'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

The islands of the Mediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval powers; and it was from their extreme stations, the harbors of Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia, that the faithful or rebel emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and capital.
— 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

And does wine equally stimulate the reasoning faculties?
— from Laws by Plato

“Retire ye and avaunt from hence, If ye retire not from hence, As you stride, your leg shall break, As you stretch your hand out, your hand shall be crippled, As you open your eye (to look), your eyeball shall burst, Your eye stabbed through with a thorn of
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

The second week in June, the parish of St Giles, where still the weight of the infection lay, buried 120, whereof though the bills said but sixty-eight of the plague, everybody said there had been 100 at least, calculating it from the usual number of funerals in that parish, as above.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

[2] "Any branch of foreign commerce," says M. d'Argenson, "creates on the whole only apparent advantage for the kingdom in general; it may enrich some individuals, or even some towns; but the nation as a whole gains nothing by it, and the people is no better off."
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Eugene says this with a sound of vexation in his voice, leaning back in his chair and looking balefully at Lady Tippins, who nods to him as her dear Bear, and playfully insinuates that she (a self-evident proposition) is Beauty, and he Beast.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

exclaimed Sikes, turning a look of excessive surprise on his companion.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

And Beth leaned her head against her sister with a contented look, which effectually settled that point.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The kingdom was at its zenith under Hetum or Hayton I., husband of Leon's daughter Isabel (1224-1269); he was, however, prudent enough to make an early submission to the Mongols, and remained ever staunch to them, which brought his territory constantly under the flail of Egypt.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

To which Gerald might have answered that she was not so during an afternoon call; but that the most characteristic thing about that gentle and delicate woman had been the fact of her living so much in the life of others and being open to endless sorrows through them.
— from Aurora the Magnificent by Gertrude Hall Brownell

"But do tell me, I enjoy such things.
— from A Daughter of the Snows by Jack London

Being open to Dutch shipping, reinforcements of men and supplies of provisions were constantly thrown in, while on the other side every soldier that the archduke Albert could engage was employed in the siege.
— from Willem Adriaan Van Der Stel, and Other Historical Sketches by George McCall Theal

I think we shall be capable with a little help, of defending our possessions long enough, so that England will be ruined if she persists in destroying us....
— from Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence, Vol. 2 by Elizabeth Sarah Kite

They were different from any eggs I ever saw, too."
— from Bobby of the Labrador by Dillon Wallace

Overhead there was a sort of sea-rookery, the trees being tenanted by numerous gannets, frigate birds, and terns—the first gazing with a stupid yet angry air; the last—one beautiful little snow-white species in particular—hovering only a few feet above the sketchers' heads, while their large black eyes scanned the drawings with the owlish look of wisdom peculiar to connoisseurs.
— from Blown to Bits; or, The Lonely Man of Rakata by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

Cold Applications: affusions, packs and baths, to lessen hyperpyrexia, and an excellent stimulant, tonic and sedative; the pack in acute fevers, especially on retrocession of a rash.
— from Merck's 1899 Manual of the Materia Medica by Merck & Co.

On either side the slopes are covered by the oak-forest, and innumerable wild doves find shelter for their nests among the branches.
— from Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure by C. R. (Claude Reignier) Conder