[That is, cutting up the army into regiments, companies, etc., with subordinate officers in command of each.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi

As in Rome Christians were thrown to the lions, so centuries earlier in Otumwee, the most ancient and famous city of the world, female heretics were thrown to the mice.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

“I am a practical man,” he said, “and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking for a left-handed gentleman with a game-leg.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

Because every substance, being as apt, by the powers we observe in it, to change some sensible qualities in other subjects, as it is to produce in us those simple ideas which we receive immediately from it, does, by those new sensible qualities introduced into other subjects, discover to us those powers which do thereby mediately affect our senses, as regularly as its sensible qualities do it immediately: v. g. we immediately by our senses perceive in fire its heat and colour; which are, if rightly considered, nothing but powers in it to produce those ideas in US: we also by our senses perceive the colour and brittleness of charcoal, whereby we come by the knowledge of another power in fire, which it has to change the colour and consistency of WOOD.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

Its yellow rays partially illumined the spacious kitchen, dying duskily away into remote corners, except where they settled in mellow radiance on the broad side of a flitch of bacon or were reflected back from well-scoured utensils that gleamed from the midst of obscurity.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

I held her hand and pointed to the long surf-wave as it rolled calmly on the beach in an unbroken line of silver; we were silent together till its deep and peaceful murmur had swept by us.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

In some places, it is said, 12 the Valaiyans will eat almost anything, including rats, cats, frogs and squirrels.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

In this case, all the springs of the State are vigorous and simple and its rules clear and luminous; there are no embroilments or conflicts of interests; the common good is everywhere clearly apparent, and only good sense is needed to perceive it.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

[530] This time varies from one observer to another, but its average is remarkably constant, as the following table shows.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

By this fleet, European commodities were brought from Panama, together with quicksilver for the mines of La Paz, Oruro La Plata, or Chuguizaca, Potosi , and Lipes ; and in return carried to Lima the king's fifth of the silver drawn from the mines.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10 Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time. by Robert Kerr

Her dark brown hair, with gleams of flitting gold, Her queenly head encircles as a crown; A wealth of hair whose careless waves enfold The quivering sunlight, and its rays chain down.
— from Love or Fame; and Other Poems by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick

Legs such as mine are extremely prized in my country; in fact, they are only to be found in those of the blood royal, and I really could not consent to part with such a very strong mark; indeed, perhaps, the only mark of royalty about my person."
— from Tales of the Wonder Club, Volume I by M. Y. Halidom

At the same session a law was passed confiscating the property of certain British subjects for the endowment of an institution of learning in Kentucky, "it being the interest of this commonwealth," to quote the language of the philosophic Legislature, "always to encourage and promote every design which may tend to the improvement of the mind and the diffusion of useful knowledge even among its remote citizens, whose situation in a barbarous neighborhood and a savage intercourse might otherwise render them unfriendly to science."
— from Abraham Lincoln: a History — Volume 01 by John G. (John George) Nicolay

"Yes," I answered, "I really couldn't have left the baby with anyone else."
— from Paris Vistas by Helen Davenport Gibbons

An Indian Rajah came here a year or two since for a grand hunt, and in two days captured twenty-four.
— from From Egypt to Japan by Henry M. (Henry Martyn) Field

The air is rather cool for sitting outside but we spend much time there.
— from The Houseboat Book: The Log of a Cruise from Chicago to New Orleans by W. F. (William Francis) Waugh