But to make the matter still more certain, I alter the object; and instead of vice and virtue, make the trial upon beauty and deformity, riches and poverty, power and servitude.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

There they found Nestor sitting with his sons, while his company round him were busy getting dinner ready, and putting pieces of meat on to the spits 26 while other pieces were cooking.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

[1225] They govern provinces and kingdoms by oracles, auguries, dreams, rewards and punishments, prophecies, inspirations, sacrifices, and religious superstitions, varied in as many forms as there be diversity of spirits; they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, dearth, plenty, [1226]
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

"Has M. de Ravil any particular person in view?"
— from Pride: One of the Seven Cardinal Sins by Eugène Sue

Various minor Republican, Democratic, Reform, and Progressive politicians.
— from The Spider's Web by Reginald Wright Kauffman

The other was attempted in various forms, of which Septimius, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, and The Dolliver Romance, all posthumously published, are the most important.
— from Hawthorne and His Circle by Julian Hawthorne

Highly unequal income distribution remains a pressing problem.
— from The 2002 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

The third and shortest, Les Deux Rêves , a piece partly suggestive of the famous Prophecy of Cazotte and other legends of the Revolution (but with more retrospective than prospective view), is dated as early as 1828 (before the turning-point), and was actually published in a periodical in 1830.
— from The Works of Honoré de Balzac: About Catherine de' Medici, Seraphita, and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac

One thing more I do recollect about poor Professor Feaster.
— from When I was your age by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

Upon the manuscript of a long poem, received by him, when in France, he jotted down the words: "From M. de Raudiere, a poor Poet, who craves assistance to enable him to finish an epic poem which he is writing against the English.
— from Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Wiliam Cabell Bruce

It was an enterprise entirely devoid of spirit, and the closing chapters of the “Black Dwarf” reveal a pitiful picture of the apathy of the movement, and the indecision and incapacity of the Pretender’s adherents.
— from The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, June 1884, No. 9 by Chautauqua Institution