Tobacco was used as a sacred incense or as the guarantee of a solemn oath in nearly every important function—in binding the warrior to take up the hatchet against the enemy, in ratifying the treaty of peace, in confirming sales or other engagements, in seeking omens for the hunter, in driving away witches or evil spirits, and in regular medical practice.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

An old woman is the only person I can speak about it with.
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka

The temporary cottage corresponds fairly closely to the ordinary type of permanent industrial cottage, save that the former is built of wood or concrete and is usually one story instead of two; it contains three to five rooms, and is rented on the basis of about 5 s. 6 d. to 7 s. 6 d. per week for a three-roomed abode.
— from The Woman's Part: A Record of Munitions Work by L. K. Yates

You're the only person I can stand within a mile of me, Harold. HAROLD.
— from The Eldest Son by John Galsworthy

Perhaps I did not keep it quite dry, but I carried it into the house, and laid it down before the gardener and his wife, who were the only persons I could see on the premises.
— from Cat and Dog; Or, Memoirs of Puss and the Captain by Julia Charlotte Maitland

A True Account of a Strange and Wonderful Relation of one John Tonken, of Pensans in Cornwall, said to be Bewitched by some Women: two of which on Suspition are committed to Prison , London, 1686.
— from A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 by Wallace Notestein

"If I have spoken of the serious aims of many teachers of piano, I cannot say as much for the students: they are often superficial and want to go too quickly; they are apt to be in a hurry and want to make a show, without being willing to spend the necessary years on preparation.
— from Piano Mastery: Talks with Master Pianists and Teachers by Harriette Brower

We find, then, if we take a wider view than was open to Clausewitz and submit his latest ideas to the test of present imperial conditions, so far from failing to cover the ground they gain a fuller meaning and a firmer basis.
— from Some Principles of Maritime Strategy by Julian Stafford Corbett

The figure which illustrates the "Britannica" article—and which has been copied into a popular book on puzzles, accompanied by the remark that it is "a feeble thing"—unfortunately departs from the official plan in certain small but important details; it allows of an almost direct passage from a third external opening to the circular goal.
— from Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and Development by W. H. Matthews

"The only people I can speak to are the Parsons," she told her husband, plaintively.
— from The Hero by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham