Every Roman had his own Lares and Penates at home, which were, however, at bottom nothing more than the revered portraits of his ancestors.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

Let us feign now a person ignorant of the laws and constitutions of that realm he lives in, an enemy to the public good, studious only for his own private interest, addicted wholly to pleasures and delights, a hater of learning, a professed enemy to liberty and truth, careless and unmindful of the common concerns, taking all the measures of justice and honesty from the false beam of self-interest and advantage, after this hang about his neck a gold chain, for an intimation that he ought to have all virtues linked together; then set a crown of gold and jewels on his head, for a token that he ought to overtop and outshine others in all commendable qualifications; next, put into his hand a royal sceptre for a symbol of justice and integrity; lastly, clothe him with purple, for an hieroglyphic of a tender love and affection to the commonwealth.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

‘Tis possible that the action of sight was dulled from having been so long without exercise, and that the optic power was wholly retired into the other eye: for we evidently perceive that the eye we keep shut sends some part of its virtue to its fellow, so that it will swell and grow bigger; and so inaction, with the heat of ligatures and, plasters, might very well have brought some gouty humour upon the counterfeiter in Martial.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Born in an auspicious hour, and—but for that colic which, alas! turning into black cholers, may carry him off like a pigeon—destined to many years, he is enviable.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

I saw those men who many had of life and property bereft: through the breasts of those men passed strong venomous serpents.
— from The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Snorri Sturluson

His ambition was fired by the hope of launching a Persian navy from the Phasis, of commanding the trade and navigation of the Euxine Sea, of desolating the coast of Pontus and Bithynia, of distressing, perhaps of attacking, Constantinople, and of persuading the Barbarians of Europe to second his arms and counsels against the common enemy of mankind.
— 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

The equestrian order clamoured loudly, at a spectacle in the theatre, for its total repeal; whereupon he sent for the children of Germanicus, and shewed them partly sitting upon his own lap, and partly on their father’s; intimating by his looks and gestures, that they ought not to think it a grievance to follow the example of that young man.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

He who is not trusted with his own actions, his drift not being known to be evil, and standing to the hazard of law and penalty, has no great argument to think himself reputed in the Commonwealth wherein he was born for other than a fool or a foreigner.
— from Areopagitica A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England by John Milton

[Footnote: It may be necessary for me to state that, with the exception of this figure (which is obviously a plan, but sufficiently accurate for the purposes it is intended to serve) all the others representing pathological conditions and congenital deformities of the urethra, the prostate, and the bladder, have been made by myself from natural specimens in the museums and hospitals of London and Paris.] Plate 64,--Figure 8.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

Owen was of the old princely blood of the house of Llewellyn, and proclaimed himself Prince of North Wales under the suzerainty of his master Richard, whom he declared to be still alive in Scotland.
— from A History of England Eleventh Edition by Charles Oman

[ii] COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1889 The Knickerbocker Press Electrotyped and Printed by G. P. Putnam's Sons [iii] to all those who love truth and justice and equity, who value our heritage of liberty and peaceful fraternity, and who are willing to unite in upholding and defending THE COMMONWEALTH—that preserver and protector of the rights of the whole people—the author dedicates this work.
— from Monopolies and the People by Charles Whiting Baker

She got behind her struggling mistress, pulled her up into her own lap, and pinned her by the wrists with a vigorous grasp.
— from A Terrible Temptation: A Story of To-Day by Charles Reade

There were houses of stone, houses of red brick, houses of yellow brick, houses of lath and plaster; and houses of wood, many of them very old, with withered faces carved upon the beams, and staring down into the street.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

He is better known in the history of literature as Poliziano, or Politianus, a name he took from his native city, when he came, a marvellous boy, at the age of ten, to Florence, and joined the household of Lorenzo de'
— from New Italian sketches by John Addington Symonds

When the Bowline is used for hoisting or lowering a person as in case of fire, the loop should be large enough to be used as a seat; it should be passed over the head and shoulders, the standing part in front of the body, to be held on to with both hands.
— from Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts by Girl Scouts of the United States of America

Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator, / Nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit, / Si modo culturæ patientem commodet aurem —The envious, the passionate, the indolent, the drunken, the lewd—none is so savage that he cannot be tamed, if he only lend a patient ear to culture.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

He passed the Pyrenees at the head of a numerous army, subdued the cities of Saragossa and Pampeluna, vanquished in battle the martial nobles of the Tarragonese province, carried his victorious arms into the heart of Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3 by Edward Gibbon

To-day I receive the Address of the House of Lords, and, perhaps, also that of the House of Commons.
— from The Letters of Queen Victoria : A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence between the Years 1837 and 1861 Volume 1, 1837-1843 by Queen of Great Britain Victoria

While she ate and drank, Lady Dunstable sat in a high chair observing her, one long and pointed foot crossed over the other, her black eyes alive with satiric interrogation, to which, however, she gave no words.
— from A Great Success by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.