But with due deference to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our school-boys, by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable, and to fatten them would not answer the charge.
— from A Modest Proposal For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick by Jonathan Swift

There is danger that our humble friend Tom be neglected amid the adventures of the higher born; but, if our readers will accompany us up to a little loft over the stable, they may, perhaps, learn a little of his affairs.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

There is a dangerous silence in that hour, A stillness, which leaves room for the full soul To open all itself, without the power Of calling wholly back its self-control; The silver light which, hallowing tree and tower, Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole, Breathes also to the heart, and o'er it throws A loving languor, which is not repose.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

One thing, it must run through entire humanity (this new word and meaning Solidarity has arisen to us moderns) twining all lands like a divine thread, stringing all beads, pebbles or gold, from God and the soul, and like God's dynamics and sunshine illustrating all and having reference to all.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

In serving this dish we were first given a little bowl half full of a sauce thickened and looking like a milk sauce.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey

Slow in remarking, he was logical in reasoning: having once seized the thread, it had guided him through a long labyrinth.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

The siege, resumed some time after, lasted longer than that of Troy, and each campaign was marked by fresh attempts on the part of the Turks to carry succor to their army and by naval victories gained by the Venetians.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

Mrs. Carrol seemed to find it so; the anxious look lifted a little as she listened, and when Christie ended she said, with a sigh of relief: "Yes, I think Miss Tudor is right, and you are the one we want.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

I keep faith with everybody; I do not render evil to those who wrong me, but I wish them a lot like mine, in which I receive neither evil nor good from men.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

At the threshold of the palace he found four cardinals who had arrived before him: two of them placed themselves one on each side of him, the two others behind him, and all his retinue following, they traversed a long line of apartments full of guards and servants, and at last arrived in the recep
— from The Borgias Celebrated Crimes by Alexandre Dumas

If the student has access to a large library he may go to the source quoted by Marshall: American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Vol.
— from The Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume V, 1914 by Various

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
— from The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War which Established the Independence of his Country and First President of the United States by John Marshall

The sun burst forth, and sucked up the mists along the meadow flats beside the river below them, and the water flashed and the birds sang. 'Here will we stay,' said the queen, who felt happy with the sunlight upon her, and the smell of the forest blowing out from the trees, 'and though we shall not see the killing, we shall hear the horns when they sound, and we shall hear the dogs when they are let loose and begin to cry so eagerly.'
— from King Arthur's Knights The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls by Henry Gilbert

Should you wish to take a long lease, and enlarge it, I shall be happy.
— from The Nest Builder: A Novel by Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale

Six months after every tenant had moved but the liquor dealer; and even his bar-room had sunk to a lower level.
— from The Leaven in a Great City by Lillian William Betts

But the thought that at long last we were free did not let us rest long.
— from Gun running for Casement in the Easter rebellion, 1916 by Karl Spindler

And then, at long length, there came a day of horrid dread for her, a day when she found herself bereft of her influence with her royal lover, when pleadings and railings failed alike to sway him.
— from The Historical Nights' Entertainment: Second Series by Rafael Sabatini