Robespierre possessed this advantage over Danton, that he did not seem to seek for wealth, either for hoarding or expending, but lived in strict and economical retirement, to justify the name of the Incorruptible, with which he was honoured by his partisans.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Void of obscenity in expression, but lascivious in sentiment, he may be said rather to stimulate immorally the natural passions, than to corrupt the imagination.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

exclaimed Bathsheba, laughing in spite of herself at the sly method.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

“O, Miss Eva, I is tryin!” said Topsy, earnestly; “but, Lor, it’s so hard to be good! ’
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

He no longer ventures to entrust to the chorus the main share of the effect, but limits its sphere to such an extent that it now appears almost co-ordinate with the actors, just as if it were elevated from the orchestra into the scene: whereby of course its character is completely destroyed, notwithstanding that Aristotle countenances this very theory of the chorus.
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

As soon as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame, or to the dignity of succeeding princes.
— 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

Though from my very high admiration of Johnson, I have wondered [1007] that he was not courted by all the great and all the eminent persons of his time, it ought fairly to be considered, that no man of humble birth, who lived entirely by literature, in short no authour by profession, ever rose in this country into that personal notice which he did.
— from Life of Johnson, Volume 4 1780-1784 by James Boswell

Let any such person, who has ever been lost in some 188 thick forest, recall his sensations upon first making the unwelcome discovery.
— from The Myths and Fables of To-Day by Samuel Adams Drake

A letter was written to Mary by Leicester, and signed by several of the first rank, recommending Norfolk for her husband, and stipulating conditions for the advantage of both kingdoms; particularly, that she should give sufficient surety to Elizabeth, and the heirs of her body, for the free enjoyment of the crown of England, that a perpetual league, offensive and defensive, should be made between their realms and subjects; that the Protestant religion should be established by law in Scotland; and that she should grant an amnesty to her rebels in that kingdom.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume

Since then he has experienced but little internal satisfaction; it is only in the presence of his courtiers that he affects a calm and tranquil deportment; but I perceive his sufferings are the greater from thus endeavouring to conceal them.
— from Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Volume 08 by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

Sarah, David Leizer's wife, an old Jewess, exhausted by life, is seated in front of her little shop.
— from Anathema: A Tragedy in Seven Scenes by Leonid Andreyev

There would have been fighting if I had stayed, and that would have ended in my good father being pushed off his throne by my elder brother lest I should be named as successor to the crown.
— from A Sea Queen's Sailing by Charles W. (Charles Watts) Whistler