Friends daily flock; and scarce the kindly spring Began to clothe the ground, and birds to sing, When old Anchises summon’d all to sea: The crew my father and the Fates obey.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

The Spaniard is chiefly ambitious of praise, for praise he will do anything; but this very desire for admiration serves to restrain him from actions by which he would incur blame.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

To say that a person blushes when he is self-conscious, that he laughs when he is detached from, and superior to, and yet interested in, an occurrence means that blushing and laughter represent contrasted attitudes to a social situation.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

] in this (on which many by this time have been taken, and, it hath been dangerous for any stranger to walk in the streets), but I went with the men, and we did put it out in a little time; so that that was well again.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

This, I shall be told, may do for a single town; but what is to be done when the State includes several?
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A false light distorted, for a short time, its shadow—reputation; but it seldom fails to become just when the cloud is dispersed that produced the mistake in vision.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Note 89 ( return ) [ Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies omnes ubique urbes quae sub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et Constantinopolis de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et discincta Carthago, et domus fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri Principis beneficio.
— 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

how did I cling to their dear forms, as sometimes they haunted even my waking hours, and persuade myself that they still lived!
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Bingley was all grateful pleasure, and he readily engaged for taking the earliest opportunity of waiting on her, after his return from London, whither he was obliged to go the next day for a short time.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

But so far as we have for the basis of this concept [of Realism] only empirical principles derived from the actual purposive combination in the world, we cannot on the one hand find any remedy for the discordance that nature presents in many examples in respect of unity of purpose; and on the other hand, as to the concept of a single intelligent Cause, so far as we are authorised by mere experience, we can never draw it therefrom in a manner sufficiently determined for any serviceable Theology whatever (whether theoretical or practical).
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

The animal was dreadfully frightened and struggled to his feet.
— from Indian Boyhood by Charles Alexander Eastman

The development of hands freed from locomotion and a brain out of proportion to bodily weight are tours de force , and, so to speak, an afterthought, which put the heaviest strain possible on the materials employed, and even diverted some organs from their original design.
— from Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex by William Isaac Thomas

As she approaches the men assemble and divide into two bodies, leaving a road for her to pass between them; they invite her to stay with them, which she can only do for a short time, as she must be ready for her journey for the next day.
— from Primitive Love and Love-Stories by Henry T. Finck

For the first time in his life Dennis felt a strong temptation to drink for the sake of the effects.
— from Barriers Burned Away by Edward Payson Roe

The king received the deputation favorably, and said that he would stop at Windsor, and there receive the propositions which might be sent him.
— from Friends, though divided: A Tale of the Civil War by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

It is difficult for a stranger to get used to this batter, but once used to it he will prefer it to water.
— from Life on the Mississippi, Part 5. by Mark Twain

(Eileen releases her, looks at her face dazedly for a second, then falls back limply with a little moan and shuts her eyes.
— from The Straw by Eugene O'Neill