It seemed to me that I never had heard the town-clock strike before, nor the evening sounds of the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were inside the grating.
— from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

There is no hint yet of vision being exploited for itself, but only in so far as it yielded material to stimulate this mental idea of the exterior world.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

There is no happiness in this world without a competency.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

There is not, however, the shadow of a clew apparent.”
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe

They say that the Fig Tree, as well as the Bay Tree, is never hurt by lightning; as also, if you tie a bull, be he ever so mad, to a Fig Tree, he will quickly become tame and gentle.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

''Tis as I feared!' said He; 'There is no hope.' 'No hope?' exclaimed the Monks with one voice; 'Say you, no hope?' 'From the sudden effects, I suspected that the Abbot was stung by a Cientipedoro: The venom which you see upon my Lancet confirms my idea: He cannot live three days.'
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

There is no hardihood which does not shudder and which does not feel the vicinity of anguish.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The keepers, ten in number, having been suddenly overpowered, were first well tarred, then—carefully feathered, and then shut up in underground cells.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Here let me say that I never heard an unkind word spoken among the women all the way across the plain.
— from History of California by Helen Elliott Bandini

“Oh, there is no hurry,” she answered.
— from Doctor Pascal by Émile Zola

The little plant of which she spoke, the climbing syringa, which was given to her as a special favour by the man in charge of the Borda Gardens, reached San Francisco in good condition and took most kindly to its new home.
— from The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

Who then is going to say Nay to his temptations if not his conscience?
— from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad

The larger charity which we find in Tolstoi and the great teachers is not here.
— from Old and New Masters by Robert Lynd

and if it had never been given, may we not conclude that it never had been intended to be given?
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

You are quite ready to believe that ‘There is no hunger, heat, nor cold, But pleasure every way .’
— from The Gates Ajar by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Kovroff's "boys" employed this "instrument" with wonderful dexterity; one of them generally stole up behind the unconscious victim and skillfully slapped the mask in his face; the victim at once became dumb and blind, and panted from lack of breath; at the same time, if necessary, his hands were tied behind him and he was leisurely robbed, or held, as the case might be.
— from The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales Including Stories by Feodor Mikhailovitch Dostoyevsky, Jörgen Wilhelm Bergsöe and Bernhard Severin Ingemann by Various

The opening between them is nearly half a mile wide; but the water being shallow, the road is well sheltered on the west side, and the opposite main coast lies not further off to the east than three miles; so that N. E. is the sole quarter whence much swell can come.
— from A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2 Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner by Matthew Flinders