This other lesson is too high and too difficult: ‘tis for men of the first form of knowledge purely to insist upon the thing, to consider and judge it; it appertains to one sole Socrates to meet death with an ordinary countenance, to grow acquainted with it, and to sport with it; he seeks no consolation out of the thing itself; dying appears to him a natural and indifferent accident; ‘tis there that he fixes his sight and resolution, without looking elsewhere.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Doubt whether those (old writings) we have be not the worst Doubtful ills plague us worst Downright and sincere obedience Drugs being in its own nature an enemy to our health Drunkeness a true and certain trial of every one’s nature Dying appears to him a natural and indifferent accident
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The day before yesterday I must have caught diphtheria at the hospital, and now...
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

On the 7th of April the shares were quoted at three hundred and ten, and on the following day at two hundred and ninety.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Up early to put things in order in my chamber, and then to my Lord’s, with whom I spoke about several things, and so up and down in several places about business with Mr. Creed, among others to Mr. Wotton’s the shoemaker, and there drank our morning draft, and then home about noon, and by and by comes my father by appointment to dine with me, which we did very merrily, I desiring to make him as merry as I can, while the poor man is in town.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Lord Derby appears to have avoided nearly all the defects and combined nearly all the merits of his predecessors.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 01, April to September, 1865 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by Various

Adopting this method—the shadow method—to fix the latitude of the pyramid's base, they would conceive the sun was sixty degrees above the horizon at noon, at true spring or autumn, when in reality he was somewhat below that elevation.
— from The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879 by Various

His success, moreover, encouraged the others to dig all the harder, and not without excellent results.
— from Annie o' the Banks o' Dee by Gordon Stables

That Kate, whose mail each day exceeded by many times that which he had received in his most influential years, whose correspondence was with persons with whom he could not at any time have held communication, should be taken from her active duties appeared to him as nothing.
— from The Precipice: A Novel by Elia Wilkinson Peattie

She had done her duty and thanked him, and now she meant to ignore his existence; but she had reckoned without her host.
— from The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 979, October 1, 1898 by Various

The cumber-ground is a sucker; he draws away the heart and nourishment from the other trees.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

Whereupon Uncle Alec engaged to supply her with socks in all stages of dilapidation, and to have a new set at once, so that she could run the heels for him as a pleasant beginning.
— from Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

In the first general return in December appear two hundred and nineteen; of which one hundred and forty are Europeans.
— from Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India by McGrigor, James, Sir

Down at the harbor a number of farmers' carts were already standing, and fresh ones arrived at full gallop every minute.
— from Pelle the Conqueror — Volume 01 by Martin Andersen Nexø