We see why certain characters are far more serviceable than others for classification; why adaptive characters, though of paramount importance to the beings, are of hardly any importance in classification; why characters derived from rudimentary parts, though of no service to the beings, are often of high classificatory value; and why embryological characters are often the most valuable of all.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky, Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die, Lift not thy hands to IT for help—for It Rolls impotently on as Thou or I. LIII.
— from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam

We embraced, and he told me as we parted that he would expect me at the embassy in the afternoon, to take coffee in his room; the ambassador, he said, would certainly come in as soon as he heard of my presence.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Then out to the ‘Change to speake with Captain [Cocke], who tells me my silver plates are ready for me, and shall be sent me speedily; and proposes another proposition of serving us with a thousand tons of hempe, and tells me it shall bring me 6500, if the bargain go forward, which is a good word.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A movable turret, of a size and capacity to contain five hundred soldiers, had been rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart: but the descent of the door or drawbridge was checked by an enormous beam, and the wooden structure was constantly consumed by artificial flames.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Then again the deep silence, the skurrying rats, the dim forms stretched everywhere on the ground; and on either hand those open booths counterfeiting sepulchres, with counterfeit corpses sleeping motionless in the flicker of the counterfeit death lamps.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

To his mind sound was closely connected with form and colour, so that when he painted letters he invariably painted the letter L yellow, M red, A black, and so on.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Now, regard the toadstools as buttons and the connecting lines as strings, as in Diagram B. Then by disentangling these strings we can clearly present the diagram in the form shown in Diagram C, where the relationship between the buttons is precisely the same as in B.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

“Shall we carry Chichester?” asked Lady Firebrace of Lady St Julians.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

‘We want to put this horse up here,’ said Mr. Pickwick; ‘I suppose we can, can’t we?’
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

He had read Marryatt’s novels and other sailor tales—what boy has not?—and he was fired with the usual childish desire to embark upon that wonderful life of chasing buccaneers, fighting pirates, capturing prizes, or hunting hidden treasure, which is a lad’s brilliantly coloured fancy picture of an everyday sailor’s wet, cold, cheerless occupation.
— from Biographies of Working Men by Grant Allen

The switch contacts do not enter their contact clips until the flanged cover of the box has closed the switch opening, no current connections being made to line or load until the box is completely closed, and in consequence there is no opportunity to make improper connections to any live parts of switch, when conduit connections are used to the service and meter wires.
— from Hawkins Electrical Guide v. 07 (of 10) Questions, Answers, & Illustrations, A progressive course of study for engineers, electricians, students and those desiring to acquire a working knowledge of electricity and its applications by N. (Nehemiah) Hawkins

Dalrymple said we could come and get him the end of the week—Friday or Saturday.
— from The Rat Race by Jay Franklin

We had to read sermons to the President in class, and no sermon was considered complete and proper unless it unfolded what was called the scheme of redemption from beginning to end.
— from The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford, Edited by his friend Reuben Shapcott by William Hale White

“I think Sylvia is trying to show the Christmas spirit of doing good to the people who need it and letting us help,” she whispered, coming closer to their guardian and slipping an arm about her waist.
— from The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows by Margaret Vandercook

True, Zangorri was stained with countless crimes; but all his crimes at that moment were forgotten: he did not appear as Zangorri the merciless pirate, but simply as a wounded wretch, trying to escape from death.
— from Cord and Creese by James De Mille

Alice immediately, after the murder, had fled into Staffordshire with certain chattels of the murdered woman in her possession, and had been there arrested, and brought back into Shropshire.
— from Bygone Punishments by William Andrews

Of course it cannot be claimed that the estimate of the Yezdi’s position that has been made in these pages is in any way final, or that it is one with which all acquainted with the subject would certainly concur.
— from Five Years in a Persian Town by Napier Malcolm