For I ain't forgotten your handsome orders that I was never to go away without having had a good 'un off of meat and beer and pudding—no: there was four of 'em, for I reckoned 'em up when I had 'em; meat one, beer two, vegetables three, and which was four?—Why, pudding, he was four!'
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

The child who has never been deceived by flattery understands nothing of the fable I recently examined; but the rash youth who has just become the dupe of a flatterer perceives only too readily that the crow was a fool.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The finished kaloma , however, to use the words of one of my informants, “looked at her, the water swinging it to and fro; flashing its red eyes.”
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

Fourthly, When judged to represent the real Essence. (4) The mistake is yet greater, when I JUDGE that this complex idea contains in it the real essence of any body existing; when at least it contains but some few of those properties which flow from its real essence and constitution.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

His folly in repentance ends, Who, to a flatt’ring knave attends.
— from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes by Phaedrus

“And the little one, with small eyes framed in red eyelids, pared down and slashed up like a thistle head?” “‘Tis their horses that are worth seeing,” said Oudarde, “caparisoned as they are after the fashion of their country!”
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

To say the truth, by reason that we suck it in with our milk, and that the face of the world presents itself in this posture to our first sight, it seems as if we were born upon condition to follow on this track; and the common fancies that we find in repute everywhere about us, and infused into our minds with the seed of our fathers, appear to be the most universal and genuine; from whence it comes to pass, that whatever is off the hinges of custom, is believed to be also off the hinges of reason; how unreasonably for the most part, God knows.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

It was falling into ruins; every season the plaster which detached itself from its sides formed hideous wounds upon it.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Their staple food is rāgi ( Eleusine Coracana ).
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

The former is receiving evil things, and the latter is receiving good things, in this life.
— from Sermons to the Natural Man by William G. T. (William Greenough Thayer) Shedd

She asked me for information respecting each individual.
— from Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 6 Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen by Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette) Campan

A stiff black bombazine petticoat was surmounted by a black silk gown adorned with flowers in raised embroidery, and the train of the gown was pulled through the pocket-hole of the petticoat.
— from The Maidens' Lodge; or, None of Self and All of Thee (In the Reign of Queen Anne) by Emily Sarah Holt

Three strands are sufficient, which should not, when formed into rope, exceed one inch and two-thirds in thickness.
— from A System of Pyrotechny Comprehending the theory and practice, with the application of chemistry; designed for exhibition and for war. by James Cutbush

In consequence of these measures the whole property of the Masurel fund was found in 1803, when Napoleon began to overhaul the chaos to which the lunatics and plunderers of the Republic had reduced France, to amount to no more than 10,408 francs in real estate.
— from France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 by William Henry Hurlbert

They paid for it right enow, but they bought it cheap, lad—they bought it cheap, and they sold it at a good profit.
— from The Prophet's Mantle by E. (Edith) Nesbit

This is a serious fault in religious education.
— from How to Teach Religion Principles and Methods by George Herbert Betts

For information regarding England he was largely indebted to his colleagues in the English Survey, principally Green, Tiddeman, and Whitaker.
— from James Geikie, the Man and the Geologist by Marion I. (Marion Isabel) Newbigin

My brain must have been under a haze, for I repeated every charge she had made against him, not even sparing the accusation that he had remained out of the army and added to his brand by mavericking cattle.
— from A Texas Matchmaker by Andy Adams