That a little more plenty than ordinary may render some workmen idle, cannot be well doubted; but that it should have this effect upon the greater part, or that men in general should work better when they are ill fed, than when they are well fed, when they are disheartened than when they are in good spirits, when they are frequently sick than when they are generally in good health, seems not very probable.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

In the [Pg 15] middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone; and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

I often felt amazed at his perfect knowledge of Villette; a knowledge not merely confined to its open streets, but penetrating to all its galleries, salles, and cabinets: of every door which shut in an object worth seeing, of every museum, of every hall, sacred to art or science, he seemed to possess the "Open! Sesame."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

You are expected to arrive in good season hereafter.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge

That's my life pretty much, down to such times as I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my friend.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I can talk about it gayly still.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Professor Buslaef gave me the right archæology of this, no doubt, but the devils themselves, as I gazed, seemed to intimate another theory with their fair forms.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

in our little room at my Lord Sandwich’s; for which I ought for ever to love and admire her, and do; and persuade myself she would do the same thing again, if God should reduce us to it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The Abyssinians receive the holy sacrament in both kinds in unleavened bread, and in the grape bruised with the husk together as it grows, so that it is a kind of marmalade, and is given in a flat spoon: whatever they may pretend, some mixture seems necessary to keep it from fermentation in the state that it is in, unless the dried cluster is fresh bruised just before it is used, for it is little more fluid than the common marmalade of confectioners; but it is perfectly the grape as it grew, bruised stones and skin together.
— from Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5) In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 by James Bruce

They, too, are in God’s school-house.
— from Town and Country Sermons by Charles Kingsley

To this Pantagruel answering nothing, Panurge went on in his discourse, saying, Truly and in good sooth, sir, when I ponder my destiny aright, and think well upon it, you put me shrewdly to my plunges, and have me at a bay in twitting me with the reproach of my debts and creditors.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 by François Rabelais

And they just happened to file them after I got shot, when all our ad-hocs were busy worrying about me.
— from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Hope for a permanent change in the Navy's racial practices lay in convincing its tradition-minded officers that an integrated general service with a representative share of black officers and men was a matter of military efficiency.
— from Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by Morris J. MacGregor

I was in prison three times, and each time, although I got scant pleasure, I certainly derived benefit for my heart and mind."
— from Mother by Maksim Gorky

The Climate of the Eighteen Provinces has been represented in meteorological tables sufficiently well to ascertain its general salubrity.
— from The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2) A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants by S. Wells (Samuel Wells) Williams