Every one is sensible that there is more bravery and disdain in subduing an enemy, than in cutting, his throat; and in making him yield, than in putting him to the sword: besides that the appetite of revenge is better satisfied and pleased because its only aim is to make itself felt: And this is the reason why we do not fall upon a beast or a stone when they hurt us, because they are not capable of being sensible of our revenge; and to kill a man is to save him from the injury and offence we intend him.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

‘Your ears ought to be better than other folks’ at any rate, if you make so little of the chance of being struck blind,’ he said, retreating from the door and shading his eyes with his hands as the jagged lightning came again.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

I remembered the old custom of burying suicides at cross-roads: 'Ah!
— from Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker

The remorse of his conscience created a phantom who pursued him by land and sea, by day and by night; and the visionary Theodosius, presenting to his lips a cup of blood, said, or seemed to say, "Drink, brother, drink;" a sure emblem of the aggravation of his guilt, since he had received from the hands of the deacon the mystic cup of the blood of Christ.
— 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

It is obvious that a board of four squares can only be so divided in one way—by a straight cut down the centre—because we shall not count reversals and reflections as different.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

We will say, "A noted wit, an intriguer, but in no way austere, a friend of Romieu, and a supporter of Guizot possessing the manners of the world, and the habits of the roulette table, self-satisfied, clever, combining a certain liberality of ideas with a readiness to accept useful crimes, finding means to wear a gracious smile with bad teeth, leading a life of pleasure, dissipated but reserved, ugly, good-tempered, fierce, well-dressed, intrepid, willingly leaving a brother prisoner under bolts and bars, and ready to risk his head for a brother Emperor, having the same mother as Louis Bonaparte, and like Louis Bonaparte, having some father or other, being able to call himself Beauharnais, being able to call himself Flahaut, and yet calling himself Morny, pursuing literature as far as light comedy, and politics, as far as tragedy, a deadly free liver, possessing all the frivolity consistent with assassination, capable of being sketched by Marivaux and treated of by Tacitus, without conscience, irreproachably elegant, infamous, and amiable, at need a perfect duke.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

These openings are closed outwardly by some sort of decorative motive.
— from Belgians Under the German Eagle by Jean Massart

The face of the country on both sides of the river above and below the falls is steep, rugged, and rocky, with a very small proportion of herbage, and no timber, except a few bushes: the hills, however, to the west, have some scattered pine, white oak and other kinds of trees.
— from History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. II To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6. by William Clark

Ned Ebony couldn’t take her coat off because she wore Dorothy’s morning gown instead of a street dress.
— from Dorothy Dale's Promise by Margaret Penrose

Let the sovereign never enter into their dissensions, let him never persecute for religious opinions, which, among sectaries, are commonly on both sides equally ridiculous and destitute of foundation.
— from Letters to Eugenia; Or, A Preservative Against Religious Prejudices by Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'

Lady Szentirmay had just been carried off by some young cavalier for a waltz, and she was sitting there alone.
— from A Hungarian Nabob by Mór Jókai

And when Mouret at last came out Bourdoncle spoke to him about the fancy silks, of which the stock left on hand would be something enormous This was a relief for Mouret, as it gave him an opportunity for shouting.
— from The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola

Suddenly the Newport's stack blew clouds of black smoke, and, looking for the cause, a pretty two-masted schooner was seen, her sails wing and wing, flying from the northwest for Havana.
— from Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by Trumbull White

And now, in the full conception of these facts and points, and all that they infer, pro and con—with yet unshaken faith in the elements of the American masses, the composites, of both sexes, and even consider'd as individuals—and ever recognizing in them the broadest bases of the best literary and esthetic appreciation—I proceed with my speculations, Vistas.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

At about the period of Ching-hwa, Europeans were making efforts to reach the East by sea, and in 1498 Vasco de Gama sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, and thus made an opening, by which eventually trade was carried on by sea to China.
— from Chats on Oriental China by J. F. Blacker