There was a mutter of conversation from the next room.
— from The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

But this description, I confess, does by no means affect the British nation, who may be an example to the whole world for their wisdom, care, and justice in planting colonies; their liberal endowments for the advancement of religion and learning; their choice of devout and able pastors to propagate Christianity; their caution in stocking their provinces with people of sober lives and conversations from this the mother kingdom; their strict regard to the distribution of justice, in supplying the civil administration through all their colonies with officers of the greatest abilities, utter strangers to corruption; and, to crown all, by sending the most vigilant and virtuous governors, who have no other views than the happiness of the people over whom they preside, and the honour of the king their master.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

41 As long as the yoke of Rienzi was that of justice and their country, their conscience forced them to esteem the man, whom pride and interest provoked them to hate: his extravagant conduct soon fortified their hatred by contempt; and they conceived the hope of subverting a power which was no longer so deeply rooted in the public confidence.
— 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

He tells me that jasper Trice and Lewes Phillips and Mr. Ashfield are gone from Brampton, and he thinks chiefly from the height of Sir J. Bernard’s carriage, who carries all things before him there, which they cannot bear with, and so leave the town, and this is a great instance of the advantage a man of the law hath over all other people, which would make a man to study it a little.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Instead of it even—as a woman reads another—she could see what I myself saw: his derision, his amusement, his contempt for the breakdown of my resignation at being left alone and for the fine machinery I had set in motion to attract his attention to my slighted charms.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The servant takes Hugo aside to tell him something, and Hagar changes the cups for two others which are harmless.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Master said, 'The business of laying on the colours follows (the preparation of) the plain ground.' 3. 'Ceremonies then are a subsequent thing?'
— from The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics) by Confucius

[Translated by John H. Wigmore under the title "Causes for the Variation of Jural Phenomena in General," in Evolution of Law , III, 182-97.] (5) Bryce, James.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

For my part, if it be not with me as I would, or as it should, I do ascribe the cause, as [2035] Cardan did in the like case; meo infortunio potius quam illorum sceleri , to [2036] mine own infelicity rather than their naughtiness: although I have been baffled in my time by some of them, and have as just cause to complain as another: or rather indeed to mine own negligence; for I was ever like that Alexander in [2037] Plutarch, Crassus his tutor in philosophy, who, though he lived many years familiarly with rich Crassus, was even as poor when from, (which many wondered at) as when he came first to him; he never asked, the other never gave him anything; when he travelled with Crassus he borrowed a hat of him, at his return restored it again.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

He knew me as well as I knew him; and so, in the cold, faint twilight, with a glimmer in the high glass and another on the polish of the oak stair below, we faced each other in our common intensity.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

But, sir, in 1854, notwithstanding the pledges which had been given in 1850, notwithstanding the quiet of the country, when no man was agitating the slavery question; when no petitions came from the states, counties, cities, or towns, from villages or individuals, asking a disturbance of former compromises; when all was quiet, of a sudden a proposition was sprung in this chamber to unsettle the very questions which had been put to rest by the compromises of 1850.
— from The Life of Lyman Trumbull by Horace White

In the same way do we call the grocer's attention to the omission of a pound of butter on our weekly books, but skilfully conceal from the income-tax assessor a number of interesting facts.
— from Public School Life: Boys, Parents, Masters by Alec (Alexander Raban) Waugh

A number of our bayonets were bent like reaping-hooks next morning; and all around where that noble Christian fell, the enemy lay thick, one on the top of the other.
— from A Soldier's Experience; or, A Voice from the Ranks Showing the Cost of War in Blood and Treasure. A Personal Narrative of the Crimean Campaign, from the Standpoint of the Ranks; the Indian Mutiny, and Some of its Atrocities; the Afghan Campaigns of 1863 by T. (Timothy) Gowing

Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.
— from The Forgery; or, Best Intentions. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

A short time afterwards, the Christian army received into its ranks Crusaders from Milan, Pisa, and Genoa, and prelates and archbishops conducted a crowd of defenders of the cross, who came from the various provinces of Germany, and from France and Italy.
— from The History of the Crusades (vol. 2 of 3) by J. Fr. (Joseph Fr.) Michaud

That comes under my chain of command from the local office which has the matter at hand.
— from Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

"This continual fear of death at last became insupportable to me, and, therefore, no sooner were we crawling up a rather steep hill, and consequently proceeding slower than usual, then I carefully crept from the top of the coach, and was lucky enough to get myself snugly ensconced in the basket behind.
— from The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer With an Introductory History of Roads and Travelling in Great Britain by Samuel Smiles

A great stimulus had now been given to the general desire to reach India by sea; for the Turks were overrunning Egypt (1512-1520) and despoiling the caravans from the East, so that the manufactures and trade of western Europe were sadly crippled.
— from The Colonies, 1492-1750 by Reuben Gold Thwaites

His argument was, that the prisoner had not committed any great crime; that had he conspired against his chief for the purpose of placing himself in authority, it would have been a different affair.
— from The Giraffe Hunters by Mayne Reid

"The religion of the Egyptians must be gathered chiefly from the sculptures and paintings.
— from The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 by Various