The Athenians regularly maintained a number of degraded and useless beings at the public expense; and when any calamity, such as plague, drought, or famine, befell the city, they sacrificed two of these outcast scapegoats.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

A rich mind and noble spirit will cast over the humblest home a radiance of beauty which the upholsterer and decorator can never approach.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

"Might anybody ask what their brother has been saying?" said Solomon, in a soft tone of humility, in which he had a sense of luxurious cunning, he being a rich man and not in need of it.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

The fully developed gang appears to possess a restricted membership, a natural leader, a name—usually that of a leader or a locality—a body of tradition, custom and a ritual, a rendezvous, a territorial area which it holds as a sort of possession and defends against invasion by other groups.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

What had been a rare monopoly as narrow as Judaism, he made the inheritance {162} of all Asia.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis

This is the worse, as I hoped all the worst was over; and that I had the pleasure of beholding a reclaimed man, and not an abandoned libertine.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

“I think of myself as a ruined man and nothing more.”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“Yes,” said Valentine, “I will now acknowledge you are right, Maximilian; and now are you satisfied with your betrothal?” said the young girl sorrowfully.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

Στάδιον, ου, τό, pl. στάδια & στάδιοι, pr. a fixed standard of measure; a stadium, the eighth part of a Roman mile, and nearly equal to a furlong, containing 201.45 yards, Lu. 24.13, et al.; a race-course, a race, 1 Co. 9.24.
— from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield

It is true, hadst thou entered their abode, thou mightst not have found thy foolish ideal of an heroic, extravagant virtue, which is only the fanciful creation of your vices and your pride; but thou wouldst have seen the man of a retiring modesty and noble resignation, who in his obscurity excels in virtue and true grandeur of soul your boasted heroes of field and cabinet.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
— from A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ Based on the Broadus Harmony in the Revised Version by A. T. Robertson

At the same time he apprised the Emperor, that a woody country on his left might favour attempts against his flank and rear; that his first line, backed against a ravine, might be precipitated into it; that in short the position which he occupied, in advance of a defile, was dangerous, and rendered a retrograde movement absolutely necessary.
— from History of the Expedition to Russia Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 by Ségur, Philippe-Paul, comte de

More wisdom being required to direct one's course in the complex relations of the city, more are bewildered, misled, overwhelmed; vast and powerful currents of crime and of waste are generated, and restorative measures are needed to counteract them.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 08, October, 1868, to March, 1869. by Various

From what at first was sheer murk, there comes out a long procession of human figures, infinitely various in form and thought, in character and act; a group of men and women, eager, passionate, indifferent; tender and ravenous, mean and noble, humorous and profound, jovial with prosperity or half-dumb with misery, skirting the central tragedy, or plunged deep into the thick of it, passers-by who put themselves off with a glance at the surface of a thing, and another or two who dive to the heart of it.
— from Studies in Literature by John Morley

This post is by appointment for three years, and, as a rule, men are not reappointed, but von Rottenburg was enjoying his fourth term when Bismarck went out of office.
— from Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Life by Mrs. (Ethel) Alec-Tweedie

And so it happened that, in despite of the rare and vast faculties just allowed him, he was constantly found applying them to subjects distasteful if not disgraceful, and allowing the results to be sicklied over with a persistent "soot-wash" of pessimism which was always rather monotonous, and not always very impressive.
— from A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by George Saintsbury

His opinion will be frequently asked relative to plantation matters, and respectfully listened to, but it is required they be given in a polite and respectful manner, and not urged, or insisted upon; and if not adopted, he must carry into effect the views of the employer, and with a sincere desire to produce a successful result.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 4 by United States. Work Projects Administration

Japan and Russia mutually agree not to construct in their respective possessions on the Island of Saghalin or the adjacent islands any fortification or other similar military works.
— from The Japan-Russia War: An Illustrated History of the War in the Far East by Sydney Tyler

Her warmest wish now was to abridge the period of her novitiate, which, at her desire, the Church had already rendered merely a nominal probation.
— from Leila or, the Siege of Granada, Book V. by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron