The leaders of the great socialistic movement, of course, know all this perfectly well; yet this quite elementary truth seems to fade from their minds when they are discussing methods of reform, and they appear to be as anxious to seize upon present forms of wealth as if they regarded them as of a really lasting and permanent nature.
— from Garden Cities of To-Morrow Being the Second Edition of "To-Morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform" by Howard, Ebenezer, Sir

It was a toilsome and discouraging march, over roads knee-deep in mire, and the troops necessarily made but slow progress, being frequently obliged to halt.
— from From Canal Boy to President; Or, the Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

Without reference to a different manner of revision, clearly founded on the inherent rights of the different Estates of my Kingdom, I am, at this time, content to appeal to the Legislature for such action as will provide an adequate remedy for all existing difficulties.
— from Speeches of His Majesty Kamehameha IV. To the Hawaiian Legislature by King of the Hawaiian Islands Kamehameha IV

One day, at court, her restless spirits rose To a defiant mood of recklessness, And half because she wanted to be true, And half because she could not act the false Except to overdo it, her clear laugh Rang out at witty words her heart disdained; Some knights, ignoble, hating noble men, Were loud decrying virtue, Gwendolaine With laugh-begetting words made quick assent To the unworthy wit She scarce had spoken, Ere Sanpeur raised his penetrating eyes,— The only ones, in all that laughing group, Which were not bright with an approving smile,— To meet her own, with silent gravity, A swift arrest within their shining depths To one more word unworthy of herself.
— from Under King Constantine by Katrina Trask

He looked at the men about him with a sudden towering, almost drunken madness of relief, a madness which they took for sudden rage.
— from The Wire Tappers by Arthur Stringer

We were first seated on a narrow ledge of rock forming a bench on one side of the chamber, the guide taking away our lamps to a distant mass of rocks, behind which he leaves them, to shed a “dim, religious light” on the scene.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 14, October 1871-March 1872 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

If you will remember, the journey from Cape Sheridan to Cape Columbia was with overloaded sledges in the darkness preceding the dawn of the Arctic day, mostly over rough going and up-hill, and now the tables were turned.
— from A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Matthew Alexander Henson

War is made on various pretexts among the uncivilised, who have no special armies, each member having to fight in conjunction with the other members of his clan, tribe, or people, as the case may be, either to procure for himself provisions, slaves, wives, or cattle, or to avenge defeat, murder, or robbery on the individuals of a “foreign,” and consequently hostile ( Hostis of the Romans) clan, tribe, or people.
— from The Races of Man: An Outline of Anthropology and Ethnography by Joseph Deniker

Heat waves danced above the patches of bare ground; insects sang noisily from every side; far ahead the road ran a wavering course through a deceitful mirage of rippling ponds.
— from Heart of the Sunset by Rex Beach

If it were certainly known that one had communication with the dead, or if we had good reason to expect such communications, labor would be neglected, faith, prayer, hope, confidence in God would decrease, the Bible would be undervalued through a superior regard to a different mode of revelation, and we should live, as it were, among the tombs.
— from Catharine by Nehemiah Adams