This last was the department of life for which he found himself best qualified by nature and inclination; and he accordingly resolved that his talent should not rust in his possession.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

You pay eighty marks and they plant a dunam of land for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

After the usual compliments had passed, we decided on leaving for Augsburg the following morning.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This poor man, of Malden, May 26, 1556, put to sea, to lade in Lent with Fuller's earth, but the boat, being driven on land, filled with water, and every thing was washed out of her; Crow, however, saved his Testament, and coveted nothing else.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

The Lions’ Den O ne division of La Force, in which the most dangerous and desperate prisoners are confined, is called the court of Saint-Bernard.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

On one of these occasions, December 30, 1905, William Jennings Bryan, “The Great American Commoner,” gave the Rizal Day address, in the course of which he said: “If you will permit me to draw one lesson from the Page 264 life of Rizal, I will say that he presents an example of a great man consecrated to his country’s welfare.
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig

Caesar, speaking of the Suabians: “in the charges they make on horseback,” says he, “they often throw themselves off to fight on foot, having taught their horses not to stir in the meantime from the place, to which they presently run again upon occasion; and according to their custom, nothing is so unmanly and so base as to use saddles or pads, and they despise such as make use of those conveniences: insomuch that, being but a very few in number, they fear not to attack a great many.” That which I have formerly wondered at, to see a horse made to perform all his airs with a switch only and the reins upon his neck, was common with the Massilians, who rid their horses without saddle or bridle: “Et gens, quae nudo residens Massylia dorso, Ora levi flectit, fraenorum nescia, virga.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

She told them that she would never leave her beloved husband for any god, much less to marry a detested giant and dwell in Jötun-heim, where all was dreary in the extreme, and where she would soon die of longing for the green fields and flowery meadows, in which she loved to roam.
— from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber

The derivation of lictor from the Greek shows the utter ignorance of etymology prevailing among the ancients.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

But if we devote our lives for the salvation of our brethren, we shall obtain the crown of martyrdom, and our immortal reward will be liberally paid by God and posterity."
— 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

“We are ready to lay down our lives for our faith.”
— from Taras Bulba, and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Subsequently, while this litigation was dragging on, Lucius found a more satisfying opportunity to press his quarrel against his brothers.
— from History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills by Robert B. Shaw

The images which he frequently employs have not that delicacy of literary feeling which avoids what is ungraceful, but they are original and sometimes striking in their simplicity.
— from A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) by Leopold von Ranke

“I am dying of love, Father,” she murmured in reply.
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Lourdes, Complete by Émile Zola

Any attempt to push the doctrine of liberty farther than this and make it include more than mere immunity from governmental interference would have been revolutionary.
— from The Spirit of American Government A Study Of The Constitution: Its Origin, Influence And Relation To Democracy by J. Allen (James Allen) Smith

All the difficulties arising from the appearance of a duality of logical forms would disappear.
— from Logic as the Science of the Pure Concept by Benedetto Croce

The wedding may be concluded in a single day, or last for two or three days.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 1 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

2: When one man prevents another from being reviled there is not the danger of lust for one's own honor as there is when a man defends himself from being reviled: indeed rather would it seem to proceed from a sense of charity.
— from Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint