The four chief sins of which he was guilty were dancing, ringing the bells of the parish church, playing at tipcat, and reading the History of Sir Bevis of Southampton. A Rector of the school of [William] Laud would have held such a young man up to the whole parish as a model. But [John] Bunyan's notions of good and evil had been learned in a very different school; and he was made miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples.

He sported long red hair, starting to thin, a red beard, sandals, loose kaftanlike shirts splotched with colors, sometimes a gold chain around his neck.

If you’re on the top floor of, say, the 1,667-foot-tall Taipei 101, you could find yourself swaying back and forth abruptly, a total of up to 2 feet within five seconds. Highly barfogenic.

I have formed many intimacies and friendships here, but I am afraid they are all of too tender a construction to bear carriage a hundred and fifty miles.