Thus in Amboyna, when the rice is in bloom, the people say that it is pregnant and fire no guns and make no other noises near the field, for fear lest, if the rice were thus disturbed, it would miscarry, and the crop would be all straw and no grain.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

“Now,” said he, “I may require to go in one night from Paris to Tréport; let eight fresh horses be in readiness on the road, which will enable me to go fifty leagues in ten hours.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

There is a certain suspicion of ‘shadow’ in your face, like in that of Holbein’s Madonna in Dresden.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

They believed that the permanence of Spanish power in these islands lay in suppressing any latent ability for leadership in the Filipino himself.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows

I went to take my farewell of Donna Cecilia, who had just received a letter from Lucrezia, imparting the news that she would soon be a mother.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The Romans by this means erected their colonies; for, perceiving their city to grow immeasurably populous, they eased it of the most unnecessary people, and sent them to inhabit and cultivate the lands conquered by them; sometimes also they purposely maintained wars with some of their enemies, not only to keep their own men in action, for fear lest idleness, the mother of corruption, should bring upon them some worse inconvenience: “Et patimur longae pacis mala; saevior armis Luxuria incumbit.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

We suspect Miss Hepzibah, moreover, of taking a step upward into a chair, in order to give heedful regard to her appearance on all sides, and at full length, in the oval, dingy-framed toilet-glass, that hangs above her table.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

He ended, and his words impression left Of much amazement to th' infernal Crew, Distracted and surpriz'd with deep dismay At these sad tidings; but no time was then For long indulgence to their fears or grief: 110 Unanimous they all commit the care And management of this main enterprize To him their great Dictator, whose attempt At first against mankind so well had thriv'd In Adam's overthrow, and led thir march From Hell's deep-vaulted Den to dwell in light, Regents and Potentates, and Kings, yea gods Of many a pleasant Realm and Province wide.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

Hadrian proposed him to the pope to be ordained bishop, and prevailed; but upon the condition that he should himself conduct him into Britain, because he had already travelled through Gaul twice upon different occasions, and was, therefore, better acquainted with the way, and was, moreover, sufficiently provided with men of his own; as also, to the end that, being his fellow labourer in teaching, he might take special care that Theodore should not, according to the custom of the Greeks, introduce any thing contrary to the truth of the faith into the Church where he presided.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

A friendly correspondence as neighbours and old acquaintances had continued between me and Mrs. Read's family, who all had a regard for me from the time of my first lodging in their house.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

The minutes followed each other, and still she sat, tearless and quiet, dead to the present and the future, living in the past.
— from No Name by Wilkie Collins

But I think this is all 'forgotten lore' in the neighbourhood now.
— from English As We Speak It in Ireland by P. W. (Patrick Weston) Joyce

In addition to his own watchfulness over the birth of his new poem, he also, as will be seen from the following letter, invoked the veteran taste of Mr. Gifford on the occasion:— LETTER 144.
— from Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 2 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore

And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.
— from The Bible, King James version, Book 2: Exodus by Anonymous

So stated, these are but dry generalities; their whole force lies in their application.
— from Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold by Matthew Arnold

Last of all, not in time, but as perfection is last, that care was ever had of me, with my earliest capacity, not to be negligently trained in the precepts of the Christian religion: this that I have hitherto related, hath been to show, that though Christianity had been but slightly taught me, yet a certain reservedness of natural disposition, and moral discipline, learnt out of the noblest philosophy, was enough to keep me in disdain of far less incontinences than this of the bordello.
— from An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty. by John Milton

50 The wealthy, learned, and artistic city of Nürnberg possessed a public waggon, which every night was led through the streets to pick up and convey to their homes drunken burghers found lying in the filth of the streets.
— from A History of the Reformation (Vol. 1 of 2) by Thomas M. (Thomas Martin) Lindsay

"Nay, my young friend; life is too brief to read such light books.
— from The Train Boy by Alger, Horatio, Jr.