And the nature of the case first compelled us to advance our empire to its present height; fear being our principal motive, though honour and interest afterwards came in.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Superior powers of mind and profound study are of no use, if they do not sometimes lead a person to different conclusions from those which are formed by ordinary powers of mind without study; and if it be an object to possess representatives in any intellectual respect superior to average electors, it must be counted upon that the representative will sometimes differ in opinion from the majority of his constituents, and that when he does, his opinion will be the oftenest right of the two.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

When a hernial tumour protrudes at the situation K, it is invested, in the same manner as the cord, by the spermatic fascia, and holds in respect to the fibrous bands or pillars the same relations also as this part.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

This was followed in 1867 by “The Condensed Novels,” originally contributed to the “San Francisco Californian,” a journal then edited by the author, and a number of local sketches entitled “Bohemian Papers,” making a single not very plethoric volume, the author's first book of prose.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

They passed along another flat bit of path, with a black shape like a high wall towering above them on their right, and then the path went up again under trellises, and trailing sprays of scented things caught at them and shook raindrops on them, and the light of the lantern flickered over lilies, and then came a flight of ancient steps worn with centuries, and then another iron gate, and then they were inside, though still climbing a twisting flight of stone steps with old walls on either side like the walls of dungeons, and with a vaulted roof.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

(2) The conception of a whole as lying at the foundation both of politics and of art, in the latter supplying the only principle of criticism, which, under the various names of harmony, symmetry, measure, proportion, unity, the Greek seems to have applied to works of art.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

But if such an accident has at any time brought any from thence into Europe, we have been so far from improving it that we do not so much as remember it, as, in aftertimes perhaps, it will be forgot by our people that I was ever there; for though they, from one such accident, made themselves masters of all the good inventions that were among us, yet I believe it would be long before we should learn or put in practice any of the good institutions that are among them.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

For business or pleasure, in summer-time or winter—I don’t care which—there’s nothing like it.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Accordingly, when we had delivered our old vessel, the Prudence, and completed the lading of the Nancy, having made near three hundred per cent, by four barrels of pork I brought from Charlestown, I laid in as large a cargo as I could, trusting to God's providence to prosper my undertaking.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

We may note (1) The manner in which the objection of Adeimantus here, is designed to draw out and deepen the argument of Socrates. (2) The conception of a whole as lying at the foundation both of politics and of art, in the latter supplying the only principle of criticism, which, under the various names of harmony, symmetry, measure, proportion, unity, the Greek seems to have applied to works of art.
— from The Republic by Plato

Priscilla kept him from becoming over proud.
— from Priscilla's Spies by George A. Birmingham

A gloomy drizzly day was settling into a dark rainy night, when two young men, who, either for business or pleasure, had rowed across the river some miles from Woodford Landing, started to return home.
— from Tempest and Sunshine by Mary Jane Holmes

His original popularity was increased by the courage he displayed in two expeditions against a formidable band of pirates who had long infested the coast, which he entirely extirpated.
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall

Some critics, assuming confidently that Plato must have produced a full breadth of positive philosophy to countervail his own negative fertility, yet not finding enough of it in the written dialogues look for it elsewhere.
— from Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 1 by George Grote

But when he reminded this young lady of the way the whole thing practically depended on her she was alarmed and even slightly scandalised: she spoke more than once as if that could scarcely be the right way to construct a play—make it stand or fall by one poor nervous girl.
— from The Real Thing and Other Tales by Henry James

It was a windy-looking morning, the sky high, grey, compacted; with here and there a dark curl of scud in chase of some bald lump of sulphur-coloured cloud blowing away to leeward like the first ball of powder smoke from a cannon’s mouth ere
— from An Ocean Tragedy by William Clark Russell

There advanced then a man of a pleasant countenance, in a Greek habit, and followed by other persons clothed in the same manner.
— from The Visions of Quevedo by Francisco de Quevedo

Like two mourners about to set out for the morgue to identify the corpse of a loved one recently killed by a taxicab, they drove down to the Blue Star offices, where immediately upon arrival something terrible in Mr. Skinner's face brought on palpitation of Cappy Ricks' heart.
— from Cappy Ricks Retires: But That Doesn't Keep Him from Coming Back Stronger Than Ever by Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne

As she exclaimed on the implied wealth, Miriam found her envy wandering back in the thought of the two rooms under the sky, well away from the shop in another world, the rest of the house securely cared for by other people.
— from Deadlock: Pilgrimage, Volume 6 by Dorothy M. (Dorothy Miller) Richardson

The playwright has attacked his theme with European frankness; but of plot, in the usual acceptance of the term, there is little.
— from The Awakening of Spring: A Tragedy of Childhood by Frank Wedekind