love by Stendhal

He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia: but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any country to the south of the Baltic.
— 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

I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, “Stuff!”
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

There are so many fine young women longing for something to fill up the empty places that come when the first flush of youth is over, and the serious side of life appears; so many promising young men learning to conceal or condemn the high ideals and the noble purposes they started with, because they find no welcome for them.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

As to the rest, I had a great esteem for wit, provided the person was not exceptionable; for, to confess the truth, if the one or the other of these two attractions must of necessity be wanting, I should rather have quitted that of the understanding, that has its use in better things; but in the subject of love, a subject principally relating to the senses of seeing and touching, something may be done without the graces of the mind: without the graces of the body, nothing.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

They travel from place to place, visiting literary assemblages, geographical societies, and seats of learning, and springing sudden bets that these people do not know these things.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

In the morning to my father’s, where I dined, and in the afternoon to their church, where come Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Edward Pepys, and several other ladies, and so I went out of the pew into another.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

" As most of these engravings were made from studies in black and white, perhaps reduced from the picture by the engraver, but certainly touched on afterwards by the painters themselves, they form a school for the study of light and shade when deprived of colour.
— from Rembrandt and His Works Comprising a Short Account of His Life; with a Critical Examination into His Principles and Practice of Design, Light, Shade, and Colour. Illustrated by Examples from the Etchings of Rembrandt. by John Burnet

But it was all new to us then, and we were a care-free, cheerful group inside the house, five people who loved each other and talked about anything they wanted to, besides being backed reassuringly by a sack of lentils and several sacks of potatoes that Antoine, even then prudent and my right hand, had laid in for just this eventuality.
— from In the Mountains by Elizabeth Von Arnim

[71] wearing all sorts of curious clothes, talking all sorts of languages, and selling all sorts of things.
— from A Round Dozen by Susan Coolidge

Some slept on skins or leaves and some on the bare ground.
— from The Lost Mine of the Amazon A Hal Keen Mystery Story by Hugh Lloyd

About the same time that Sacheverell's sermons were the sensation of London, a sermon preached in Dublin on the Presbyterian side was attended there with the [ 166 ] same marks of distinction.
— from Books Condemned to be Burnt by James Anson Farrer

When they die out—as sooner or later any species may—the verdict must be accidental death, under stress of adverse circumstances, not exhaustion of vitality; and, commonly, when the species seems to die out, it will rather have suffered change.
— from Darwiniana; Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism by Asa Gray

The formalist, not satisfied with his formality, and the infidel, unable to rest on his infidelity—they came too—startled, for one hour at least, to the real significance of life, and shaken out of unreality.
— from Sermons Preached at Brighton Third Series by Frederick William Robertson

Every variation in this matter, remarks Remy de Gourmont ( Physique de l'Amour , p. 264) partakes of the sin of luxury, and some of the theologians have indeed considered any position in coitus but that which is usually called normal in Europe as a mortal sin.
— from Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Havelock Ellis

By William H. Thorp, Associate and Graduate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, sometime Hon. Sec. of Leeds Architectural Society.
— from A History of Giggleswick School from its Foundation, 1499 to 1912 by Edward Allen Bell