"We entered the log house: the inside is quite unlike that of the cottages of the peasantry of Europe: it contains more than is superfluous, less than is necessary.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Even across immemorial generations it is impossible to read without emotion the legend of the Descent of Ishtar into Hades.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

The Nature of Exposition In the word "expose"— to lay bare, to uncover, to show the true inwardness of —we see the foundation-idea of "Exposition."
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

the colour of the plumage of this bird is unifomly a pure white except the large feathers of the extremities of the wings which are black.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

He and his wife earned their living as costermongers in the market-place.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

That rare and elegant luxury was censured, in the reign of Tiberius, by the gravest of the Romans; and Pliny, in affected though forcible language, has condemned the thirst of gain, which explores the last confines of the earth, for the pernicious purpose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies and transparent matrons.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

I was endeavouring to lay it on for the third time, when he moved aside and desired, with a certain petulance, to be informed if I thought I was a ruddy osteopath.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

He was endeavouring to lug the struggling brute back with the strength of one arm, while with the other he slashed aimlessly.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Samuel Laing says that "the Laplander in his skin dress, and in a skin bag which he puts over his head and shoulders, will sleep night after night on the snow... in a degree of cold which would extinguish the life of one exposed to it in any woollen clothing."
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

On the other side, it was contended that in case of an 289 abolition the delegates or their constituents would be taxed just in proportion to their distance from the seat of Congress,—which was neither just nor politic, considering the many other disadvantages which were inseparable from that distance; that, as the correspondence of the delegates was the principal channel through which a general knowledge of public affairs was diffused, any abridgment of it would in so far confine this advantage to the States within the neighborhood of Congress, and that as the correspondence at present, however voluminous , did not exclude from the mail any private letters which would be subject to postage, and if postage was extended to letters now franked the number and size of them would be essentially reduced, the revenue was not affected in the manner represented.
— from Foot-prints of a letter carrier; or, a history of the world's correspondece by James Rees

Each school adopted its master's dicta with the undiscriminating loyalty of youth; and the scholars of other teachers, by steadily taking it for granted that Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher like the Rabbis they knew, would have half persuaded His followers that there was something in common between Him and the Doctors who expounded the Law.
— from Pastor Pastorum; Or, The Schooling of the Apostles by Our Lord by Henry Latham

We eat to live in the John Grier Home.
— from Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

After that, it was easy to laugh and go ahead in a world that could always be counted upon to feed the most unsatisfied sense of humour.
— from Rebel women by Evelyn Sharp

Being a bi-weekly and not having much job printing to do, it was evident that Las Nuevas did not work overtime.
— from Starr, of the Desert by B. M. Bower

And how could this law be expected to stand, when even the law of 1800 (which was in reality a bankrupt law) could not stand; but was, in the first year of its operation, condemned by the whole country?"
— from Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2) or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850 by Thomas Hart Benton

There were no sheets nor pillows for the boys—the corporal was the only one who enjoyed these luxuries, and he had provided them himself.
— from Ten years in the ranks, U.S. Army by Augustus Meyers

"I saw myself," added a young weaver, "a Pagan at Hieropolis, who was eating the liver of a deacon!"
— from The Death of the Gods (Christ and Antichrist, 1 of 3) by Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky

Our DAY being over, my orchestra was enabled to look and walk around.
— from The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy by Brillat-Savarin

Ay, 'tis because your ladyship wears 'em too long; for indeed a gown, like a gallant, grows one's aversion by having too much of it.
— from William Wycherley [Four Plays] by William Wycherley