If human life was so artlessly constructed that every one respected this cruel and dishonest inspector who stole the Government flour, and his health and salvation were prayed for in the schools, was it just to shun such men as Von Koren and Laevsky, simply because they were unbelievers?
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In the Golden Age, which poets speak of, they were so greatly beneficial to the husbandman in tilling the fallow ground that no violence was ever offered them, and it was even thought a crime to eat them: The Iron Age began the fatal trade Of blood, and hammer’d the destructive blade; Then men began to make the ox to bleed,
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Although it is also certain that even in this intervening period there have been and are some soldiers of Christ so wise and strong, that if they were to be alive in this mortal condition at the time of his loosing, they would both most wisely guard against, and most patiently endure, all his snares and assaults.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

No husbands and wives,” with so interesting a consciousness, that Emma began to consider whether she had not better leave them together at once.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

The second night after crossing the equator, we had the watch from eight till twelve, and it was "my helm" for the last two hours.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

His foster-brother, who wanted him to keep this resolution, invited three young courtiers, as wicked as himself to sup with the Prince, and they persuaded him to drink a great deal of wine, and continued to excite his anger against Celia by telling him that she had laughed at his love for her; until at last, in quite a furious rage, he rushed off to find her, declaring that if she still refused to marry him she should be sold as a slave the very next day.
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Over and above the direct contribution to straight news or intelligence, enemy propaganda in times of war or crisis affords a clue to enemy strategy.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, 50 and the timid, inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy.
— 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

But such disputes may not only arise concerning the real existence of property and possession, but also concerning their extent; and these disputes are often susceptible of no decision, or can be decided by no other faculty than the imagination.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

We made a call this evening on the archbishop in his own palace, an enormously large building; a sort of street, like this Casa de Moneda.
— from Life in Mexico by Madame (Frances Erskine Inglis) Calderón de la Barca

The second series of wheels, C D, are attached to cylinders of the same dimensions of those in the first row, and are connected to each other by intervening pinions, whereby a uniform velocity is maintained through the whole series.
— from Scientific American magazine Vol 2. No. 3 Oct 10 1846 The Advocate of Industry and Journal of Scientific, Mechanical and Other Improvements by Various

A pair of thick black eyebrows almost covered the eyes of him; his look had in it something ominous, presage of the fate he met with: a tawny skin, torn by small-pox, increased his ugliness.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 06 by Thomas Carlyle

Even after having gathered an abundant harvest from long studies and profound meditations, he still feels the need of a guide to direct his steps—of a means, available at all times, and competent to enable him to subordinate the appetitive to the intellectual faculties, and to cause the will to follow the judgments of the mind rather than those of the heart.
— from A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth by Isaac Samuel Reggio

It took nearly half a century to erect a monument to George Washington in the City founded by him, named for him, and by his act made the Capital of the Nation; the Government completed it.
— from The Hudson Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention by Wallace Bruce

But a counts them every night when's desart's done.
— from Mary's Meadow, and Other Tales of Fields and Flowers by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

The executioner and soldiers, after having accomplished their bloody work, and converted the execution-ground for the time being into a shambles, retraced their steps to the nearest wine-shop, where the rest of the night was spent in drinking and gorging.
— from Corea or Cho-sen: The Land of the Morning Calm by Arnold Henry Savage Landor

The remainder of Peter Taylor’s story, so far as it respects Mr. Smith, all concurs to establish the same fact.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Even a very narrow porte, not a quarter the width of the tongue, will suffice, when pressure is used, to defeat this defence, and completely to engage the tongue within the porte.
— from Hints on Horsemanship, to a Nephew and Niece or, Common Sense and Common Errors in Common Riding by George Greenwood

He still painted portraits, though exclusively of those who belonged to aristocratic circles, the entrée of which he had obtained through his wife, and in these his work was always considered as full of genius, but real art critics did not think much of them, and they were little noticed by the public.
— from Hermann: A Novel by E. Werner