“Nothing can do me good,” said Alfred, throwing away his almost untasted peach, “I should be quite content if anything could do me harm.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

I know that some commentators have found in it a "humble and unquestioning piety," but I cannot help suspecting that what they saw was only a reflection from their own pious and unquestioning minds.
— from Oedipus King of Thebes Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes by Sophocles

We have followed him during his forty or fifty years of authorship, from the beginning when he first attempted to depict the teaching of Socrates in a dramatic form, down to the time at which the character of Socrates had disappeared, and we have the latest reflections of Plato's own mind upon Hellas and upon philosophy.
— from Laws by Plato

The pole was nearly horizontal, an unusual position for a flagpole; in the next place, there was no pulley, ring, or cord by which to attach a flag; finally, there were elsewhere two vertical staffs from which flags were occasionally flown.
— from How We Think by John Dewey

The Four Winds Harbour boys belonging to it from the Glen and over-harbour and Harbour Head and Upper Glen were all home on their last leave, and Mr. Arnold thought, properly enough, that it would be a fitting thing to hold a union prayer-meeting for them before they went away.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

In the near distance, in contrast with the young-green of the tended grass, sunburnt hay-fields showed tan and gold; while beyond were the tawny hills and upland pastures.
— from White Fang by Jack London

I believe that Jesus is our High Priest for ever and hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, for he is the one Mediator between God and man, and he ever liveth to make intercession with the Father for us; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and to him be glory with the Father and his Holy Spirit of life for ever and ever— Amen.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

The most useful comment to be made here is, that his action in failing to crush Hood at his anchors, with a force at least fifty per cent greater, was in strict accordance with the general French principle of subordinating the action of the fleet to so-called particular operations; for nothing is more instructive than to note how an unsound principle results in disastrous action.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

these decoys are for the deer and is formed of the Skin of the head and upper portion of the neck of that animale extended in the nateral Shape by means of a fiew little Sticks placed within.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

We can't tell him so, but he won't do it again, take my word for it." Meg drew her aside, under pretense of pinning up a loose braid, and said approvingly, "It was dreadfully provoking, but you kept your temper, and I'm so glad, Jo." "Don't praise me, Meg, for I could box his ears this minute.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

A sudden, jumbled vision of the past woven about this dwelling, his home, wheeled through Gordon’s mind, scenes happy and unhappy; prevailing want and slim, momentary plenty; his father dead, in his coffin with a stony, pinched countenance, a jaw still unrelaxed above the bright flag that draped his nondescript uniform.
— from Mountain Blood: A Novel by Joseph Hergesheimer

She smiled--she had an uncommonly pleasant smile; it reminded me of someone, somewhere, though I could not think who.
— from Under One Flag by Richard Marsh

It was precisely at this epoch that the burgomasters, senators, and council of the city of Bruges (all Catholics) humbly represented to the Duchess Regent, that Peter Titelmann, inquisitor of the Faith, against all forms of law, was daily exercising inquisition among the inhabitants, not only against those suspected or accused of heresy, but against all, however untainted their characters; that he was daily citing before him whatever persons he liked, men or women, compelling them by force to say whatever it pleased him; that he was dragging people from their houses, and even from the sacred precincts of the church; often in revenge for verbal injuries to himself, always under pretext of heresy, and without form or legal warrant of any kind.
— from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 09: 1564-65 by John Lothrop Motley

[105] perly so called, and have an unfortunate propensity for the dubious characters of borderers, buccaneers, highland robbers, and all others of a Robin-Hood description."
— from Sir Walter Scott (English Men of Letters Series) by Richard Holt Hutton

He is equally the Head of the Church and the new creation, the firstborn out of the dead, that He might hold a universal presidence—charged with all the fulness, so that in Him is the ground of the reconciliation no less than of the creation of all things in heaven and earth.”
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians by George G. (George Gillanders) Findlay

The head and upper part of the body were hidden by a tangle of creeper.
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Civilized humanity begins to feel itself somewhat relieved from the hard and ungovernable pressure of fickle natural forces.
— from The Positive Outcome of Philosophy The Nature of Human Brain Work. Letters on Logic. by Joseph Dietzgen

The imprisonment of the old Council was undoubtedly a harsh and unwise proceeding, which can scarcely be justified; but the times were such that prompt action was demanded, and the result alone, which could not be foreseen, could justify or condemn it.
— from An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack

At length he was induced to attempt an escape, not from that love of liberty which subsequently became with him an unconquerable passion, but simply to avoid the cruelty to which he was habitually subjected.
— from Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met by William Wells Brown