He was a stern, gaunt man, with a harsh voice, and an aggressive manner, but he had the merit of knowing how to assimilate the ideas of other men, and to pass them on in a way which was intelligible and even interesting to the lay public, with a happy knack of being funny about the most unlikely objects, so that the precession of the Equinox or the formation of a vertebrate became a highly humorous process as treated by him.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Poor fool: that was all he knew about it!
— from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw

A person acquainted with the true principles of this science, who preserves his Dharma (virtue or religious merit), his Artha (worldly wealth) and his Kama (pleasure or sensual gratification ), and who has regard to the customs of the people, is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks by Vatsyayana

A king observed a flock, wide spread Upon the plains, most admirably fed, O'erpaying largely, as return'd the years, Their shepherd's care, by harvests for his shears. Such pleasure in this man the monarch took,-- 'Thou meritest,' said he, 'to wield a crook O'er higher flock than this; and my esteem O'er men now makes thee judge supreme.' Behold our shepherd, scales in hand, Although a hermit and a wolf or two, Besides his flock and dogs, were all he knew!
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

They came into the sitting-room from the flowers on the battlements, and met the ones from the flowers inside the room, and almost, thought Mrs. Wilkins, could be seen greeting each other with a holy kiss.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

They will become, for a certainty, either actors of note or courtesans of notoriety; as instanced in former years by Hsü Yu, T'ao Ch'ien, Yuan Chi, Chi Kang, Liu Ling, the two families of Wang and Hsieh, Ku Hu-t'ou, Ch'en Hou-chu, T'ang Ming-huang, Sung Hui-tsung, Liu T'ing-chih, Wen Fei-ching, Mei Nan-kung, Shih Man-ch'ing, Lui C'hih-ch'ing and Chin Shao-yu, and exemplified now-a-days by Ni Yün-lin, T'ang Po-hu, Chu Chih-shan, and also by Li Kuei-men, Huang P'an-cho, Ching Hsin-mo, Cho Wen-chün; and the women Hung Fu, Hsieh T'ao, Ch'ü Ying, Ch'ao Yün and others; all of whom were and are of the same stamp, though placed in different scenes of action."
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

With Lodge himself, as scholar, fellow instructor, co-editor of the North American Review , and political reformer from 1873 to 1878, he had worked intimately, but with him afterwards as politician he had not much relation; and since Lodge had suffered what Adams thought the misfortune of becoming not only a Senator but a Senator from Massachusetts--a singular social relation which Adams had known only as fatal to friends--a superstitious student, intimate with the laws of historical fatality, would rather have recognized him only as an enemy; but apart from this accident he valued Lodge highly, and in the waste places of average humanity had been greatly dependent on his house.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

So Sir Bors let him go, and his wife fled away with all her knights.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

For the laws affecting the seen world he claimed the sanction of seen powers; for the unseen (of which he knows nothing save that it exists and is powerful) he appealed to the unseen power (of which, again, he knows nothing save that it exists and is powerful) to which he gives the name of God.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

[62] XV Why a Hawk kills Chickens In the olden days there was a very fine young hen who lived with her parents in the bush.
— from Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa by Elphinstone Dayrell

“My dearest girl, of course I know, but not half so well as he knows!
— from Aurora the Magnificent by Gertrude Hall Brownell

Heedless of the glass in front of him, of the terrified woman at his knees, Harding raised his revolver and fired.
— from The Rider of Waroona by G. Firth Scott

Hector of the Stags was awake; his keen, everywhere-roving eyes were upon them, seconded by the keen, all-hearkening ears of Rob of the Angels.
— from What's Mine's Mine — Complete by George MacDonald

He was a tall, dark, not very young man; and the best hand at making fire-balloons, mending toys, and making a broken wax doll as good as new with a hot knitting needle, that you can imagine.
— from Melchior's Dream and Other Tales by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

I’m only a poor ignorant old woman, and He knows it; but He took the pains to make me, and He’ll not have forgot it; and Ermine says He died for me, and I’m sure He could never forget that, if He did it.
— from One Snowy Night Long ago at Oxford by Emily Sarah Holt

Grandpa Seeley could do little nowadays except sit in the sun in summer and nod before the stove in winter, but his mind had not decayed when his body weakened, and he knew as much as anyone else about the west.
— from The Lost Wagon by Jim Kjelgaard

All foreign intercourse was carried on in his name, and in the main directed by him; Parliament was called, prorogued, and adjourned at his will, and he kept at least a negative control over its actions.
— from The American Nation: A History — Volume 1: European Background of American History, 1300-1600 by Edward Potts Cheyney

Nurse can say we will make her some if you like," said the rector, who always humoured Kitty's fancy for taking sick people especially under her wing.
— from The Village by the River by H. Louisa Bedford