A high-spirited young lady and a musical Polish patriot made a likely enough stock for him to spring from, but I should never have suspected a grafting of the Jew pawnbroker.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

The procedure obviously does not in itself contain anything evidential, but it may at least excite suspicion and thus caution, and that, in many cases, is enough.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

Leaving too much to the moment is taking a long chance and generally means a less effective speech, if not a failure.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

When a designer, following his own automatic impulse, conventionalises a form, he makes a legitimate exchange, substituting fidelity to his apperceptive instincts for fidelity to his external impressions.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Indeed, I believe every one, for a moment at least, experienced something like shame, from having either proposed or countenanced an extravagance so useless and frivolous.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

I said to one, a noble specimen of physical manhood and latent energy: "Sir, your actions are unmanly; hope, even in your case, has not bidden the world farewell; cheer up, sir—just before dawn the darkness is the deepest."
— from Memoirs of Orange Jacobs by Orange Jacobs

His dream of perfect happiness was their lovely old home with Ellen as its mistress and long evenings spent together by the open fire.
— from The Camp Fire Girls on a Yacht by Margaret Love Sanderson

“As they’ve made a loss ever since they’ve been in business, there’s nothing to prevent their recouping themselves now, on paper, by charging practically whatever they like.
— from Jacob's Ladder by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

Having read it over again, he meditated a little, exclaiming several times emphatically, "My darling Isobel," and then he read bits of it here and there; having done which, he read the other bits, and so got through it again.
— from The World of Ice by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

We didn't talk much 'bout Mr. Abbieham Lincum endurin' slavery time kazen we was skeered of him atter the war got started.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration

“Well, I didn’t faint, but I almost collapsed from sheer fright lest I couldn’t make a loud enough sound to be heard by you people.”
— from The Man Who Fell Through the Earth by Carolyn Wells

In accordance with this theory, if we take a thermo-electric pair consisting of a non-corrodible metal and an electrolyte (the two being already electro-polar by mutual contact), and heat one of their points of contact, the molecular motions of the heated end of each substance at the junction are altered; and as thermo-electric energy in such combinations usually increases by rise of temperature, the metal and liquid, each singly, usually becomes more electro polar.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 443, June 28, 1884 by Various

“That’ll make a little excitement,” said Nidia.
— from John Ames, Native Commissioner: A Romance of the Matabele Rising by Bertram Mitford