The will must be "general" in two senses: in the sense in which Rousseau used the word, it must be general in its object, i.e. universal; but it must also be generally held, i.e. common to all or to the majority.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sergey Ivanovitch liked to stretch himself on the grass in the sun, and to lie so, basking and chatting lazily.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Peg's servants complained that they were debarred from all manner of business, and never suffered to touch the least thing within the house; if they offered to come into the warehouse, then straight went the yard slap over their noddle; if they ventured into the counting-room a fellow would throw an ink-bottle at their head; if they came into the best apartment to set anything there in order, they were saluted with a broom; if they meddled with anything in the kitchen it was odds but the cook laid them over the pate with a ladle; one that would have got into the stables was met by two rascals, who fell to work with him with a brush and a curry-comb; some climbing up into the coachbox, were told that one of their companions had been there before that could not drive, then slap went the long whip about their ears.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

and, when we are at our sports, we sometimes sing to them, and throw garlands into the sea.'
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The conservative nature of Lieutenant Bowers’s estimate concerning the mischief that had already been wrought by the end of September, 1904, and was then gathering destructive potentiality like a forest or prairie fire, may be inferred from the contents of a memorandum appearing below, furnished me by a Spanish officer of the constabulary, a Lieutenant Calderon, who had been an officer of the Rural Guard in the Spanish days.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

Yet greater is the sin if I Be silent, and the lady die.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The end gained is the same, but the means, though appearing superficially to be the same, are essentially different.
— 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

In all things which there has yet been time for—in all but the very highest grades in the scale of excellence, especially in the department in which they have been longest engaged, literature (both prose and poetry)—women have done quite as much, have obtained fully as high prizes and as many of them, as could be expected from the length of time and the number of competitors.
— from The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill

he, being a very strong man, had almost gotten into the ship again; which John Cook perceiving, leaped speedily to the pump, and took off the pump brake, or handle, and cast it to William Long, bidding him knock him down, which he was not long in doing, but, lifting up the wooden weapon, he gave him such a palt on the pate, as made his braines forsake the possession of his head, with which his body fell into the sea."
— from White Slavery in the Barbary States by Charles Sumner

Erudition, great is thy sin!
— from Joyous Gard by Arthur Christopher Benson

Great is the sword and mighty is the pen, But greater far the labouring ploughman's blade, For on its oxen and its husbandmen An Empire's strength is laid.
— from Songs from Books by Rudyard Kipling

My best efforts will be given in the same direction in the future, aided, I trust, by my four years' experience in the office.
— from U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses by United States. Presidents

[From The Spanish Conspiracy (Cincinnati, 1891)] The grief of the reader in learning from the Political Beginnings , that Humphrey Marshall was "violent, irreligious and profane," will be mollified by the assurance given in the same work that Harry Innes "was a sincerely religious man."
— from Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 1 of 2 by John Wilson Townsend

After the cakes are cooked, fry strips of bacon upon the griddle; in the surplus fat fry slices of bread, then some thinly sliced raw potatoes done to a delicious brown and you have a breakfast capable of making the mouth of a camper water.
— from Camping For Boys by H. W. (Henry William) Gibson

But, to tell the truth, I began to scent that I was getting into that sort of style which Longinus and Dionysius Halicarnassus aptly call "the affected."
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by Charles Lamb

The changes in colonial rates were generally in the shape of substituting general for special rules.
— from The History of the British Post Office by Joseph Clarence Hemmeon

He laid aside his ordinary brushes and sponges, and going into the shop he brought thence what was best and newest.
— from A Dozen Ways Of Love by L. (Lily) Dougall

As the team walked up from Abingdon to the college, Tester, who had at last got into the side, came up and took Gordon's arm.
— from The Loom of Youth by Alec (Alexander Raban) Waugh