It was probably the most mournful, in all its aspects, ever seen on the face of this earth since the universal deluge.
— from The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization. by John Lord

The English showed their usual dexterity with the bow.
— from Stories of the Scottish Border by William Platt

Bill rather longer than the head, nearly straight, stout, much compressed; upper mandible, with its dorsal line, much declinate, and nearly straight for a third of its length, then concave ascending to the unguis, on which it is arched and decurved in the third of a circle, the ridge broad, convex, rounded at the base, separated in its whole length by a groove, margined below, beyond the nostrils by a prominent line, from the sides, which are erect and slightly convex, the edges sharp, the unguis decurved, much compressed, with its sides flattened, and the tip acute; nostrils subbasal, prominent, tabular, having a horny sheath; lower mandible with the angle very narrow, reaching to the tip, and having at its extremity a long slender interposed horny process; the outline of the crura gently ascending, and quite straight, [334] until near the end, when it is a little decurved, the sides ascending, nearly erect, a little convex, the edges sharp, the tip extremely compressed, its upper edges decurved.
— from A Synopsis of the Birds of North America by John James Audubon

And therefore many things, in themselves easy, seem to us difficult, and many things in themselves attainable seem to us not to be attained.
— from Onesimus: Memoirs of a Disciple of St. Paul by Edwin Abbott Abbott

I've got the entire staff tied up doing the follow-up for tonight.
— from Prologue to an Analogue by Leigh Richmond

Neither of them will admit that he knows anything or can do anything—that's the way they are." "Dad has told me a lot about them—how they've always been together ever since their undergraduate days.
— from Spacehounds of IPC by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith

"No; her be sound 'sleep wid her two eye shut tight up, dis fashion, and her mout' wide open—so."
— from Gascoyne, The Sandal-Wood Trader: A Tale of the Pacific by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne