Before us lay some picturesque ruins, which betrayed the hand of man and not that of the Creator.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

He began his march along the road towards the sea, and encamped near the temple of Herakles, as though he intended to sail round to the other side of the enemy's camp, and so surround him: but when the soldiers had supped, and it was dark, he explained his real plan to his officers, marched all night away from the sea, and halted his men for rest near the temple of Apollo.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

-17- VIII She ruled in beauty o’er this heart of mine, A noble lady in a humble home,
— from Fifteen sonnets of Petrarch by Francesco Petrarca

Allât there was, and Saba, the Host of Heaven, Al Uzza, and Manah the stony one, for whom the blood of victims flowed, and Wadd and Sawâ, and Yaghûth the Lion of the dwellers in Yaman, and Yäûk the Horse of Morad, and Nasr the Eagle of Hamyar; ay, and many more.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

In short, if it be not considered as the history of man; and not of particular men, who filled a niche in the temple of fame, and dropped into the black rolling stream of time, that silently sweeps all before it, into the shapeless void called eternity.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

"I'd best go and talk to the hermit,"—and so he strolled off out of the hum of men, and noise, and clatter of the banquet, into the dark walk, at the end of which lived that well-known pasteboard Solitary.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

What we mean is rather that no matter how long we searched the sea waves, in which it is the essence of our Tritons to disport themselves, we should never find Tritons there; and that if we traced back the history of man and nature we should find them always passing by natural generation out of slightly different earlier forms and never appearing suddenly, at the fiat of a vehement Jehovah swimming about in a chaos; and finally that if we considered critically our motives and our ideals, we should find them springing from and directed upon a natural life and its functions, and not at all on a disembodied and timeless ecstasy.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Toward the piano they both shyly glanced For she would sing to him on many a night, And the child seated in the fading light Would listen strangely as if half entranced,
— from Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

“There were two and now there’s a third human being, a new spirit, finished and complete, unlike the handiwork of man; a new thought and a new love … it’s positively frightening.…
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

As the only eye of the bellringer peered into that horizon of mist and night, he felt within him an inexpressible uneasiness.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

They are most powerfully impressed with admiration and gratitude towards the splendid talents and brilliant acquirements that have achieved so momentous and important a discovery, unparalleled in the history of mining, and not surpassed by any discovery of the present age; and they hope that, whilst the tribute of applause and glory is showered down upon those who invent the weapons of destruction, this great and unrivalled discovery for preserving the lives of our fellow-creatures, will be rewarded by some mark of national distinction and honour.
— from The Life of Sir Humphrey Davy, Bart. LL.D., Volume 2 (of 2) by John Ayrton Paris

" The Head of Medusa ; a novel, by the author of "Kismet" and "Mirage.
— from How to Travel Hints, Advice, and Suggestions to Travelers by Land and Sea all over the Globe. by Thomas Wallace Knox

"And how's Granma been getting on?" "—aging rapidly ... " a pause, " ... hasn't got either of the two houses on Mansion Avenue now ... sold them and divided the money among her children ... gave us some ... and Millie ... and Lan ... wouldn't hear of 'no' ... " parenthetically, "Uncle Joe didn't need any; he's always prospered since the early days, you know."
— from Tramping on Life An Autobiographical Narrative by Harry Kemp

It was my example that brought that girl into the House of Martha, and now that she has vowed to devote her life and her work to its service I shall not desert her.
— from The House of Martha by Frank Richard Stockton

For, it is certain that these philosophers had been a long time before searching out where to fix the true happiness of man; and, not being able to agree upon any certainty about it, they could not possibly but conclude, if they judged impartially, that all their enquiries were, in the end, but vain and fruitless; the consequence of which must be not only an acknowledgment of the weakness of all human wisdom, but likewise an open passage hereby made, for the letting in those beams of light, which the glorious sunshine of the Gospel then brought into the world, by revealing those hidden truths, which they had so long before been labouring to discover, and fixing the general happiness of mankind beyond all controversy and dispute.
— from The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 04 Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church — Volume 2 by Jonathan Swift

In these islands they have three harvests of mace and nutmegs every year; in the months of July, October, and February; but the gathering in July is the greatest, and is called the arepootee monsoon.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 by Robert Kerr

So in the history of men and nations, while we remain immersed in the study of personal incidents and details, as what such a statesman said or how many men were killed in such a battle, we may quite fail to understand what it was all about, and we shall be sure often to misjudge men's characters and estimate wrongly the importance of many events.
— from The War of Independence by John Fiske

As far as this may be taken for granted, it may be said that the providence of God brought this about for several very wise ends and purposes; for it is certain that these philosophers had been a long time before searching out where to fix the true happiness of man; and not being able to agree upon any certainty about it, they could not possibly but conclude, if they judged impartially, that all their inquiries were in the end but vain and fruitless, the consequence of which must be not only an acknowledgment of the weakness of all human wisdom, but likewise an open passage hereby made for letting in those beams of light which the glorious sunshine of the Gospel then brought into the world, by revealing those hidden truths which they had so long before been labouring to discover, and fixing the general happiness of mankind beyond all controversy and dispute.
— from Three Prayers and Sermons by Jonathan Swift

It is, however, no mere superstition that in summer there occur almost daily thunderstorms at this spot, about the hour of midday, and numerous cairns of stones round the shores attest the fact that many people have here found their death by lightning.
— from Transylvanian Superstitions From: The Nineteenth Century (Vol. 18), London, July-December 1885, pp. 130-150 by E. (Emily) Gerard