The Arab continued to unite the professions of a merchant and a robber; and his petty excursions for the defence or the attack of a caravan insensibly prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia.
— 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

The two wanted to make a fire beneath the tree, and suffocate the bees in order to take away the honey, but Simpleton again stopped them and said, "Leave the creatures in peace, I will not allow you to burn them."
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

Thus (to repeat a former example), a people in a state of savage independence, in which every one lives for himself, exempt, unless by fits, from any external control, is practically incapable of making any progress in civilization until it has learned to obey.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

At the east end of this church, in place of the old cross, is now a water-conduit placed.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

So, while the Filipino people has not sufficient energy to proclaim, with head erect and bosom bared, its rights to social life, and to guarantee it with its sacrifices, with its own blood; while we see our countrymen in private life ashamed within themselves, hear the voice of conscience roar in rebellion and protest, yet in public life keep silence or even echo the words of him who abuses them in order to mock the abused; while we see them wrap themselves up in their egotism and with a [361] forced smile praise the most iniquitous actions, begging with their eyes a portion of the booty—why grant them liberty?
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal

The gentleman at whose request we had come in, perceiving by my disconsolate looks the situation of my heart, which well nigh burst with grief and resentment, when the other stranger got up, and went away with my money, began in this manner:—“I am truly afflicted at your bad luck, and would willingly repair it, were it in my power.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

A few of the graver and more attentive warriors, who caught the gleams of anger that shot from the eyes of the young chief in passing, followed him to the place he had selected for his meditations.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

For some of them, as the CARTESIANS in particular, having established it as a principle, that we are perfectly acquainted with the essence of matter, have very naturally inferred, that it is endowed with no efficacy, and that it is impossible for it of itself to communicate motion, or produce any of those effects, which we ascribe to it.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

These people, instead of being paid by the seigneurs, bought from them these hereditary offices in their families, an inheritance that at times became odd by the contrast it presented between the function and the incumbent.
— from The Pilgrim's Shell; Or, Fergan the Quarryman: A Tale from the Feudal Times by Eugène Sue

He knew nothing of the desperate scrawl on the bottom flap of that envelope that his own hasty grab had jerked off and left in my fist; nothing of the deuce of hearts that made its crazy inscription pitifully sane to me now; and nothing in particular about me, Nicky Stretton.
— from The La Chance Mine Mystery by Susan Morrow Jones

Northern Alberta, including the Athabaska and Peace countries treated of in the chapters immediately preceding, is generally considered, and properly, as forming part of the Great Mackenzie Basin, and that it has been in this volume considered as separate from the immense region on both sides of the Mackenzie, surrounding Great Slave lake, and on both sides of Slave river from Fort Smith to its mouth at the lake in question, is due to the purpose, previously expressed, of treating as separate geographical units regions possessing particular characteristics either of location, soil, climate or natural resources.
— from The Unexploited West A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada by Ernest J. Chambers

This beautiful timid creature is often wantonly cut into pieces by its cruel and mistaken captors, for they credit it with the possession of evil propensities.
— from Welsh Folk-Lore a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales by Elias Owen

In the main it is a story of peace, with descriptions of cities, islands, palaces, strange lands, and peaceful arts and manners.
— from Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics In the Grades of the Common School by Charles A. (Charles Alexander) McMurry

And so said the law in its first institution: therefore plurality of wives first came into practice by the seed of cursed Cain, and for a time was suffered in the world through the hardness of man's heart.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

So far as I have at present heard, he is a man for whom there is now no room, for the time for blows and blood in this part of Colorado is past, and the fame of many daring exploits is sullied by crimes which are not easily forgiven here.
— from A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

Adieu; till I have letters, remember me kindly to all, but to the dear children in particular.
— from George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life by George Augustus Selwyn

On a fair and warm day we may rest here in perfect content, listening to the rush of the weir, watching the swallows flit and skim over the calm water and break the glassy surface into circling ripples; or gazing with silent pleasure down the stream as it continues its peaceful course by wood and meadow.
— from Evesham by E. H. (Edmund Hort) New