They have got our lands and now they are preparing to fleece us of the money accruing from the treaty.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

The boy seemed to have begun with the generals of life, and never to have concerned himself with the particulars.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

As regards this transaction, Abraham is in no way to be branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he used her for the begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of lust; and not to insult, but rather to obey his wife, who supposed it would be a solace of her barrenness if she could make use of the fruitful womb of her handmaid to supply the defect of her own nature, and by that law of which
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

It has taken place in an hour; but yesterday these were sweet patrician ladies, who prattled of humanity and love and the fair graces of life; and now they would fain wet their mouths with blood—laughingly as harlots wet their mouths with wine.
— from The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915 by Various

Thank God, I am pretty well now, but I have passed the grave once lately, and never thought to see Khartoum.
— from General Gordon, Saint and Soldier by Joseph Wardle

I asked my young niece in the glow of last August not to fail to spend her Xmas with me, as I then expected to be, Promethean-like, on my rock; and I've returned to my rock not to leave her in the lurch.
— from The Letters of Henry James (Vol. I) by Henry James

Kings, queens, priests, nobles, the altar and the throne, the distinctions of rank, birth, wealth, power, “the judge’s robe, the marshal’s truncheon, the ceremony that to great ones ’longs,” are not to be found here.
— from Hazlitt on English Literature: An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature by William Hazlitt

Who was it saw me?" "Zara Dumps, who had gone out late at night to procure medicine for her mother."
— from The Purple Fern by Fergus Hume

It has taken place in an hour; but yesterday these were sweet patrician ladies, who prattled of humanity and love and the fair graces of life; and now they would fain wet their mouths with blood—laughingly, as harlots wet their mouths with wine.
— from Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War Including the Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania by Logan Marshall

In other nations, where the first principles of the civil union are maintained in vigour; where the people live under the government of laws, and not the will of man; where the spirit of liberty pervades all ranks and orders of the state; where every individual holds himself bound, at the hazard of his life, to defend the constitution framed by his ancestors; where, without being guilty of an impious crime, no man dares to violate the rights of the whole community; in such a state, the national eloquence will be prompt, bold, and animated.
— from A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, or the Causes of Corrupt Eloquence The Works of Cornelius Tacitus, Volume 8 (of 8); With an Essay on His Life and Genius, Notes, Supplements by Cornelius Tacitus

She found them by the gleams of light, and noticed that she could breathe freely at such places.
— from Grim: The Story of a Pike by Svend Fleuron

Imagine, for instance, our George Eliots of the twentieth century, our presidents of writers' unions and (p. 219) clubs, going out late at night to ring people's doorbells and run away!
— from Highways and Byways in London by Emily Constance Baird Cook