Prescribe water to a Breton of threescore and ten; shut a seaman up in a stove; forbid a Basque footman to walk: you will deprive them of motion, and in the end of air and light:
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

What have these pests of the earth been doing to you ? Come in, and speak up.’
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

"What makes you think so, Mother?" "She sits alone a good deal, and doesn't talk to her father as much as she used.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Divisive propaganda is designed to split apart the component subgroups of the enemy and thereby reduce the effectiveness of the enemy group considered as a single unit.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

The crops were destroyed, houses washed away, and shelterless men and cattle forced to take refuge on scattering elevations here and there in field and forest, and wait in peril and suffering until the boats put in commission by the national and local governments and by newspaper enterprise could come and rescue them.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

DEAR WAT, Every day is now big with incident and discovery—Young Mr Dennison proves to be no other than that identical person whom I have execrated so long, under the name of Wilson—He had eloped from college at Cambridge, to avoid a match that he detested, and acted in different parts of the country as a stroller, until the lady in question made choice of a husband for herself; then he returned to his father, and disclosed his passion for Liddy, which met with the approbation of his parents, though the father little imagined that Mr Bramble was his old companion Matthew Loyd.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

" Accordingly, they exhorted the multitude to have a care, lest they should be brought to destruction by their means, and to make their apology to the Romans for what had been done, by delivering these men up to them; who being thus apprized of the greatness of the danger they were in, complied with what was proposed, and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and seized upon them; and indeed six hundred of them were caught immediately: but as to all those that fled into Egypt 18 and to the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere they were caught also, and brought back, whose courage, or whether we ought to call it madness, or hardiness in their opinions, every body was amazed at.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

And he that knows not this is not armed to endure it, is not fit to live in this world (as one condoles our time), he knows not the condition of it, where with a reciprocalty, pleasure and pain are still united, and succeed one another in a ring.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

This must be the sign for you to rush in, pluck down the Chao standards and set up the red banners of Han in their stead."
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi

Whensoever a power of any kind shall be able to make a whole people co-operate in a single undertaking, that power, with a little knowledge and a great deal of time, will succeed in obtaining something enormous from the co-operation of efforts so multiplied.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Women along the line of officers' quarters and women among the humbler homes of the married soldiers went flitting from door to door gathering in wide-eyed, gossiping groups, "For the colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady Are sisters under their skins."
— from A Soldier's Trial: An Episode of the Canteen Crusade by Charles King

And show us how to set about It.’” “There ought to be some more,” said Edred—rather impressed, all the same.
— from The House of Arden: A Story for Children by E. (Edith) Nesbit

“Yesterday we have been in the Prater, and saw many people, and some that Papa knew; and then came the most interesting part of all, sitting under the trees in the rain for two hours because we could not get a carriage (very exciting).
— from Villa Rubein, and Other Stories by John Galsworthy

“Poppa you are swelling up!”
— from Wild Honey: Stories of South Africa by Cynthia Stockley

“It can fill the cup with hot air and scorch us to death,” Frank said, uneasily.
— from Boy Scouts in the Northwest; Or, Fighting Forest Fires by G. Harvey (George Harvey) Ralphson

England ist fur viele ‘der’ Feind an sich, und em
— from Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View by Price Collier

For this, as the drum beat, he threw aside his buffalo robe and sprang upon the floor, brandishing his tomahawk and shield, and sounding the frightful war-whoop, which called his warriors up around him.
— from Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2) being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection by George Catlin

Instances in the Acts shew us in what way the Spirit acted in the hearts of believers.
— from Pastor Pastorum; Or, The Schooling of the Apostles by Our Lord by Henry Latham

Events happened, as will be seen, to prevent this taking place and to combine all Scandinavia under one great queen.
— from Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 09 (of 15), Scandinavian by Charles Morris