“Are we to have nothing to-night?” said one of them, with a low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as though there were some living thing within it.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

when listening, his own tongue was at last loosened, and the ice of his heart broke.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Her nakedness yielded to him, radiant, warm, odorous and lavish-limbed, enfolded him like a shining cloud, enfolded him like water with a liquid life; and like a cloud of vapour or like waters circumfluent in space the liquid letters of speech, symbols of the element of mystery, flowed forth over his brain.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Metals can not only be kept with as little loss as any other commodity, scarce any thing being less perishable than they are, but they can likewise, without any loss, be divided into any number of parts, as by fusion those parts can easily be re-united again; a quality which no other equally durable commodities possess, and which, more than any other quality, renders them fit to be the instruments of commerce and circulation.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

a profound veneration; that this Word was known to but few; that it was at length lost; and that a temporary substitute for it was adopted.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

Very well, I shall have to wait a little longer, and then you will have to forgive me if I resort to force.
— from Uncle Vanya: Scenes from Country Life in Four Acts by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

But whatever it was, I must confess that I was a little lonely as I went away.
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey

It was a little like a scorpion, but was not a scorpion, but far more horrible, and especially so, because there are no creatures anything like it in nature, and because it had appeared to me for a purpose, and bore some mysterious signification.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Soldier now returned with a long line and tied all three firmly together, also lashing them to the body of the Saw-Horse; so there seemed little danger of their tumbling off.
— from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

"In his day he was a leading lion, and some time or another I will tell you his history.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

It was a little lighter, as if dawn might be coming, but the cold was bitterer, and benumbing more than paining him.
— from Magnum Bonum; Or, Mother Carey's Brood by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

"It may be in the morning, When the sun is bright and strong, And the dew is glittering sharply Over the little lawn; When the waves are laughing loudly Along the shore, And the littl
— from Religious Poems, Selected by Various

His horse, a stout mustang of fourteen hands high, carried the simple trappings of the plains—the saddle of Indian workmanship, the bridle, a single rein and small snaffle with a long larêt attached, and from the neck was suspended the leather band by means of which the rider could lay his length along the horse’s flank farthest from his enemy while he launched his arrows beneath the animal’s neck, as he galloped furiously in lessening circles around his foe.
— from Red Cloud, the Solitary Sioux: A Story of the Great Prairie by Butler, William Francis, Sir

Joe nodded, and the big car turned and crept silently away, while Ravenslee, trundling onward, turned off to the left and so into a very large, exceedingly neat garage where stood five or six automobiles of various patterns in one of which, a luxurious limousine, an old, old man snored blissfully.
— from The Definite Object: A Romance of New York by Jeffery Farnol

Words are like leaves, and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
— from The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 by Alexander Pope

My mother related to me, when I was a little lad and used to burrow in her carved oak treasure chest and beg for stories of the articles it contained, many fascinating tales of those two school years, a pretty colour coming to her cheeks as she told of the dances learned together, pas-de-deux and minuet, from old 'Doctor' Shaffer, who was at the time second violin of the Boston Theatre, as well as authority in the correct methods of bowing and courtesying for gentlewomen.
— from People of the Whirlpool From The Experience Book of a Commuter's Wife by Mabel Osgood Wright

That same Cora is called after one of the stylishest ladies ever you saw, Mrs. Underwood, which she is dead now, but, when she was alive, looked like a duchess.
— from Making Over Martha by Julie M. Lippmann