The advocates of the tinder-box-and-pedlar view considered the other side a muddle-headed and credulous set, who, because they themselves were wall-eyed, supposed everybody else to have the same blank outlook; and the adherents of the inexplicable more than hinted that their antagonists were animals inclined to crow before they had found any corn—mere skimming-dishes in point of depth—whose clear-sightedness consisted in supposing there was nothing behind a barn-door because they couldn't see through it; so that, though their controversy did not serve to elicit the fact concerning the robbery, it elicited some true opinions of collateral importance.
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

Every one of these relations is esteemed some tie, and gives a title to a share of our affection.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

At a bend in the road I experienced, suddenly, that special pleasure, which bore no resemblance to any other, when I caught sight of the twin steeples of Martinville, on which the setting sun was playing, while the movement of the carriage and the windings of the road seemed to keep them continually changing their position; and then of a third steeple, that of Vieuxvicq, which, although separated from them by a hill and a valley, and rising from rather higher ground in the distance, appeared none the less to be standing by their side.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

The roses which will be produced will have an odour much stronger and more agreeable than such as have not been thus treated, and the water distilled from these roses is equally superior to that prepared by means of ordinary rose leaves.—
— from The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, July-December, 1827 by Various

Colonel Crawford justly gives a preference to this opinion, for, if one of the parties obtain the victory, every thing favourable, seasonable rains, plentiful crops, and page 45 p. 45 fine weather, is augured for the remainder of the year; the reverse is expected should the opposite party gain an advantage.
— from An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha by Francis Hamilton

In some instances the revenue is exceedingly small: thus the kingdom of Portugal produces a less gross revenue than the city of Edinburgh: in no instance is the revenue, whether gross or net, so large as with us.
— from The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Hill, Rowland, Sir

Bake a table, the rest is empty, see the plate first, the first is distributed, see the arrangement the arrangement is in the curling Christmas.
— from Geography and Plays by Gertrude Stein

Since then I have absolutely refused to stay in the room if ever such talk is begun.
— from Eric, or Little by Little by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar

“There repassed into Europe,” says the French Canadian historian, F.X. Garneau, “about 185 officers, 2,400 soldiers valid and invalid, and fully 500 sailors, domestics, women [7] and children.
— from Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 2. Under British Rule, 1760-1914 by William H. (William Henry) Atherton

This work in the Anglo-French form having been extensively adopted, not only in Great Britain and on the Continent, but also in America, the publishers have determined to adapt it to other languages, and, by producing it in a more portable form, to render it equally suitable to the Tourist and the General Scholar.
— from Knowledge for the Time A Manual of Reading, Reference, and Conversation on Subjects of Living Interest, Useful Curiosity, and Amusing Research by John Timbs

She'll have [Pg_197]plenty to reform if ever she takes you for a husband."
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 86, February, 1875 by Various