Like Socrates, Cicero turns away from the phenomena of the heavens to civil and political life.
— from The Republic by Plato

Mr. Edward Atkinson says that for each bale of cotton there are fifteen hundred pounds of stems, and that these are very rich in phosphate of lime and potash; that when ground and mixed with ensilage or cotton-seed meal (which is too rich for use as fodder in large quantities), the stem mixture makes a superior food, rich in all the elements needed for the production of milk, meat, and bone.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with a sacred injunction, that this gift of Heaven, this peculiar blessing of the Romans, should never be communicated to any foreign nation; that the prince and the subject were alike bound to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege; and that the impious attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the Christians.
— 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

Soon afterward some strangers from a distance, who had heard that the brothers had a wonderful grain from which they made bread, came to ask for some, for none but Selu and her family had ever known corn before.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

From Lakshmaṇ's cord three arrows flew And pierced the giant monarch through.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Those within, in hurry and confusion, desire retreat from their distress; in vain; while they cluster together and fall back to the side free from the destroyer, the tower sinks prone under the sudden weight with a crash that thunders through all the sky.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

The general opinion of the majority of the present-day nationalists in India is that we have come to a final completeness in our social and spiritual ideals, the task of the constructive work of society having been done several thousand years before we were born, and that now we are free to employ all our activities in the political direction.
— from Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore

Akademus, who had by some means discovered that she was concealed at Aphidnae, now told them where she was; for which cause he was honoured by the sons of Tyndareus during his life, and also the Lacedaemonians, though they often invaded the country and ravaged it unsparingly, yet never touched the place called the Akademeia, for Akademus's sake.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

I only remember that there died sixteen clergymen, two aldermen, five physicians, thirteen surgeons, within the city and liberties before the beginning of September.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

The garrisons of the frontiers were insufficient to check their progress; and the indolent monarch was at length compelled to assemble, from the e
— 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

On the way they came to a fig-tree full of figs and they [ 34 ] went to eat the fruit; but when they got near they found that all the figs were full of grubs, and they sang:— “Exhausted by hunger we came to a fig-tree, And found it full of grubs, O Karam Gosain, how far off are you?”
— from Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas

The light reflected back as from some living mass of crimson fire, now shading darkly, now glowing into wondrous, colourful transparency as he moved the case to and fro with jerky motions of his hands—and he was babbling, crooning to himself like one possessed.
— from The Adventures of Jimmie Dale by Frank L. (Frank Lucius) Packard

" "Well, sur, ther've bin awful doin's up at th' House since then, things, sur, as I'm amooast 'fraid to tell 'ee, 'cause——" Then a frightened look came into Bill's eyes, and he looked round nervously.
— from Roger Trewinion by Joseph Hocking

The proposal forwarded to the Secretary of Defense in January 1949 committed the Air Force to a limited integration policy frankly imitative of the Navy's.
— from Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by Morris J. MacGregor

The wheels of the carriage turned a few more times, and then drew up at the house of the famous Thomas Edison.
— from My Double Life: The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt by Sarah Bernhardt

Yea, the hair of her head is compared to a flock of goats, which come up from mount Gilead; and the smell of her garments to the smell of Lebanon (Cant 4:1,11).
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan

I I turn now from contemplation to action; from Æsthetics to Ethics.
— from Theism and Humanism Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered at the University of Glasgow, 1914 by Arthur James Balfour

It underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so coming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to men down here.
— from Quiet Talks on Prayer by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon

Some merry companions are assembled in the large dining-room of the hotel and celebrate there a feast of grapes in memory of the divine Dionysius.
— from Myths of the Rhine by M. Xavier