Thence to Blackwall and there to Mr. Johnson’s, to see how some works upon some of our repaired ships go on, and at his house eat and drank and mighty extraordinary merry (too merry for me whose mother died so lately, but they know it not, so cannot reproach me therein, though I reproach myself), and in going home had many good stories of Sir W. Batten and one of Sir W. Pen, the most tedious and silly and troublesome (he forcing us to hear him) that ever I heard in my life.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory, parts had certainly been filed or sawn out of rock crystal.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

This hatred for Russia has been mistaken by some of our ‘Russian liberals’ for sincere love of their country, and they boast that they see better than their neighbours what real love of one’s country should consist in.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A study of original records.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

tho we passed without sustaining further injury than wetting some of our roots and bread.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

At first all kept silent out of respect for the priest, that they might not shock him.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

I wouldn’t turn my head to do so; but I could see out of the corner of my eye his obsequious shadow gliding after mine, while the moon, suspended on our right hand, seemed to gloat serenely upon the spectacle.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

We have said before, that whatever is naturally good is also in itself good and pleasant to the good man; now the fact of living, so far as animals are concerned, is characterised generally by the power of sentience, in man it is characterised by that of sentience, or of rationality (the faculty of course being referred to the actual operation of the faculty, certainly the main point is the actual operation of it); so that living seems mainly to consist in the act of sentience or exerting rationality: now the fact of living is in itself one of the things that are good and pleasant (for it is a definite totality, and whatever is such belongs to the nature of good), but what is naturally good is good to the good man: for which reason it seems to be pleasant to all.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

The infidelity of a hundred years ago knew nothing, comparatively speaking, of geology; nothing of astronomy; nothing of the ideas of Lamarck and Darwin; nothing of evolution; nothing, comparatively speaking, of other religions; nothing of India, that womb of metaphysics; in other words, the infidels of a hundred years ago knew the creed of orthodox Christianity to be false, but had not the facts to demonstrate it.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 07 (of 12) Dresden Edition—Discussions by Robert Green Ingersoll

Such force dooth the southeast wind often shewe vpon poore trauellers in those parts, as the south and southwest dooth vpon strangers against the British coast, that are not skilfull of our rodes and harborowes.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

The shining star of Oxford, returning from the pursuit, had been mistaken for Edward’s cognizance of the sun.
— from The Last of the Barons — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

The large oil-tank cars, which are not unusual sights on our railways, hold, at the maximum, about 25 tons of oil.
— from Petroleum by Albert Lidgett

At the end of the long descent the mummy-chamber is reached with its sarcophagus, generally a very simple one of red granite, which has hitherto, in every instance, been found empty.
— from A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Charles Chipiez

"So exclaimed the Ayrshire ploughman, speaking of ordinary rural nature under the varying influences of the seasons; and the sentiment has found an echo in the bosoms of thousands in as humble a condition as he himself was when he gave vent to it.
— from Wordsworth by F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry) Myers

The subjects of education and agriculture are of great interest to the success of our republican institutions, happiness, and grandeur as a nation.
— from State of the Union Addresses by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

In most instances this is in transverse lines, which sometimes vary a little from a rectilinear course, and the extremity of the scales of one row reposes on the base of those of the succeeding one, so that in this respect their arrangement is like that of tiles in a roof: in some cases it is not so regular: thus the minute scales on the wings of Parnassius Apollo , and others with subdiaphanous wings, are arranged without order; in Pieris and other Diurnal Lepidoptera , and many of the Crepuscular and Nocturnal, there appears to be a double layer of scales on both sides of the wing; the under layer usually consisting of white ones.
— from An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 3 or Elements of the Natural History of the Insects by William Kirby

For these arts it was merely a time of revival, not in any sense one of rebirth, as the word implies.
— from Wood-Carving: Design and Workmanship by George Jack