But when the question is an affair of state, then everybody is free to have a say—carpenter, tinker, cobbler, sailor, passenger; rich and poor, high and low—any one who likes gets up, and no one reproaches him, as in the former case, with not having learned, and having no teacher, and yet giving advice; evidently because they are under the impression that this sort of knowledge cannot be taught.
— from Protagoras by Plato

Sir Percival rose and paid his compliments with perfect grace.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Flambeau went back to his sabres, purple rugs and Persian cat, having many things to attend to.
— from The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

That he brought a certain powder to his mistress which the examinant believes to be the same, and spoke the following words:—"Madam, here is grand secret van de world, my sweetening powder; it does temperate de humour, dispel the windt, and cure de vapour; it lulleth and quieteth the animal spirits, procuring rest and pleasant dreams.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

Heaven is too small a reward for it; they make choice of times and meats, buy and sell their merits, attribute more to them than to the ten Commandments, and count it a greater sin to eat meat in Lent, than to kill a man, and as one sayeth, Plus respiciunt assum piscem, quam Christum crucifixum, plus salmonem quam Solomonem, quibus in ore Christus, Epicurus in corde , pay more respect to a broiled fish than to Christ crucified, more regard to salmon than to Solomon, have Christ on their lips, but Epicurus in their hearts, when some counterfeit, and some attribute more to such works of theirs than to Christ's death and passion; the devil sets in a foot, strangely deludes them, and by that means makes them to overthrow the temperature of their bodies, and hazard their souls.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The bench planes, smoothing planes, rabbets, and plows universally resemble those shown in this illustration from the pattern book of the Castle Hill Works, Sheffield.
— from Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Peter C. Welsh

Basset had a poor soil, poor roads, a poor non-resident landlord, a poor non-resident vicar, and rather less than half a curate, also poor.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

And how many an honest and industrious tradesman has been prevailed with to take in a partner to ease himself in the weight of the business, or on several other accounts, some perhaps reasonable and prudent enough, but has found himself immediately involved in a sea of trouble, is brought into innumerable difficulties, concealed debts, and unknown incumbrances, such as he could no ways extricate himself out of, and so both have been unavoidably ruined together!
— from The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) by Daniel Defoe

Gradually ascending, other mountains come in sight, peak rising above peak with their snow and ice in endless variety of grouping and sculpture.
— from The Yosemite by John Muir

When we in England are, or should be, enjoying the bright days of midsummer, the southern Polar regions are pitchy dark, while at our Christmas-tide that part of the earth is bathed in floods of sunshine.
— from The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 3 by Frederick Whymper

SEE Pear, Richard A. PUBLIC TRUSTEE.
— from U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1970 July - December by Library of Congress. Copyright Office

Divesting himself of all his property, supplying the necessaries of life by the meanest forms of labour, even begging when need be, he went about the country from A.D. 1209, sneered at by some as an imbecile, revered by others as a saint, preaching repentance and peace.
— from Church History, Volume 2 (of 3) by J. H. (Johann Heinrich) Kurtz

The poor creature reminded Bowdy of a dog which he once had seen prowling round a pond in which its young had been drowned.
— from The Brown Brethren by Patrick MacGill