I wish I could repeat the little Circumstances of a Conversation of the four Lovers with the Spirit in which the young Lady, I had my Account from, represented it at a Visit where I had the Honour to be present; but it seems Dick Crastin , the admirer of Honoria , and Tom Tulip , the Pretender to Flavia , were purposely admitted together by the Ladies, that each might shew the other that her Lover had the Superiority in the Accomplishments of that sort of Creature whom the sillier Part of Women call a fine Gentleman.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Nearly every mail brings some absurd statement, printed or written.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength, I fell to digging away the sand, to undermine it, and so to make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The fire, choked between a couple of smouldering pieces of wood, had died down for the first few moments after the packet was thrown upon it.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Others fell and cleave timber, and bring wood, corn, and other necessaries, on carts, into their towns; nor do these only serve the public, but they serve even private men, more than the slaves themselves do: for if there is anywhere a rough, hard, and sordid piece of work to be done, from which many are frightened by the labour and loathsomeness of it, if not the despair of accomplishing it, they cheerfully, and of their own accord, take that to their share; and by that means, as they ease others very much, so they afflict themselves, and spend their whole life in hard labour: and yet they do not value themselves upon this, nor lessen other people’s credit to raise their own; but by their stooping to such servile employments they are so far from being despised, that they are so much the more esteemed by the whole nation.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

Thénardier’s well-grounded observation still further obscured for Marius the dense mystery which enveloped that grave and singular person on whom Courfeyrac had bestowed the sobriquet of Monsieur Leblanc.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

In thee consists the excellence of man’s nature and the morality of his actions; apart from thee, I find nothing in myself to raise me above the beasts—nothing but the sad privilege of wandering from one error to another, by the help of an unbridled understanding and a reason which knows no principle.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I don't wish to boast of my beneficence, but I should have thought simple gratitude ought to have held you back from the slippery path on which you were determined to enter!' Semyon Matveitch walked to and fro again, and standing still patted me lightly on the arm, on the very arm which still ached from his violence, and was for long after marked with blue bruises.
— from The Jew and Other Stories by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Four stout posts, with forked ends, are first set firmly in the ground, and then in the forks are laid cross and side poles, on which is made a flooring of small poles.
— from An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians by H. C. (Harry Crécy) Yarrow

Not far from the capital we passed a big sugar plantation of which the Queen of Holland is chief stockholder, as she is of many others in the colony, but the manager of which was a Scotchman.
— from Working North from Patagonia Being the Narrative of a Journey, Earned on the Way, Through Southern and Eastern South America by Harry Alverson Franck

Plans of Defence of the Spanish Juntas—defeated by the ardour of the Insurrectionary Armies—Cruelty of the French Troops, and Inveteracy of the Spaniards—Successes of the Invaders—Defeat of Rio Secco—Exultation of Napoleon—Joseph enters Madrid—His reception—Duhesme compelled to retreat to Barcelona, and Moncey from before Valencia—Defeat of Dupont by Castanos at Baylen—His Army surrenders Prisoners of War—Effects of this Victory and Capitulation—Unreasonable Expectations of the British Public—Joseph leaves Madrid, and retires to Vittoria—Defence of Zaragossa.
— from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III. by Walter Scott

We have not the same profusion of wild fruits and trees, but we have our share—and it is not so hot as here.
— from No Defense, Volume 3. by Gilbert Parker

He took luncheon with us on the day of our departure, and with an adroit privacy, which in a layman would have been sly, presented her, in right of his holy calling, with a little book, the binding of which was mediaeval and costly, and whose letter-press dealt in a way which he commended, with some points on which she was not satisfactory; and she found on the fly-leaf this little inscription:—'Presented to Miss Millicent Ruthyn by an earnest well-wisher, 1st December 1844.'
— from Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

First 1—5 First part of wire Second 17—21 Third 9—13 First 13—17 Second part of wire Second 5—9 Third 21—1
— from The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting by Thomas Commerford Martin

4. When we look long and attentively at any object, the eye cannot always be kept entirely motionless; hence, on inspecting a circular area of red silk placed on white paper, a lucid crescent or edge is seen to librate on one side or other of the red circle: for the exterior parts of the retina sometimes falling on the edge of the central silk, and sometimes on the white paper, are less fatigued with red light than the central part of the retina, which is constantly, exposed to it; and therefore, when they fall on the edge of the red silk, they perceive it more vividly.
— from Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. I by Erasmus Darwin

The second period opens with June, 1774, when Massachusetts began to nullify the acts of Parliament, and it closes with the Declaration of Independence.
— from The American Revolution by John Fiske