Nature accommodates herself to these emergencies, cried the opponents—else what do you say to the case of a whole stomach—a whole pair of lungs, and but half a man, when both his legs have been unfortunately shot off?
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Not one of the eighty cowards thought of flight, all were killed there with the exception of the leader, Barthélemy, of whom we shall speak presently.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Such principles mathematical science possesses, but their application to experience, consequently their objective validity, nay the possibility of such a priori synthetical cognitions (the deduction thereof) rests entirely upon the pure understanding.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

"You will see my Georgy," was the best thing Emmy could think of to console Becky.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

The marital system of the early classical times, of which the above were the essentials, changed but little during the long period of monarchical rule lasting from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

From the seventh to the eleventh century, the obscure interval will be supplied by a concise narrative of such facts as may still appear either interesting or important.
— 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

This vessel, when tied at its middle, will have its collateral circulation carried on by the anastomoses of the internal mammary with the epigastric; by those of the ilio-lumbar with the circumflex ilii; those of the internal circumflex femoris, and superior perforating arteries of the profunda femoris, with the obturator, when this branch arises from the internal iliac; those of the gluteal with the external circumflex; those of the latter with the sciatic; and those of both obturators, with each other, when arising--the one from the internal, the other from the external iliac.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

And of this same image of the world, which glides away whilst we live upon it, how wretched and limited is the knowledge of the most curious; not only of particular events, which fortune often renders exemplary and of great concern, but of the state of great governments and nations, a hundred more escape us than ever come to our knowledge.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The foibles and vices of men, in whom there is great mixture of good, become more glaring objects from the virtues which contrast them and shew their deformity; and when we find such vices attended with their evil consequence to our favourite characters, we are not only taught to shun them for our own sake, but to hate them for the mischiefs they have already brought on those we love.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

It was for want of people conversing one with another, in this time of calamity, that it was impossible any particular person could come at the knowledge of all the extraordinary cases that occurred in different families; and particularly I believe it was never known to this day how many people in their deliriums drowned themselves in the Thames, and in the river which runs from the marshes by Hackney, which we generally called Ware River, or Hackney River.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

They drove through the wide market square reeking with the smell of rush mats and cabbages, past the governor’s house with coloured sentry boxes standing at the gate, past a private house with turrets, past the boulevard newly planted with trees that were already dying, past the hotel court-yard, filled with the barking of dogs and the clanging of chains, and so on through the town gates, where they overtook a long, long line of waggons, whose drivers had taken advantage of the evening coolness, then out into the open country, where they rolled along more swiftly and evenly over the broad road, planted on either side with willows.
— from Virgin Soil by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

The chief interest of the Life of St. Cecilia in Caxton's Golden Legende is that, as Dr. Kölbing has shewn, his translation exhibits clear traces of the influence of Chaucer.
— from Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 (of 7) — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

“Food?—yes, and good enough for any one,” she answered in a low croaking voice; “but for beds, the enemy carried them off, and everything in the house.
— from Ronald Morton; or, the Fire Ships: A Story of the Last Naval War by William Henry Giles Kingston

The French king hauing in his armie thrée score thousand fighting men, wherof there were more than thrée thousand knights, made so sure account of victorie, as anie man might of a thing not yet had, considering his great puissance, in regard to the small number of his aduersaries: and therefore immediatlie after that the cardinall was departed, he caused his battels to march forward, and approching to the place where the Englishmen stood readie to receiue their enimies, caused the onset to be giuen.
— from Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (11 of 12) Edward the Third, Who Came to the Crowne by the Resignation of His Father Edward the Second by Raphael Holinshed

The bitterness of the slow progress of a book, and of the long time that must elapse between its execution and its appearance, is that the readers of it tend to consider that it reflects the exact contemporary thought of its writer.
— from Beside Still Waters by Arthur Christopher Benson

Had not Arthur and I, shortly before an examination in which we had the most confident assurance that we should cut but a poor figure, for a whole day taken earnest counsel together over the question whether we, in case we failed--or better yet, before standing the trial--should not turn smugglers ourselves, until we actually were scared at our own plans? That had been four years ago; but, although in the meantime the vehement antipathies and sympathies of youth had been moderated by maturer reason, still the thought of having fallen into the hands of a smuggler had even now the effect of making my heart beat violently.
— from Hammer and Anvil: A Novel by Friedrich Spielhagen