When he drew near the city, he would not enter therein, but lighted down a good score miles away at a country house of his and despatched one of his servants, in whom he much trusted, to Genoa with two horses and letters under his hand, advising his wife that he had returned and bidding her come to him; and he privily charged the man, whenas he should be with the lady in such place as should seem best to him, to put her to death without pity and return to him.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Is it to be supposed that all this could have been done without producing great friction in the machine?
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

The successors of Clovis inflicted one hundred lashes on the peasants who refused to destroy their idols; the crime of sacrificing to the demons was punished by the Anglo-Saxon laws with the heavier penalties of imprisonment and confiscation; and even the wise Alfred adopted, as an indispensable duty, the extreme rigor of the Mosaic institutions.
— 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

I. p. 295) has observed that the text of the seveth Sura implies that Mahomet could read, the tradition alone denies it, and, according to Dr. Weil, (p. 46,) there is another reading of the tradition, that "he could not read well."
— 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

Diogenes has well said that the only way to preserve one's liberty was being always ready to die without pain.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

What we first feel is a bluntness, then a suspicion of doubleness, which presently becomes a distinct doubleness, and at last two different-feeling and differently placed spots with a definite tract of space between them.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

By our decrees we prevent this attitude of mind from breaking out and venting itself in a useless way—we are prudent when we prescribe such laws for ourselves; we are also moral in so doing....
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Anne hurried home after breakfast and so remained in blissful ignorance of the disturbance which presently resulted in the Barry household until the late afternoon, when she went down to Mrs. Lynde’s on an errand for Marilla.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

@folio est un baladeur de textes, simple, léger, autonome, que le lecteur remplit selon ses désirs à partir du web, pour aller lire n'importe où.
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

The bridge from the south bank to Lobau was built under the personal supervision of the Emperor and Lannes, and on one occasion when they were reconnoitring in person they both fell into the river, and the Marshal, who was out of his depth, was pulled out by the Emperor himself.
— from Napoleon's Marshals by R. P. Dunn-Pattison

Napoleon sold us Louisiana in 1803, because he needed the Sixteen Million Dollars we paid him for it, and it is said that he stated, that in this transfer of territory he would make us so powerful as a nation, that we would accomplish the downfall of England, his hereditary enemy, after he was in his grave.
— from Colorado—The Bright Romance of American History by F. C. Grable

But a bed watered with tears, a throat dry with praying, eyes as a fountain of tears for the sins of the land, are rare to be found among us.
— from Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Third Edition) by Samuel Rutherford

I can never forget that, and the day we put on his first pair of little trousers.
— from True to a Type, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Robert Cleland

The priest had just time to beckon to him his lovely daughter, when, placing her hand in that of the Muscogulgee youth, he expired.
— from Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 by James Athearn Jones

And lo! great Lebanon—abrupt and dark With pines, and airy Carmel, rising slow Above the midland main, where hang the capes Of Italy and Greece; swart Africa, Beneath the parching sun, her long domain Reveals, the mountains of the Moon, the source Of Nile, the wild mysterious Niger, lost Amid the torrid sands; and to the south Her stormy cape.
— from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan by William Lisle Bowles

I saw how David was perishing and thousands of people with him, I saw how his spirit, grown dark, curled up piteously like a dead worm in the sun, was hurled down into the abyss of non-existence, into my abode of darkness and death.... Tell me, are you not the one who has ruined David?
— from Anathema: A Tragedy in Seven Scenes by Leonid Andreyev

Mr. Caryll nodded in silence, his face drawn with pain.
— from The Lion's Skin by Rafael Sabatini

Cooking, like all other work, being forbidden on the Sabbath, provisions sufficient for the holy day were prepared on Friday, and stood temptingly upon the shelves.
— from Rabbi and Priest: A Story by Milton Goldsmith

About the hour, As I believe, when Venus from the east First lighten'd on the mountain, she whose orb Seems always glowing with the fire of love, A lady young and beautiful, I dream'd, Was passing o'er a lea; and, as she came, Methought I saw her ever and anon Bending to cull the flowers; and thus she sang: "Know ye, whoever of my name would ask, That I am Leah: for my brow to weave A garland, these fair hands unwearied ply.
— from The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Purgatory, Volume 5 by Dante Alighieri