The Jester looked at each of the four corners of the paper with such a grin of affected intelligence as a monkey is apt to assume upon similar occasions, then cut a caper, and gave the letter to Locksley.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

It was a terrible and unforgettable scandal.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Our common Flax-weed has divers stalks full fraught with long and narrow ash-coloured leaves, and from the middle of them almost upward, stored with [77] a number of pale yellow flowers, of a strong unpleasant scent, with deeper yellow mouths, and blackish flat seed in round heads.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

She had to draw upon this thought, as upon some fiery stimulant, to keep up her part in the scene toward which Rosedale was too frankly tending.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

These are usually small broken earthen pots, whitewashed or covered with spots of whitewash, or even adorned with huge clay noses and ears, and made into grotesque faces.
— from Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston

That all united should fail to enlighten the competent enquirer in any case is almost inconceivable.”
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

The very fact that they are ugly shows that they are in discordance with the whole creation.
— from Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore

He was now ascending a hill, and when he reached the top an unexpected sight met his eyes.
— from Little Folks (September 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various

The artisan became a farmer, though still preserving his knack as a craftsman, and expended his skill and his muscle in subduing a tough and unbroken soil.
— from The Fathers of New England: A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths by Charles McLean Andrews

I thought of an answer but did not make it, though as usual she read my mind for I saw her smile.
— from The Ancient Allan by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

It may, perhaps, be deemed worthy of especial mention, that the action of the Centralists of Mexico, destined to affect us so sensibly, was initiated at the same time that the modern phase of the Slavery question was opened in the United States.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

Whatever be the issue, we shall kill some thousands of men on both sides, and after all we must come to an understanding, since all things have an end, not excepting vindictive passions.
— from Military Career of Napoleon the Great An Account of the Remarkable Campaigns of the "Man of Destiny"; Authentic Anecdotes of the Battlefield as Told by the Famous Marshals and Generals of the First Empire by Montgomery B. Gibbs

Prostrate on the ground, he deplored with tears and groans the guilt of his past rebellion; nor would he presume to arise, unless some faithful subject would drag him to the foot of the throne, by an iron chain with which he had secretly encircled his neck.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4 by Edward Gibbon

Innumerable specimens of the same class of young renegades may be seen also at the doors or in the vestibules of public houses in the large inland towns; and unless some mild compulsory process is devised to form them to better habits, it is certain that a severe one will be demanded to protect the community against their violence and depredations.
— from The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. IV, No. II, April 1849) by Pennsylvania Prison Society

"Through all which sets of facts is manifested the truth, recognized practically if not theoretically, that each individual, carrying on the actions which subserve his life, and not prevented from receiving their normal results, good and bad, shall carry on these actions under such restraints as are imposed by the carrying on of kindred actions by other individuals, who have similarly to receive such normal results, good and bad.
— from A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution by Cora May Williams

I discover in him intelligence above the average, a melancholy temperament, and unbridled sensuality.
— from The Inferno by August Strindberg

Take our tight and ungainly shoes.
— from Vitality Supreme by Bernarr Macfadden