Vinteuil replied, "Oh, please!"—a gentle reproach which testified to the genuine goodness of her nature, not that it was prompted by any resentment at hearing her father spoken of in this fashion (for that was evidently a feeling which she had trained herself, by a long course of sophistries, to keep in close subjection at such moments), but rather because it was the bridle which, so as to avoid all appearance of egotism, she herself used to curb the gratification which her friend was attempting to procure for her.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

These are the customs, according to which our city should receive all strangers of either sex who come from other countries, and should send forth her own citizens, showing respect to Zeus, the God of hospitality, not forbidding strangers at meals and sacrifices, as is the manner which prevails among the children of the Nile, nor driving them away by savage proclamations.
— from Laws by Plato

How would it have cheered the spirit of the youthful bard when, wandering forth in disgrace upon a doubtful world, he cast back a heavy look upon his paternal home, could he have foreseen that before many years he should return to it covered with renown; that his name should become the boast and glory of his native place; that his ashes should be religiously guarded as its most precious treasure; and that its lessening spire, on which his eyes were fixed in tearful contemplation, should one day become the beacon towering amidst the gentle landscape to guide the literary pilgrim of every nation to his tomb!
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

Thus fortified, he checked, by the greatness of his name, the wantonness of the neighbouring kings, in that he took from them all their forces and all liking and heart for mutual warfare.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

He had a famous sanctuary at his ancestral home of Troezen, situated on that beautiful, almost landlocked bay, where groves of oranges and lemons, with tall cypresses soaring like dark spires above the garden of Hesperides, now clothe the strip of fertile shore at the foot of the rugged mountains.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

But the greatness of human nature, its "divinity," was sought for in them....
— from Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The spirit in which he, as it were, turned from the open gates of his native town is well expressed in a letter to a friend, who would seem to have been a churchman who had tried to win his compliance with the terms of the pardon.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

“Come, come,” returned Hawkeye, uncasing his honest countenance, the better to assure the wavering confidence of his companion; “you may see a skin, which, if it be not as white as one of the gentle ones, has no tinge of red to it that the winds of the heaven and the sun have not bestowed.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

In fighting a mounted man armed with a saber every effort must be made to get on his near, or left, side, because here his reach is much shorter and his parries much weaker.
— from Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Cavalry of the Army of the United States 1917. To be also used by Engineer Companies (Mounted) for Cavalry Instruction and Training by United States. War Department

It had grown very distressing to have a cave man prowl about the villa, the eternal disapproval of whatsoever she did, then her father’s presence got on her nerves.
— from The Gorgeous Girl by Nalbro Bartley

What, he reflected, if it were alleged that 'Lige had returned again after the loafers had gone, or had never left the store as had been said?
— from A First Family of Tasajara by Bret Harte

Notwithstanding the fact that the young man had just taken unto himself a wife, and was as poor as a church-mouse, the door and the cupboard in his modest little flat were opened cheerfully to the delinquent Uncle Joe, and be it said to the latter's discredit and shame—he proceeded to impose upon the generosity of his nephew in a manner that should have earned him a booting into the street.
— from Mr. Bingle by George Barr McCutcheon

It also got on her nerves to be dogged by stricken males who tried to catch her eye in order that she might observe their broken condition.
— from Jill the Reckless by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

What have you got on hand now?
— from Sant of the Secret Service: Some Revelations of Spies and Spying by William Le Queux

Myron often wished to renew the conversation, but Elisama did not speak during the meal, and Helon was lost in reflections on the glory of his nation, and in anticipation of the delight of soon standing where Abraham and Isaac had talked with God.
— from Helon's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Volume 1 (of 2) A picture of Judaism, in the century which preceded the advent of our Savior. by Friedrich Strauss

Thence all of us to attend the Council, where we were anon called on, and there was a long hearing of Commissioner Pett, who was there, and there were the two Masters Attendant of Chatham called in, who do deny their having any order from Commissioner Pett about bringing up the great ships, which gives the lie to what he says; but, in general, I find him to be but a weak, silly man, and that is guilty of horrid neglect in this business all along.
— from Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 58: October 1667 by Samuel Pepys

Even Anabel had come to her one day in town, looking rather strained and worn, and, in the seclusion of Isabel's bedroom, had confessed that the constant exactions of a husband, three children, and migratory servants "got on her nerves," and made her long for a change of any sort.
— from Ancestors: A Novel by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton