If in the pound weight of our silver coin, for example, instead of eighteen penny-weight, according to the present standard, there were mixed eight ounces of alloy; a pound sterling, or twenty shillings of such coin, would be worth little more than six shillings and eightpence of our present money.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I offered him the report on the 'Suppression of Savage Customs,' with the postscriptum torn off.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

A horrible sense of sickness came over him.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Some one will be heard to ask whether a state of society can be final in which the interests of thousands are perilled on the life or character of a single person.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

[6628] For the rest of heaven and hell, let children and superstitious fools believe it: for their parts, they are so far from trembling at the dreadful day of judgment that they wish with Nero, Me vivo fiat , let it come in their times: so secure, so desperate, so immoderate in lust and pleasure, so prone to revenge that, as Paterculus said of some caitiffs in his time in Rome, Quod nequiter ausi, fortiter executi : it shall not be so wickedly attempted, but as desperately performed, whatever they take in hand.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

When he re-entered the kitchen the lamp lit up the same scene of shining comfort as on the previous evening.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

The sense of solidarity counts for much in one's contentment, but the sense of winning one's game counts for more; and in London, in 1898, the scene was singularly interesting to the last survivor of the Legation of 1861.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

To take a character as it was, and delicately sound its stops, suited one so curious in observation, curious in invention.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

So the Amphictyones did not write extracts from the Iliad or Odyssey, or the Pæans of 231 Pindar, in the temple of Pythian Apollo at Delphi, but "Know thyself," "Not too much of anything," 595 and "Be a surety, trouble is near;" 596 so much did they admire compactness and simplicity of speech, combining brevity with shrewdness of mind.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

CONTENTS Our Progress NOTES:— Page Sir E. Dering's Household Book, by Rev. Lambert B. Larking 130 Berkeley's Theory of Vision, by Rev. J.H. Todd 131 Bishop Barnaby 131 Mathematical Archæology 132 Song in Style of Suckling, &c. 133 Gothic Architecture 134 Dr. Burney's Musical Works, by E.F. Rimbault 135 Ancient Alms' Basins, by Dr. Bell 135 Minor Notes:—Prince Madoc—St. Barnabas—Register of Cromwell's Baptism—The Times—Rowland Monoux—Wassail Song—Portrait of Charles I.—Autograph Mottoes of Richard Duke of Gloucester and Henry Duke of Buckingham 136 Notes in answer to Queries:—Lord Erksine's Brooms—Scarborough Warning—Gray's Elegy—Coffee, the Lacedæmonian Black Broth 138 QUERIES:— The Last of the Villains, by E. Smirke 139 The Dore of Holy Scripture 139 Turner's MS.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 09, December 29, 1849 by Various

They give a broad scope to business, and bring about relations and mutual adaptations which would never have developed in the chaotic struggling of small concerns.
— from The Americans by Hugo Münsterberg

At Florence the custom survived of celebrating the first of May with tournaments, and on great occasions the wealthy families spent large sums of money in providing pastimes of this sort. February 7, 1468, witnessed a splendid spectacle, when Lorenzo de' Medici, mounted successively on chargers presented to him by the Duke of Ferrara and the King of Naples, attired in armor given by the Duke of Milan, bearing the fleurs de lys of France conferred upon the Medici by Louis XI., and displaying on his pennon for a motto Le Tems revient , won the prize of valor before the populace assembled in the square of S. Croce.
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 4 (of 7) Italian Literature, Part 1 by John Addington Symonds

preach,—(for I will not suppose the young ladies interested in this picture to be affected by any chagrin at the loss of an invitation to a ball, or the like worldliness,)—it seems to me the stress of such calamities might be represented, in a picture, by less appalling imagery.
— from Ariadne Florentina: Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving by John Ruskin

And once, when Harvey lifted up his eyes to look, he could see the flashing windows of David's old-time residence, its stately outlines showing clear against the sombre trees behind.
— from The Web of Time by Robert E. (Robert Edward) Knowles

At last, on reaching an eminence, the Prince pointed to a noble pile of buildings on the outskirts of a great city, and said—something of sadness coming into the tone of his voice: "Yonder is my father's palace; we shall reach it in a very little time—and then the happy privilege of these delightful moments will cease to be mine, never to be renewed, perhaps."
— from The Diamond Fairy Book by Various

The young artist's heart was heavy within him, and the shadow of some crowning trouble seemed to have fallen upon his soul.
— from The Doings of Raffles Haw by Arthur Conan Doyle

“It is a saving of six charges of Austrian ammunition,” said Pericles.
— from Vittoria — Complete by George Meredith