THE FOX AND THE LEOPARD THE MISER THE HUNTER AND THE WOODMAN THE HORSE AND THE ASS AESOP'S FABLES THE FOX AND THE GRAPES A hungry Fox saw some fine bunches of Grapes hanging from a vine that was trained along a high trellis, and did his best to reach them by jumping as high as he could into the air.
— from Aesop's Fables; a new translation by Aesop

This day, by the blessing of God, I have lived thirty-one years in the world; and, by the grace of God, I find myself not only in good health in every thing, and particularly as to the stone, but only pain upon taking cold, and also in a fair way of coming to a better esteem and estate in the world, than ever I expected.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A great army was at that time assembled on the banks of the Rhine, under the command of the emperor himself, who, almost immediately after his return from the Persian war, had been obliged to march against the barbarians of Germany.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Sometimes he was studious; sometimes he was merry: but whether busy with his books or disposed for play, it was chiefly the books or game he thought of; not much heeding those with whom he read or amused himself."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

No ordinary metal was the steel, it was what was over after making the bolt of God’s Ka’abah (at Meccah).
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

The form in which the legend appears in the Book of Genesis presents one side in which it is simple and natural.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

“We’ll arrive after they have had their tea, and they’ll have all the bother of getting ours over again.”
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

He thought it should be a pleasant life enough, driving along the roads every evening to deliver milk, if he had warm gloves and a fat bag of gingernuts in his pocket to eat from.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

For that which may possibly be of greatest advantage to men in need would naturally be honoured by them above all other things.
— from History of the Wars, Books III and IV The Vandalic War by Procopius

With a burst of gratitude, of triumph, of exultation, she stood erect.
— from Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France by Stanley John Weyman

One spirit, and one form capable of such modification as its directing spirit shall think fit; one soul and one body, one God and one Life.
— from God the Known and God the Unknown by Samuel Butler

Meantime I spent all my available time in loitering around newspaper offices and picking up such stray bits of gossip as were offered.
— from The Filigree Ball Being a full and true account of the solution of the mystery concerning the Jeffrey-Moore affair by Anna Katharine Green

MY LORD:—You must often have been surprised at the immense wealth which, from the best and often authentic information, I have informed you our generals and public functionaries have extorted and possess; but the catalogue of private rapine committed, without authority, by our soldiers, officers, commissaries, and generals, is likewise immense, and surpassing often the exactions of a legal kind that is to say, those authorized by our Government itself, or by its civil and military representatives.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various

He wound his arm round her, and gently drew her head back on his bosom, “Other girls have done it, darling,” he pleaded, “why shouldn’t you?”
— from Miss or Mrs.? by Wilkie Collins

We passed block after block of "gents'" furnishing stores—the windows full of shirts with prices attached and cuffs inside.
— from Whirligigs by O. Henry

These mauls may vary from three to five inches in diameter, and will be found to be the most convenient sort of tool for breaking the dry clay before it is dampened, and they will also be of great service in beating the clay down, for the fireplace and hearth.
— from New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades by Daniel Carter Beard

Our canoe was sometimes jammed between two blocks of granite.
— from Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt