The observation is suggested to me by what is now occurring.
— from The Republic by Plato

When I commenced the study of man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to man, and that I was wandering farther from my own state in examining them, than others in not knowing them.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Telling his companions to await him outside, he went in, and saw two men, swart and very huge, with horny noses, feeding their fire with any chance-given fuel.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

In short, the most elaborate of his Pieces was at best but a terrifying Dream; and one could say nothing more of his finest Figures, than that they were agreeable Monsters.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

You see how many severe things might be said on this theme; but our purpose carries us past them, and requires our discourse for other matters.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The Doctor’s discourse, which (though he be a very good-natured man) is but simple, was some sport to me and Creed, though my head akeing I took no great pleasure in it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

"Chinese," said the man with the map.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

I would seek the mountain eagle's eirie, and live years suspended in some inaccessible recess of a sea-bounding cliff—no labour too great, no scheme too wild, if it promised life to them.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Uncles and aunts paid only short visits now; of course, they could not stay to meals, and the constraint caused by Mr. Tulliver's savage silence, which seemed to add to the hollow resonance of the bare, uncarpeted room when the aunts were talking, heightened the unpleasantness of these family visits on all sides, and tended to make them rare.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

"Ah! 'tis Binsky: he has found me," Stella thinks, most unjustly provoked with the good-humoured attaché.
— from Erlach Court by Ossip Schubin

poetical inspiration,—the creations of great artists, although we scarcely know their names; adapted to the uses designed; the expression of consecrated sentiments; the marble history of the ages in which they were erected,—now heavy and sombre when society was enslaved and mournful; and then cheerful and lofty when Christianity was joyful and triumphant.
— from Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3 part 2: Renaissance and Reformation by John Lord

This pump, by the bye, has a very real connection with the story of Agnes Surriage, for it was here, according to one legend, that Charles Henry Frankland first saw the maid who is the heroine of our story.
— from The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees by Mary Caroline Crawford

"Matters here are in a critical state," writes Lord Sidmouth to Mr. Bathurst, on the 27th of October.
— from Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) From the Original Family Documents by Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of

Sadik the Mouffetish saw the Khedive's face, and suddenly said in his ear: "Shall my slave seize him, Highness whom God preserve?"
— from Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — Volume 2 by Gilbert Parker

“Do not speak to me, child,” cried Mrs Atheling energetically.
— from The Athelings; or, the Three Gifts. Complete by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

This necessitated a consultation with the chief astronomer who, upon learning of my peculiar request and of my unnatural formation, hastened to the museum to see the monstrosity.
— from Life in a Thousand Worlds by W. S. (William Shuler) Harris

[66] of 'right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd, and strength by limping sway disabled;' of 'simple truth miscall'd simplicity.'
— from Shakspere and Montaigne An Endeavour to Explain the Tendency of 'Hamlet' from Allusions in Contemporary Works by Jacob Feis

She tells me 'bout Lieutenant Canfield de same as she tells you.
— from Oonomoo the Huron by Edward Sylvester Ellis

Again was he aware of a stealthy threat moving below, and again looking he could nothing define.
— from The Unknown Sea by Clemence Housman