" It is in vain, then, that Gibbon pretends to attribute solely to the desire of keeping up the number of slaves, the milder conduct which the Romans began to adopt in their favor at the time of the emperors.
— 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

They looked upon it as more honourable not to look to others for preservation, but to guard their own territory and cities themselves; and at the same time the remembrances of his former services made them desirous of keeping up their friendship with Ptolemy, 161 and averse from the appearance of seeking aid elsewhere.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

[Pg 333] of the Sidhe -folk, which cannot be separated from it, was divided into districts or kingdoms under different fairy kings and queens, just as the upper world of mortals.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

Of the death of King Uther Pendragon.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

And many complaints were made unto Sir Arthur of great wrongs that were done since the death of King Uther, of many lands that were bereaved lords, knights, ladies, and gentlemen.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

The typical American man had his hand on a lever and his eye on a curve in his road; his living depended on keeping up an average speed of forty miles an hour, tending always to become sixty, eighty, or a hundred, and he could not admit emotions or anxieties or subconscious distractions, more than he could admit whiskey or drugs, without breaking his neck.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

The corporal, who the night before had resolved in his mind to supply the grand desideratum, of keeping up something like an incessant firing upon the enemy during the heat of the attack,—had no further idea in his fancy at that time, than a contrivance of smoking tobacco against the town, out of one of my uncle Toby's six field-pieces, which were planted on each side of his sentry-box; the means of effecting which occurring to his fancy at the same time, though he had pledged his cap, he thought it in no danger from the miscarriage of his projects.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

I am confident I can bring about the downfall of King Umb and Queen Ra before Ozma and Glinda return to the Emerald City tomorrow."
— from The Magical Mimics in Oz by Jack Snow

But when the necessity pleaded is not in the nature of things, but in the vices of him who alleges it, the whining tones of commonplace beggarly rhetoric produce nothing but indignation; because they indicate a desire of keeping up a dishonourable existence, without utility to others, and without dignity to itself; because they aim at obtaining the dues of labour without industry; and by frauds would draw from the compassion of others what men ought to owe to their own spirit and their own exertions.
— from Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke by Edmund Burke

The first thing Taranto saw as he managed to drag one knee under him was the butt end of a spear plunging at his midsection.
— from D-99: a science-fiction novel by H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe

[56] Well aware of the difficulty of keeping up communication between the different parts of his line of defence, Masséna skilfully withdrew his outposts, as the enemy pressed on, with the intention of concentrating his troops round Zurich, thereby covering all the possible lines of advance.
— from Napoleon's Marshals by R. P. Dunn-Pattison

He was the king of the night with his story; and sheet after sheet he filled with his jagged, irregular chirography, and the dreamy operator kept up with him.
— from Ann Arbor Tales by Karl Edwin Harriman

The accounts of the Zodiacal coinage (pp. 6 and 7), and of the comet, or new star (p. 48), the notice of the Plague in Agra (pp. 65–67), and the elaborate description of Kashmīr, under the chronicle of the 15th year, are valuable, and a word should be said for the pretty story of the King and the Gardener’s daughter (p. 50), and for the allusions to painters and pictures.
— from The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri: or, Memoirs of Jahangir (Volume 2 of 2) by Emperor of Hindustan Jahangir

It was alleged by Robespierre in his greatest orations, that the safety of the Republic depended on keeping up a wholesome state of terror; and that all who, in the slightest degree, leaned towards clemency, sanctioned the work of intriguers, and ought, accordingly, to be proscribed.
— from Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 426 Volume 17, New Series, February 28, 1852 by Various

Daniel 12, 4; of the world by navigation and commerce | Geneva Bible: But thou, o Daniel, shut and the further discovery of knowledge | up the wordes, and seale the boke til should meet in one time or age.
— from Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature by Francis Bacon

Mostly, however, we depend on keeping up a fire if it is very cold and we have no robe or blanket.”
— from The Young Alaskans on the Trail by Emerson Hough

" The peace with France, however, prevented the Prince from being desirous of keeping up the Lances of Lynwood, and he therefore offered to take their young leader into his own troop of Knights, who were maintained at his own table, and formed a part of his state; and so distinguished was this body, that no higher favour could have been offered.
— from The Lances of Lynwood by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge