When she entered the household she surveyed the situation with trained eyes, took an account of all work to be done, formed her system and walked through it daily with energetic ease, always securing to herself two or three hours of leisure every day in which to do her own cutting, fitting and sewing.
— from Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives by Harriet Beecher Stowe

[471] The opinions of the Bishops were divided; but the lay members of the House of Lords evidently did not wish any change from the mediæval doctrines, and believed that no one could be such a wise theologian as their King when he confounded the Bishop with his stores of learning.
— from A History of the Reformation (Vol. 2 of 2) by Thomas M. (Thomas Martin) Lindsay

You look everywhere for the heads of lions, elephants, dragons, and see only the four-angled ends of beams, and feel rather astonished than disappointed.
— from Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series by Lafcadio Hearn

Seeing him hesitate and half rise from the table, his opponent laughingly exclaimed, "Don't leave me, Beachcombe; I'm in the vein to-night—" "Unlucky in love, lucky at cards," sneered Beachcombe.
— from The Imprudence of Prue by Sophie Fisher

Having formed the habit of living each day as I come to it, I may run the whole gamut of moods from boiled down pessimism to overflowing thankfulness between sunup and sundown.
— from The Red Cow and Her Friends by Peter McArthur

"Dress was the stronghold and main province of fashion because imitation was easiest and most effective through dress, but in nearly everything that pertained to the habits of living, eating, drinking, recreation, to houses, furniture, horses and carriages, and servants, to the manner of bowing even, and shaking hands, to the mode of eating food and taking tea, and I don't know what else--there were fashions which must be followed, and were changed as soon as they were followed.
— from Equality by Edward Bellamy