He was gratified with their manners: like most uncivilized women, they seemed at once tender of heart and tough of constitution; equally ready to die for their infants or fight for them.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

What's more, only cops could double-park in the middle of Van Ness street without getting towed by the schools of predatory tow-operators that circled endlessly, ready to enforce San Francisco's incomprehensible parking regulations and collect a bounty for kidnapping your car.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

It is evident in the first place, that this circumstance is not decisive; and though it may be able to diminish the passions, it is seldom it can entirely remove them.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

The price of malt to the brewer has constantly risen in proportion to the taxes imposed upon it; and those taxes, together with the different duties upon beer and ale, have constantly either raised the price, or, what comes to the same thing, reduced the quality of those commodities to the consumer.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Credo aliquis daemon subiens praecordia flammam Concitat, et raptam tollit de cardine mentem.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

[215] Regulus, in order not to break his oath, even with his most cruel enemies, returned to them from Rome itself, because (as he is said to have replied to the Romans when they wished to retain him) he could not have the dignity of an honourable citizen at Rome after having been a slave to the Africans, and the Carthaginians put him to death with the utmost tortures, because he had spoken against them in the senate.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Yet I could easily recognise this class of transgressions by the anguish of mind which preceded, as well as by the rigour of the punishment which followed them; and I knew that what I had just done was in the same category as certain other sins for which I had been severely chastised, though infinitely more serious than they.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

The highest good of those who follow virtue is common to all, and therefore all can equally rejoice therein. Proof.—To act virtuously is to act in obedience with reason (IV. xxiv.), and whatsoever we endeavour to do in obedience to reason is to understand (IV. xxvi.); therefore (IV. xxviii.)
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

Well, we can easily rectify the matter—that is one good thing.
— from A True Friend: A Novel by Adeline Sergeant

In September, 1830, another proposition was made for the removal of the tribe, but the national council emphatically refused to consider the subject.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

Branscombe had collected enough rope to make a three-inch hawser of two hundred and fifty feet in length, more than sufficient to reach from the top of the cliff to the beach, but the actual descent had not yet been attempted.
— from The Third Officer: A Present-day Pirate Story by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman

The greater part of the Sanhedrin were Sadducees, and they, as Josephus tells us, were men of a bloodthirsty character, ever ready to proceed to punish in the most cruel manner.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1 by George Thomas Stokes

In Onthophagus Taurus , these arms in their curvature exactly resemble those of the first of these animals [740] .
— from An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 3 or Elements of the Natural History of the Insects by William Kirby

However, she branched off into incredulity that Mrs. Joe Brownlow could ever really teach her children anything, for she was always tramping all over the country with them at all hours of the day and night.
— from Magnum Bonum; Or, Mother Carey's Brood by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

Steptoe's followers, unaware that his design had been discovered, and confident that they could easily reach the claim before Marshall and the surveyor, had lingered.
— from The Three Partners by Bret Harte

This fright which had taken possession of them was thus great, partly because of the natural superstitions which all Coreans entertain regarding the souls of dead persons, and also because the fact of being seen or found near these political criminals might in all probability lead to the loss of their heads as well.
— from Corea or Cho-sen: The Land of the Morning Calm by Arnold Henry Savage Landor

Later on each told his or her story once more, and a general conversation ensued regarding the future.
— from The Rover Boys on Land and Sea: The Crusoes of Seven Islands by Edward Stratemeyer

"My dear child!" exclaimed Ralph, "that was because you were so busy with your book.
— from The Girl at Cobhurst by Frank Richard Stockton

The Baron gazed at him for a moment with renewed doubts; but then he answered with a laugh, "Oh, I understand--you are not to be seen in the matter, of course; but you can easily remove the men from the bottom of the stairs, and leave the door unlocked."
— from The Castle of Ehrenstein Its Lords Spiritual and Temporal; Its Inhabitants Earthly and Unearthly by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

By the by, Captain Tuckey, of the Congo Expedition, remarked the 'extraordinary absence of sea-birds in the vicinity of Madeira and the Canaries:' they have since learned the way thither.
— from To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. I by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir