Then they talked long with Athisl, giving themselves out as deserters; and when he asked them what was their native country, they said they were men of Sleswik, and had left their land "for manslaughter".
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

We were guilty and we confess it here: we were guilty of the great Transgression of Preference.
— from Anthem by Ayn Rand

John Bunsby, master, at length gave the order to start, and the Tankadere, taking the wind under her brigantine, foresail, and standing-jib, bounded briskly forward over the waves.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Some persons might have considered these pleasing liberties as bribes; but Demi didn't see it in that light, and continued to patronize 555 the "bear-man" with pensive affability, while Daisy bestowed her small affections upon him at the third call, and considered his shoulder her throne, his arm her refuge, his gifts treasures of surpassing worth.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

Each labours for the public good; The old command, the youthful brood Cut down, and shape, and place the wood.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

In the next place, you would affirm virtue to be a good thing, of which good thing you assert yourself to be a teacher.
— from Protagoras by Plato

At the age of puberty, the faithful Persian was invested with a mysterious girdle, the badge of the divine protection; and from that moment all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or the most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, ejaculations, or genuflections; the omission of which, under any circumstances, was a grievous sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral duties.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

— ug ilung contrary, stubborn (like a carabao that goes the opposite direction when s.o. pulls on his nose ring).
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Gronski took off his spectacles to wipe off the dust and winked his eyes.
— from Whirlpools: A Novel of Modern Poland by Henryk Sienkiewicz

On the one hand it reduced to order the movements of the great globes which circulate round the sun; while on the other, it took that beautiful class of curves which had exercised the geometrical talents of the ancients, and assigned to them the dignity of defining the highways of the universe.
— from The Story of the Heavens by Robert S. (Robert Stawell) Ball

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— from Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative; Vol. 3 of 3 Library Edition (1891), Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and Various other Additions. by Herbert Spencer

No longer would the Kanes have to worry over debts and duebills; the good things of the world would be theirs, all won by her brother’s cleverness.
— from The Flying Girl by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

Originally the simple burial- place of the great apostle who in the fourth century Christianized Gaul, and who, in his day a brilliant missionary and worker of miracles, is chiefly known to modem fame as the worthy that cut his cloak in two at the gate of Amiens to share it with a beggar (tradition fails to say, I believe, what he did with the other half), the abbey of Saint Martin, through the Middle Ages, waxed rich and powerful, till it was known at last as one of the most luxurious religious houses in Christendom, with kings for its titular ab- bots (who, like Francis I., sometimes turned and despoiled it) and a great treasure of precious things.
— from A Little Tour in France by Henry James

“What is it?” grunted the old man, doubtfully.
— from With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga by W. Bert (Walter Bertram) Foster

Only for her husband did her glance take on a warmer expression, her voice a tenderer tone.
— from This House to Let by William Le Queux

Besides, he did me a good turn once.” The good turn, it appeared, had consisted in the prompt and effective wielding of a cane, unceremoniously borrowed from a passer-by when a contingent of the Shadow Gang from Second Avenue had undertaken, in pure wantonness of spirit, to “jump” Terry.
— from Our Square and the People in It by Samuel Hopkins Adams