As I went into the house, I noticed signs in the sky which betokened a break in the weather for the better.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Therefore, for a person to say that he has a clear and distinct—that is, a true—idea of a substance, but that he is not sure whether such substance exists, would be the same as if he said that he had a true idea, but was not sure whether or no it was false (a little consideration will make this plain); or if anyone affirmed that substance is created, it would be the same as saying that a false idea was true—in short, the height of absurdity.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

C H A P. XXVII T HERE is nothing so foolish, when you are at the expence of making an entertainment of this kind, as to order things so badly, as to let your criticks and gentry of refined taste run it down: Nor is there any thing so likely to make them do it, as that of leaving them out of the party, or, what is full as offensive, of bestowing your attention upon the rest of your guests in so particular a way, as if there was no such thing as a critick (by occupation) at table.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

When the damsel saw him, she cried out to Beaumains, “Flee down the valley, for thy horse is not saddled!”
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

This house is not strong because it has weak posts.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

At the hour I now speak of she had joined me, under pressure, on the terrace, where, with the lapse of the season, the afternoon sun was now agreeable; and we sat there together while, before us, at a distance, but within call if we wished, the children strolled to and fro in one of their most manageable moods.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

His spelling has improved immensely this past year, though he is not strong on apostrophes, and he certainly possesses the gift of writing an interesting letter.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

My last letter is come safe to Mr. Williams by the old conveyance, so that he is not suspected.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

how should that be?” said Bianca; “I have always heard that your family was in no way related to his: and I am sure I cannot conceive why my Lady, the Princess, sends you in a cold morning or a damp evening to pray at his tomb: he is no saint by the almanack.
— from The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Probably they owe these qualifications to their more improved education; it is, however, certain, that all travellers have celebrated the elephants of this island, where the ground is interspersed with mountains, which rise gradually towards the centre, and where the heat is not so excessive as in Senegal, Guinea, and other western parts of Africa.
— from Buffon's Natural History. Volume 07 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c by Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

"Well, now I am going to die!" said she, already dying away, and leaned her fair head, inhabited by a departing genius, back against the chair, and closed her pure eyes, which deserved to open again only in a heaven.–While Victor stood in silent emotion before the still–tranced one, and thought to himself: "If now she should never wake again, and thou shouldst vainly snatch her stiff hand, and her last word on this dreary earth should have been, 'Now I am going to die,'–O God!
— from Hesperus; or, Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days: A Biography. Vol. II. by Jean Paul

The revenues of his own possessions amount to half as much more; but with all this, he is not so well off as the Rajah of Benares.
— from A Woman's Journey Round the World From Vienna to Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia and Asia Minor by Ida Pfeiffer

The Father and Mother of Mrs. W. Browne bought old Mrs. Piozzi’s house at Streatham thirty-five years ago; all the Sir Joshua portraits therein, which they sold directly afterward for a song; and all the furniture, of which some yet helps to fill the house I now stay in.
— from Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 1 by Edward FitzGerald

“He feels that he is not safe,” I said to myself at last, and to my great relief he got down, muttering to himself, and I could tell by the sound that he was at the table, for I heard a clink of glass, the gurgling of liquor out of a bottle, and then quite plainly the noise he made in drinking before he set down the glass and uttered a loud “Hah!”
— from Sail Ho! A Boy at Sea by George Manville Fenn

God made the hills intending none should pass.
— from Basque Legends; With an Essay on the Basque Language by Wentworth Webster

Then we have to satisfy ourselves that he is not still alive and accessible.
— from The Vanishing Man A Detective Romance by R. Austin (Richard Austin) Freeman

It teaches us, first, that he is not sufficient for his own happiness, but is dependent upon the sensible objects which surround him, and that these he cannot take with him when he leaves the world; secondly, that disobedience to his sense of right is even by itself misery, and that he carries that misery about him, wherever he is, though no divine retribution followed upon it; and thirdly, that he cannot change his nature and his habits by wishing, but is simply himself, and will ever be himself and what he now is, wherever he is, as long as he continues to be,—or at least that pain has no natural tendency to make him other than he is, and that the longer he lives, the more difficult he is to change.
— from An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent by John Henry Newman