480 Besides to give a Kingdom hath been thought Greater and nobler done, and to lay down Far more magnanimous, then to assume.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

The third bold game Achilles next demands, And calls the wrestlers to the level sands: A massy tripod for the victor lies, Of twice six oxen its reputed price;
— from The Iliad by Homer

They give, as nature does, a form to matter, but they give it a more propitious form.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

He resolved to go away next day and leave a letter informing her of his intention to part from her forever.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

And thus lay the wounded priest grievously handled, but trusting always to God's grace, and never doubting; and although he was speechless, he prayed to God in thought with a sorrowful mind, but with the more confidence the worse he was.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Neither does he receive or let pass into the fortress any true word of advice; if any one says to him that some pleasures are the satisfactions of good and noble desires, and others of evil desires, and that he ought to use and honour some and chastise and master the others—whenever this is repeated to him he shakes his head and says that they are all alike, and that one is as good as another.
— from The Republic by Plato

I would not have the shadow of a coolness between the two whose intimacy I have been observing with the greatest pleasure, and in whose characters there is so much general resemblance in true generosity and natural delicacy as to make the few slight differences, resulting principally from situation, no reasonable hindrance to a perfect friendship.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

And after some little discourse, he and I on board Sir W. Pen; and there held a council of Warr about many wants of the fleete, but chiefly how to get slopps and victuals for the fleete now going out to convoy our Hambro’ ships, that have been so long detained for four or five months for want of convoy, which we did accommodate one way or other, and so, after much chatt, Sir W. Pen did give us a very good and neat dinner, and better, I think, than ever I did see at his owne house at home in my life, and so was the other I eat with him.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Here a very good and neat dinner, after the French manner, and good discourse, and then up after dinner to the Duke of York and did our usual business, and are put in hopes by Sir W. Coventry that we shall have money, and so away, Sir G. Carteret and I to my Lord Crew to advise about Sir G. Carteret’s carrying his accounts to-morrow to the Commissioners appointed to examine them and all other accounts since the war, who at last by the King’s calling them to him yesterday and chiding them will sit, but Littleton and Garraway much against their wills.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A comforting and assuring belief existed among the Romans, that each individual was accompanied through life, from the hour of his birth to that of his death, by a protecting spirit, called his genius, who prompted him to good and noble deeds, and acted towards him as a guardian angel, comforting him in sorrow, and guiding him throughout his earthly career.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

He wanted to eat, but did not wish to hunt, so he called the bluejay and said: 'Tell all the woods that to-morrow night Kaluskap gives a new dance and teaches a new song,' and he told the hoot owl to do the same, so one kept it up all day—'Kaluskap teaches a new dance to-morrow night,' and the other kept it up all night: 'Kaluskap teaches a new song at next council.'
— from Rolf in the Woods by Ernest Thompson Seton

Extent of territory gives a nation dignity and importance.
— from The Puddleford Papers; Or, Humors of the West by Henry Hiram Riley

—The supposed instances of breeding in western Greenland are now discredited, and the only definitely known breeding places are in eastern Siberia, from the delta of the Yenesei to latitude 74° on the Taimyr Peninsula and northward, as well as on the Liakhof Isles and other islands of the New Siberian group.
— from Life Histories of North American Shore Birds, Part 1 (of 2) by Arthur Cleveland Bent

And they went back to the tent together and asked the gang if they wanted any of their game, and nobody did, and the disgrace lifted.
— from The Revolt of the Oyster by Don Marquis

I never gave almes, nor did anything Was good, nor e’er said, ‘God save the King.’ I stood like a stock that was made of wood,
— from Old Church Lore by William Andrews

And then the boy who was driving the luggage cart got down and opened a gate; and [26] they drove through and along a woodland road where ferns and blossoming brambles grew under trees very green and not dusty at all.
— from The Wonderful Garden; or, The Three Cs by E. (Edith) Nesbit