Luzio, a young nobleman and juvenile scape-grace (tenor), seems inclined to thrust himself forward as leader of the mob, and at once finds an occasion for playing a more active part in the cause of the oppressed people on discovering his friend Claudio (also a tenor) being led away to prison.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

You could not call her handsome, but there was altogether an appearance of face, expression, and person that might well be styled a fine woman.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

When Cleopatra saw that her son was grown great, and laid Judea waste, without disturbance, and had gotten the city of Gaza under his power, she resolved no longer to overlook what he did, when he was almost at her gates; and she concluded, that now he was so much stronger than before, he would be very desirous of the dominion over the Egyptians; but she immediately marched against him, with a fleet at sea and an army of foot on land, and made Chelcias and Ananias the Jews generals of her whole army, while she sent the greatest part of her riches, her grandchildren, and her testament, to the people of Cos 34 Cleopatra also ordered her son Alexander to sail with a great fleet to Phoenicia; and when that country had revolted, she came to Ptolemais; and because the people of Ptolemais did not receive her, she besieged the city; but Ptolemy went out of Syria, and made haste unto Egypt, supposing that he should find it destitute of an army, and soon take it, though he failed of his hopes.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

It is a contribution to truth, an array of facts, the perusal of which it is hoped will stimulate this great American Republic to demand that justice be done though the heavens fall.
— from Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

It has ever been my belief, contrary to the opinion of many, and particularly of La Boetie, that those whom we see so subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end, or oppressed with the length of the disease, or by accident of an apoplexy or falling sickness, “Vi morbi saepe coactus Ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu, Concidit, et spumas agit; ingemit, et tremit artus; Desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat, Inconstanter, et in jactando membra fatigat;” [“Often, compelled by the force of disease, some one as thunderstruck falls under our eyes, and foams, groans, and trembles, stretches, twists, breathes irregularly, and in paroxysms wears out his strength.”—Lucretius, iii. 485.] or hurt in the head, whom we hear to mutter, and by fits to utter grievous groans; though we gather from these signs by which it seems as if they had some remains of consciousness, and that there are movements of the body; I have always believed, I say, both the body and the soul benumbed and asleep, “Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae,”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

But the principal object of my life seems to have been accomplish'd—I have the most devoted and ardent of friends, and affectionate relatives—and of enemies I really make no account.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The "Sanspareil" made an average of fourteen miles an hour, but as it burst a water-pipe it lost its chance.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Fewer than any race whose presence among us is noticeable, they receive daily an amount of favorable publicity which would be impossible did they not have the facilities for creating and distributing it themselves.
— from The International Jew : The World's Foremost Problem by Anonymous

And Leslie, if you have an atom of filial feeling, you might show him the way instead of standing there like a classical figure of despair on a monument smiling at a bloody temple.
— from The Red House on Rowan Street by Lily A. (Lily Augusta) Long

After another obvious failure Pinkey said gloomily: "If I put in half the time and thought trying to be a Senator that I do figgerin' how to git a bottle, I'd be elected."
— from The Dude Wrangler by Caroline Lockhart

The big sun-hat shaded her face and enabled her to maintain an aspect of fresh, delightful coolness.
— from Gold Out of Celebes by Aylward Edward Dingle

"'Then do you remember our pleasant walks to Enfield, and Potter's Bar, and Waltham when we had a holiday—holidays and all other fun are gone now we are rich—and the little hand-basket in which I used to deposit our day's fare of savory cold lamb and salad,—and how you would pry about at noontide for some decent house where we might go in and produce our store—only paying for the ale that you must call for—and speculated upon the looks of the landlady, and whether she was likely to allow us a table-cloth, and wish for such another honest hostess as Izaak Walton has described many a one on the pleasant banks of the Lea when he went a-fishing—and sometimes they would prove obliging enough and sometimes they would look grudgingly upon us—but we had cheerful looks still for one another, and would eat our plain food savorily, scarcely grudging Piscator his Trout Hall?
— from Mary Lamb by Anne (Anne Burrows) Gilchrist

An audience of fluttering fans and wrinkled shirt collars—the evening was warm under the gas-lights—sensuous, indolent, already amused with itself.
— from Hilda: A Story of Calcutta by Sara Jeannette Duncan

But now I be took to the right side again, here comes my Little Billy, and an order for three harries!"
— from Perlycross: A Tale of the Western Hills by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

The town is Catholic, and we have managed to build a Catholic church; we do not allow any other form of worship, and we hope to convert by our example the many sects which surround us.
— from The Village Rector by Honoré de Balzac

But do not think that by praising these I am disparaging the others; all I mean to say is that the penances of those of the present day do not come up to the asceticism and austerity of former times; but it does not follow from this that they are not all worthy; at least I think them so; and at the worst the hypocrite who pretends to be good does less harm than the open sinner.”
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

It is designed for the most part as an amusing occupation for idle hours.
— from American Men of Mind by Burton Egbert Stevenson

A marine crustacean larger than a shrimp, much esteemed as an article of food.
— from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth