“You don’t believe we shall make a revolution? We are going to make such an upheaval that everything will be uprooted from its foundation.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"In the same manner," says he, "as some children always remain pygmies, whose infant limbs have been too closely confined, thus our tender minds, fettered by the prejudices and habits of a just servitude, are unable to expand themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned greatness which we admire in the ancients; who, living under a popular government, wrote with the same freedom as they acted."
— 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

John never asked to see it; but she always insisted on his doing so, and used to enjoy his masculine amazement at the queer things women 345 wanted, and made him guess what "piping" was, demand fiercely the meaning of a "hug-me-tight," or wonder how a little thing composed of three rosebuds, a bit of velvet, and a pair of strings, could possibly be a bonnet, and cost five or six dollars.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
— from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

Each must hie to her own home; wend you we might do all these journeys in one so brief life as He hath appointed that created life, and thereto death likewise with help of Adam, who by sin done through persuasion of his helpmeet, she being wrought upon and bewrayed by the beguilements of the great enemy of man, that serpent hight Satan, aforetime consecrated and set apart unto that evil work by overmastering spite and envy begotten in his heart through fell ambitions that did blight and mildew a nature erst so white and pure whenso it hove with the shining multitudes its brethren-born in glade and shade of that fair heaven wherein all such as native be to that rich estate and—” “Great Scott!”
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

We had thus most delicious orgies every Sunday afternoon, until the end of October of the following year, when my sisters had finished their schooling, and I, too, had left college, entered at the Middle Temple, and had been for three months in a conveyancer’s office, reading up previous to being called to the bar.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

The carpet reached close to the sill, and under the edge of the carpet she discerned the faint white margin of the envelope containing her letter to him, which he obviously had never seen, owing to her having in her haste thrust it beneath the carpet as well as beneath the door.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

"God alone knows what change misery and sorrow and love and death have accomplished in me; never have I stood so alone upon this earth; never have I cared so for life, never have I so desired to be a deathless part of yours.
— from Ailsa Paige: A Novel by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

The existence of such agencies under the Empire would have excited little comment.
— from France in the Nineteenth Century by Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer

There had been five or six of these fellows altogether, and they had either been surprised and unable to escape, or had shut themselves up in desperation in a small room, one of many looking out on the court.
— from The History of the Indian Revolt and of the Expeditions to Persia, China and Japan, 1856-7-8 by George Dodd

Reginald darted a fierce glance at Ferrers, but not being able to substantiate an accusation against him, remained silent, and, under the eye of Hamilton and his friend Trevannion, the remainder of the evening passed in a way more befitting the high places in the school which the young gentlemen held; but Louis had been so much interrupted, and was so much excited and unsettled by the noise and unwonted scenes, that when Dr. Wilkinson came at nine to read prayers, he had hardly prepared one of his lessons for the next day.
— from Louis' School Days: A Story for Boys by E. J. (Edith J.) May

Mr Harding explained to the lawyer that he knew nothing of this, although he had heard in a roundabout way that such an intention had been talked of; and he also at length succeeded in making Sir Abraham understand that even this did not satisfy him.
— from The Warden by Anthony Trollope

This is the opinion, not only of the French and English who were at Murshidabad when the troubles began, but of the English officials who went there later on and made careful inquiries amongst all classes of people in order to ascertain the real reason of Siraj-ud-daula's attack upon the English.
— from Three Frenchmen in Bengal The Commercial Ruin of the French Settlements in 1757 by Samuel Charles Hill

“Nor is it necessary to scour the country for evidence, since Messrs. Hunt, Parry, & Co. recognize such a usage themselves, even if they do not follow it.
— from A Battle of the Books, recorded by an unknown writer for the use of authors and publishers To the first for doctrine, to the second for reproof, to both for correction and for instruction in righteousness by Gail Hamilton

As the name Green Leek is practically in universal use for the Musk Lorikeet (Green Keet) of the ornithologist, it seems desirable to sink an inappropriate name into a synonym, and use the earlier name, Superb Parrot, for it is a beautiful bird.
— from An Australian Bird Book: A Pocket Book for Field Use by John Albert Leach

The lines are all now soft and undulatory, though elastic; the sharp incisions have become deeply-gathered 316 folds; the hollow of the leaf is expressed completely beneath, and its edges are touched with light, and incised into several lobes, and their ribs delicately drawn above.
— from The Stones of Venice, Volume 1 (of 3) by John Ruskin