The whole of nature and life, when they are understood at all, have to be understood on an opposite principle, on the principle that fate, having naturally furnished us with a determinate will and a determinate endowment, gives us a free field and no favour in a natural world.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

The process of development in this country will be more easily understood when it is remembered that the Marshal or Earl Marshal was in former times, with the Lord High Constable, the first in military rank under the King, who usually led his army in person, and to Page 28 {28} the Marshal was deputed the ordering and arrangement of the various bodies of troops, regiments, bands of retainers, &c., which ordering was at first facilitated and at length entirely determined by the use of various pictorial ensigns, such as standards, banners, crests, cognisances, and badges.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest end being out of the ground above five feet and a half, and sharpened on the top.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

He that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

See therefore in the whole series and connection of thy thoughts, that thou be careful to prevent whatsoever is idle and impertinent: but especially, whatsoever is curious and malicious: and thou must use thyself to think only of such things, of which if a man upon a sudden should ask thee, what it is that thou art now thinking, thou mayest answer This, and That, freely and boldly, that so by thy thoughts it may presently appear that in all thee is sincere, and peaceable; as becometh one that is made for society, and regards not pleasures, nor gives way to any voluptuous imaginations at all: free from all contentiousness, envy, and suspicion, and from whatsoever else thou wouldest blush to confess thy thoughts were set upon.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

‘But I have a fancy for a fire, nevertheless.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

When he was only a few feet away, Father Milon dragged himself across the road, moaning: “Hilfe! Hilfe!”
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

His stay [Pg xviii] at Limoges was short, and we soon after find him dividing his time between Paris and Château-Thierry, sometimes alone, and sometimes with Madame de La Fontaine, who at first frequently accompanied him in his excursions.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

The bees and fireflies flit and twinkle in their vast hives; curved clouds like the breath of gods hover between the towers and the moon.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

Chicot patted her on the back in a friendly fashion and then sat down by her on a stool.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

After having alighted, unsaddled their horses, and having assured themselves by a minute search that they had nothing to fear from the ears of any spy, they stretched themselves on the grass, and, free from all care, lit their puros, which they began to smoke with great gusto.
— from The Flying Horseman by Gustave Aimard

Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
— from Donald Ross of Heimra (Volume 2 of 3) by William Black

We paid in rent twelve florins a month, or barely ten shillings between us; add to this, for washing, candles, and morning coffee (a tiny cup at six in the morning, before starting to work), another four florins, and our united expenses for these necessaries did not exceed thirteen shillings per month.
— from A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France by William Duthie

Only four or five years ago a Genovese explorer unearthed, near the route of the Suez Canal, this very city; found several ruined monuments with the name of the city plainly inscribed on them, "Pi Tum," and excavating still further uncovered a ruin of which the following is Mr. Rawlinson's description: "The town is altogether a square, inclosed by a brick wall twenty-two feet thick, and measuring six hundred and fifty feet along each side.
— from Who Wrote the Bible? : a Book for the People by Washington Gladden

To give herself a minute’s reprieve she went up to her room, sat down before her writing-table, and laid aside the mask of composure which she wore in Chabert’s presence, like an actress who, returning to her dressing-room after a fatiguing fifth act, drops half dead, leaving with the audience an image of herself which she no longer resembles.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

A couple of days later the peaked and thickly-wooded shores of Tercera were first visible, and the armada coasting along, to the mortal terror of the Portuguese, who were parceled out in companies to defend the accessible points, and miserably ignorant where the Spaniards would make their descent, came to anchor off St. Catherine, where about fifty French and twice as many Portuguese were drawn up to oppose the landing.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850 by Various

As for for As to .
— from Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults by Ambrose Bierce

Some of those which came within the reach of my observations are as follows:— First, A piece of ground beyond Goswell Street, near Mountmill, being some of the remains of the old lines or fortifications of the city, where abundance were buried promiscuously from the parishes of Aldersgate, Clerkenwell, and even out of the city.
— from History of the Plague in London by Daniel Defoe

Some were always to be found squatting on their door-steps cursing the hour which had seen them depart for this land; some wrestled and fought on the common, for a fist fight with a fair field and no favor was a favorite amusement of the backwoodsmen.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill