When the day came, its searching light showed the ravages in poor Lucy’s strength.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

It does not, however, seem to rise in proportion to it, or so as to compensate it completely.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Among the blind, the retina having lost its function, the rest of the skin is said to recover its primordial sensitiveness to distance and light, so that the sightless have a clearer premonition of objects about them than seeing people could have in the dark.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

26 But even Peisistratus has not been suffered to remain in possession of the credit, and we cannot help feeling the force of the following observations— "There are several incidental circumstances which, in our opinion, throw some suspicion over the whole history of the Peisistratid compilation, at least over the theory, that the Iliad was cast into its present stately and harmonious form by the directions of the Athenian ruler.
— from The Iliad by Homer

I did see the rock in Plymouth and a little ship like the Mayflower and the cradle that dear little Peregrine slept in and many old things that came in the Mayflower.
— 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

If I wrote merely to please the popular palate, it would indeed be as little troublesome to me as to an Page 541 other, to extol these remedies, so famous in speculation, but to which their greatest admirers have never attempted seriously to resort in practice.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

I dreamt I saw thee, robed in purple flakes, Break amorous through the clouds, as morning breaks,
— from Lamia by John Keats

In the first stage the result is pleasurable emotions; in the second, mere intoxication; and in the third, madness."
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

It seemed to refer in part to the boy’s case, but chiefly to other and irrelevant matters—such as paving-stones, electricity, oysters, and something which I took to be ‘absolution’ or ‘agrarianism,’ I could not be certain which; still, these appeared to be simply casual mentions, nothing more; friendly in spirit, without doubt, but lacking the connection or coherence necessary to make them useful.—I judged that my understanding was affected by my feelings, and so laid the letter away till morning.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

In point of agreeableness or disagreeableness, there is little or no difference in the far greater part of the different employments of stock, but a great deal in those of labour; and the ordinary profit of stock, though it rises with the risk, does not always seem to rise in proportion to it.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The piece F , which is also movable, has projecting from its front end a little hollow cylinder, through the centre of which the needle passes, and this little cylinder has a collar, serving to retain its position, an india-rubber ring surrounding a portion of the cylinder, and forming a plug to effectually close the rear end of the barrel.
— from Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century by Robert Routledge

From the time of Hipparchus to that of Ptolemy the geographer, the Alexandrian school, though rich in philosophers, who devoted their studies and labour to other branches of physical and metaphysical science, did not produce one, who improved geography, or the sciences on which it depends, with the exception of Posidonius.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson by William Stevenson

The men at first were rather amused than otherwise by its anger; but they found that it would not permit them to place the second noose upon its mother; it ran between her and them, it tried to seize the rope, it pushed them and struck them with its little trunk, till they were forced to drive it back 138 to the herd.
— from The Wild Elephant and the Method of Capturing and Taming it in Ceylon by Tennent, James Emerson, Sir

When vice and treachery shall be rewarded, and virtue and ability slighted and discountenanced; when ministers of state shall rather fear man than God, and to screen themselves run into parties and factions; when noise and clamour, and scandalous reports shall carry everything before them, it is natural to conclude that a nation in such a state of infatuation stands upon the brink of destruction, and without the intervention of some unforeseen accident, must be inevitably ruined.
— from Dickory Cronke: The Dumb Philosopher, or, Great Britain's Wonder by Daniel Defoe

At last she took refuge in polite inquiry.
— from The Poor Little Rich Girl by Eleanor Gates

Wherever possible, arbitration or some similar method should be employed in lieu of war to settle difficulties between civilized nations, although as yet the world has not progressed sufficiently to render it possible, or necessarily desirable, to invoke arbitration in every case.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

The moral, if any moral were to be gathered from these petty and wretched circumstances, was, “Let the past alone: do not seek to renew it; press on to higher and better things,—at all events, to other things; and be assured that the right way can never be that which leads you back to the identical shapes that you long ago left behind.
— from Sketches and Studies by Nathaniel Hawthorne

and the prettier, half-playful, half-serious love ditty, the refrain to “ La Claire Fontaine ”: “ Il y’a longtemps que je t’aime , Jamais je ne t’oublierai ,” till every one was surprised to find that it was eleven o’clock, and time for the travelers to seek their rest in preparation for an early start.
— from Down the River to the Sea by Agnes Maule Machar

She took the vacant seat with a sort of frozen quietude, and her limbs seemed to settle themselves rigidly into positions where they remained immovable.
— from Fairy Fingers A Novel by Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie

Young Mr. Barter’s whole soul seemed to rise in protest against this abominable fallacy.
— from Young Mr. Barter's Repentance From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray by David Christie Murray