For we know how commonly wild animals and plants, when taken from their natural conditions and subjected to captivity, are rendered sterile; and the reproductive functions of organic beings which have always lived under natural conditions would probably in like manner be eminently sensitive to the influence of an unnatural cross.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

He came along singing the ballad that says— Ill did ye fare, ye men of France, In Roncesvalles chase— "May I die, Sancho," said Don Quixote, when he heard him, "if any good will come to us to-night!
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“I will grant his poetical ability but not his learning, for he ridiculed the system of Copernicus, and said that if his theories were followed astronomers would not be able to calculate lunations or eclipses.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This was the state of things till Caesar took the stoutest of his horsemen, and attacked the enemy, while he himself slew twelve of those that were in the forefront of the Jews; which death of these men, when the rest of the multitude saw, they gave way, and he pursued them, and drove them all into the city, and saved the works from the fire.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

And when he had brought him into a wood with such a resolution, and his friends desired him to kill Mithridates, he soon told them his own mind to the contrary, and said that it was not right to kill a man who was of one of the principal families among the Parthians, and greatly honored with matching into the royal family; that so far as they had hitherto gone was tolerable; for although they had injured Mithridates, yet if they preserved his life, this benefit would be remembered by him to the advantage of those that gave it him; but that if he were once put to death, the king would not be at rest till he had made a great slaughter of the Jews that dwelt at Babylon; "to whose safety we ought to have a regard, both on account of our relation to them, and because if any misfortune befall us, we have no other place to retire to, since he hath gotten the flower of their youth under him."
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

Though shored by spear and crozier, All know the arrant cheat, And shun the square of pavement Uncertain at his feet!
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

Dantès examined the various articles shown to him with the same attention that he had bestowed on the curiosities and strange tools exhibited in the shops at Marseilles as the works of the savages in the South Seas from whence they had been brought by the different trading vessels.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

A true English heart breathes, calm and strong, through the whole business; not boisterous, protrusive; all the better for that.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

These thrifty coolies are said to be acquiring land a trifle at a time, and cultivating it; and may own the island by and by.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

When the meeting was in progress, he rose in the midst of the company and said that he had no money which he could give, but he had raised two fine hogs, and that he had brought one of them as a contribution toward the expenses of the building.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

Of course after sousing the poor girl I had to be attentive to her, hadn't I?
— from Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott

How many times before this passion for excitement, which you speak of, took possession of me, did I come to you in your study, in which you isolated yourself so, and tried, in numberless little ways, to show you how sorely I needed you—tried to make our sorrow a common one, tried to make you realize that I needed your company and sympathy to save me from the thoughts which seemed to be wearing away my very life.
— from A Lover in Homespun And Other Stories by F. Clifford (Frank Clifford) Smith

[Pg 81] One day, a painter who had been a student during the keepership of Wilton, called and said, "The students, sir, don't draw so well now as they did under Joe Wilton."
— from Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art, (Vol. 2 of 3) by Shearjashub Spooner

My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

Get as far from it as you can, and stay there while I am alive.
— from The Art of Disappearing by John Talbot Smith

[Pg xi] PREFACE Of all the peoples upon whom this war has brought calamity and suffering, the Armenian people have had the most to endure.
— from Armenia and the War by A. P. (Avetoon Pesak) Hacobian

It was with hearts much cheered and strengthened that the comrades went forth from Ticonderoga.
— from French and English: A Story of the Struggle in America by Evelyn Everett-Green

Mr. Evelyn, in his Diary, thus notices p. 29 them: “I made my Lord Cheyney a visit at Chelsea, and saw those ingenious water-works invented by Mr. Winstanley, in which were some things very surprising and extraordinary.”
— from Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times by George Bryan

Regardless of whether or not provision is made for periodical resubmission of the question of calling a convention, the constitutions usually provide that the legislature may, of its own volition, submit to a vote of the people the question whether a convention shall be called, and subject to any existing constitutional limitations, may prescribe the time and manner of electing delegates to such convention.”
— from The Short Constitution by William F. (William Fletcher) Russell

He greatly preferred "Robinson Crusoe" and "Sinbad" to the construing of Latin.
— from Elson Grammar School Literature v4 by William H. (William Harris) Elson