In one, the Bear-prince lurking in his fountain holds by the beard the king who, while hunting, tries to quench his thirst, and releases him only after a promise to deliver up whatever he has at home without his knowledge; the twins, Ivan and Maria, born during his absence, are thus doomed—are concealed, but discovered by the bear, who carries them away.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

I own I never could envy Didius in these kinds of fancies of his:—But every man to his own taste.—Did not Dr. Kunastrokius, that great man, at his leisure hours, take the greatest delight imaginable in combing of asses tails, and plucking the dead hairs out with his teeth, though he had tweezers always in his pocket?
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

I am prepared to do my part, and am very grateful to you."
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In those terrible days of September, 1792, when the French people were proclaiming universal humanity, the duke was seized as an aristocrat by the mob at Gisors and put to death behind his own carriage, in which sat his mother and his wife, at the very place where, some six centuries previously, his ancestor had been taken prisoner in a fair fight.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld

Having thus surprised the town, they behaved with a conspicuous want of caution, which eventually saved the people of Aegira, and proved the destruction of the Aetolians themselves.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

Totski, who was living abroad at this time, very soon forgot all about the child; but five years after, returning to Russia, it struck him that he would like to look over his estate and see how matters were going there, and, arrived at his bailiff’s house, he was not long in discovering that among the children of the latter there now dwelt a most lovely little girl of twelve, sweet and intelligent, and bright, and promising to develop beauty of most unusual quality—as to which last Totski was an undoubted authority.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He bought me, at last, and promised to do all he could to find and buy back my children.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Now some may, perhaps, find a pretext to deny this regular union and connexion.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

But it will easily be imagined, that where the present evil strikes with more than ordinary force, it may entirely engage our attention, and prevent that double sympathy, above-mentioned.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Though very remote traditions of it exist, there are no records of its having been discovered in any of the histories of India until the reign of Akbur, when many of its votaries were seized and put to death.
— from Confessions of a Thug by Meadows Taylor

And in Plotinus and Proclus the deification of mere reason is at any rate the dominant note; whatever protests the larger Greek nature in the former may from time to time offer.
— from Hegel's Philosophy of Mind by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Relatively few men have secured control of the great industries of the country, and are thereby in a position to dictate who shall work at these industries, and as to the wages and conditions under which the work shall be done.
— from Twentieth Century Socialism: What It Is Not; What It Is: How It May Come by Edmond Kelly

“I do not understand you, Jane,” replied Helen coldly; “how could you injure Mr. Bayard, or have any connection with any plot to do him harm?”
— from A Singular Life by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

We landed at the broad stairs, and passing the desolate court, with its marble pillars and statues green with damp and neglect, ascended the "giant's steps," and found the warder waiting for us, with his enormous keys, at the door of a private passage.
— from Pencillings by the Way Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in Europe by Nathaniel Parker Willis

Her education in an English school had internationalized her—her wide knowledge of books, in all the literatures of Europe, her familiarity with the best of art, poetry, the drama and music—had made of her a delightful, ever surprising traveling companion.
— from The Ghost Breaker: A Novel Based Upon the Play by Charles Goddard

Who will go drive with Fergus now, And pierce the deep wood's woven shade, And dance upon the level shore?
— from Poems by W. B. (William Butler) Yeats

You can’t expect agreeable people to do it.
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Sometimes the peasant group may assemble, may organize its militia, and perhaps temporarily defeat the nimble enemy; but mobilization is too slow and supplies to be brought into the desert too costly for the peasants.
— from The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically by Franz Oppenheimer