Neither Angus nor Maxwell belonged to the Elks or to the Athletic Club; neither of them had ever called Babbitt “brother” or asked his opinions on carburetors.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

For, when his spirit was steeped in slumber, he thought that two birds glided down from the privy parts of his wife, one larger than the other; that they poised their bodies aloft and soared swiftly to heaven, and, when a little time had elapsed, came back and sat on either of his hands.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

He reached Spanish territory first in Barcelona, the hotbed of radicalism, where he heard a good deal of revolutionary talk, which, however, seems to have made but little impression upon him, for throughout his entire career breadth of thought and strength of character are revealed in his consistent opposition to all forms of violence.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

These latter, however, the more being they have, and the more good they do (for then they do something positive), the more they have efficient causes; but in so far as they are defective in being, and consequently do evil (for then what is their work but vanity?), they have deficient causes.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Perhaps under this handkerchief evidence could be found to sustain a charge of murder; in fact, if such proof were there it might lose its value if touched by an awkward hand.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

More than that, he even commenced by conceiving of himself as participating closely in the animal nature.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

I say, as every friend of his must say, How is it that he has not been outlawed long since, and that he ever came back (as he did to the surprise of everybody) last year from Boulogne?
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

But, without educated thought, he erred continually by the very intensity of his investigations.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Again, in Courts of Law, with their money-quarrels, divorce-cases, wheresoever a glimpse into the household existence can be had, what indications!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Not even the highest ecclesiast can be at his devotions always.
— from Shandygaff A number of most agreeable Inquirendoes upon Life & Letters, interspersed with Short Stories & Skits, the whole most Diverting to the Reader by Christopher Morley

The surveyors had seen our action with horror, and the head engineer came bounding over to us, crying: “What is the matter with you people?
— from Winnetou, the Apache Knight by Karl May

Though his exclamation could by no means have carried to her ears, she seemed to be instantly sensitive to the vibrations of his emotion.
— from The Bandbox by Louis Joseph Vance

Even these hostile attacks, however, do not appear to have extinguished civilities between the contending commanders, though they must certainly have diminished their satisfaction at receiving them.
— from The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1 by James Harrison

The first day and the second day nobody thought he ever could be tired, amongst the rocking-horses and whips and marbles and kites and dolls and carriages.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 57, July, 1862 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

It was right to contend and bleed for equal representation, for freedom of conscience, and for an independent nationality in which these high ends could be secured.
— from Government and Rebellion A Sermon Delivered in the North Broad Street Presbyterian Church, Sunday Morning, April 28, 1861 by E. E. (Ezra Eastman) Adams

Cloth, 12mo, with decorative cover per volume, $1.00 LIST OF TITLES By Col. F. A. Postnikov, Isaac Taylor Headland, Edward C. Butler, and Others
— from Our Little Brazilian Cousin by Mary F. Nixon-Roulet

One afternoon in late May, she found herself on the gnarled seat that the roots had braided for 392 her; she had been gazing down into the brook and watching a robin-redbreast taking his bath in it, canary-fashion; she watched him until he had flown away and perched upon a post of the Old Place meadow fence, then her eyes came back to the water, the stones, and the weeds.
— from Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline: A Story of the Development of a Young Girl's Life by Conklin, Nathaniel, Mrs.