Honesty, frankness, generosity, and virtue are noble traits.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

These slight proportional differences, due to the laws of growth and variation, are not of the slightest use or importance to most species.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

All incised, lacerated, or contused wounds of the arm and shoulder, happening by pike, bayonet, sabre, bullet, mace, or arrow, on the outer aspect of the limb, are (provided the weapon has not broken the bones) less likely to implicate the great arteries, veins, and nerves.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

And I maintained that Thy unchangeable substance did err upon constraint, rather than confess that my changeable substance had gone astray voluntarily, and now, in punishment, lay in error.
— from The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

It was a matter of public knowledge, they said, that after the conquest of King William, his Norman followers, elated by so great a victory, acknowledged no law but their own wicked pleasure, and not only despoiled the conquered Saxons of their lands and their goods, but invaded the honour of their wives and of their daughters with the most unbridled license; and hence it was then common for matrons and maidens of noble families to assume the veil, and take shelter in convents, not as called thither by the vocation of God, but solely to preserve their honour from the unbridled wickedness of man.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

The old Scottish custom, mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, of leaving around each cultivated field an untilled [ 316 ] fringe, called the Gude Man’s Croft , is derived from the ancient belief that unless some wild place is left to the sylvan spirits they will injure the grain and vegetables; and, no doubt, some such notion leads the farmers of Thurgau still to graft mistletoe upon their fruit-trees.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

His statues, which were set up in gardens and vineyards, acted not only as objects of worship, but also as scarecrows, the appearance of this god being especially repulsive and unsightly.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

In China, where the equality of conditions is exceedingly great and very ancient, no man passes from one public office to another without undergoing a probationary trial.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

But perhaps such glory and victory are not needed!
— from Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 by De Gurowski, Adam G., count

Thus the game continued with great animation, victory appearing now to lean to one side, now to the other; but on each occasion when their side got the worst of it, Ernest and Buttar made such well-directed efforts that they speedily restored the day.
— from Ernest Bracebridge: School Days by William Henry Giles Kingston

I got a ring - I got a vow - And now . . .
— from Gossip by Mona Gould

Fruits, grain, and vegetables are now produced by spontaneous fertility annually, which were not before to be found here.
— from Equatorial America Descriptive of a Visit to St. Thomas, Martinique, Barbadoes, and the Principal Capitals of South America by Maturin Murray Ballou

For to fight alone against such a numerous army was to no purpose, and the only expedient now left them was to leave their city and cling to their ships; which the people were very unwilling to submit to, imagining that it would signify little now to gain a victory, and not understanding how there could be deliverance any longer after they had once forsaken the temples of their gods and exposed the tombs and monuments of their ancestors to the fury of their enemies.
— from The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch Being Parts of the "Lives" of Plutarch, Edited for Boys and Girls by Plutarch

Thus had it been with De Vaux: he could just call to mind a face that had appeared to him very beautiful, and a few kind and tender words from the lips of her he had called mother; but he had fancied her all that was good, and gentle, and virtuous; and now that he was forced to look upon her as a fallen being, as one who had not only forgotten virtue herself, but, in sin, had brought him into the world, to degradation and shame, what could be his feelings towards her?
— from The Gipsy: A Tale (Vols I & II) by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

The just man is the friend of God, and the services he renders to God are valued accordingly, not as so much work done, but as tokens of love and fidelity.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868 by Various

He gathered a vast army near Boulogne , and constructed an immense flotilla for the transportation of it across the Channel.
— from Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading by George Park Fisher