‘I thought,’ sneered the dwarf, ‘that if a man played long enough he was sure to win at last, or, at the worst, not to come off a loser.’
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

SYN: Advent, coming, arrival, presence, apparition, aspect, Manifestatlon, probability, likeness, exhibition, mien, manner, semblance, air, show, look, pretense, likelihood, presumption.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

But now, after repeated attempts, in which he had not made the least impression towards gaining his point, at least for that time, the pleasure rose so fast upon him, that he could not check or delay it, and in the vigour and fury which the approaches of the height of it inspired him, he made one fierce-thrust, that had almost put me by my guard, and lodged it so far that I could feel the warm inspersion just within the exterior orifice, which I had the cruelty not to let him finish there, but threw him out again, not without a most piercing loud exclamation, as if the pain had put me beyond all regard of being overheard.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

Sometimes we find innkeepers refusing to receive the Methodist leaders in their inns, farmers entering into an agreement to dismiss every laborer who attended a Methodist preacher, landlords expelling all Methodists from their cottages, masters dismissing their servants because they had joined the sect.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

I do not wish to see any more places like Esdraelon, where the ground is level and people can gallop.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

`And thenketh wel, ye shal in Grekes finde, A more parfit love, er it be night, Than any Troian is, and more kinde, 920
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

He thus to me: "Such is this steep ascent, That it is ever difficult at first, But, more a man proceeds, less evil grows.
— from The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Purgatory, Complete by Dante Alighieri

And M. Phillippo Ludwigus Elich Quæst.
— from Discovery of Witches The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Potts, Thomas, active 1612-1618

Lady Charlotte was in a most variable frame of mind; one day hoping devoutly that the Langham affair might prove lasting enough in its effects to tire Hugh out; the next, outraged that a silly girl should waste a thought on such a creature, while Hugh was in her way; at one time angry that an [Pg 540] insignificant chit of a schoolmaster's daughter should apparently care so little to be the Duke of Sedbergh's niece, and should even dare to allow herself the luxury of snubbing a Flaxman; at another, utterly sceptical as to any lasting obduracy on the chit's part.
— from Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

If all goes well with you and him, and he marries you—don’t be alarmed; my plans lie elsewhere—when you are his wife tell him who helped to carry him away.
— from The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy

I should not, however, have thought it necessary to allude to this common charge against my writings, but that it happens to confirm some views I have long entertained, and which the reader will find glanced at in their proper place, respecting the necessity of a more practically logical education for our youth.
— from Modern Painters, Volume 3 (of 5) by John Ruskin

If three corps of the Prussian army should penetrate by the unguarded plateau of Rossomme, which was not improbable, Napoleon would be thrust from his line of retreat by Genappe, and might possibly lose even that by Nivelles.
— from The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo by Creasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir

that, unless I rise above my present lowly estate, that waxing young star, Miss Raleigh, will no longer—” “Ban!
— from Success: A Novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams